[Q&A] Kishore Mahbubani: Can Singapore Survive?

I actually do put it bluntly I think public transport is a public good and if it's a public good it's best handled by a public institution using public revenues so that you take care of it for the long term and as you know one reason why the I may get in trouble for saying this but one reason why the SMRT had problems is because when your private institution your main focus is on your Knicks quarterly results three months from now so if you want to focus on your next quarterly results REME unthe from now and you want to make sure their profits look good the easiest thing to cut is maintenance because if you cut maintenance the costs of cutting the maintenance we fell ten years later he won't be felt right away but your quarterly results would look good and you saw I mean sadly enough you know I can tell you that when the Singapore's MRT system was launched one of the greatest admirers in the world of the Singapore MRT system was the United States ambassador to the UN called general bounine Walters dick Walters who became a good friend of mine and he his hobby was visiting subway stations around the world seriously Moscow Paris London everywhere and he said Kishore this is in the 80s he said the best subway system in the world in 1980s he said was Singapore he says you're the only country that actually built underground railway system ahead of schedule below costs and so clean and functioning so well so we were number one in the world in the 1980s and then now you look at the newspapers every other day there's something breaking down clearly when something breaks down today it's a result of a decision made ten years ago so that shows the consequences of focusing on quarterly results rather than long-term in institutional strength when it comes to delivering public goods fighting to be fair I think at the same time there has been as I say a reversion to the norm and so now more and more investment is made in our underground system as a public good and that's happening anyway so you have this rather unusual situation which I'm surprised people accept here which is that you have a private company running the bus system but you have the government giving buses to a private company to run buses which is rather unusual you know it's a new model that I think other countries will be puzzled by but anyway so that's my answer to your question so shall we have questions on the floor nine is a good friend he's by the way as Tomiko would say he's he's the right Cindy he made the right decision he didn't study philosophy going to be in the business for just to take up the point that Tommy made about him being more optimistic about Singapore's future you were a little more downbeat about it who the Americans say after 200 odd years but they are still an exceptional Society so if that is the case and if you buy into that under what circumstances do you think that Singapore can continue to be an exceptional state or society way forward the next 50 or hundred years yeah okay good great question let me begin by saying that I'm not pessimistic I'm just slightly less optimistic Tommy and I frankly think that I mean I agree that the United States has been an exceptional country absolutely no doubt whatsoever no there's no country since human history began there's been a successful of the United States in terms of its many fold chief months and so on and so forth but you can do that when you're a big large country and you can attract the best and brightest to come to your country okay so you go to Silicon Valley and you see that you know if you go to anywhere that startup so half the room is full of Chinese and Indians you know and if you go if you try and get a venture capital money they would say what's your icy factor how many Indians and Chinese do you have your team knowing there is no Chinese no venture capital so that's that's what America can do but you can see in Singapore clearly Singapore can and should do what America is doing and track the best and brightest but you saw in the last elections the backlash against too many foreigners coming in so and we don't have a scale of land we don't have the size of the United States of America we actually you know we are the physically the most constrained country in the entire world and sometimes when I speak to audiences overseas I say you actually I said I'm sure you've all seen a map of Southeast Asia in the map of Southeast Asia there's one island called Sumatra on that island called Sumatra there's one volcanic mountain on that volcanic Mountain there's a small lake in the middle the small lake is a small island and that small islands bigger than Singapore I mean that's how small we are okay now with that kind of physical constraint it takes exceptional leadership to produce the kind of value add that Singapore has done the last 50 years now exceptional leadership is very difficult to produce very difficult it is is in fact if you look around the world today what is actually quite striking is globally there's a shortage of exceptional leaders around the world so that how does it a small country like Singapore can beat the odds and continue to produce exceptional leaders so maybe Tommy has an answer to that I think size is not destiny decison no destiny price is not destiny especially in this new world which is relatively borderless and if you do not have enough physical land within your national boundary we can actually borrow another country's land as Singapore it done we build new towns industrial estates in China in Vietnam in many other countries you don't have enough people you can attract talented people to join you or you can outsource your enterprises to other countries in this new world sure the size of a country is a constraint but it it doesn't determine your destiny Singapore's after all one of the world's largest trading entities you know no reason why we are but we we are we we host one of the world largest seaport airports telecommunication Center so my point is that we have many many constraints but but with good leadership outstanding human capital good governance and our multiculturalism and