When The Straits Times' editor- at-large Han Fook Kwang recently met a former colleague, who is based in New Zealand, the latter asked: "So what's it like living in the best-run place in the world?"

But over dinner three weeks ago in Chiang Mai, Thailand, a Singaporean businessman there told him Singapore was "not adjusting and changing far and fast enough to new economic and social challenges in a rapidly disrupting world".

Noting that both contrasting comments were valid, Mr Han said yesterday at the launch of his new book that Singaporeans can and should do much better, instead of thinking they are tops while putting down other countries.

And the way to improve, which he canvasses in the book - Singapore In Transition: Hope, Anxiety And Question Marks, comprising 40 of his columns over the past four years - was by fostering a stronger sense of community, by being personally invested in everyone and everything around them.

Mr Han, 63, was speaking to more than 120 people, including his wife Frances, their younger daughter Yushi, past and present politicians, colleagues and guests at the launch at the National Library Board headquarters.

Ambassador-at-large Tommy Koh, with whom Mr Han worked on many projects, called him "a kindred spirit".

"We both love Singapore. However, we are not uncritical lovers. We are proud of Singapore and what we have achieved. Singapore is, however, not perfect. Fook Kwang has had the courage to point out some of these imperfections and exhort us to do better," he said.

A case in point, said Mr Han, was how most Singaporeans would not clean up after themselves at hawker centres, leaving it to "an army of cleaners" and technology such as sensors in litter bins.

Professor Koh added that such a dearth of communitarianism was also found in the workplace. He believed it came from "our top-down hierarchy and individualistic culture", which had left Singaporeans "selfish, self-centred, 'me first', of low civic-mindedness and having low regard for other people".

That weakened solidarity among Singaporeans and so Mr Han was right to flag it as a great concern.

Speaking earlier, ST editor Warren Fernandez recalled how, as a young journalist on ST's political desk with Mr Han as his editor in the 1990s, there was some "trepidation" in the newsroom about Mr Han's plan to launch Insight, a weekly section of commentaries on politics here, given that there were out-of-bounds (OB) markers often flagged by the authorities.

But Mr Fernandez recalled Mr Han's reply thus: "The fact that there are OB markers on the fairways doesn't stop anyone playing golf." Instead, golfers took their best shots, and kept at it if their ball went astray.

Mr Han led the way, commissioning and editing the features, as well as writing for Insight too, thus inspiring colleagues to press on in the endeavour till today, he added.

Former MP Yu-Foo Yee Shoon said of Mr Han: "There is a Chinese saying 'zhong yan ni er' or 'truth always hurts the ears'. But I find him balanced in his criticism of the Government because from the many books he worked on with the late Mr Lee Kuan Yew, you can tell he loves his country." Mr Han collaborated with the late founding prime minister on three books.

Mr Han summed up the topics in his book thus: "Education is not just about passing exams, but the lifelong habit of mastering skills. Economic planning is not just about creating jobs and growth but what sort of jobs and what sort of growth. Politics is not about demolishing political opponents but of strengthening the trust between people and their understanding of what is at stake."

The book, published by Straits Times Press, is available at $25 with GST from leading bookstores.