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30 March 2002
Cultivating Entreprenuerial Spirit in Asia
Hello and welcome to Young Expressions, where we
feature the writings of young people in Singapore. In this edition
we bring you the second of a four part special, that focuses on four
university students from Singapore, who'll be joining 20 of their
contemporaries from five other Asian countries for the upcoming
Hitachi Young Leaders Initiative that will take place in July.
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The four student Ambassadors from
Singapore selected to participate in the 5th
Hitachi Young Leaders
Initiative.
They
are: (clockwise from left) Gerald Goh, Singapore
Management
University; Mervyn Sek and Mustafa
Izzuddin, National University of
Singapore and
Rita Zamzamah Binte Mohamed Nazeer,
Nanyang
Technological
University.
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In today's programme, we meet Gerald Goh, 2nd year Finance
student with the Singapore Management University. He is one of the
four Singapore student ambassadors who'll be attending the 5th
Hitachi Young Leaders Initiative.
Every Chinese New Year dinner, shortly after our sumptuous
reunion dinner, my relatives will gather the younger members of my
extended family together and regale us with stories of their
childhood and tales of what it was like growing up in newly
independent Singapore.
This year, the stories were told as usual, however, against the
backdrop of Singapore’s worst economic recession in 40 years, I
could not help but notice that the themes this year were more somber
and contemplative than before. Gone were the flippant tales about
past foibles and, in their place, there were pensive reflections
about economic hardships in the earlier years and the importance of
keeping close family ties. Another observation I made was that,
despite the current downturn, there was an unspoken, but
unmistakable, confidence that, no matter how tough the present
situation got, Singaporeans would overcome it, eventually. I thought
about what had been said and I wondered if this same quiet, assured
optimism was to be found in my peers or myself, even. Would we have
that same peace of mind when we are forced to confront the
challenges that lay ahead?
My generation has received a lot of bad press recently. Some
critics have branded as fussy, irresponsible job hoppers, while
others have questioned our ability withstand hardship and commitment
to our homeland. Well, I hope that by standing up here today, as a
representative of the young people of Singapore, I can help, in some
small way, to allay those fears and doubts. I believe that the
Hitachi Young Leaders Initiative (HYLI) is the perfect opportunity
to show to the nation and, indeed, the rest of the world that
Singaporean youth are concerned with the issues involved in nation
building.
I also believe that HYLI’s themes this year, with their focus on
entrepreneurship and corporate responsibility, will facilitate the
generation and exchange of ideas amongst like-minded youth from
around the region. The issues that will be raised over the course of
this event will undoubtedly benefit not only the participants, but
the nation as well. With that, I would like to say that I am
delighted to be a part of this Initiative, and look forward to the
working closely with my ASEAN counterparts in the months ahead.
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