Dr Linda Lim
On Her Choice Analogy Of Singapore
"Singapore is like a tropical fish tank - beautiful, luxurious but expensive to maintain, and very vulnerable to balance in the water and loss of other external inputs. And even if everything works well, all the time, it is still just a fish tank, not the ocean itself, with its greater dangers, challenges, opportunities and treasures."
On Her Greatest Worry For Singaporeans
"That by clinging to the past and being wedded to old models and old ideas in a world rapidly changing beyond our control, in refusing to change, in being risk-adverse and conservative, the country and the people will end up being marginalised in the new global market economy, unable to compete with other more energetic, self-reliant, entrepreneurial and innovative populations, and being overtaken by them."
On Thinking And Saying
"I say what I think. A lot of people here think the same way but not say it. There's a "Don't quote me culture here, such that bad ideas don't get shot down and good ideas don't get volunteered."
On The Best Way Forward For Singapore
The way forward for Singapore, she says, is to allow the market to diversify on its own, with resource allocation done by market forces and entrepreneurs, instead of the state and bureaucrats.
"Do we devote our carefully husbanded national savings, accumulated over generations, to letting the state make big bets on a few major, capital-intensive, risky and expensive projects?
"Or do we privatise the economy, releasing capital and talent to local entrepreneurs to create value in smaller but nimbler enterprises? At least, if they fail, it will take only small parts, rather than big chunks, of the economy down with them.
"It's much better to send out 100 motorboats, rather than one huge aircraft carrier, into the unknown. I would bet on at least some of the motorboats making it, instead of the aircraft carrier, a sitting duck, which could get blown up."
Barack Obama, on the importance of education:
"In a 21-st century world where jobs can be shipped wherever there's an Internet connection; where a child born in Dallas is competing with children in Delhi; where your best job qualification is not what you do, but what you know - education is no longer just a pathway to opportunity and success, it is a prerequisite. So let there be no doubt: the future belongs to the nation that best educates its citizens."