Download National Archives of Singapore Release No. 11 /MAY 03B

National Archives of Singapore
Library
- 4 AUG 1997
Release No. 11/MAY
03B-l/97/05/10
97-YYB-4
SPEECH BY BG (NS) GEORGE YEO,
MINISTER FOR INFORMATION
AND THE ARTS
AND SECOND MINISTER FOR TRADE AND INDUSTRY,
AT THE OFFICIAL
OPENING OF THE SCHOOL
OF COMMUNICATIONS
STUDIES BUILDING,
NANYANG TECHNOLOGICAL
UNIVERSITY
(NTU),
ON 10 MAY 1997 AT 10.30AM
The Asian Renaissance
The world is becoming more complex. The information revolution is
opening up large parts of the world and bringing them into the global market.
World trade and human travel have grown by leaps and bounds. All this has
created a more interdependent world and a much finer international division of
labour.
The market economy is, in fact, an organic entity of extraordinary
complexity. It is so intricate that economists and statisticians do not understand
it very well. Thus, even simple predictions about economic growth are very hard
to make. It is often said that it is easier to turn a market economy into a planned
economy, than the other way round. The reason is because the market economy
is in reality much more complex than the planned economy.
This complexity expresses itself in the information and knowledge
intensity of human society. More and more, the basis of value and wealth in the
world is information and knowledge.
In value terms, raw materials are
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diminishing in importance.
Cities are, of course, where information and
knowledge are most concentrated.
Great civilizations are great producers and processors of information and
knowledge. Two thousand years ago, the Greek and Roman world was one of
remarkable sophistication. After the fall of Rome, Western Europe plunged into
the Dark Ages when the flow of information and knowledge ebbed. The works
of Plato, Aristotle, Euclid and Ptolemy were forgotten.
As Europe got out of the Middle Ages into the Age of the Renaissance in
the 15th century, the old knowledge was rediscovered and new knowledge was
acquired. The Renaissance was a period of high information and knowledge
intensity. It was marked by a sharp increase in commerce and in the availability
of goods. New trade routes were opened up. With book printing, learning
became widespread and organized.
Lisa Jardine’s recent book on the
Renaissance called “Worldly Goods” described “the triumph of the book” and
Europeans “learning to be civilized”.
Science and technology took a great leap
forward. The cities which were most able to collect, produce and make use of
new information flourished, cities like Venice and Florence. There was also
intense competition for the services of talented individuals like Michaelangelo
and Leonardo Da Vinci. The European Renaissance in the 15thand 16thcenturies
was a high tide in all fields of human knowledge.
What we are seeing all over Asia today is the beginning of another such
Renaissance - the growth of markets, the profusion of goods, mass education,
cultural efflorescence in many cities on the Pacific Rim, human travel, rapid
technological developments and, of course, the revolution in information
technology.
Like in the earlier Renaissance, the cities which succeed in
attracting and making use of human talent will prosper the most. If Singapore is
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to become one of Asia’s leading Renaissancecities in the 21st Century,
we must
develop a high intensity of information and knowledge, and emplace ourselves as
a hub for commerce, finance, culture, communication and transportation. The
key is the ability to attract into our fair city the most precious commodity of all human talent.
Effective communication is the oxygen which activates the life-functions
of a complex city. The establishment of NTU School of Communication Studies
a few years ago is therefore a timely one. To meet the challenges of the next
century, our understanding of the process of communication and our ability to
communicate will be of decisive importance. Already we live in an age of
information overload and no let up is in sight. Information is still being produced
and communicated at an exponential rate. The problem today is often not one of
getting more information, but one of getting the right information that is already
available and at the right time. We need information which is simplified, distilled
and useable. In a curious way, we add value by subtracting information. Thus,
an important part of communications is our ability to simplify. The process of
communication is not complete until the information that is transmitted is
received, understood and the intended result achieved. To communicate is to
persuade and, sometimes, also to charm
Unless and until the listener accepts
and believes in the argument, the process of communication is not achieved.
Because of this, communications is not only a science, it is also an art. Yes,
there is a technical side to communications which we must master and the skills
involved differ from medium to medium. But communications is much more than
that.
It also involves reaching out to specific audiences, which means
understanding their mindsets, their hopes and their fears.
It is not enough for Singapore to have only a few experts in
communication That will not do at all. If we are to be a Renaissance city in 21st
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century Asia, we need large numbers of Singaporeans who communicate well on
different subjects, in different languages and across different cultures.
In
addition to teaching all Singaporeans basic skills in effective communications, we
need to train a large number of communications specialists, both technical and
creative, for the exploding multimedia industry. Singapore is fast becoming a
multimedia hub for newspapers, book publishing, television, Internet, films,
culture and education. In every field, we need people who can communicate
effectively and persuasively in the medium used. Only then can Singapore
become an information and knowledge intensive society of the first order. I hope
many more young Singaporeans will consider seeking a career in multimedia,
The industry is booming and opportunities abound.
There is one aspect of communication that we must never ignore, however
complex our society becomes. I am referring to our moral sense as individuals
and as a community. Information by itself can be a force for good or for ill.
Whether new knowledge is about the cloning of human beings or about
opportunities on the Internet, it also presents itself as a moral challenge to us.
Every piece of new knowledge can be used to build or to destroy.
Every
communication exercise has a moral dimension to it. If we look back at the
European Renaissance, the explosion of new knowledge also destabilized entire
societies. Traditional institutions and value systems came under attack. Thus the
Renaissance in Europe was also followed by the Reformation, the CounterReformation, the Holy Inquisition and the wars of religion. For over a hundred
years, Europe was ravaged by wars and mass slaughter. Without a clear moral
sense, the age of new knowledge is also an age of intellectual and moral
confusion. We must have the strength and the determination to confront these
intellectual and moral challenges in a way which uplifts the human condition.
Whether as journalists, ad-men, broadcasters or cybernauts, all of us who engage
in mass communication are under a duty to be a force for good.
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The genie is already out of the bottle. We cannot go backwards to a
simpler era of comfortable certitudes.
Instead, we have to master the new
communication technologies and use them to strengthen our society, not weaken
it. Whatever we do, protest the young, cherish the family and preserve the planet
on which we live.
NTU’s School of Communication Studies will prosper, not only because
of your efforts, but also because of the times we live in. As we teach, also impart
a moral sense. As we learn, also acquire the wisdom to distinguish between right
and wrong.
If we do this well as teachers and as students, generation after
generation, Singapore will become a shining city-state contributing to a larger
world civilisation.
MITA(5)MmaylO’.doc