Making sure meritocracy works by intervening upstream

Making sure meritocracy works by intervening upstream to bridge the gap and giving children a good start.

Excerpt of Minister Shanmugam's speech (edited for brevity):

Tthe principle of meritocracy remains relevant.

But increasingly, the starting points are different for those born into families of different backgrounds.

At the point of birth, there is already a gap. That gap widens, because of the differences in the families.

Therefore, the preschool years are crucial.

The best chance that the Government can give is a good start and a decent chance for the children to succeed, and help close the inequality gap.

The philosophy has got to be: give a helping hand to those who need it, while preserving the ingredients of Singapore’s success – education, hard work, discipline, integrity.

Never take away from Singaporeans the motivation to do better for themselves, to succeed.

Focus should be on lifting up others, not penalising those who have done well.

Our approach, therefore is to keep the overall tax burden low, use the revenue we have in a fair and progressive way, target the support for the lower- and middle-income group, while keeping government expenditure lean, low.

As the late Mr Lee Kuan Yew said, we must ensure that everyone who puts in the effort, runs the race, gets something at the end of it. But if the same few people keep winning, eventually the rest will believe the system is flawed, and they will stop participating.

Meritocracy is not just a concept. Our people must believe that based on efforts and talent, they can progress, that there is social mobility.

We have to make sure that Singapore will always be a country with a fair and just system, equal opportunities for all, where people work hard and achieve their dreams.