My recollections
of Living the Asian Century by Kishore Mahbubani
By
G.Sabarinathan[1]
An interesting life in diplomacy
The life of diplomats is fascinating. They live in alien
lands, not always friendly to their home country. Even postings to a friendly
nation is not always a life of ease or comfort. International geopolitics is
always fraught.
Not everyone gets to live this life. One must be a man of
high accomplishments, like a Khushwant Singh or Kuldip Nayyar. Or highly
connected politically or by birth. Think late Natwar Singh. Or one must qualify
right at the top in that gruelling exam administered by the UPSC, like KPS
Menon.
Regular Joe Blokes like me have the memoirs of the fortunate
few to feast on. We get to live their
lives through their memoirs – if, like me, you try to get inside the heads of
these authors, as you read their work.
Living the Asian Century – An Undiplomatic Memoir by Kishore
Mahbubani is one of those autobiographies. Mahbubani lives up to the title. Although a career diplomat, he provides an undiplomatic
(read frank) account of his life as a foreign affairs professional in the
government of Singapore.
What makes the memoirs interesting
The book is fascinating due to multiple reasons.
One, Mahbubani’s career spans from the early seventies to
2010. It coincides with a period of intense political churn within the state of
Singapore, starting with its freedom from British rule, its breaking off from
being a part of the state of Malaysia and then its period of political
consolidation and economic development under the founding triumvirate of Lee
Kwuan Yew, Goh Keng Swee and Rajaratnam.
Second, the book offers a ringside view of diplomatic and geopolitical
developments in East Asia and to a certain extent at the United Nations, the
two theatres of political action that the author was most actively engaged in.
In the process Mahbubani introduces many of the principal personalities
that have played in developments in Singapore. A few of the important political
dramatis personae like Tunku Abdul Rahman and Tun Abdul Razak, first and second
prime ministers of Malaysia respectively, that one was required to learn about
in one’s school days, but the current generation may know nothing about, make
cameo appearances.
Third, the author’s description of places and phenomena
during his growing years provide a personal account of the evolution of Singaporean
society.
Singapore: A
remarkable story
Mahbubani starts off with an appreciation of how he owes his
education and schooling, despite grinding poverty and challenging circumstances
in the family, to the progressive welfare policies of the state of
Singapore.
The story of Singapore is again interesting for many
reasons. As a finance professional, one
of the most remarkable pointers to their economic success is the size of their
sovereign reserves which Mahbubani estimates at more than US $ 1 trillion at
the time of writing the book, which works out to more than $ 300,000 of wealth per
citizen of Singapore.
He identifies much of that to the two important founding
fathers, Lee Kwan Yew and Goh Keng Swee.
The author argues that Lee Kwan Yew’s lessons in leadership
and astute political thought that led the city state to where it is today have
not been adequately studied and documented for the benefit of the younger
generation of the world.
Similarly, he believes that the many contributions of Goh
Keng Swee with who he seems to have enjoyed a special relationship, are not as
well known and appreciated even in Singapore, as they ought to be. His administrative and institutions cover a wide
range spanning from building the military to setting up the Economic
Development Board which played an important role in the economic development of
the state, the development of Government of Singapore Investment Corporation which
grew into a financial powerhouse respected across the world and Jurong Bird
Park, Singapore Zoo and Singapore Symphony Orchestra.
Carefully crafted position in geopolitics
Although small in every dimension, as a nation Singapore
punched beyond its weight in nearly every sphere. Its economic achievements in the realms of
both trade and technology and its rapid ascent as a regional financial are
perhaps the best and most widely known.
But its success in global and regional political spheres and the role it
played in international geopolitics, in particularly in the UN and in its
relationship with the USA seem just as remarkable, even if not as well known.
The author attributes it to two central tenets. One, although small, the leaders of Singapore
did not want it to be seen as weak by the comity of nations, especially its
larger neighbours in the region, like Malaysia and Indonesia. Pragmatism in international geopolitics seemed
to be their principal guiding philosophy.
