By Laura Reid, Leslie Tan and Dawn Yip
Dr. Vivian Balakrishnan, the Minister for Community Development, Youth and Sports, is arguably Singapore's most public face in sports and sits at the helm of some of the most exciting developments in Singapore sports history, including the successful campaign to host the inaugural Youth Olympic Games and the groundbreaking Singapore Sports Hub.
But the Minister is not just the national sports strategist, he's also an avid participant at heart.
"If I'm going to flag off a race, I'm going to run it too," says the lean 47 year-old, who is clearly willing to put his professional commitment to sports into personal action. In the recent Cabinet shuffle, Dr. Balakrishnan retained responsibility for MCYS, a ministerial portfolio that has become increasingly complex with the growing importance of sports to the health and wealth of the nation.
Red Sports had the privilege of interviewing Dr. Balakrishnan recently, where he made it clear that he hadn’t lost sight of the importance of sports at the personal, school and community level.
Sports-filled schooldays
As a student at Anglo-Chinese School, Dr. Balakrishnan swam and played football, badminton, table tennis, tennis and hockeyâ€"all passionately and all poorly.
"I was a very bad sportsman," he said emphatically. "But I was very enthusiastic. In primary school, everybody played football. Even in a 20-minute break, you rush out, don't eat, go to the field, kick around, come back completely sweaty, drenched and smelly, and get scolded by the teacher."
His strongest memory from playing football at school was getting beaten up by a friend. "I was 10 or 11 years old. I still remember who it was," he said, politely declining to reveal the name. "After that we all got hauled up to the principal's office – four of us – and we thought we were going to get caned. What made it more embarrassing was that we were all prefects!"
The punch delivered a black eye and several lessons, Dr. Balakrishnan said. "Sometimes even friends can turn against you," he advised. "It was also a good lesson in humility. It doesn't matter whether you're right or smart: there will be times when you are going to be under the guy's foot."
Indeed, most of the crucial lessons of life were learnt on the field, recalls Dr Balakrishnan. "It's how to get along with people, how to get punched up in the field, how to play games by the rules, the humility of knowing that you're not very good, being able to enjoy both winning and losing, and coming to terms with it."
And of course, there is friendship. "Even now when I look at my group of close long-term friends, through the decades, most of them I made on the field in some sport or the other. We've done things together – sweated together, made fools of ourselves, seen each other naked in the changing room. After that, no matter what you do in life – I've seen you!"
"That's why for me, sports is something I really do believe in," said Dr Balakrishnan.
The Minister also gave due credit to Anglo-Chinese School for letting him play as many sports as he wanted. "When I look back at my school days, I was lucky that this school was very encouraging and nurturing to everybody," he said.
Unfortunately in the current environment, some schools do not make as much of an effort to keep all children involved in sports. "That's one criticism which I have for some schools in the current system," says Dr Balakrishnan. "The first day they say ok, we'll try you out. If you're good enough, you get trained. If you're not good, goodbye."
Dr. Balakrishnan's experience at ACS was very different. If a student was ready to try, ACS granted equal access to the facilities. "ACS swimming was (very) competitive…I was never good enough for the school team," he said, "but they allowed us to train with the squad. That made a big difference to my physical fitness."
When he finally made a school team playing hockey for National Junior College, he quips that his first feelings were of surprise. He also spent four months in the Navy and spoke fondly of "dog watch" a time from 4pm onwards when the men "had to go out, do anything you like but it had to be a sport."
As a medical student at the National University of Singapore, Dr Balakrishnan continued to play hockey. However most of his free time was devoted to debating and student union work.
A personal sports renaissance
Gradually, in a pattern that has been replicated by many Singaporeans, Dr. Balakrishnan stepped back from sports as he stepped into the workforce. He had a challenging career as an ophthalmologist before running in the 2001 General Election for a seat in Holland-Bukit Panjang GRC.
A year later, he was jolted out of his inactive lifestyle by then-Prime Minister Goh Chok Tong. "[Mr Goh] decided to do a poll of all the Ministers and how physically active they were. I emerged near the bottom of the list. And then he leaked it to the press!" (Click here to read an excerpt of the 2002 speech by then-PM Goh.)
It was a public tsk-tsk moment that was then gleefully picked up by the media.
These days, it is a different story. "I can honestly say that I'm fitter now than when I was a teenager."
Weaving sports into the “national narrative”
As MCYS Minister, Dr Balakrishnan now oversees Singapore's sports strategy. Sports has always been a part of human history, Dr Balakrishnan notes, and so too has Singapore always emphasised "sports as a vehicle for a rugged society."
But sports today has gained unprecedented social and economic prominence the world over. "It wasn't that long ago that the IOC had difficulty getting people to host the Olympics," said Dr Balakrishnan. "What has changed in two generations at the global level is the economics of sports." The television, in particular, has pushed sports into "frontline consciousness", making it an attractive channel for advertising and branding.
Singapore has therefore given an accelerated push to sports. But beyond the economics, it’s also part of an overall effort to widen definitions of success in Singapore’s famously academics-driven environment. "There are some people whose best talent is in sports, and we've got to give avenues for that. It's not charity, they are actually going to make a good living out of that," said Dr Balakrishnan.
And of course, there's national identity. "There's nothing like sports to give you that sense of unity as a team – achievements, success, failure. It binds people and becomes part of the national narrative," he said.
ACS is an amazing school. the facilities are top notch, and unlike other schools, they are never reserved for just the school team. anyone can use it. The gym, the pool, every one has equal access and unlike schools like chinese high that “draft” students to certain sports, ACS doesn’t have that practice. I am amazed by my friend’s kids who have made it through the system. Good sportsmen make good scholars. and ACS is something of a niche in singapore.