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We must be an open & egalitarian society: PM Lee - YouTube
Channel: Prime Minister's Office, Singapore
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we have to be an open and egalitarian
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society
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you must not have rigid hierarchies or
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class distinctions
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people must be able to interact
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comfortably up and down the social
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ladder
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comfortably self-confidently without
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obsequious
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scraping and bowing you may be the prime
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minister you may be a
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cleaner you may be a teacher
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you may be the student's parent
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we are all singaporeans together we
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treat each other with respect
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there's an informality an easy
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camaraderie
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you don't bow deeply you don't touch
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your forehead
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you don't yes sir yes sir three bags
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full
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in chinese they say ping chi pingto
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sit level equals same stand
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the wealthy should not flaunt your
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wealth yes you've been successful
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just keep a modest low-key
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unassuming approach nobody will think
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the less of you
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your status is not marked by the car you
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drive
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or the brand of clothes you wear
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no should be marked by the way you talk
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i say that because in britain that is an
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issue
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and in the old days the upper classes
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spoke
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one kind of english and working classes
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spoke a different
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english very different pronunciations
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different
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terminology and the way you speak
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as an englishman is classified
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by the way he speaks as bernard shaw
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said
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and singaporeans must not be like that
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you must
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feel a certain comfort with one another
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so neither should you be ostentatious if
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you are successful
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neither should you look down on others
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because of your physical appearance
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recently i read about somebody who made
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a post
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on her blog poking fun at an older man
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who had a hole in his shirt
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i think that's wrong because an
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old or torn shirt doesn't mean he
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deserves less respect
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i wear shirts with holes all the time
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not in parliament but my wife says it's
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got a hole in it i tell her only one
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when it has three i consider the matter
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well these are not
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essential to who you are
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what you stand for what people should
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think of you
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and you have to it has to manifest in
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the way we interact with one another
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one day i went for a walk at the botanic
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gardens at night i wasn't
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watching where i was walking i bumped
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into somebody i apologize
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so he looked at me he recognized me he
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says it's only
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he knows no no no embarrassment no
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obsequiousness
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no awkwardness
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it's my fault he walked off i walked off
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i think that's something valuable
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but it's not possible for us to be a
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completely
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classless society there's no such thing
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in the world
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every society has a natural sorting a
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natural pyramid
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and those who are in positions of
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responsibility have to have
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due regard and at the same time if you
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are in the position of responsibility
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you must remember that you have a duty
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to the rest of society
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your respect has to be earned by the
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society
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without leaders who are respected
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that's doomed to fail and we have to
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have that respect
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a teacher is in a position of respect of
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responsibility over
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his or his students so is the principle
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when a parent interacts with a teacher
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you have to understand that
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a counter staff is in a position
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serving the public when you interact
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with a counter staff remember
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she is serving you but you owe
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a responsibility to be respectful of her
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to be courteous to be reasonable
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and we have to have that kind of a
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society in order to be able to talk
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about openness
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in order to be able to keep the channels
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and the
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flow of people moving up and not being
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closed off
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by glass ceilings
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or magic circles or the sense that you
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were born wrong or you speak wrong or
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you're dressed wrong
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and ah that one just doesn't fit
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so that's how we keep ourselves open
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