10 Jul 2025
Good afternoon, Justice Judith Prakash, NUS Trustee; Vice Deans; Colleagues; Graduates and their loved ones; friends.
Thank you for inviting me to be your Guest Speaker on NUS Commencement 2025. It is an honour always to be asked to speak on such an important occasion, and more so this year, as it is the 120th year of the founding of NUS and NUS Medicine.
My heartiest congratulations to all of you who will be conferred shortly with the NUS Masters of Medicine and Science Degrees. To quote the preeminent wordsmith of the English Language in the last century, Sir Winston Churchill, “Now, this is not the end. It is not even the beginning of the end. But it is perhaps, the end of the beginning”.
And so it is, now that you are equipped with the Masters Degree, both in your arms, your minds and may I say so, in your heart as well.
For most of you who are doctors undergoing specialty training, having passed and obtained the Masters of Medicine degree, you are now progressing onto Senior Residency. You are now expected to not just be a hardworking member of the ward team, but you will also transit into your first mentorship role – you are expected to be a mentor and role model of sorts to the house officers and junior medical officers and residents. They will look up to you as young role models. On the other hand, you also assume the role of a senior apprentice as well, and your master and teacher will expect you to be able to function independently in certain albeit limited circumstances.
This transition was perhaps more obviously demarcated in my time, which was a long time ago. When doctors were conferred their Masters of Medicine, they were given the coveted black nametag. This was a nation-wide practice because we were all employees of the Ministry of Health, as the clusters had not been formed then in the nineties. This same black nametag would follow you for the rest of your professional life. You will perhaps still see very senior doctors in their fifties and older still wearing this nametag today. Some continue to wear it even in private practice.
This black nametag is a badge of honour that everyone was proud to wear because it meant you were a senior doctor. The nurses would refer to you as a “tua lokun”, which means “Big Doctor” in Hokkien, to the patients. For example, they will say the “tua lokun” will see you today at the afternoon ward round etc.
So, in days gone by, the conferment of the Masters of Medicine Degree is a watershed event for a doctor as it came with the issuance of the black nametag and the unofficial title of “Tua Lokun”. Officially you were either called MO Specialist or Registrar.
It is not much different for those of you being conferred with the Masters of Science degrees today as well. For those in the Allied Health disciplines such as Audiology and Speech Therapy, you are expected to embark on independent and direct patient care in the area that you have chosen to pursue. And for those with Masters degrees in other healthcare-related subjects such as Informatics, Precision Health and Behavioural and Implementation Sciences, you are expected to contribute to healthcare planning and delivery in significant ways that was previously not possible with only a Bachelor’s degree. Whether you like it or not, you are expected to be a mentor and a role model to those junior to you, and to those placed under your supervision, while you continue to develop your professional careers with new responsibilities and skills.
Now, I will move on to a somber subject. Which is now that you have a postgraduate degree, what you are now more susceptible to, and what is commonly called the curse of the highly educated and intelligent – the illusion of certainty.
All of you, whether doctors, allied health professionals, scientists, or managers, will find that as you proceed up the ladder of professional success and armed with more and more qualifications, you will be less and less questioned. This is especially so in Asian societies where the power-distance is large between those who are being led and those who lead. More and more people do not question your decisions. Worse, more and more often, you do not question yourself. Over time, your decisions have an air of unquestioned certainty around them. But let me assure you, it is often merely an illusion of certainty.
This is when things get more dangerous for those around you, and for yourself too.
This is when you must be on your highest alert. You will have to be your own harshest critic, and to question your decisions with the cold detachment of a Man or Woman of Reason. Not out of a sense of insecurity and inexperience, as you were wont to when you first started out as a greenhorn, but to apply yourself as you have been trained to do, a person of Logic and Scientific Investigation. A healthy dose of humility and cynicism also helps.
It is said the only certainty is uncertainty and we live in certainly uncertain times. As Hippocrates said, “Ars Longa, Vita Brevis” – The Art is Long, Life is Short. Our days are numbered and there is still yet so much to learn. As you progress on in your career and personal development, I wish you all good health and happiness while you pursue the discipline or field that you have chosen to apply yourselves to.
Thank you.
