30 years from now, what would historians be writing?

What would the historians be writing about Singapore in 30 years time? Would they be writing in praise of a great cosmopolitan city flourishing and a shining example for the world to envy and want to emulate, like what it is today, a great city that many countries still hold it in awe? Or would the historians be writing about a failed state in ruins, or no longer an independent city but a colony of some bigger powers? Historically, all the failed states believed that they were doing well moments before the curtains fell. Everything was just fine and under control.

At this moment, all of us are like fish in an aquarium and are making the best of what we have and perhaps thinking how good life is here. And life is really extremely good for some that they would not think of anything else and tomorrow can only be better. While we push and shove against each other for more space and comfort, while more fishes are poured into the aquarium, we are still adjusting and adjusting very well, like the proverbial frog in a boiling kettle.

We will acclimatise and get use to our environment for as long as we can adapt and we don’t break down, or the system does not break down. While the pressure builds up, would we have the chance to pull the plug before that breaking point is reached? Would we have the foresight to see it, feel it and be in time to avoid it? Or we are already there and still ignorant of it, in denial, or conning ourselves or being conned that everything is fine, it is in fact very good? I think it is the latter, with many congratulating themselves on how well they are doing. Life cannot be better and why are the losers complaining?

Would the historians in 30 years time be writing about the missed opportunities to save ourselves from the decadence of a city state when all the red lights are flashing everywhere, when disastrous policies were pushed through one after another as good policies, right policies? Today, no one in a position to make a change is seeing any wrong. There is no wrong. We are doing the best we can with all the right policies and things can only be better tomorrow. By then, with the benefits of hindsight, would they be asking how could the citizens allow a great city be destroyed in a matter of a decade of bad policies? Of course I am presumptious. How could that happen?

Perhaps they would be writing about the golden years of the first 3 decades of the 21st Century and more good years to come, and paying tributes to the wisdom of the leaders of today.

What do you think?

Kopi Level - Green