An account of
Singapore story
Vanam Jwala Narasimha Rao
I am on my second visit to Singapore. On both the occasions I tried to
find an answer to my doubt that how Singapore could flourish and rise to a
level of being an international financial center just in a span of 50 years
being such a small city-state nation. To several people like me, the 800 page voluminous book titled “From Third World to First” authored by Lee Kuan Yew the first Prime Minister and father of Singapore
Nation, gives an account in detail about the Singapore development story. This
book is written for the benefit of younger generation of Singaporeans who took
stability, growth and prosperity for granted. Lee Kuan
Yew wanted present
day Singaporeans to know how difficult it was for a small country of just 640
square kilometers with no natural resources to survive in the midst of larger,
newly independent nations pursuing nationalistic policies. This book narrates
on how to build a nation out of desperate collection of immigrants from China,
British India and the Dutch East Indies and how to make a living for its
people.
Many post-colonial states have no similar history. Singapore is a case
in point. As the main naval base in the Far East, it had neither prospect nor
aspiration for nationhood until the collapse of European power in the aftermath
of the Second World War. In the first wave of decolonization Singapore was made
part of Malaya to be named as Malaysia, which later forced it out. Lee Kuan
Yew, the father of Singapore’s emergence as a national state was its first
Prime Minister. At the advancing age of 90 he still continues to mentor the
government presently headed by his own son Lee Hsien Loong as country’s third Prime Minister.
The
Japanese occupation of Singapore during 1942-45 aroused nationalism and
self-respect in Lee Kuan Yew, who was a student in
Britain then. He determined to get rid of British colonial rule. Lee returned
to Singapore in 1950 and involved himself with trade unions and politics,
formed a political party, and at the age of 35 became the first Prime Minister
of an elected government of self-governing Singapore. He along with his friends
formed a united front with the communists. They however parted ways later. Lee
and his team believed that the long term future for Singapore was to rejoin
Malaya and they did so in September 1963 to form Malaysia. But, later
developments left Lee and his team with no alternate but to leave Malaysia. By
August 1965 the separation was complete. Singapore became world's only sovereign city-state and an
island country.
Lee never expected
that in 1965 at the age of 42 he would be in charge of an independent
Singapore, responsible for the lives of its two million people. He faced
tremendous odds with an improbable chance of survival. It is not a natural
country but man-made, a trading post the British had developed into a nodal
point in their world-wide maritime empire. When it formed, it inherited the
island without its hinterland, a heart without a body! On August 9, 1965 Lee
Kuan Yew started out with great apprehension on a journey along an unmarked
road to an unknown destination!
Building an army from
scratch was one of its top priorities. The British made no offer to help
Singapore build an army. Lee sent request letters to the then Indian PM Lal Bahadur
Shastri and Egypt President Nasser seeking their urgent help to build up
country’s armed forces. Both of them replied and greeted but were silent on
help. Lee did not find fault with India but was disappointed with Nasser.
Singapore under the new government had all the problems to encounter but all
were handled carefully. A credible defense capability was built. In 1965
Singapore had nothing in the way of armed forces to defend itself. By the time Lee
stepped down as PM in 1990, the Singapore Armed Forces grown into a respected
and professional force. Similarly in several other areas Singapore progressed
steadily and firmly.
Singapore Ariel View
Anyone who predicted in 1965 that Singapore would become a financial
center would have been thought mad. How did it happen? How did the luminous
modern office blocks in the city center with banks of computers linking
Singapore with London, New York, Tokyo, Frankfurt, Hong Kong and other major
financial centers have come up? It had a most improbable start in 1968. The
plan that worked out was very simple. The financial world that time was
beginning in Zurich. Zurich banks opened at 9 o’clock in the morning, later
Frankfurt, later London. In the afternoon Zurich closes, then Frankfurt and
London. In the meantime New York is open. So London hands over financial money
traffic to New York. In the afternoon New York closes; they had already handed
over to San Francisco. When San Francisco closes in the afternoon, the world is
covered with veil. Nothing happened until next day, 9 am Swiss time, then the
Swiss banks open. Singapore was thought in between, before San Francisco
closes, Singapore would have taken over. And when Singapore closes, it would
have handed over to Zurich. Then for the first time since creation, Singapore
will have a 24-hour round-the-world service in money and banking. In 1968 when
Singapore was a third world country, foreign bankers were to be assured of
stable social conditions, a good working and living environment, efficient
infrastructure and a pool of skilled and adaptable professionals. The country
made a modest start with an offshore Asian Dollar Market, the counterpart of
the Eurodollar Market. Later the Asian Dollar Market traded in foreign exchange
and financial derivatives in foreign currency denominated securities and
undertook loan syndication, bond issuance and fund management.
Singapore parliament House
Lee Kuan Yew resigned as PM in November
1990 but was still in command in the political situation. His successor Goh
Chok Tong retained him in the cabinet as Senior Minister. According to him the
single decisive factor that made for Singapore’s development was the ability of
its ministers and the high quality of the civil servants who supported them. In
fact he and his team have always been in search of talented younger people as
possible successors to them. In 1968 elections, they fielded several PhDs,
bright minds, teachers, and professionals including lawyers, doctors and even
top administrators as candidates. Their final task was to find worthy
successors. They won all the seats with 18 new faces out of 58 with over 40
percent University Educated.
Recalling
transformation of his life over a period, Lee Kuan Yew says that while as a boy
of six he rode in a bullock-cart on wooden wheels on a dirt track, as an adult
after 50 years he flew in a Supersonic Concorde from London to New York in
three hours. Technology has changed his world says Lee. Though he and his team
knew little in 1959 about how to govern, they could proceed since they had a
burning desire to change an unfair and unjust society for the better. He learnt
on the job and learnt quickly. He learnt to ignore criticism and advice from
experts and quasi experts especially academics in the social and political
sciences. Political succession planning was a Lee Kuan Yew special. He devised
the system for inducting promising young candidates in their 30s and 40s into
the Cabinet, mentoring and testing them to get the best into government. Lee Kuan Yew passed the political baton to Goh Chok Tong in 1990
and Goh to Lee Hsien Loong in 2004. Both of them retained their predecessors in
their cabinets either as Senior Ministers or as Mentors.
The story of Singapore’s progress is a
reflection of the advances of the industrial countries-their inventions,
technology, enterprise and drive. It is part of the story of man’s search for
new fields to increase his wealth and wellbeing. With each technological
advance Singapore advanced-containers, air travel and air freight, satellite
communications, intercontinental fiber-optic cables.
Lee however concludes…the island of
Singapore will not disappear…but the sovereign nation it has become, able to
make its way and play its role in the world, could vanish! The future is as
full of promise as it is burdened with uncertainty. END
(From
the book “From Third World to First” by Lee Kuan Yew, father of
Singapore Nation)
I am following your writings and feel very interesting and informative from such a grate personality which I don't know earlier. Thank you sir.
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