Lee Kuan Yew speaking at INSEAD in 2007 on leadership and global politics

Minister mentor it's a privilege and an honor to be here with you what I thought we would do this afternoon is broadly cover perhaps three pastures of discussion in keeping with the overall umbrella theme of this event which is limits to growth the three pastures that we thought would be very interesting for us were number one the individual drivers of growth namely leadership and leaders the second the institutional underpinnings of growth institutions that are necessary for growth and the third the broad geopolitics of the region the way in which will conduct this is I'll ask a couple of questions and then perhaps throw it open for comments from the audience let's start with leadership Minister mentor you've written in your memoirs in several different places of a very strong sense of responsibility you felt as a leader not just to the citizens of the nation but also to your colleagues who you felt had inspired trust in you placed faith in you how do the leaders develop the sense of responsibility where do they internalize it Iida be taught I cannot say what drives other people I don't know the history as their personality is their characteristics but in my case and in the case of my close colleagues and myself we were thrown up as a result of Wars and revolutions and we didn't go to politics Wars and revolutions threw up a generation that was ready for change so it was in that milieu that we were thrown into politics either we could mobilize and take over other communists would mobilize and take over I mean that the British were on the way out was quite clear to us and in fact quite clear to everybody else they couldn't hold a place how do you make this place live it's been the capital of the British Empire in this part of the world from from here the governor govern Malaya Saba's North Borneo sir all our Brunei Cocos Islands Christmas Island then you're on your own and you gotta be responsible for 2 million people at that time you either do it or die and we just had to do it that's that so I don't know what happened to other people I mean when you go into politics in that situation is not that vocation there's a crusade that's sorry so the kind of struggles and battles it my colleagues and I went through the weak ones the ones who flinched dropped out and the ones who stayed behind and fought it out we forged a bond that you get between platoon comrades buddies regarding to battle survived and with heavy casualties they trust each other they know each other's strengths and weaknesses and they stay together that's what would happen I don't know how other cabinets are formed so I read about Prime Minister Tony Blair and Prime Minister Gordon Brown and I thought to myself what a different set of background and threw up that kind of leadership I mean there it is a question of I suppose some political conviction but at the same time personal drives or whatever I can't explain it but that that's very firm instrumental let me fast forward to today there are several centers of power one of them the United States seems to be not as concerned with this part of the world as it could have been is that good for the region is that bad for the region is that good for the United States how would you what is your take on that no I don't think they're not concerned a high concern the problem with their American politics and Washingtonian attention span is that it is focused on the immediate and the results of the either midterm or full term elections at the moment is concentrated on Iraq Iran Lebanon Israel Palestine North Korea and that's sucking away a lot of energy and resources at the top but I think at lower levels they know that great tectonic plates have moved in this region at in 20 years they're going to face a very different Asia and deal with a different set of Asian powers pronunciation powers I mean not military powers but the economic powers in a different way and it's a secular trend which I believe is not stoppable and I think they understand that and in fact I've just spent one hour with a group of Washington I don't know how I would classify them their age - the two candidates and they are very focused on Asia and China India Japan ASEAN because they are aware that the trends show in 10 20 years they'll have a China with GDP will be maybe as big as Japan if not maybe more India not far behind maybe 50 60 percent of that and you're dealing with a different set of factors in the power equation so the other questions they tossed at me were related to the kind of scenarios they want to frame or imagine and 15 20 years so they are focused on it but immediate attention of the people at the top secretary of state secretary of defense congressional leaders and candidates is on the immediate what wins votes what the media is interested in so I don't agree with you that they don't know what's happening they do know what they are unable to do so devotee enough intellectual capital to think through what the options are and they ask me is China a friend or foe I said neither at the moment and it's really up to you and how you your you deal with them it will decide whether they are friends or foes I told them that in 20 years they're going to meet a different set of leaders the present leaders are part of the or the tail end of the Soviet Inc the Soviet era products I mean who Jintao and sharp are the first foreign language is Russian if you meet the young leaders at the level of city mayors the first foreign languages English in 20 years you're going to meet assuming the structure remains more or less the same president premier minister state ministers Politburo members who are completely at home will understand exactly what you say will sir negotiate with you in Chinese but will sit down and have coffee with you or meal with you and speak in fluent English they probably have MBAs or PhDs from British or European American universities and that would be a very different challenge thank you maybe I'll open the floor to questions from the floor we have several questions right away let me take this gentleman over here Minister mentor I'm George Yeo in from Hong Kong I'm independent director of ICBC Asia which is an international arm of the largest Bank of China ICPC my good friend professor Tom play of UCLA have recently interview you and they have written me something like that say if American have taken heat of your views the American life will be much better the other thing is that this afternoon people talk about Chinese leadership people talk about how Chinese leader working towards something like a Singaporean type of government for any country you are called Minister