This is my last week at the Ministry of Education. It’s been a little over four years, and I find myself in a very different place from where I envisioned four years ago. My time in the government has been a most serendipitous and amazing journey, and I am indelibly changed because of it.
I used to participate rather actively in the great Singaporean pastime of government-bashing. I despised the way the government worked - it was easy to find points of agreement with the cab driver: Singapore is fraught with hidden taxes that makes living very expensive; the politicians earn way too much; the government is full of bureaucracy and doesn’t care for citizens.
All the points are valid of course. But the greatest lesson I took home with me is this: the government isn’t a faceless machine. She is made up of fellow citizens. True, some are self-serving. Some are in it for the money. But no more and no less than in any other large organisation, private or public. As citizens we should not waste our time here; we should be looking to nurture a culture of selflessness and empower noble intent. Rather than be mired in a never-ending spiral of self-despair and finger-pointing, we should engage in a constructive relationship with the government.
Web 2.0 ushers in Gov 2.0, and Gov 2.0 cannot exist without Citizen 2.0.
A friend from another country once asked me why Singaporeans complained so much but did so little. It really hit home. We could attribute it to fear, but to be perfectly honest, we complain because it is the easiest path to take.
I joined the government 4 years ago with the intention of changing the way Singapore government agencies create websites. To my surprise the people at the ministry welcomed my ideas and were willing to let Selwyn and I build the corporate website from the ground up. It was then I realised that the ministry was made up of real people, many of whom genuinely want to improve the lives of people living in Singapore.
The line between the government and her people is an imaginary line, and contrary to popular movie wisdom, neither has need to fear the other. Citizens who want to change Singapore for the better should not hesitate to join the government and effect change from within.
The Road Ahead
I have grappled with this decision for about a year now. It has become clear that it is time for me to move on. The entrepreneurial dream is something that burns within me and many of my friends.
But it has dawned on me that entrepreneurship is not so much a working arrangement as it is a state of mind. The entrepreneurial spirit is one that doesn’t tolerate the status quo simply because, but constantly questions and endlessly strive through continual iteration to improve processes, products and people.
I have decided to continue being an intrapreneur. Come April I will be joining the folks at Temasek Polytechnic. I was totally blown away by how much the organisation valued me as an individual rather than a unit of resource, and the hiring process was thoroughly outstanding. I am excited at the possibilities there, and thankful that God has provided for me and led me down a path filled with peace.
Are you going to have anythinG to do with TP website?
And congrats. All the best sir!
Cool! How do you know TP value you as an individual and not as a unit of resource? What did they do to show that?
You joining TP in their IT dept ah?? :)
They genuinely listened to what I expected from this next phase of my career and tried hard to find a fit between what I needed and what the organisation needed.
That's a lot more than what most organisations would do.
That was how I felt when I joined and left the other Ministry too. That instead of sg/govt bashing, that I am and can be empowered to do something too. And that civil servants are not a stereotype of lazy and self-serving robots but many of them are truly servants to the society, they strive to work the best in the constraints that they are given.
Congratulations Lucian! I am glad you took on the system and tried to effect changes and I am happier that you would continue to do so from TP!
This is great news Lucian! Enjoy your break. Excited to see what's in store for TP's online initiatives.
Congratulations Lucian! I suppose the important thing is that we constantly move forward -)
And you're very right about the civil service, it is made up of people like you and me. -)
Hey Lucian, thanks for writing this piece and congrats on the new appointment.
You have just reminded us that the government is human too, especially the common folks in the workforce. Sometimes we just have to look beyond the bureaucracy. I believe this government is in generational transition and I still have hope that better things will come in our lifetime, especially with more folks like you within :)
Congrats, Lucian! Sounds like a good move, and the most important thing is that it feels right to you. Definitely make the most of your time off.
I went through the opposite process. Was a believer that the civil service was made up of good people, until I sold my soul to a stat board.
The leader of the stat board for most of the time I was there is well-known as one of the more intransigent personalities in the civil service, so my experience is probably not typical. Suffice to say that I was very early on, well before I started working for them, told that I was not good enough for them, and because I dared to defend myself from this completely unwarranted attack, was subsequently stomped on for the next four years I spent in their grasp. I learned to shut up very quickly but continued to be verbally attacked and had administrative affairs deliberately made more difficult for me for years after that. Everywhere in the organisation I went, people learned of my 'blacklisted' status, which made it difficult for me to change my career trajectory within the organisation or to have anyone listen to my views.
Glad to hear that things are better in some parts of the civil service.
congrats! ; ) so exciting! haha
Congrats Lucian! Great work done in the past 4 years. And even greater work to come in the years ahead at TP!
2 months to rest? Shiok!
Very sad to hear about what you had to go through. I guess it's easy to generalise, but different agencies are very different, and it eventually goes down to the individuals.