the livability of our city which is so exceptional in Asia I think we can continue to be successful my question is on India you mentioned that Singapore will have to make some hard choices in the next 50 years to decide between US and China and how to balance that what role do you think India will play in Singapore's survival in the next 50 years and this year being Singapore Singh Singapore India 50th anniversary can you project what it will look like in the next 50 years yeah well I mean let me take a step and answering the question and Tommy can add something because he's I think is he's a chairman of the Singapore India dialogue where we have well I think the India's role in Southeast Asia is going to grow by leaps and bounds and again it's perfectly natural it's a natural consequence of India becoming bigger and stronger and also if you look at the larger history of Southeast Asia over the last three thousand years out of the nine out of the ten member states of ASEAN nine have a what they call a Hindu is cultural base only Vietnam is a sign a cultural base that shows you that the influence of India in Southeast Asia goes back thousands and thousands of years and it's still seeing me you travel around in the ratio Thailand you can see the Ramayana and Mahabharata being performed and so on so forth so that those are very deep links that were cut off as you know when the British and European colonizers came so the natural symbiotic links within Southeast Asia and India were cut and they'll be restored so and also quite naturally as China becomes more and more powerful it's natural for small states medium states to hedge their bets and the way they hitch their bets is the develop relations with other powers we United States India and so on so forth so I actually I have no doubt that India's role in this region will grow but India's challenge is that at the same time that India can never deliver the same kind of goods that China can deliver through Southeast Asia I mean I give you a look for example what happening at the Asian investment infrastructure Bank you know China can say okay I'll put down fifty billion dollars by very few states in the world I can put down fifty billion dollars immediately for a bank that's an example so while India's role would grow be very difficult for India to catch up with where China is I I want to begin by saying that I'm an honorary Indian should I say I'm an honorary Chinese - yes I think I have I think I'm off it I'm off it in India than most Indians do yeah and I take a very long view of India's prospects and I recall that three hundred years ago the two largest economies in the world were China and India I also want to recall that them these are two countries which are blessed with very ancient and rich civilizations so I'm optimistic about India's future I know that from time to temps India stumble loses his way but it always gets back on track and in Singapore heavily invested in India not only economically but also politically I don't have you know Singapore the largest investor in India yeah number one number one yeah we are number one in both in India and China in the last two years we have firm so far ahead of the surpassed Japan is the biggest foreign investor in China we are also the biggest for invest in India but that is because the Satpal katha but I am NOT in a Nike show i I believe that the Prime Minister India Narendra Modi is a it's a transformation transformational leader I think under leadership India has an opportunity to accelerate its growth and I would not be surprised if in the next ten years India's growth rate surpasses that of China yeah I think it's possible and and I and Singapore long term view of the region is we want to be as close to China as we are to India we want to be as close to China as we are to Japan and we want to be as close to America as to these three Asian giants but most of all we are anchored in ASEAN we have a vested interest to keep Southeast Asia peaceful and cooperative and and Keshawn I bought true believers in the usefulness of ASEAN to the region and to Singapore one question over there then Farish in NZ no okay sorry going to fester boo boo boo bunny and a professor ko professor Bob Rubin earlier in opening remarks at Singapore in the first 50 years has been exceptional state and in the next 50 years who knows maybe yes maybe not given that and a given that it sounds I haven't read a book but it sounds like you have sounded caution in the complacency that success is brought to Singapore I wonder what you think of you know Singapore's role as in aspiration and a role model for public administration and the governance for countries in the region we all know that countries like China has sent their public as and their government officials to institutions like lky school and NTU to be trained to learn the Singapore way do you think that in the future Singapore will continue to be an attractive place for upcoming public policymakers from countries like China or ma'am or Indonesia Malaysia wherever to kind of come and learn the proper way to do things thank you I'd like to go back to the point that you raised earlier but also to me first of all the point about having faith in ASEAN but the backlash that you mentioned earlier that we saw at the last election I think this is not unique to Singapore we're seeing it across Southeast Asia and I I questioned why there is this disconnect on the one hand the perception that for instance our foreigners are taking jobs but at the same time in many of these societies in ASEAN there is a lack of awareness that countries are also investing the same countries actually investing in other countries so on the one hand there's a perception in Singapore that among the popular voters that there is a influx of foreign workers but there isn't there isn't there isn't the same awareness that in other neighboring countries in ASEAN there is a perception that perhaps capital investment from Singapore can be seen as predatory I'm worried about this across Southeast Asia at the moment capital investment from Singapore can be seen as predatory chemistry I'm worried about this at the