mentor who suggested that somebody in the pandal some anonymous III your call Minister mentor I'd like to see that whether you can pay the role of Minister mentor the Singapore and beyond how you play it let me tell you how the normal cateura came about when my son became Prime Minister other had to leave the cabinet or he made quite sure that I'm not deciding policy so I was moved from senior minister which I was for 14 years with watch our town as Prime Minister and he kept me as a supernumerary minister as mental in other words I cannot give any direction to any ministry or to any Minister I can only mentor them we are just using me as a data bank I've got data stored from fifty years of political activity I would shudder at the prospect of being a mentor to any other government anywhere in the world I don't know the background I don't know how the people are I don't know how it works to be a leader of any country you have to understand the people you've got to be part of them you got to instinctively know that this will go around this world on and if I may say this with a certain humility one of the reasons why your previous chief executive ch2 had so much troubles was because running a shipping company is different from running I got you he has to have the feel of the people and that was the so I would I I would be very cherry of giving him any mentorship no he can't be done minister mentor John Burton from the financial time you have said that are you well answered what are you a member of unshod uh no I'm trying I'm just curious I'm a participant you're asking me this as a journalist I live in financial times that's right you have said that social cohesion is one of the reasons for a Singapore success on the other hand there is a view that Singapore has become a conformist Society I mean I was talking to a businessmen today who said the workers here are well educated but at the same time they show a lack of initiative and maybe they have a fear of speaking up now Singapore does want to become a knowledge Society and to do that you do need people who need to think out of the box and and to challenge the system do you think this is a serious issue for Singapore and does it pose a threat or a limit to Singapore's future growth and what is the solution and what do you think do you think that other Asian countries face a similar situation well this is a standard Western correspondent viewpoint if if we cannot think out of the box you think you would be here send by the Financial Times to throw darts at us from time to time and uninsured would be here and we could change year by year in the way we have there's an article in The Economist which has just come on somebody sent it to me on on the Internet that email which rates education throughout the world why some countries succeed why some countries don't and we are amongst the top five in the world let's succeed Finland is one was at the very top I think a country they can do that must know what is doing I suggest is not unequal to the intellectual capabilities of the Financial Times economies have some good writers and they wrote out this article based on a McKinsey report that studied the education system of many countries and the conclusion they came to is not the smaller whether your classes are big or small whether you have tests or you don't have tests but what is the quality of your teachers and how quickly you put things right when it goes wrong and how do you get good quality teachers and they did an analysis and in Korea the primary school teachers are taken from the top 5 of undergraduates after they get their degree we don't they say in Singapore we take them from the top 30 and so on now to be able to do that you must be able to think for yourself because the British didn't leave us with the system and it's not me or the Minister for education we have people who have gone around the world studying all education systems including those in Britain job your public schools or your private schools whichever way you like to call them your country schools or grammar schools etc who have studied the American system we have studied the Japanese have studied the Germans and from all the data we've collected and learned from them we have crafted a system model system that will suit us I think if the Financial Times does worry about us and sincerely takes an interest in our future I suggested read that report get all the full McKinsey report visit our universities and find out how it is but in the space of the last NTU Nanyang Technological University it's just about 81 we switched it from Chinese to English merging it with National University of Singapore and then having it back off today is rated among the top 50 universities in the world something must be doing right or maybe you don't believe in this ratings but I do not believe you can stereotype us that way if we are stupid we wouldn't be here let's talk about institutions for a moment Minister mentor we're here as you correctly said in large part because of some excellent conversations which we had with Singaporean institutions as well such as the EDB and so on what role do you see institutions like ours like in Fiat playing in the social fabric of Singapore of the region what are we doing right and what can we do moral well first institutions in general if you don't institutionalize a system that works and then regularly improve on it then you lose what you've done well and that was one of the reasons why I think in ancient China many of the accumulated knowledge of physicians or masters or whatever died with them they never published they only transmitted their knowledge to the immediate disciples or preferably their offspring in the West you have publication of discoveries exchanges and this institutionalize that knowledge is accumulated improved upon critiqued and so you always climb up on somebody's shoulders the Chinese are beginning to learn that but I'll tell you how difficult it is for them and one of the reasons why we are improving over the years is because whether it's education whether as defense Finance or whatever we are learning from all over the world because we don't believe in reinventing the wheel and the knowledge is accumulated and we have a civil service college and now the lqi School of Public Policy where case studies are done predict and so you're building up institutions institutionalized knowledge but will improve successive generations who come along and stand on the shoulders of those who've been before them Burrell sia obviously has learned many things in the course of the last when were you in in Fontainebleau 1950 60s 1957 58 57 as I got fifty years never learn much it's surely and I'm