Speech by Minister Chan Chun Sing at the NUSS Charity Golf Dinner 2024

1.A very good evening to all of you. First and foremost, I must thank all the NUS alumni for all your good work, not just for this year, but over the last 30 years. Thank you for paying it forward and role modelling to the younger generation what it means to pay it forward. That, to me, is much more important than even the money that we have raised.

2.Now, having said that, I think our country is at the new phase of development. Tonight, I have three wishes for NUSS, to take our country forward to the next lap. My first wish for NUSS is that while you continue to raise funds and do good work for many generations of undergraduates to come, I hope that you will not only share your treasures, but also your time, talent and networks. Let me explain why this is my first wish.

3.Increasingly, in Singapore, there are many ways that we can try to raise money to help the less privileged, but we also know that having the opportunities for the less privileged to shine is just as important. Amongst the three things that I always urge those who are more able to try to share - treasures, time and talent, time and talent are always the most challenging, but they are also the most needed. For many people coming from less privileged backgrounds, having the opportunity to do an internship in various illustrious companies, having someone to open the door to them will be just as important as having to give them the financial means to support them through.

4.Recently, NUS launched Teach SG, where every NUS undergraduate will reach out to one underprivileged child. Since my days in MSF and even in the military, this is what we hope to do - that in Singapore, we pride ourselves on leaving no one behind, and we truly mean it. To be able to share one's time and talent, perhaps it's even more exacting to share one's treasures. After all, to open up those networks, to guide someone along, to mentor someone along, is just as important in helping the less privileged financially. Ultimately, my first wish is for us to keep Singapore as a land of opportunities, where regardless of one's background, we can always shine, so long as we work hard and we are talented in different ways.

5.My second wish for NUSS is that you will also be the beacon to lead how we reach out to people beyond NUSS. This is something that I have been encouraging all the alumni of the illustrious schools and institutions. Many of our illustrious schools and institutions, including NUS and the many popular secondary school and primary schools, will have no shortage of people who will volunteer with them. But we also need people to volunteer at the schools who do not yet have established or illustrious alumni. The work there is perhaps just as fulfilling. The fact that we can raise them up to their full potential, to raise them up to beyond what they would ever dare to dream and imagine, I think that is meaningful.

6.Hence, I hope, and I know many of the NUS alumni are already doing this - to reach out to the less privileged beyond just helping the NUS undergraduate. In fact, in many ways, to be able to come to NUS is already a privilege. Hence, we hope that every generation of NUS alumni and undergraduates will also understand that there are people who did not manage to come to NUS and who perhaps deserve a bit of help from us. I am always heartened to see successful people, NUS and otherwise, going into ITE to help our students there, opening the doors for them, and going to our neighbourhood schools to help our students there. So, thank you for doing that, and I hope many more alumni will follow your examples to reach out to beyond NUS. Because the mark of success of NUSS is not just how well NUS does, but how well NUS enables the rest of the country to do.

7.Last, but not least, I have a third wish for NUS and NUSS, and I have shared this with the leadership team in NUS. In NUS, after all these years, we must see ourselves not just aiming to be the premier university and institution in Singapore. I hope the day will come where NUS is a shining beacon in our region and beyond - where NUS will be a place for people of different persuasions, different beliefs, different backgrounds, to come and meet. NUS will be the place to groom the next generation of leaders, not just in Singapore, but beyond Singapore. Through that power of connection, NUS will be an institution that helps Singapore reach out and connect with a more troubled world.

8.We all talk about a more troubled world, a more fragmented world, but I think NUS has all the ingredients to play a bridging role and bring people together, whether they are from China, US, Europe, India, or ASEAN. I had given NUS this challenge - to not just go by our usual metrics of how we select students for NUS. There are talented people in the region and beyond who will probably appreciate an experience in NUS, but they may not pass our usual metrics. That doesn't mean that they are not good. The question is, how do we reach out to them, so that we allow them to experience NUS and Singapore? In time to come, if they so become the leadership of their country, or the movers and shakers of their countries, perhaps they will have a soft spot for Singapore in the next lap.

9.Thus, I hope you will join us in this journey for us to have NUS as a beacon, not just for the best students in Singapore, but as a beacon to reach out to those who are not able to come to NUS and uplift them to their potential. I hope that NUS will also be a beacon for us to reach out to people beyond Singapore, that the next generations of leaders, movers and shakers in this part of the world or beyond will have a connection with NUS.

10.I would like to sincerely thank you for your leadership, for your exemplary conduct in leading and setting the example for generations of NUS, and I hope that we will join hands to take Singapore and Singaporeans forward.

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