moment because I'm looking at the state of ours young right now the democracy that we see across our region tends to be of a populist nature and I appreciate Keisha's point earlier about exceptional leadership and the need for strong pragmatic leadership I'm not sure whether actually answer the question Keisha I mean how how do you reconcile these two I think it's difficult to rollback democratization in Southeast Asia but on the other hand we are witnessing the rise of I think dangerous populist politics in our part of the world as well and this for me is is something that jeopardizes the ASEAN project because like you I'm a firm believer in ASEAN but we do not have a strong enough sense of a common ASEAN identity we don't see ASEAN as a common home for all ASEAN citizens so how do you how do we get around this after so many years of ASEAN being around as we know in many parts of Southeast Asia your ordinary Southey's asian citizen does not feel like an ASEAN citizen and that's always open the way for you know reactionary populist majoritarian sentiments especially in the Democratic space just to complete the picture I have an honorary Mele I'm also I'm also honored to be a member of your editorial team when you wrote that practical question of decorum my question is about what is exceptional and normal why I am more inclined to agree with prophet Tomiko because I thought we are going into a new normal as what this this present face is all about because we've been exceptional by the new normal in the sense that things are changing maybe for the worst but we look forward to new peaks but in that context how do you see this danger of the SMRT phenomenon creeping into politics and governance to whether governments will then resort to the short term not quarterly but maybe once in four years kind of report card and play to the gallery and be populist so will that be the real danger to making us really remaining as normal and a quick second question professor your four factors you mentioned this now you see multiracialism as the weakest link or is it a point of strength thank you your honor go phase of a back office okay thank you he's been very generous now okay the first question is very easy to answer IIIi think the Singapore's track record in public administration delivering a public goods is absolutely exceptional you know by any global standards I mean I can say that as a Dean of a School of Public Policy I talk to my fellow Dean's of School of Public Policy and they will be among the ones who say that the standards of governance that Singapore has achieved you know I mean whether it's in building the world's best airport the world's best port the best public housing program it's also for the best education system healthcare system that at four percent of GNP delivers better results than in United States eighty percent of GNP so in all these amazing things that Singapore has done they continue to provide role models for the rest of the world and therefore in that sense I can tell you that the Lee Kuan Yew school of public policies in the sunrise industry so we see we see no danger to our business in the follow-up and your question Furnish is very difficult on ASEAN and by the way for your information my next book in some ways I share your worry about ASEAN I feel that many people not just in Singapore but in Southeast Asia taking ASEAN success for granted they don't realize how much time and effort was put in by the founding fathers of ASEAN into delivering what we have today and if we don't nurture it and develop it ASEAN like any other organism can die if we don't take care of it so that's why my next book will be on ASEAN the good news is that out of 80,000 words everythign 30,000 words only a 50,000 more ago but I actually believe that the this is a time for leadership to emerge in ASEAN and actually genuinely I'm worried I mean I was actually very hopeful that president Joko we would provide fresh new leadership for Indonesia in many ways he is but I don't think he shares the same degree of commitment to ASEAN that I think his bid assessor didn't well in fact many of his predecessors did and I think it's important to convince President jokowi that for Indonesia's future long-term future Indonesia will be better off with a stronger ASEAN rather than we cast and I mean I can make the case very strongly but I don't know what anybody is making the case to him in that regard now finally ons I know your question about exceptional new normal and so on and so forth it is it is a fact that governments all over the world have to deal with populous precious you know you can't deny you have to it's a new challenge the new political reality you cannot go back to the quote unquote good old days when you could just decide and people will just follow you know you come to handle it's a different political environment and social media as we all know has aggravated it and so made it governance has become much more difficult today in any society by the way including in China or so on even in China the Chinese government has to worry and what the social media is saying and so on so far so in the old days if Deng Xiaoping decide to make unilateral border concessions to Russia he could do so today President Xi Jinping wants of a unilateral border concessions he better be careful you gotta watch what the social media may say so it's a different one and Singapore's also not immune from that pressures and on multiracialism I see that as one of Singapore's greatest strengths mean I I belong not just to a minority I belong to a minority within a minority you know they're what six percent of Singapore's population is Indians right and out of the six percent I think I have about 10,000 to 20,000 Cyndi's in Singapore less to 3,000 Cyndi's in Singapore so 9006 town yeah so it's tiny so I belong to a tiny minority within a minority in Singapore so for someone who come from a tiny minority within a minority to represent the country as ambassador with un is amazing no other country in the world frankly where if you are the countries in the world would select someone who belongs a minority within a minority will be the face