Pragmatism In Singapore Essay

It has often been said that pragmatism is Singapore’s governing principle. A minuscule island largely made up of immigrants that underwent a sudden metamorphosis into a nation when we were forced out of Malaysia in 1965, Singapore has always had to be unwaveringly practical-minded in order to survive in a tough world. Through this, we achieved what many around the world have termed an economic miracle and have become a respected player with an outsized influence on the world stage both diplomatically and economically. Along the way, we have had to compromise the environment at times, for instance producing substantial carbon emissions from our key manufacturing and aviation sectors, and clearing a large proportion of our rainforest to build

We have always had to pursue development in any industry in which we could carve out a relevance for ourselves in the world economy. When a country is so insignificant geographically that one needs a magnifying glass to find us on the world map, it cannot be too ethically delicate or idealistic in the economic choices it makes. Thus we have built up some key industries that pollute significantly – tourism, aviation, shipping and manufacturing to name a few. In fact, one great irony in our economy is that even though we do not produce a single drop of crude oil, we are world leaders in oil rig building through Keppel Corporation and Sembcorp Marine. We are also a major oil refining and trading hub with a growing liquefied natural gas trading and storage industry. Our airport and seaport are among the busiest in the world and we attract some three times more tourists each year than the size of our resident population. Inevitably, all these activities either produce, or are complicit in producing, very large amounts of carbon emissions contributing to anthropogenic climate