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  • Friends, ladies and gentlemen, mostly onlinethank you for inviting me to this year's  

  • Singapore Perspectives, to speak  on the important topic of cities.  

  • There are so many dimensions to cities. They are  full of promise and potential. They are where  

  • rural populations migrate to in search of a better  life. They are the nerve centres of industries and  

  • economies, ideas and culture. They are magnets  for humanity, and cauldrons for new ideas  

  • and social movements. They are where hopes and  dreams are expressed and filled and fulfilled.  

  • But there is a dark side to cities  too. Cities can also breed crime, vice,  

  • social inequality, disease, and cause  environmental degradation. So cities are  

  • filled with paradoxes. Along with triumphs, there  are defeats. Where there is hope and optimism,  

  • there is also despair. They have been the central  stage where the story of humanity has unfurled,  

  • reflecting how society societies think  behave and point their moral compasses.  

  • Today, I will start by recounting the stories  of a few great citiespast and present.  

  • I will then draw out key lessons from these  cities, and talk about their implications  

  • for Singapore, both our present as well as  our future. My first example is Jericho,  

  • in the Fertile Crescent of the Middle East. It  was one of the oldest human settlements dating  

  • back 9,000BC. An old city born of geographical  advantage — a combination of good climate, fertile  

  • soil, and an abundance of fresh water. These  conditions enabled hunter-gatherers to settle  

  • over time and they cultivated crops. These wereclose-knit people from a very early civilization.  

  • As their numbers grew, a city is formed. And  then, with accumulated wealth from agriculture,  

  • the people of Jericho established the  city as a trading station, leveraging the  

  • strategic location along the Jordan River, and  they were trading with people as far out as Egypt  

  • and Anatolia. With wealth came the need to  defend the wealth and to protect the wealth.  

  • Inhabitants built up fortifications, most  famously the walls of Jericho. And defence  

  • has always been a public good. So you want  to defend the city, it has to raise taxes,  

  • mobilize and organize resources. And therefore  you see the emergence of a state administration.  

  • And that leads me to my second set of  examples of great citiespolitical capitals  

  • such as Rome, Chang AnConstantinople, Kaifeng, Pataliputra.  

  • These too began as well-located settlementsbut they gained strategic significance,  

  • as their rulers consolidated territories around  them. And eventually, they became the full-fledged  

  • political and economic capitals of empiresThese capitals, they had a few common features.  

  • First, they were often situated at a confluence  of trade routes. Kaifeng, for example,  

  • was located amidst a network of canals  and handled huge volumes of trading cargo.  

  • Trade was often state-sponsored and driven to  provide the resources to sustain the empires.  

  • Two, these capitals had defensive strat  advantages. For example, Constantinople guarded  

  • the only inlet to the Black Sea, and surrounded  by water on three sides. And this left it open to  

  • only land invasions from the west, but I think the  Ottomans attacked them from the sea in the end.  

  • Three, they were the seats of great powers, and  developed significant military and technocratic  

  • powers as capitals of empires. For example, Rome  had a governing Senate, and an established code  

  • of law, which still forms the foundations of  many modern legal and democratic systems today.  

  • The third set of examples are the  present-day metropolisesNew York City,  

  • Shanghai, Paris, Tokyo, Hong Kong, Singapore. With  industry revolution and technological advancement,  

  • came the free flow of capital, and the  world became increasingly globalized. And  

  • the globalized world is characterized by complex  networks of trade, financial services, maritime,  

  • aviation, infocoms and other activities. And  then, these networks in turn need to be served  

  • by nodes or exchanges, and global  metropolises that I've listed,  

  • managed to establish themselves as these  nodes in a global economy. With technology,  

  • the influence span of a modern metropolis is  no longer limited by the stamina of a horse,  

  • nor by the proximity to  waterways and canals. Their  

  • significance is determined by the breadth of their  networks, strategic clustering of industries,  

  • rich flows of capital and ideas, and most  importantly, their ability to attract and  

  • retain talent from all over the world. HenceLondon no longer depends on the themes because it  

  • is not no longer tethered to its maritime rootsIts transformation into a global financial centre  

  • and a hub of creativity, culture and the arts  has allowed it to keep its position in the world.  

