Big ideas for an enduring future for Singapore

Professor Kishore Mahbubani, Dean of the Lee Kuan Yew School of Public Policy

Excellencies and Distinguished Guests

Ladies and gentlemen

1. I am very happy to be here at the launch of “The Big Ideas of Lee Kuan Yew”. This is an important contribution to the legacy that Mr Lee has accumulated over a lifetime of singular commitment to Singapore. 

2. I thank all those who have worked on the volume for the wealth of insight that it offers us into our first Prime Minister and his ideas. I also thank the researchers at the School for sharing their research journeys with us in the 10th anniversary book.

3. I’ve not had the chance to work directly with Mr Lee, but I’ve worked for several years as the Principal Private Secretary to the current Prime Minister, and through this stint, I’ve come to appreciate more fully the tremendous challenges and pressures that Mr Lee had to overcome as founding Prime Minister.

4. Looking back, one cannot help but be struck at the tremendous courage that Mr Lee and his colleagues showed in the face of great adversity. The sheer audacity of what they did was really quite breath-taking – from deciding it was possible to have a formidable military, to cleaning up the Singapore River and creating a Garden City; from deciding to make Singapore self-sufficient in water, to deciding to take on the Communists when they were in their 30s.

5. Mr Lee holds firm convictions, but he’s also a pragmatist who sees the world as it is. He had “big ideas” but he also knew when to adapt to realities. As we move into our 50th anniversary of independence, our Golden Jubilee, it is timely to look at some of his important ideas.
   

Security

6. One “Big Idea” is that small states are inherently vulnerable and require a strategy to survive. Mr Lee himself reminded us that “small countries have little power to alter the region, let alone the world. A small country must seek a maximum number of friends, while maintaining the freedom to be itself as a sovereign and independent nation”. 

7. In the era of the Cold War, Mr Lee and his colleagues practised this principle decisively in securing multilateral alliances, building ties with major powers and countering the Communist threat on home ground.

8. The struggle waged against the Communists is an important reminder that there is no clean line dividing foreign and domestic order. This remains the case today.

9. The world is in flux and borders are more porous than ever. Events and conflicts far away can affect us. Take the situation in the Middle East, and the expansion of the ISIL threat. Even if Singapore is not a direct target, foreign interests may be targeted. And we know that a handful of Singaporeans have journeyed to Syria to join the conflict there. 

10. Closer to home, we’re right in the heart of a rising Asia, and witnessing a major shift in the global balance of power. It’s happening right on our doorstep, and there are flashpoints, like in the South China Sea. Changes in the external environment can have a big impact on us. So while the events and conflicts abroad may seem far removed from the daily lives of Singaporeans, they can easily fray the fabric of our society, and pose domestic threats to our national security. As a small country, we must always stay vigilant and keep looking outwards, because the changes in the external environment can have a big impact on us.   
    

Sustainable development

11. A second “Big Idea” is related to the first principle of security, and that is success, not just in the short-term, but on a sustained, long-term basis. For a small state like Singapore, our success is not a good-to-have, but virtually an existential question.

12. The world is far more competitive today than before. The rate of change has accelerated vastly. We need courage and fresh ideas to stay ahead of the curve. This is why we are consolidating our port activities at Tuas for greater efficiencies, which will simultaneously free up prime land for redevelopment. And we are pursuing new strategies to make innovation, productivity and skills the basis for our economic growth.

13. The point is that we’ve not reached the limits of our potential as a nation. There is still much more to be done and new ground to conquer. Hopefully our young thinkers and entrepreneurs will be inspired to roll up our sleeves and tackle the challenges of our day with a forward-looking spirit.

14. All this must be done with a view to maintaining a fair and just society, with equal opportunities for every Singaporean. Singapore was founded on democratic socialist ideals. Now as Mr Lee acknowledged in his characteristically frank manner to a 1972 gathering of socialist parties in Asia, “socialism” is an elastic word. 

15. Mr Lee was against welfarism as a blunt instrument of redistributing wealth, and rightly so. But he recognised and indeed, passionately believed in the necessity of a society in which “regardless of wealth and status, everyone has an equal opportunity to make the best of his potentials”.

16. In Singapore today, the government is increasing social transfers, spending more, and strengthening our safety nets. So it’s no longer an issue of whether the government should or shouldn’t spend more. We will be doing more. 

17. The real issue is how best to spend the revenue that we get from taxes, in a fair and sustained manner. In that sense, it’s not so useful to think of the government as a separate entity from the people, with its own source of funds, as we sometimes tend to do. Rather, government is about the things we decide to do together as a people. Through fiscal policy, we contribute money into a central pot through taxes and we spend that money to give expression to the shared values we wish to promote as a society.

18. What are these values? Well, I believe we all embrace as Singaporeans the virtue of hard work and personal responsibility. We want a society that upholds the dignity of work, and rewards fairly in accordance to one’s contributions and effort. So through thoughtful and well-designed government programmes, we can breathe life into these aspirational values. As Mr Lee once said, “we are conscious that people can improve their lives only if [our] policies can get them to try for themselves”.