of the country at the United Nations so that's very unusual so that's clearly a strength that we develop but the question whether we can maintain it on me : sir I want to go back to the first question my respond to the first question is that Singaporean need to learn to be more humble and modest and not to very difficult not to yeah in fact I want to tell you a true story a couple years ago when I was in China my Chinese host asked whether I would be willing to deliver public lecture at the Foreign Affairs University and I said yes after my lecture I had a whole sea of hands and asking for questions and one other question is what can China learn from Singapore in relations with your neighbors and and I did not know in advance that there was media in the room you know so I told my Chinese student friends that there's nothing you can learn from Singapore because all our neighbors hate us and I got tandra support I did this the Chinese really love my answer so I quickly said excuse me said the media president maybe I should explain myself but the point I wanted to make is that some of our neighbors see us as being too boastful and arrogant so there's a need for Singapore to be humble and modest I would not say come to Singapore and learn from our model we must never say that we say we want to share experiences with you you come and look at us we are not perfect but if there's something in our experience that you can learn from then it is for you to do that whether it be good governance whether it is the relative success in balancing economic growth with protecting the environment which is a big issue in Asia whether it be the empowerment of women I believe one of our greatest success stories in the last 50 years is the empowerment of women and I think it's such an important a success story for to be shared with my time we don't have a woman Prime Minister yet but it will come it will come so that's my my my respite the first question by repetitive Farish know is that don't be too harsh on ASEAN you know first I don't think democratization is a negative force I think we I welcome the democratization of Southeast Asia I do not think democratization will inevitably lead to populism or to outrun nationalism it is really for the leaders it is really for the leaders to channel nationalism into right direction and any if nationalism become ultra-nationalism inward-looking I'm seeing the world outside the trap it's a failure of leadership so I welcome democratization and I think nationalism can be both a positive and a negative force as for your sense that we are we don't have this common identity as members of the same family I would say that and the tire's level we do at the level of policymakers political leaders civil servants we have a clear sense of belonging to the same family it will take time for this sense of common identity to filter down to the Riga so evolving a common as an identity is a work in progress you know but we are only 48 years old and if you think back to 1967 when we began the prospects were not promising because we have been ruled by different colonial masters we may be neighbors but we were not knowledgeable about each other and it's taken us many years to find out about each other to learn about our different cultures to evolve common values I think we come a long way actually I'm very optimistic about the future and I agree with Kishore's reply to those I know I think multiculturalism is one of our most important achievements when we look at the world today where there's so much disharmony between people different religions not just in the developing world but also in the developed world when we see so much trouble between people different ethnic groups and different tribes even in America which I know so well the battle the the fight against racism in America not over you know the fact that so many black men and black boys and I'm having recent years been killed by the police is a symptom that that fight is not over you know we don't have that kind of racism here tribalism is a is an evil that Hans so many countries in the world and I just want to tell you a story that you may not know that tribalism at one time haunted Singh upon relations between different Chinese clans are so good today that you'll be shocked when I tell you that the worst riot in Singapore's history was one between the Hawkins and the churches in 1854 in 1854 there was a riot between the Hawkins and do choose that lasted ten days and six hundred people were killed you know so tribalism within a race can be a great evil you know and we've seen this in many parts of the world especially in Africa so so I would say our achievements of inter-religious harmony our achievements of interracial harmony our achievements of inter tribal harmony is a great achievement and we must preserve this because it's really a great comparative advantage I'm both optimistic as well as a little bit skeptical and I have a question really to build on where you were at earlier Kishore and the point of exceptional leadership so I'm optimistic in the short term but perhaps not for the reasons that I've heard so far I think we have a little bit of tailwind advantage that I see in my form a lot of facts around so while I don't think by the way that Singapore has become particularly complacent when I travel around in the region and around the world I see more self questioning going on in Singapore than I see in many places that makes me very very confident for our future we're willing to put our problems on the table and more likely to be able to solve them and I do think some of the structural advantages that you talked about about governance in building are very strong and in a world which is urbanizing very rapidly we're going to benefit from them for the next 5 years or so so in fact I'm worried about too much complacency creeping in in the future it isn't it isn't around today what I worry about is the type of leadership this isn't just about how much leadership oh but what about what kind because the things that made us successful so far in McKinsey we talked about how we've created value in in places like Singapore through