  • On the other side of the world, Silicon Valley  and its smallest cities like Palo Alto and  

  • Cupertinothe start-up and technological  capital of the worldthey have overtaken  

  • the coastal city of San Francisco. The idea of  cities has therefore evolved, from gatherings of  

  • close-knit people who settled where climatic  and geographical conditions are most benign,  

  • to political and economic centres from which  nations and empires were ruled and defended,  

  • to now finally, financial and commercial hubs  in a globalized and interconnected world.  

  • However they come to be, cities rise and fall  with the tide of history. The same geographical  

  • luck which gave rise to ancient cities  such as Jericho can also be their undoing.  

  • Natural disasters, climate change foreign  invasions can all turn a city's fate.  

  • Today, Jericho is a pale shadow of its former self  as part of a disputed territory in the West Bank.  

  • As for political capitals such as Rome or  Chang An (now called Xi An), their character  

  • and significance shifted along with the rise and  fall of their parent empires. Rome, was the roman  

  • empire rather, was plagued by constant threats of  invasion, and its military and administration were  

  • overextended to defend a massive territory. There  was an erosion of civic trust in the ruling elite.  

  • Chang An was decimated at the fall of the  Tang dynasty as the empire fragmented.  

  • These cities did not 'decline' exactlyThey remain major population centres  

  • but their character has totally changed. Rome is  still the capital of Italy, but the commercial  

  • centre has since moved to Milan. Rome literally  has layers of history buried below its surface,  

  • which makes it very hard for the city  to redevelop and reinvent itself.  

  • As for the great modern metropolises, we can't  take for granted we will always be there.  

  • We are constantly jostling for relevance  in a hyper-competitive global economy.  

  • If a global node can be established, it  can also be unplugged by a competitor.  

  • Maintaining the vibrance and relevance ofcity over generations is therefore no mean  

  • feat. I cite these examples because  I think there are lessons in each one  

  • that can enrich our collective endeavour to keep  Singapore a thriving city at the cutting-edge,  

  • as well as a stable and sustainable home for  all of us. Singapore cannot be modelled against  

  • any of the examples I raised, and not even  the modern metropolis. This is because  

  • history has made us unique. We are city, we are  a state, we are also a nation of one people,  

  • all rode into one. In Singapore, we find  some of the essence of New York City,  

  • of Chang An, and also of Jericho. Our future  success depends on us recognizing the importance  

  • and combining the essence of all  three great citiespast and present.  

  • Let me start by talking about the New York  City in us. We are a global economic node,  

  • and this is central to our survival ascity, the way we earn the living. Because  

  • without economic opportunities and the prospect  of a better future for our people, a city loses  

  • by its dynamism and its life. Especially forcity like Singapore, without a natural hinterland,  

  • maintaining our economic viability has  always meant being connected to the world.  

  • One of our pioneer leaders, Mr S. Rajaratnamset out our ambition to become a "Global City"  

  • in a speech to the press club in 1972, a  whole two decades before our next speaker,  

  • Professor Sassen, would popularise the term. Mr  Rajaratnam saw Singapore as a growingly important  

  • component of the global economic system, side  by side with the economic giants of the world.  

  • In large part, we achieved this ambition  through decades of hard work and enterprise.  

  • We leveraged our geographical location we buildtrading hub first, and from there, other strategic  

  • industriesmanufacturing, tourism, biomedicalfinance, infocoms, aviation, R&D and so on. To use  

  • a more contemporary analogy, we have become likesmartphonewith a good operating system and all  

  • kinds of apps in it. Your contacts, your scheduleyour group chats, music, photos. All personalised  

  • and stored in here. So this is the value  proposition we want to keep offering to the world.  

  • Strong enough, so that it is not easy, though  not impossible, to switch out of Singapore.  

