CHA N GEMA K ER community, with our fellow citizens, to really address specific issues and come up with solutions to make a better community for Singaporeans.
The
Community
What does a movement like this mean to you personally?
It’s a great development. We are putting the citizenry at the centre of how we are going to do things moving forward. As a citizen, I can choose to be proactive if I wanted to, to affect and effect change, and to be a constructive member of society.
Man
From managing talent and organising Singapore Community Day to leading the charge as deputy director at the newlyformed Office for Citizen Engagement, Mr Goh Kok Wee (Arts and Social Sciences ‘95) has always been one to champion community outreach. BY STACEY ANN RODRIGUES
While at the High Commission of Singapore in Australia, I worked on Singapore Community Day 2009, where we encouraged Singaporeans residing in the country to come over to Canberra to celebrate our ‘Singaporean-ness’. To my surprise, people actually made the effort to drive all the way from South Australia, Queensland, New South Wales… The turn out was far larger than we expected. We received feedback that some of our folks staying further away, like Perth in Western Australia, had difficulty driving over. Subsequently we organised the second Community Day in Perth in 2010. Again, there was a huge turnout. There is a sense of community among Singaporeans even when they are abroad, and we try to build on that.
We lose talent when citizens look for ‘greener pastures’, or seek to experience working overseas. Can we really bring them back?
At the end of the day, we are a very small country. How can we augment our population? We can do it through natural replacement, but birth rates here are low. Then we have immigration, which also has its challenges. The third way would be to engage overseas Singaporeans, our own stock, and get them to reconsider Singapore. One of our biggest challenges is showing
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To look at things from multiple perspectives. That’s something I continue to adhere to. If you’re able to do that, you’ll have a more comprehensive framing of the issues at hand, and can arrive at a more informed decision.
them how Singapore has changed. Maybe when they left Singapore it was Version Three, now it’s Singapore Version Six — more seamless, more efficient, more globally connected than ever, and much more vibrant in all aspects. If we are already rekindling a connection through events like Singapore Community Day or Singapore Day, it may kickstart this reframing in their minds. And if they want to return, the platform and various support structures are there to help our fellow Singaporeans come back. How would you describe the Singapore citizen in Singapore Version Six?
They are globalised citizens of the world — highly mobile, very adaptable and they know what they want in life. when you interact with overseas Singaporeans, what do they say they miss about our country?
The bulk of the community that I engaged with in Australia were undergraduates studying there. They usually miss immediate family and friends, the food, the efficiency of daily life back home, and the 24-hour, round-the-clock vibrancy. We need to help them stay in touch
What would you tell new graduates of today?
to take ownership and be part of a community — for the community, by the community. What is the one big change you are hoping to see?
It would be great to see our own citizenry championing and driving certain campaigns, and taking ownership of them. Right now, Singapore is a clean city because of a battalion of cleaners. And of course, we have campaigns telling Singaporeans, please do this, and please do that. I’d like to see neighbours take the initiative to keep their own communities clean — everybody going that extra mile.
Singapore Community Day 2009 in Canberra, Australia.
with home, and ensure that they do not feel forgotten. What do you think are the aspirations of youth today?
Besides getting a job, they want a certain lifestyle and to champion certain social causes. They also want to contribute and be meaningful players in their communities. All these have to be supported. Youth genuinely like
Main Photo Wilson Pang
Q
You have spent almost 18 years working in various divisions of the civil service. Which project do you remember most fondly?
It has been some years since you graduated. Was there anything you learnt during your time at NUS that you have taken with you through your career?
What was the idea behind the Office for Citizen Engagement?
It is the realisation that the government can’t do everything on its own. And that increasingly, we need to work together with the
I would tell them that they will need to keep an open mind to take full advantage of the opportunities coming their way. A lot of people tend to be fixated on “I’m going to do this because I studied this”. What happens if you read a discipline and upon graduation, you find you’re not that interested in it? Are you going to coerce yourself into a career because of your training? You could probably manage it in the first couple of years, but in the long run, you would not be able to carry on with passion and drive. I don’t want to discourage new graduates from following through with what they have been trained in, but their education should allow them to make more informed decisions about what to do next.
I WOULD TELL [NEW GRADUATES] THAT THEY WILL NEED TO KEEP AN OPEN MIND TO TAKE FULL ADVANTAGE OF THE OPPORTUNITIES COMING THEIR WAY. Mr Goh Kok Wee
MAPPING IT OUT MR GOH AND HIS WIFE MS SERENE NG COLLECT MAPS AND ANTIQUE PRINTS. THEY SHARE THESE ONLINE SO THAT EVERYONE CAN GET A CHANCE TO LEARN MORE ABOUT EARLY SINGAPORE.
MORE THAN 300 MAPS AND PRINTS OF EARLY SINGAPORE Mr Goh claims to be a small player, but their collection includes more than 500 maps and prints, at least 300 of them on Singapore. These have been digitised by Mr Goh and his wife for sharing with the online community at https://sites.google.com/site/mapsbyserene/ DOCUMENTING SINGAPORE’S EARLY HISTORY “My interest is in documenting Singapore’s early history,” says Mr Goh. “I have always believed that knowing the past helps us appreciate the present, and better understand the future.” HIS OLDEST MAP DATES BACK TO THE YEAR
1562
India Tercera Nuova Tavola was made by cartographer Girolamo Ruscelli and published in Ptolemaeus La Geografia in 1562, in Venice. “It’s reportedly one of the earliest ‘modern’ maps of Southeast Asia,” he says.
FACING THE UNKNOWN Map-collecting may seem like just another hobby to some, but to Mr Goh, it means so much more. “Map collecting has taught me several things,” he says. “It has taught me that boundaries are drawn by ourselves, that we need to have imagination, dare to chart new courses, and face the unknown.” JUL– SEP 2016 25