Life is brutal

I see a lot of attention in the Straits Times forum pages focused on university admissions recently. At least two parents have wrote in to complain that their children have failed to gain admission to university (or to their first-choice course). This has generated a fair bit of online discussion at various blogs. I don't think I should add to the debate over Singaporeans vs foreigners or what proportion of the populace should be allowed to go to university.

Instead, I'm going to talk about the growing sense of entitlement among Singaporeans today. By virtue of being Singaporean citizens, paying taxes and serving NS (for the guys), we deserve many, many things. We (or our children) deserve to go to university and get a cushy job. Nobody, especially not the "so-called foreign talent", should take that chance away from us. And the government, by setting aside places for foreigners and trying to attract foreign talent, is doing exactly that.

Unfortunately, life is brutal. We don't always get what we want (in my experience, getting what you want tends to be the exception). Much of the time, it is our fault. We were not good enough, did not work hard enough and did not achieve our aims. On rare occasions, we are beset by genuine misfortune.

I'll be kind and say that the majority of people are capable of looking in the mirror. However, a vocal minority will always find someone else to blame. Can't get into university? Oh, the admission process is unfair and biased. Not transparent enough. Too much luck involved. Or too many places reserved for foreigners.

The system is imperfect, granted. But it is good enough. If 20% of each batch goes to university, I would say that our current system easily identifies the top 12% or so. Maybe the system doesn't do so well in differentiating the remaining 8% from the next 8%. So if you fall into that margin, there's probably a huge amount of luck involved. But in Singapore, there are no endemic social, racial or economic inequalities that prevent a good student from being able to attend university, regardless of background. I would estimate that the majority of the world's population does not live in a country which can make such a claim.

I do not mean to chastise those who wrote in the first place. But I see a lot of blog posts who claim that Singaporeans are second-class citizens in their own countries, as foreigners are given scholarships to NUS, given places that should go to local talent. It's taxpayers' money (this is an important argument that deserves its own post sometime in future). Let's be honest with ourselves. To borrow a baseball analogy, Singaporeans are born on second base and think they hit a double.

Let's say that you are a Singaporean male who is in the 25th percentile of your batch by academic aptitude. By my estimation, you have about a 40% chance of getting into a local university. Would you honestly switch places with a foreign national who is in the 25th percentile? Think about your chances of attending university at all, let alone getting a scholarship to some foreign university. Yet I suspect that plenty of said foreigners wouldn't mind being born in Singapore and enjoying being "second-class", even if it meant serving NS. (Having said that, I knew several Americans that used military service to finance college... voluntarily. Draw your own conclusions.)

Well, enough of that. Not getting to a local university is not the end of the world. You can go overseas. You can tread the road less travelled. Become an entrepreneur, learn to cook (better). I wonder how people got by in the 1970s, when a far smaller proportion of each batch went to university. As the saying goes - 东家不打 打西家. (loosely translated - can't get into the east house, try the west house.) I'll bet that most people get over it real fast.

And if I have offended your sensibilities with my honesty, I am glad. I don't seek to change your opinion, but to show you a different point of view. Maybe I am wrong, maybe I'm too elitist. I'll take that chance, if you've learnt something by reading this post.