mostly facilitative leadership the forces at work are already there and you rearrange them to create value for this little hub as opposed to creative leadership where you come up with new products new ideas and you generate value from them this is a different DNA a different muscle and I don't see enough of it here so in my conversations that I have with the CEOs here I see you know constant devolving to the norm and a lot of risk aversion which is a little bit debilitating and we wonder how do you stock you know risk taking more permission for people to be able to swing for the fences I don't know if you've seen examples of where that has already happened or how you might get that going well um let me say very quickly I'm more pessimistic than both Tommy and Kishore he sure has chosen a very provocative title for his book can Singapore survive and when I heard this or read this my first thought was can be survive environmentally so I want to go into details but I think our environmental challenges are huge and as mr. Lee Kuan Yew has said well you know Kishore you said this is the century of Asia but mr. Lee has said very correctly that this is the millennium of environmental challenges so I can't resist since you get to in one with these River and of course professor Cole is simple as best new environmentally so um I would have liked to hear you say professor ko as one of our strengths that we have environmental sustainability we have livability livability does not equate environmental sustainability as venue so um could you please reassure me on this I assured everyone else I with two brilliant minds and thank you very much for sharing you know the same and different perspective I've been involved in ASEAN as the president business as in forum and it's taken us this long to get together as one but certainly a lot of differences especially when there changes in terms of the political arena with this Malaysia or Indonesia where we are more involved in or even Thailand but my real question is that my concern is about Singapore moving forward is that there's no longer the top-down acceptance that we have been engrained and accepted until now I'm very happy to sense that the our current team has been able to diversify very quickly to be part of an inclusive society to bring the younger people in the question is there's always problems with the middle age or people like our pioneer group that seems to be very dissatisfied and we have to continuously find a way to help these people how do you see the current political changes well then you know in two years because that is really my concern because there's so much unhappiness but yet the government has done so much to incorporate everything for us and if they're still unhappy how can we make everyone happy and to make sure messing a pole can move forward thank you so should I come yes Thank You cheetah your question is actually a very very important one I mean you know you you you saying yes like let's not worry the next five years let's worry about what comes after that but there's also a danger in thinking or we have enough to keep going because the the the question is about who should worry okay I think it's very clear that the government is worried okay I mean I mean the Prime Minister said so many times now he's one of his favorite expressions that only the paranoid survive you know he quotes Andy Grove of Intel I think who says that so and I think in prime minister is right this is responsibility to be paranoid about the future of Singapore but I think that paranoia is not shared by the population at large and certainly now less and less shared by even some members of the establishment you know and so that's a challenge you know and I think for a small state like Singapore because the odds of history against the survival of small states you really got to work extra hard to survive and so you always got to be paranoid and and I'm not so sure whether the people are ready for that and and and so the question is how do you and by the way you know the difficulty of our paranoia is that it can be psychologically destructive as you know apparent paranoia is a psychologically destructive sentiment to be able to function well to be confident motivator and succeed while being paranoid is actually a very difficult thing to do so that's a challenge that the singapore faces so the you saying that so far we only had to do facilitated leadership not creative leadership in Singapore I actually think that for the next 50 years we will again need a new round or creative leadership in Singapore because many of the old formulas cannot work the formulas that work in the first 50 years cannot work in the next 50 years you know that's what happened to Kodak Kodak assumed that the formulas of the last 50 years would work in the next 50 years and you cannot so to avoid that Kodak moment which is Tommy mentioned which I speak about my book you have to have continuous creative leadership and that's it that's an existing channel exist central challenge for Singapore now give me in your point of our environment is well-taken I you're right I think that's a big dimension about Singapore's environmental to pay attention to but but the sad part about Singapore is that being so small even if we kept our environment completely clean all you need is a forest fire in Sumatra a petroleum refinery in jeho and view in trouble yeah so clearly we want to take care of our environment we must develop very good relations with our neighbors and for that both of us have mutual sensitivity and that that's also not easy to achieve and finally about the you mentioned about the Pioneer group Jenny I'm so glad you mentioned that I'm very happy to inform you that with my Pioneer card I show it to all you I'm a very happy man I'm a beneficiary of this pioneer group but it is actually a very wise move I think on the part of the government to take care of a generation I mean I'm lucky I did very well ok I mean I've done it sir Tommy mentioned I've done very very well by knowing the street that I grew up in the four or five houses on my left two three houses am i right no one ever went to university