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.

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[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.