SINGAPORE is a small country. It’s easy to fix it up and keep it clean. So, let’s not compare apples to oranges.
Singapore is a small country. Population-wise, I don’t think every man, woman and child in the city-state will even surpass six million, with Singapore citizens making up around 3.5 million of that number and Singapore permanent residents another one million plus.
Compare that to Metro Manila’s 13 plus million, which varies depending on the time of day. And Quezon City alone has almost three million.
But then compare size: Singapore has a land area of about 719 square kilometers (and growing due to reclamation projects!) while Metro Manila or the National Capital Region has a land area of 636 square kilometers. Quezon City, with half of Singapore’s population, has an area of 161 square kilometers, or about one-fourth its size.
So yes, Singapore is a small country in size and in population. But does that mean what it has accomplished since the 1970s cannot be accomplished here? If not nationwide, then perhaps in pockets of the country?
I mention the 1970s because we must remember that it was only in the mid-1960s that Singapore broke free from the Malay Federation and became an independent state of its own. At that time the Singapore River stank, the old shop houses looked their age, and no one took it seriously.
‘… Singapore may be a small state with a small population but here’s a challenge — can’t its journey from a small backwater port to a world-class metropolis be duplicated over a five or ten-year period by an LGU…’
It was just a red dot on any map of the world.
I need not tell you what Singapore is today. A product of a strong will to change and to succeed, driven by the government and embraced by the people. Of course, there are and have been critics, both foreign and local. But take a cab ride in Singapore and nine times out of 10 you’ll get treated to a tour guide briefing by a proud cabbie, many of whom are honest enough to give you the pluses and the minuses of their island state.
What do you hear from our own cabbies? “Naku po, sira ang metro ko…” is one. “Traffic po. Pwede ho bang padagdag.”
Oh, and no cab driver can turn down a passenger he picks up at a taxi stand.
Anyway — Singapore may be a small state with a small population but here’s a challenge — can’t its journey from a small backwater port to a world-class metropolis be duplicated over a five or ten-year period by an LGU like, well, San Juan or Taguig or Davao or Cebu?
C’mon, let’s all stop giving ourselves excuses.
It’s time to set lofty goals — and work to achieve them! I want to think that every Filipino believes it can be done and almost (!!!) every one of us to a man will be happy to be part of this transformative process!
