The Big Link Up

DPM Wong asked, "hello hello can you hear me?" Awkward seconds later, the lady from New York replied yes. And that kicked off the video conferencing that linked up Singaporeans gathered in New York, London, Berlin, Bangkok, Beijing and Shanghai using the www.overseassingaporean.sg portal (you might have heard this announced in NDR speech). It was noon in London, evening in the Far East, and seven in the morning in New York (those poor buggers, wondered what time they had to be up).

DPM was in Shanghai, where my sister Annette was. The link was poor, often with seconds of delay in the transmission. It was soon obvious that a proper conversation was not possible. A Singaporean working for Google was exasperated that the organisers could not get a "simple technology" right. But never mind, the occasion was convivial enough. DPM promised to get the portal fixed as soon as possible.

I thought fixing the portal would be the easy bit. Getting the Overseas Singaporean Unit (OSU) to accomplish its stated mission would be more difficult. Looking at the Singaporeans gathered at the London launch, they were the usual so and so - senior managers of Singapore banks and companies, GLC expatriates, posted staff of Government and Statutory Boards - people already very much plugged into the Singapore system, the "pa see buay chow" band. The hard part would be to get true Singaporean overseas path-breakers, the guys who struck out away from the usual careers back in Singapore, the guys who went overseas to try something different, and doing things that no one back home even recognised yet.

Understandably, OSU is made part of PMO to reflect its importance in national building. However, being part of the PMO might have given the unit too much of an official sheen that might compromise its objective. I mean, would people really want to blog and exchange information on a Government run portal? Would you be freely expressive on a Government website run by civil servants? Building overseas Singaporean networks is one of those endeavors that are probably best done by the civil society and non or quasi-official organisations (like the British Council). In the end, OSU might attract only Singaporeans of a certain stripe.

The one thing the organisers got right though was the food. Gorgeous laksa, char quay teow, oh lua (fried oysters) were served. Annette texted me to asked if I was still there, but Grace and I were by then too busy with the food already. I texted back, "yes but eating". Nothing can move overseas Singaporeans as quickly as the prospect of real authentic Singaporean food. Thankfully for Grace and myself, this the organisers clearly understood.