  • The great task before us is to keep reinventing  ourselves to stay relevant and competitive. We  

  • have made good progress as a smart nation. We are  fast becoming a centre for green finance in the  

  • world. We have long term plans to reinvent  our cityscape, such as developing the land  

  • to be vacated by the Paya Lebar Air Base, and  reimagining our city centre with the inclusion  

  • of the Greater Southern Waterfront, which is the  size of three Marina Bays, and the city centre  

  • will look entirely different decades from now. But  I believe the biggest opportunity for reinvention  

  • lies in the post COVID-19 world. In many waysthe crisis is like a reset button, forcing us to  

  • rethink the way we do things, to be better, to be  smarter. For example, the post COVID working world  

  • should embrace a combination of working in office  and at home, as a more efficient arrangement to  

  • be outcome-focused, and help people juggle  their lives. We should rethink about the  

  • concept of 'peak' commuting hours, which has  so long dictated the planning and development  

  • of transport infrastructure. We  can flatten that traffic curve too.  

  • COVID-19 has pushed many hard-hit brick-and-mortar  establishments onto digital platforms.  

  • And having gone through Home Based Learningeducation is undergoing another renaissance,  

  • kicked off with every secondary school kid  equipped with a personal device, embracing  

  • the digital medium for education, and encouraging  self-directed learning. And in healthcare, we now  

  • have a much better appreciation of the importance  of primary care, which includes things like  

  • good hygiene, vaccinations, and home recovery  with the help and support of telemedicine.  

  • This may be a new beginning for primary preventive  care, which will be actually the most important  

  • component in a rapidly ageing country. Through  the pandemic, we have also positioned ourselves  

  • as a hub for vaccine manufacture and distributionAnd the process of coping with the pandemic has  

  • tested our metal as a city. We had to roll with  the punches and adapt to all kinds of twists and  

  • turns. We didn't try to shut down every infection  cluster, but we tried to brave through, and ride  

  • the infection wave. And to do this, we have had  to rely on people's personal responsibility and  

  • civic consciousness. We have to trust that people  will do the right thing in testing themselves  

  • and isolating themselves if they are positive  tested positive. While all these have been done  

  • out of necessity, I believe it has helped  us grow as a people. I hope it is the start  

  • of a societal attitude that is more forgiving of  imperfections, embracing setbacks and failures,  

  • appreciating resilience, ruggedness  enterprise and even being unconventional.

  • There is also a Chang An in us, even  though we are no empire. This is because  

  • we need to run an effective state. In Singaporeour people do not have a choice between a  

  • free-wheeling urban economic centre or a quiet  life in the suburbs. There is also no equivalent  

  • of a Washington DC, a Canberra, an Ottawa or  Brasilia outside of global city. This city is  

  • all we got. Within these 730 square kilometreslie all the possible choices for 5 million  

  • people. The Government of Singapore therefore  must defend our city, maintain law and order,  

  • must ensure all our infrastructure and services  — from healthcare, education and transport to  

  • utilities and refuse collection, libraries and  parks, are all well provided for and working well.  

  • What Singapore has been blessed with  is a founding generation that has  

  • built up a good Government, with a capital 'G'.  This includes the various arms of the statean  

  • executive branch that is effective and can get  things done; a non-politicized civil service;  

  • and a judicial system that upholds the rule of  law without fear or favour. It also includes  

  • democratic institutions such as parliamentformed through free and fair elections.  

  • But the affairs of the state cannot run away  from politics, and therein lies a duality.  

  • On the one hand, politics facilitates public  discourse, puts the fate of the country  

  • ultimately in the hands of the people, keeps  powers in check and maintains accountability  

  • of the executive branch. On the other handpolitics gone wrong can polarize the population  

  • and destabilize societies. And we  have seen many recent examples.  

  • So a critical factor for good governance is  to get politics right. Rather than endless  

  • bickering and stalemates, the political process  must be constructive, and help bridge divides. The  

  • objective of politics must be to help the country  find a way forward even if the decisions involve  

  • very difficult trade-offs. And this is especially  important to Singapore. For what we lack  

  • in resources and strategic mass, we can make up  with nimbleness, and unity of purpose and action.  

  • We may be small, but we can be  fast and we do things together.  

  • What are the starkest political differences  that need to be reconciled today?  

  • Post Industrial Revolution, throughout 19th  and 20th centuries, the biggest conflict  

  • has been between the Right and the LeftCreation versus distribution of wealth.  

  • Socialism versus Capitalism. And that