great improvement on 57 you've been here seven years you are not as ignorant as when you came here seven years ago but the point is if you just leave it or posited in here then it's lost when the man is gone but if you have a documented discussed crystallized then your successor builds on that that's institutionalization I think one of the problems what we try to do here one reason why Singapore has done reasonably well that's because we've had no no learning from scratch to be a minister to be Prime Minister Goh chok Tong worked as a minister for 76 he took over in 1990 good 20 years nothing on a job knows what's all about was Deputy Prime Minister for 78 years took over no problems the present Prime Minister my son started in 1984 that's 23 years ago was Deputy Prime Minister for 14 years he knows exactly what has to be done watching the Prime Minister do it and helping him do it no crashing of gears one of the problems of the revolving door government says every few years his start the learning curve from zero that's the problem I'm going to take the gentleman at the back over there my name is Artyom straw entrepreneur investor now and I retired at 40 to become a politician where are you from India Bangalore and as a festered a Times of India has chosen me among eight leaders in India from around hundred thousand people now I have to think of a vision for India 20 years hence I know what what party are you from unfortunately or fortunately I have not decided which party ha ha ha now I'm here actually I took a flight last night because I knew that you are going to speak here and I am so glad that I was allowed to you know put my question in a chaotic democracy which India is you have revolving-door politicians who have to run from scratch if at all they want to learn you have dynastic politics we don't have Liberty or other opportunity to have leaders who train 20 years now what do you think I think our next generation will be different and we are all successful entrepreneurs individuals and we want to change the nation what would we our advice to people like us who really have given up a flourishing carrier to do some for the country I think you have a very formidable mountain to climb you haven't got a party in India can Akata carretera Khanna taka you got Congress and the opposition right three well all right well I would carefully study what the odds are and you must be prepared for a very long and rough ride because no guarantee that Congress party in a coalition can win the next election so you might go and join the wrong party BR for the next five years I don't I do not recommend to start a party you in a country like India you have dynastic politics because of the size of the country the most important thing one man in a one-man one-vote system is that people recognize your name so if you're Gandhi or Nehru that's an enormous advantage is it it gave the Congress party nearly 30 years and after mrs. Gandhi died Rajiv came in now you have Rahul Gandhi the grandson of mrs. Gandhi I think if you contest against all Gandhi heart your whatever your entrepreneurial skills when it when it comes to the hustings just name recognition I mean so if I were an Indian and I were an entrepreneur I think I will try and be a Tata or Birla or an enforces because I met your emphasis chairman in Bangalore I spent an hour talking with him I said you should bring those skills into government be a minister change that ministry the way you've changed this he laughed at me he didn't think it was doable he's reached the apex and he's dealt with the government he knows and this is a gargantuan bureaucracy that moves in a very measured elephant tire with scope Infosys is agile quick fast footed so I think thinking over it would have been quite a sacrifice for him but I was thinking to myself only you he had India had such ministers and changed their ministries you'd be making the kind of progress that you deserve one more question if I may from you or from the ordinary for me to close to bring this discussion to a close um lots of countries small like Singapore I would happy in Dubai to name just a couple are trying to emulate Singapore's success trying to make similar sorts of investments in some resorts of areas what you see as the keys to Singapore's sustained success is this a zero-sum game where is this or is there place for everybody oh god it's not a zero-sum game it's a win-win yay Dubai is now a big hub aviation hub we're happy to welcome them we are now using new buyers one of our hubs to go to Moscow or enough passengers yet to Moscow Direct and they come here through and it's a competition and the aviation pie will grow I mean they will grow on a different model from us the indigenous population is just about 100,000 plus and the foreign population is one and a half million we have a pub but they have the resources of the Gulf oil and got money and Iranians to him in the Iranians tell us today they're putting a lot of business into Dubai and they have used it wisely and efficiently hired best world-class executives who run their lines to run their ports they outbid us for several the ports we decided no no that's a bit on the high side but they can afford it we can't so let them have it but we don't compete we have a different algorithm we can't be like them because we have no oil money and we have a population of 3.4 million or out of the 4.6 the rest being foreigners working here not studying here I think sustainability for us will be slightly easier because as I said Institute institutionalization is easier we've got a home with a homogeneous call in every management that can self-renew and we've got a lot of foreigners joining us people from India China Hong Kong in cocoa butter the spine is a Singapore spine in Dubai the ruler is very able man so eyes associates so you got the brains as Dubai but the vertebra has a mix of I think one of the advertisements one of these golf alliances we are 50 nations working for us on board which is quite a feat to mail them into a team but to have a certain culture build up that's not easy so I think they have a different set of strengths we have a different completely different limited resources but more indigenous strengths and we'll have to see whether which model is more sustainable I say that with some preservation because I think if they can keep on getting high quality management they can do it and they've got the resources to pay for that mr. mentor thank you very much for your time it's been a signal on Oh

Channel: INSEAD

Views: 832,881

Keywords: INSEAD, INSEAD Knowledge, Singapore, Lee Kuan Yew, Narayan Pant

Id: LvBlzDz9ttM

Length: 34min 59sec (2099 seconds)

Published: Thu Aug 23 2012