00:00 I am confident and hopeful because the sense of Singaporean identity is growing
00:05 amongst younger Singaporeans I engage. They are confident about who they are
00:10 and proud to be Singaporeans. And you saw that certainly during the last few years when we had
00:19 to tackle COVID together as well. Young Singaporeans responding to the very difficult restrictions
00:27 that we had to impose but also doing their part to help their fellow Singaporeans.
00:31 I'm also hopeful because I see many young Singaporeans now, nowadays, certainly much
00:40 more well informed than I was when I was their age. They read a lot more widely, they get access
00:46 to all sorts of information and they are clearer about what they would like to do in life. But I
00:52 also, from the conversations, get a sense that they would like to contribute not just
00:59 to their own careers but they would like to contribute to something larger than themselves,
01:05 to a larger purpose. And I think that's very meaningful. That's a good and positive sign.
01:11 Many of them say they want to go beyond the five Cs, the five Cs of the Singapore dream of the
01:16 past and they would like to achieve something larger than themselves. When I said that or when
01:24 we talked about that in the Forward Singapore report, there were critics who said, "Oh,
01:27 that means that young Singaporeans cannot aspire towards the Singapore dream of five Cs anymore."
01:33 But that's not the case. I think that's misconstrued and that's completely inaccurate.
01:40 I mean, young Singaporeans want to have a good life but they want not just the good life to
01:47 be measured by narrow metrics based on material success. They are looking for meaning, they are
01:55 looking for fulfilment, they are looking for purpose. I think these are very noble aspirations
02:00 and certainly we will do our part in the government to support these aspirations and
02:05 and help young Singaporeans to realise that.
02:07 [BLANK_AUDIO]
Comments