Singapore: A Firm Believer of Meritocracy

Singapore admit itself as a nation that holds its faith firmly on a system called meritocracy. Meritocracy is a system that gives its winning members special rights, previlege or social status by setting up a tight and intense competition in order to find its best people who deserves all of it. In a meritocratic society, one can obtains a high social status, wealth and all the fame and glory, if and only if he/she can proves themself as the best people who deserves all of it. Singapore is one of few countries that put meritocracy as its belief and once again prove itself as a meritocratic nation by a recent announcements made by its government.

In the middle of heavy rains that falls on Monday, Singapore's Minister in charge of the public service announced a salary increase of its civil servants and ministers. A 5% to 33% increase of annual salaries will take place this April and accompanied by an increase of variable portion of their take home pay such as GDP Bonus and car allowance, from 34% to 47%. Such policy like this definitely invites a hot response from Singapore's Parliament members, but it seems that the government always has a right answer to erase all the doubt. "It is needed to maintain Singapore's best talents to keep working for the government and strong civil servants has always been a key factors that drives Singapore from third world country into first class nation", as Singapore's Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong explains the reason behind the increase of the salaries. Lee itself will receive a 25.5 % increase on its annual salaries that will put him on Singapore's top 102 earners in 2007 and it is reported that the post-increase annual salaries of PM Lee will be at S$ 3,093,200. A benchmarking system to private sectors was used in determining how much an increase will be received by a civil servant.

The increase in Singapore's civil servants salaries is only a way to keep Singapore's best talents willing to stay at government sectors and likely to produce a magnet to attract others graduates from top universities to apply for a job in government sectors. It is true that a starting salary of Singapore's civil servants is not as high as a fresh graduate receives from private sectors, but as the progress will be made and as the competition is going on, the winner of the competition or commonly known as the cream of all creams, will proceed to the next stage and will receive a huge sum of money. Combining with the power that they have as a worker in government sector, the net benefits of becoming a civil servants is better than becoming a worker in private sectors.

Meritocratic system is widely used in Singapore, not only adopted by the government, but many others sectors use it also as their faith. A top student in Primary School will be easily spotted up and will be given a special previleges like a scholarship, as long as they progress to become the best among their respectives competitors. It is known also that Singapore is not a home for a mediocre. A mediocre people will find themself hard to develop, simply because all the chances are given to the top one. Unless they can break the circle by winning a competition, they will progress to become a better one. No chance to develop yourself into a better one if you are a mediocre person.

Meritocratic system is also critized by many of its opponents as a culprit of widening income disparities in Singapore. Singapore watch itself an increase of its Gini coefficient, an indicator of income disparities ranging from 0 to 1, from 0.442 in the year 2000 to 0.468 in 2005. Although Singapore has a staggering rate of economic growth , Singapore is positioned in the same rank with many South America nations and West Africa nations in terms of income disparities level. However, it is wise to consider that income disparities in Singapore is not merely caused by meritocratic system, several others explanations will apply in explaining recent increase in Singapore's Gini Coefficient, such as Asian Financial crisis in 1998 and low replacement rate in Singapore. The later one explains one of current problem that Singapore faces, an ageing population.

Young students in Singapore primary school also face a tight competition and drives them to be a vulnerable one to stress disorders. From the beginning of their early ages, they are forced to compete with each other for the sake of not getting into a cluster of mediocre people. The competition keep going on to the university level and become tighter because they have to compete not only Singaporeans but also with bright students from foreign countries who pursue their degree in Singapore's leading universities.

Despite many arguments about the role of meritocratic system in Singapore, people can not deny that it is meritocracy that pull Singapore from one-tiny-ignorable-nation status in Southeast Asia back in 1965 and transform itself into a nation with a fantastic pool of talents and marvelous governance in the 21th century. In a world of competition like now, big nations like US and Europe countries can not underestimate Singapore, at least because they know that Singaporeans is a bunch people who know what a word competition means by a glimpse of an eye.