The story of a country's success is not oftentimes told. Why some countries succeed while others fail is not readily revealed. Historians and commentators attribute different weightings to different factors and it is not always easy to find a single underlying thread to determine a country's failure or success. In Lee Kuan Yew's latest book, From Third World to First , we find the compelling story of how Singapore succeeded and, in fact, the insight of how countries can make it in the modern world.
Lee Kuan Yew, former Prime Minister and father of Modern Singapore, has done a great service for Third World politicians by writing a development primer for their edification. He tells a fascinating story of the birth of a nation, of the insecurity and threats to its Independence, of the economic challenges that faced a country without any natural resources, of his struggles with the unions, of the process to attract investment and to make Singapore into the giant financial centre it has become. It is the remarkable story of a leader with a passionate vision "to create a First World oasis in a Third World region." It is a story of how leadership, intellect, discipline, ingenuity, planning, efficient government, and trust and confidence can make the difference.
Singapore is less than a 10th the size of Jamaica, with a bigger population - of over 3 million, an annual per capita income of nearly $30,000 from just under $1,000 in 1965, and an economy that has grown and recorded budget surpluses for over thirty years. The Singapore story is a story of success and of nation-building. There is much to learn from their story. At the end of the 1960s, Jamaica was on the threshold of economic success, Singapore on the verge of economic disaster and disappearance as a nation-state. What made the difference in the divergent path of these two countries?
I have always maintained that leadership and vision can make the difference, and Singapore and Lee Kuan Yew are testaments to that view. Henry Kissinger, in his foreword to Lee Kuan Yew's From Third World to First , notes: "Every great achievement is a dream before it becomes reality, and his vision was of a state that would not simply survive but prevail by excelling. Superior intelligence, discipline, and ingenuity would substitute for resources."
When the British decided to pull out of Singapore in 1971, most observers thought that would be the end of Lee Kuan Yew, his government and the nation. But, Lee Kuan Yew had a vision for his country. He sought to nurture a spirit of self-reliance instead of a sense of dependency. He did not want aid from the British he wanted jobs through industries. He warned the workers, "The world does not owe us a living. We cannot live by the begging bowl." He visited America, Europe and elsewhere in search of investors to bring industries to Singapore. He was not putting his hand out for aid and loans which were the common pleas of Third World leaders, he wanted to provide goods and services "cheaper and better than anyone else, or perish."
Lee Kuan Yew understood that investors were looking for stable environments in which to invest and they weighed their business risks carefully. "They looked for," he reminisced, "political, economic, and financial stability and sound labour relations to make sure there would be no disruption in production that supplied their customers and subsidiaries around the world." He noted that, after several years of trial and error in which they learnt tremendously from other countries, Singapore's best hope lay with the American multinational corporations (MNCs).
Interestingly, Singapore welcomed and cultivated relationships with the MNCs when foolish and misguided Third World leaders were abandoning them. Lee Kuan Yew writes: "The accepted wisdom of development economists at the time was that multinational corporations were exploiters of cheap land, labour, and raw materials. This 'dependency school' of economists argued that the MNCs continued the colonial pattern of exploitation that left developing countries selling raw materials to and buying consumer goods from the advanced countries. MNCs controlled technology and consumer preferences and formed alliances with their host governments to exploit this theory of neo-colonialist exploitation, but Keng Swee and I were not impressed. We had a real-life problem to solve and could not afford to be conscribed by any theory or dogma. Anyway, Singapore had no natural resources for MNCs to exploit."
It is interesting that Lee Kuan Yew distrusted theory and dogma and, even though he started as a socialist, soon discarded its tenets in favour of the pragmatic free market, picking winners or at least allowing the MNCs to pick them. In the epilogue, he wrote: "I learned to ignore criticism and advice from experts and quasi-experts, especially academics in the social and political sciences. They have pet theories on how a society should develop to approximate their ideal, especially how poverty should be reduced and welfare extended."
Somehow, I get the strong feeling as I read Lee Kuan Yew's book that we did everything that he thought should be avoided and failed to follow the path that he thought pragmatism and the experiences of other countries led him to follow. The path of failure on which we have travelled could easily have been avoided if only we gave deeper consideration to the business interests of those multinational corporations that invested and sought to invest here.
Perhaps, at the height of the oil crisis of 1973, if we had acted responsibly we could have kept the trust and confidence in our country which are so vital for economic success. But, we sought the easy way out and unilaterally re-negotiated the bauxite contracts, and the country still suffers from that madness. Lee Kuan Yew understood well that long-term interests were more important than short-term gain and his prudent action and behaviour nurtured the environment for success. "If I have to choose one word why Singapore succeeded," he reflects " it is CONFIDENCE (my emphasis). This was what made foreign investors site their factories and refineries here."
If only we had acted differently and gained confidence in times of crises, then we could have developed a business environment that made it attractive to invest here. It is still not too late, it is time to take the path to peace, prosperity and progress that only trust and confidence can bring.
Delroy Chuck is an attorney-at-law and Opposition Member of Parliament. He can be contacted by e-mail at delchuck@hotmail.com.