19. We must always have this motivation to try for ourselves, the promise of a better life, and with trust in a system that recognises the necessity and dignity of work and personal responsibility. This is the only sustainable and responsible way forward for Singapore.
    

Society

20. The third “Big Idea” is the need for an harmonious society that functions in the best interests for all.   

21. Many countries aspire towards inter-racial and inter-faith harmony. But in Singapore this commitment to secular multiculturalism runs so deeply that it forms a part of our core national identity. And that is something we owe to Mr Lee. So we have always emphasised a common national identity, within which there are protected havens for different groups to live and practise their own identities.   

22. This rich diversity coupled with strong social cohesion is something precious that we must always cherish. It will not take very much to tear apart the trust and mutual respect that we have developed over the years. This challenge has become greater for several reasons: the impact of globalisation and technological innovation, which is putting tremendous strain in the workplace; the ease in which radical propaganda and inflammatory remarks can circulate online; and the need for us to socialise a new residents and migrants who have come to our shores.

23. In fact, these challenges are not unique to Singapore. Countries around the world are confronting very similar issues. This is at least partly why we see the rise of populist movements everywhere, tapping on widespread social discontent, as well as nationalist and xenophobic sentiments, to mobilise the masses. As a result, politics in many mature first-world democracies are now more fractured, chaotic and more unpredictable than they were just two or three decades ago. In some cases, it has even become dysfunctional.

24. As a recent FT commentator put it (and I paraphrase), a politician who cares about the poor and vulnerable will honour them with candour. He will tell them about the challenges of globalisation, automation, productivity and what practical state intervention can or cannot achieve. But since all this is politically untenable, it’s far easier to peddle snake oil to the vulnerable. 

25. We are not immune from these pressures in Singapore. In our population debate, for example, we had groups that called for “zero foreign worker growth” – it made for a good slogan, never mind the consequences it would have on the economy, local businesses, and more importantly Singaporean jobs. 

26. But opposition for the sake of opposition will not promote or strengthen our democracy. Mr Rajaratnam once noted that it’s easy to win attention by disagreeing with the government. If the government says “white”, and you write letters or articles in the newspapers advocating “black”, then your column will be read and you will be hailed at the next cocktail reception as an original and bold thinker. But how does this sort of discourse help us in solving the real and vital problems affecting our nation?

27. This goes beyond partisan politics. It’s about the kind of democracy we want to be, and that I hope we can be – a democracy of integrity, and a democracy of deeds, made up of an active citizenry who get involved in developing solutions for a better society.

28. As men and women of our academic and intellectual community, all of you play an important role in this effort. I appreciate your commentaries, including the ones where you disagree with government policies. I’m sure for good reasons and not just for the sake of opposing. 

29. May I also strongly urge you to present the full complexities and trade-offs of the challenges that lie ahead for Singapore. There are many difficult long-term policy issues that need to be thoroughly and objectively explored: for example on population, on immigration, on the income gap, or on social programmes. Detailed exposition of the policy options in addressing these issues may not get as much publicity as arguments made by professional oppositionists. But they will go much further in strengthening our democracy of deeds. 

Concluding remarks

30. Mr S Rajaratnam said in 1978 that “ruling a country well is like pushing a boulder uphill. It requires constant effort and sustained counter-pressure. The moment you relax and let go the boulder starts moving downhill, slowly at first and then at uncontrollable speed. And the higher up the hill you push the boulder, the greater the tendency for it to roll downhill.”   

31. Indeed sitting here in Singapore, we sometimes overlook how difficult it is to govern a country. Just look at the experience of the US. It was not too long ago that the American academic Francis Fukuyama was proclaiming the triumph of Western liberal democracy and the end of history. Now he laments the decay in these very same liberal political systems.

32. As he puts it, the US has become trapped by its political institutions. Americans distrust government and so are unwilling to delegate to it the authority to make decisions. Instead, Congress imposes complex rules that undermine the effectiveness of the executive. The government then doesn’t perform well, which reinforces the people’s lack of trust. So it becomes a vicious circle, and it becomes very hard to break out of.

33. I say this not to run down the American system. I have great admiration for the American system. And of course, governance in the US is at a completely different scale compared to Singapore. And despite the challenges to its political institutions, America has many strengths, including its creative and entrepreneurial economy, and its soft-power is admired around the world. But the point is that the environment can change quickly if we are not careful. Our context as a city-state is unique and we have to find our own way forward. But it will be like pushing the boulder up the hill.  We have gotten higher, and it’s getting more difficult. For us to keep going in our next phase, all Singaporeans must push onwards and uphill. The government will support, encourage and lead the rally – but it comes down to whether Singaporeans believe that this nation is worth striving for. Each of us must recognise the value, as well as the fragility, of what our people have worked so hard to build.

34. In his first National Day Rally, Mr Lee said we must “consolidate ourselves to survive; and, most important of all, to find an enduring future for what we have built”. This was in 1966, and nearly 50 years later, it remains a goal worth striving for. So I hope as we reflect on Mr Lee’s Big Ideas today, with the launch of the book, and mark our Golden Jubilee next year, that we will continue to work together in achieving this shared goal, with the same courage, conviction and collective spirit of our pioneers. 
    
    Thank you.