PARANOIA IS DESTRUCTIVE

The Insight column on 22.2.97 declared that Singaporeans have "no other
option' but to believe Intel's president Andrew Grove's message that "Only
the Paranoid Survive' (Singapore's 'hare' must be careful to stay ahead of
the "tortoises', Straits Times, 22.2.97).

That slavish adoption of the latest management sound-bite would have been
amusing had it not been so dangerous. Instead, your endorsement of paranoia,
a mental illness, as a desirable state of mind for Singaporeans is
disquieting for its lack of insight into the implications of widespread
paranoia.

A paranoid country is more likely to end up in trouble than greatness. It
will probably spend extravagantly on unproductive and rapidly depreciating
military hardware.  That may raise suspicions among neighbouring countries
and trigger an arms race, from which no one benefits except weapons sellers.

Paranoia destroys the trust and co-operation that sustain a society.
Nastiness, not graciousness, is likely to become the norm as life
increasingly resembles Hobbes' description of life in the state of nature:
solitary, poor, nasty, brutish and short. Only the unscrupulous and ruthless
could thrive in such an environment.

Paranoid political leaders are likely to treat domestic critics and
dissidents as traitors. A paranoid population could be more easily persuaded
of the "need' for violations of civil rights. For example, during the early
1950s, United States Senator Joseph McCarthy exploited widespread paranoia
about Communist subversion to launch witch-hunts that ruined the careers and
reputations of many innocent Americans. We should guard against such
injustice in a democratic Singapore.

Although Singapore is not yet a country in which paranoia reigns, the
prevalence of Kiasu and Kiasi attitudes suggests the potential for paranoia.
Opinion leaders have to take special care not to encourage inadvertently
anti-social tendencies by peddling inappropriate management fads.

This episode highlights the danger in regarding Singapore as a corporation.
What works for Intel's Mr Grove may not work for Singapore. An intelligent
people will reject the extremes of paranoia and naivete, and strive for a
rational scepticism tempered by ethical and humane considerations.