Extraordinary govt, talent keep Singapore ahead, says MM

The Straits Times, April 23, 2007
By Peh Shing Huei



Island will sink into nothingness if it lacks govt with capability, integrity


IF SINGAPORE gets a 'dumb government', the country is done for, Minister Mentor Lee Kuan Yew said at a dialogue.

Bright people will leave, and with no natural resources to fall back on, the island will 'sink into nothingness', he said on Saturday.

'The biggest mistake any Singaporean can make is to believe that Singapore is an ordinary country and can behave like an ordinary country like Malaysia, like Indonesia, like Thailand, the Philippines, Vietnam, Australia, New Zealand, Denmark,' he said.

That is why Singapore needed an extraordinary government, filled with top talent who will ensure the system remains efficient and the country prosperous.

He was speaking to 400 Young People's Action Party (YP) members at a dialogue at the St James Power Station as part of activities to mark the youth wing's 21st anniversary. For more than two hours, he spoke and fielded questions on foreign talent, competition, censorship and values, among others.

'If Singapore ever loses this kind of government of capability and integrity, of always looking into the future, planning ahead, it will just sink into nothingness and become an insignificant island,' he said. 'Talent will bleed out. It will never recover. Who will make it recover? Where are the resources?'

Hence, he found the recent debate on ministerial pay increases 'completely unreal'.

While he understood the emotions associated with the increases - which raised ministers' annual pay from $1.2 million to $1.6 million - he urged Singaporeans to think of the larger picture.

'You want to quarrel about $20 million over a $4 trillion economy? I say, rubbish. Let's say the PAP crashes tomorrow, right? One boatload sinks, 3,000 people dead. You have an election. You're going to reproduce this government? No...

'I see this place going on for another 50 years. No problem. But you need top grade government. Top grade in every profession, meritocracy in every field. Then you'll succeed,' he said.

At stake was the future of a country which international scholars have described as being the 'best example of government that works', he said.

He cited passages from books by Harvard Business School professor Richard Vietor and University College London's Peter Hall which pointed to Singapore's success and the leadership that made it possible.

But he also emphasised a point made by Prof Vietor that despite Singapore's sterling performance, its future remains uncertain.

As the country moves forward, said Mr Lee, Singaporeans must ask themselves how they want it to proceed. He laid out two paths: a dynamic or a static one.

The first would gear Singapore to be a dynamic international city with 'high-end talent and migrants'.

In the stagnant scenario, the economy would go into a tailspin, and the financial centre here would dive down.

To be on the first, dynamic path, Singapore needs to continue to change and adapt, embrace globalisation, technology and take in the best talents.

Major cities, he noted, were more successful if they were more cosmopolitan.

He reminded his audience that his generation never considered Singapore as a possible nation. And as former communist leader Fang Chuang Pi - known as The Plen - told Mr Lee in 1995 when they met in Beijing, Singapore was a freak, and that a freak was often a genius.

Still, the late Mr Fang said that geniuses 'usually lived short lives' and died young.

Mr Lee told the YP, in his first dialogue with the youth wing, that Singapore has proved The Plen wrong for more than 40 years.

But the country remains a little dot. And it is a dot in South-east Asia, unlike other small and prosperous countries such as Luxembourg and Liechtenstein, which are in peaceful Europe, he said.

As Prof Vietor wrote, Singapore 'has remained secure in South-east Asia, amid countries far larger, and somewhat less stable, than itself'.

Mr Lee said that even Hong Kong, which is the most similar to Singapore, was more secure as it had the protection of China.

But he is optimistic of Singapore's immediate future.

'We've done it for 40 plus years. There's no reason why we cannot do it for the next 10 years, no troubles. The economy is going to do well. We've got all the framework for it,' he said, pointing to the free trade pacts signed with major economic powers like the United States and Japan.

'How is that done? The quality of the government, the quality of the society, the institutions we have created that produces this flow of educated and talented people.'