WITH THE PRIME MINISTER Co-operation rather than aid for Singapore

Press, Volume CXIV, Issue 33423, 3 January 1974, Page 2

WITH THE PRIME MINISTER Co-operation rather than aid for Singapore

(From CEDRIC MENTIPLAY)

SINGAPORE. kithough no joint statement was issued after the talks between the New’ Zealand Prime Minister (Mr Kirk) and the Prime Minister of Singapore (Mr Lee Kuan lew), Mr Kirk is well satisfied with the outcome.

Mr Lee was very expansive about the quantity and quality of New Zealand help to Singapore in the past. Specific understandings i were reached between the two Prime Ministers on other aspects of aid. in which New Zealand and Singapore will work as equals. So far these •re onlv headings. The fine text will be developed after official consultations later.

The value of Mr Kirks’ ,!visit, from New Zealand’s; point of view, lies almost entirely in the opportunity it • has given him to explain carefully and at closest range New Zealand's own emergent i(Point of view. ; This view w-as quickly put into perspective by Mr Kirk at the State dinner when he I said: "I am pathfinding on : this present trip. A new ■ spirit, almost a pioneering ■ one. is now guiding New Zealand's relations with other countries. ’ “For too long New Zea-> landers were content to look) at the world, and particularly at this part of the world, through the eyes of others. That is no longer so. | Belatedly, but with all thei energv and imagination we can draw upon, we are moving to associate ourselves with the region. Asia and the Pacific, in which our destiny lies . . Compared with this Mr Lee’s recorded statements were friendly, generalised, and perhaps lacking in positive ideas At the dinner he charted Britain’s course into; the Common Market. He 'hanked New Zealand for its -upport in bridging the gap to nationhood, and in providing technical, economic and defence training skills. Still recipient Mr Lee paid a nice compliment ;o New Zealand for its contribution, “a contribution much larger than the proportion of either her numbers or

he. G.N.P.. because of the stalwart and robust qualities 1 of the New Zealanders.” r But Mr Lee stopped there ' He did not suggest that 1 Singapore, as a fully- * developed modem society, should leave the ranks of the needy countries and join the helpers. When he talked of regionalism and cooperation, he still sounded on 'he receiving end. Big development Singapore is a long way ’ out of the class of Malaysia or Indonesia. Its tinv size has permitted a firmness in Government which has dis-i posed of garbage and con-1 trolled the handling of waste. The traffic runs happily and effectively. The telephones j work. Huge developments like' the port-industrial Comdex at Jurong which was in the teething stages in 1969. are functioning Very large buildings have arisen and; changed the skyline. The new image leans in' from all directions on the ghost of Raffles Hotel, where tea can still be taken in the' ballroom with elderly British j residents who remember doing this while they awaited; the arrival of the Japanese) conquerors. But the Raffles is soon to go, in favour of a vast new hotel complex which will in- ( evitably £ash in on the name. Singapore is booming, be- | cause of its trading position. ■ and because of the tourists

who flood through its hotels — even though these often make little contact with the non-air-conditioned world outside.

Singapore has pressed on, and today it has at least some of the problems of Orwell’s world of 1984. The vast housing-blocks are a tribute to progress, and so are the problems of noise-pollution they have brought with them. Singaporeans can join New Zealanders any time on levels of professional competence, in medicine and surgery. If they still need instruction in some aspects of the armed services, there are other spheres in which they can teach New Zealand "something. Technology is surely an open field.

Education demand Perhaps in the span of human effort Singapore and New Zealand have something I for each other. In Singapore, even with the schools set up by the British before withdrawal, the great demand is for education. I The Singaporean child, be he of Chinese, Indian or Malay extraction, has a thirst for education. The reason is plain enough. You attain an educational standard, or you are dead in the big, bright world of business. So the schools run all the time. They start at 7 a.m., clear one complete New Zea-land-type school by noon, then take on a second identity until 7 p.m. Even after this, these well-used buildings may carry on in the evenings with adult education — a rather challenging proposition for New Zealand educa-

tors, who consider a school well-used on a five-day, oneshift week, 10 months of the year. There is a fallout. The young Singaporean, living in one of those huge high-rise apartments, and desperately eager to do well scholastically, suffers from noise-pollu-tion. At examination time he takes a torch, goes out into the park . , . The suicide-rate among young students is high. The fear of being branded a "dropout” is big. It is not easy to study in Singapore — and probably for that reason alone New Zealand might look a little more kindly at calls for assistance. Exchanges are possible — with perhaps a little more Singaporean Government contribution, particularly in the matter of halls of residence.