The government of Singapore also believed the importance of
sending the right signals to the world at large. Nothing exemplifies this better than what
many might consider a trivial incident:
The caning of Michael Fay, a teenaged American citizen. In the face of tremendous pressure from the
Government of the USA, all the way from President Bill Clinton to drop the
punishment, the government of Singapore reduced the sentence from six cane
lashes to four, leading Al Gore to taunt that President Clinton was worth two
lashes from a cane.
Although a self declared pacifist, Mahbubani was probably
struck by a quote attributed to Thucydides:
The strong do what they can, the weak suffer what they must. So the government built a standing army,
collaborated with Israel on military technology, although surrounded by nations
who were not very favourably disposed to that latter nation.
The UN and international geopolitics
Singapore worked hard to be elected to the UN Security
Council and landed the role of President
right in the year that they got admitted into the UNSC. Mahbubani steered these proceedings as Singapore’s
Ambassador to the UN, although he notes that he saw this as a retrograde step
in his career as a diplomat. His observations on the politics of the UN are
interesting.
He notes for example the difference in the powers enjoyed by
the five permanent members and the others.
And how that was most succinctly reflected in the resistance of one of
the five permanent who likened Singapore’s proposal on a certain matter to
tourists in a home rearranging the furniture.
But the most memorable are his observations about the role
of the USA in the UN. One, the USA always
got away with whatever they wanted in the UN.
Second, the US preferred to have a weak UN. Third the USA did not always
practise what it preached. And the most
telling example was the practices that had been written about Guantanamo Bay.
The greatest of all
lessons that Mahbubani learned is probably captured in the quote: “Before we joined the (Security) Council I believed
that in the contest between ethical principles and and brute power ethical principles
would have some sway. After twenty six
months on the Council I came to the conclusion that power always trumped
principles.”
Strong belief in Asia
Mahbubani is a big believer in Asia. Much of his writing centres
around that thesis. His book The New
Asian Hemisphere is probably the book most focussed on this theme. Similarly the Danish Prime Minister told him
how upon the former’s mother’s advise he had read a translation of another of
his book The Great Convergence.
While discussing the growing influence of China in the world
he presents an interesting comparison of the growth of GDP (In trillions of
dollars) of the two countries in just twenty years. Those numbers tell a lot more than any other
narrative can.
2001 2022
USA 10.60 22.90
China 1.30 17.90
Academician at heart and in spirit
Mahbubani’s rise as an internationally known personality
probably stems from his influential books and the numerous articles in leading publications
such as Foreign Affairs. His role as
Dean of the Lee Kwan Yew school of public policy also made him globally visible
in fora as the World Economic Forum and launched him into many high profile
roles.
Much of that is explained probably by his studious childhood
and his strong inclination to become a professor of philosophy, the discipline
that seems to have caught his imagination right from his early years in
college, thanks to some brilliant teachers.
Yet his experience in mainstream academia at the Dalhousie University in
Canada seems to have disillusioned him both in terms of the unattractive remuneration
in academia as well as the nature of scholarly engagement there. Similarly, he does not have many nice things
to say about his engagement with the academic community at Harvard, although
the school he ran later collaborated with them.
But the desire to engage in academic activity that he found
interesting probably resulted in much of what he published in his post diplomatic
career. And probably earned him more
global visibility than his career as a diplomat, although the latter would not
have been possible without the former.
Mahbubani’s relevance
Much of what he says a keen observer of geopolitics remains
highly relevant today in a world that the Canadian PM Mark Carney described as “ruptured”. His description of the American hegemony is a
harbinger of the exercise of military, economic and political power by the USA
that seems to have the world going topsy turvy as trade and other institutions get
disrupted. Mahbubani argues that wars
and conflicts are a result of incompetence in geopolitics. Looking around at all that has been going on
for the past three years or so would make one wonder if he had not been prophetic.
[1]This
is not meant to be a review of the book.
Published in 2024, there is plenty of material on the internet around
the book, its authors and the many personalities mentioned in it. These are merely a recollection of aspects
mentioned in the book that caught my fancy.
