“Singapore-like”

In his inaugural speech at the Plaza Sugbo during the inauguration ceremony for newly-elected Cebu City officials last Thursday, Cebu City Mayor Michael Rama called for unity in order to achieve his dream of transforming the city into a “Singapore-like” city.

The speech can draw imaginations of a progressive Cebu City with all the basic services, opportunities, and modern conveniences for comfortable living. I know what those opportunities and conveniences mean. For example, of all the places outside the country that I have visited, Singapore might be the cleanest and most commuter and pedestrian-friendly.

But I’ve already heard about such dream to become like Singapore a long time ago. The goal of transforming Cebu City into something like Singapore or Hong Kong was touted way back in the late 1980s to early 1990s, at the height of the Cebu economic boom. In fact, there was a time it felt like Cebu City showed some promise toward achieving that goal. During the first term of then Mayor Tomas Osmeña, Cebu City was dubbed the “8th Most Livable City in Asia” by the then prestigious Asiaweek magazine.

In fairness to Mayor Rama, an exact reading of his speech shows that he actually described, albeit in general terms, what he meant by “Singapore-like”: clean, green, orderly, and disciplined. Having been couched in general terms, there may be plenty of room to claim in the future that the goal has been reached somehow. And the goal comes with a qualifier too, that is, everyone must unite behind the goal.

In the news yesterday, it was reported that Rama plans to form a special board to work on the specifics of achieving the dream of Cebu City becoming like Singapore. “The special board will be composed of several city officials as well as representatives of the Cebu Chamber of Commerce and Industry and various sectors,” the report stated.

“As soon as the special board is created, the master plan will not be affected even if there would be changes in the city’s administration. All aspects will be considered in the planning such as the environment, infrastructure, peace and order, among others,” added the report published yesterday in The FREEMAN. I have no idea how the plan works. What I know is that an incumbent administration can’t tie the hands of future administrations.

While Metro Cebu may have achieved relative wonders in the economic field, it has so far failed to achieve Singapore-like status, not even near it. Cebu has become an early victim of its own success. Its private sector is laudable, in some areas even world-class in standards and practices. And for a while, its public sector came up with future-altering policies based on the right models.

But we all came short because Cebu was never the “island in the Pacific” it had advertised itself to be. The usual problems of corruption, urban blight, and poverty that typify big Philippine cities also have affected Cebu. Despite hype about autonomy in the Local Government Code, Cebu was and is still very much a part of Philippine politics, government, and society. That’s how we should situate any dream of making Cebu like Singapore – so that we will not be confined to just daydreaming.

Singapore became a premier Asian city because of these five factors, according to Jon S.T. Quah (2018) in the Asia-Pacific Journal on Public Administration and Policy: The pragmatic leadership of the late Lee Kuan Yew and his successors; an effective public bureaucracy; effective control of corruption; reliance on the “best and brightest” citizens through investment in education and competitive compensation; and learning from other countries.

Thus, here are some questions that need answers in relation to our dream of becoming like Singapore. How will we bring unemployment and underemployment rates down? How will we expand affordable public housing? How much are we going to invest in comprehensive education that is responsive to our people’s needs (or are we still poised toward a policy of exporting our workforce which comes at a steep social cost)?

What are we doing to minimize corruption and maximize transparency in government? Are we willing to give up patronage politics and start practicing meritocracy in the civil service, in politics, in business, and in schools?

Indeed, “Singapore-like” may have a simple formula. But it is very difficult to adopt in the Philippines unless our leaders possess the same brilliance, personal integrity, and deep discipline of the late Lee Kuan Yew, and are surrounded by equally upright partymates and allies.