The idea of nurturing the Chinese elite has been hotly debated in the press. It is understood that the Government leaders raised this issue with two main objectives: a) The elite are to meet the practical needs of our economy as our trade and industry have expanded to the Chinese speaking areas in East Asia and; b) The elite are required in order to carry on and develop Chinese culture and traditions in our society. The Chinese-educated generally welcome this idea and the young bilingual generation also supports it. But, there are some, albeit a small number in my opinion, who have expressed contrary views. This can be seen clearly from a letter contributed by a reader in the Straits Times on May 26.
From my experience with people from different educational background, I can surmise that the writer is English-educated. She may not be too familiar with the Chinese language and culture, and probably has little understanding of the history of our education system and the changes in our language policies. I understand her concerns and shall attempt to allay her fears with the following:
Firstly, the kind of Chinese elite we have in mind is definitely not chauvinistic. We cannot accept any form of chauvinism, be it Chinese or English. We expect our Chinese elite to be proficient not only in both Chinese and English, and possess a depth of knowledge of both Eastern and Western cultures, but also have a good knowledge of and respect for the cultures of the minority races. In the field of learning, they should not be narrow-minded Chinese specialists, but broad-minded people who are knowledgeable about other fields of learning as well. More importantly, they ought to have a broad cultural vision and a world view. The outstanding graduates of our SAP schools and other secondary schools, after receiving specialised training in tertiary institutions, can become the ideal Chinese elite who are certainly no Chinese chauvinists.
Secondly, those of us who are Chinese-educated are fully aware that although Chinese is the largest ethnic group in Singapore, we are a multi-racial, multi-cultural nation, and our future Singaporean culture will never be purely Chinese. Like a fabric woven with a diversity of colourful strands of threads, our society contains rich cultural heritage which hails from Europe, China, India and the Malay world. We live in a community where different cultures interact, we absorb and learn from one another’s fine traditions. In our perception, our future society will not be a melting pot dominated by a particular culture, but a potpourri in which all different cultures can be preserved and developed fully.

Finally, I might add that I believe that the Chinese elite can only be successful and continue to develop when they are nurtured in the above-mentioned way and in the context of our modern Singapore.

我们所需要的华文精英

刘蕙霞

近日政府领导人多次提出本国须栽培华文精英，主要目的有二：配合当前经济需求与培养华族文化传承人。对于这个概念，华文教育者都普遍赞同，年轻的双语一代，据我所知，也深感到有这种必要。只是，有一小部分人持相反的意见。这种反对之声，反映在《海峡时报》5月26日一位读者的来函中。共2页，当前第1页12
我对华、英两种语文背景的人都熟悉，照我的推测，发表这意见的人，大概是受英文教育者，她对华族语言和文化隔膜，对本国教育过去的历史发展与语文政策的改变，了解不深，因此对华文精英的概念产生误解。为了排除她的疑虑，我作下列两项解释：
一、我们构想中的华文精英绝非是沙文主义者，我们的社会，不能让任何一种沙文主义存在，不管它是华文还是英文沙文主义。因此华文精英不但是精通华英两语文，并洞悉东西文化，并且也须认识与尊重本国少数民族的文化。在学识方面，他们不是狭隘的华文专才，而是广泛地熟悉其他学术领域，并具有广阔的文化视野与世界观。特选中学与其他中学栽培出来的优秀学生，经过大专特别专门训练后，该可能成为这个模式的精英，而不是狭窄的具有偏见的华文沙文主义者。
二、具有华文教育背景的人，也清楚明了，我们是多元民族、多元文化的社会，将来我们的文化，不可能是单纯的中华文化，虽然华族人数占大多数。我们有着源远流长的不同种族的文化遗产，来自西欧、中国、印度及马来世界，它们在互相交流、互相吸取优点，将来我们的社会不是“大熔炉”式的被某一文化控制的社会，而是“百花香壶”式的把各种文化遗产维持与发扬起来。因此，我们在赞成或栽培华文精英的同时，也强烈认为，马来及印度精英也该栽培，至于英文精英，英文是我们的主导与共同语言，英文精英老早在我们当中存在了，继续栽培年轻一代的英文精英，是理所当然的。
最后，我相信，只有在符合上述的模式与环境下栽培出来的华文精英，才能在现代的新加坡产生和生存下来。