Quora Answer: Which Country Do Singaporeans Admire Most?

The following is my answer to a Quora question: “What country do Singaporeans admire most?”

There is no country where Singaporeans are unanimously in awe of.  We are a nation of several million people with several million more opinions.  Personally, whilst I may like this or that feature or achievement of this or that country, there is no particular nation I admire.

We have to be practical here.  Whilst beautiful scenery is nice, we cannot live in a nation that has only that.  Where we stay must be in accordance with our values, and provide us with an incentive to live there.  As a Singaporean, I think whatever we find that is good elsewhere, we study it, we improve it, and we apply it here.

What we should admire is Japanese work ethic and their collective focus.  But we do not admire their lack of work life balance and the consequent issues due to an ageing population.  What we should admire is American entrepreneurship.  But we should treat their emphasis on individual freedom at the cost of their neighbours as an abject lesson.  What we should admire is China’s hunger to rise on the world stage.  What we should discard is their government’s insecurity and need to Sinicise everything.

In my conception, there is no single nation so great, so accomplished, so advanced, that we should be in awe of them.  They are all lessons to be learned, both from their accomplishments, and especially their policy mistakes.