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SITTING in a hotel during breakfast and looking out of the streets of Hanoi in Vietnam, my thoughts drifted to the early 1960s. It was a totally different Singapore then. It was not a nation but a population of Chinese, Malays, Indians and others living on an island called Singapore.
Back then, we were no better than many of our Asean neighbours today. In fact, the Philippines was the most progressive country in the 1960s.
We could have gone down the same road as many of the countries that surround us. It is not by accident that we became a developed nation of Singaporeans, admired by our neighbours (perhaps with jealousy), enjoying one of the highest standards of living in the world.
The odds were against us to survive as a nation. To a few good men and women with vision, ideals and courage, many of them immigrants, we owe our everlasting gratitude.
As we approach our 42nd year of independence, I wish for a special tribute to honour this special breed of men and women.
I am grateful to them for my existence today.
I was born a British subject in the colony of Singapore, became a Malaysian during merger and a Singaporean in 1965.
I am proud to be a Singaporean and will always be one, even though I may live less than four months a year in my country of birth.
Ronald C. Klyne
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