I was the only one in the whole stretch you know - can you imagine where they are now one of them is I still see him he's a dark captain in Hilton Hotel you know they one of them is a driver these are the people whom I grew up with so for that people like that who are bad captains and drivers this pioneer card means a lot you know it's a big deal so I'm really glad that the government has has done it so I'm not so worried in the short term again politically I'm like man Tibet big bets with anyone any of you that PAP is going to win the next election right anybody wants a bet but the next election after that I you begin to wonder what's going to happen you know natural so the but these these are the new political winds that are coming the thing to emphasize here the new political winds in Singapore are the same political winds in many other countries so this is what I call the normal situation you will have new political challenges so you don't have to develop the instincts you know the intuition the reflexes to handle these new political challenges you have to because they're coming and and I think as I said I'm not worried about the the next elections but after that privately I talked to many of you and spoken to many of you at dinner and you tell me over it so that's a new situation in Singapore I liked was a question about censorship in the arts nobody better tell them you taught me poetry in school yeah yeah but I don't know Kishore whether you have written anything about censorship of the Arts and cause Tommy Cole is the first chairman of the National Arts Council but I'm concerned about things like the disallowing of films by an pinpin about political and Excise the controversy about the drawing of books by the library and of course things like ken quacks films getting into running into problems I just wondered whether or not you think that Singapore authorities have got censorship right censorship of the Arts I might cite any personal problem that I encountered and I think I might we have referred to Tommy Co the fact that some years ago I wrote the libretto for no prior offenses it was a kind of Romeo and Juliet story set around the time in Singapore I was going to enter Malaysia but to cut a long story short the NEC did not give me funds and I think that's a form of censorship and the reason was that I took a very dim view of Singapore's multiracial situation and its religion which I did not so I'm concerned about these problems and I want to know that both of you could address these things Thank You Tommy I said the question so there are four questions give one minute for one quick question the first question I I would say I don't share your impression I think there's a new spirit of entrepreneurship in Singapore I see this among whom both my sons and among their friends most of whom are in a private sector many of them have started their own businesses Singapore has one of the most conducive environment for setups you know some very optimistic the second question by a doctor game in we are very small and very urbanized but we have two very precious achievements we have shown the rest of the developing world that it is possible to make the transition from an underdeveloped to a develop economy without ruining your environment without polluting your air polluting your water you know and much more than that in recent years Singapore has pioneered the view that urbanization and cities are not the enemy of nature we have mobilized a group of like-minded city to share with us the view that cities are important agents for conserving biodiversity and in fact the UN has adopted UN as a Singapore as Singapore index or biodiversity for cities jelly tastes Jenny Chan's question Singapore has changed you know I would say it's Singapore change for the better the old way of governing Singapore from the top down it's no longer viable and this is true not just in Singapore but all over the world so the new normal is a much more inclusive consultative process but look at the recent budget debate in Parliament isn't it wonderful that the governing party and the opposition were in agreement that this is a good budget you know and if Singaporeans unhappy it is because there are some good reasons to be unhappy about I think we've allowed the inequality of wealth and income and income to grow to two why I think I think in recent years we we were not careful and calibrating how many foreigners we can absorb without upsetting Singaporeans Singaporeans are basically welcoming a foreigner we're not xenophobic you know in fact I always make the argument that we are one of the least and all phobic people in the little and and and about the future and very optimistic I think the new budget is it's a it's a wonderful budget and someone will have the paid two percent more for my tax I welcome this why you Antonia I don't I don't resent this at all I welcome this I'm happy to pay 2% more in order that I can help the elderly poor in Singapore who have made many sacrifices our country and have a right to leave the living dignity in the closing year and I also welcome the skills skill development initiative skills future why our ambition is to retain a manufacturing sector as a major pillar of the Singapore economy this is very hard to do if we want to keep manufacturing at 20% of economy the secret of failure success is skills development there are two countries in the world that we wish to emulate and these are Switzerland and Germany and what the government has done in promoting technical and vocational education apprenticeship putting money where our mouth is is the right thing to do it ensures our continued success it ensures that people who may not be academically inclined will have a bright future and it will make for a better more inclusive and more gated egalitarian Singapore as for censorship I would remind robot that I was chairman of the 1992 censorship review committee and I tried to broaden the intellectual and artistic space and thing upon I tried to take away power censorship from the bureaucrats and give it to citizens I encouraged art groups to censor themselves but we are fundamentally a very conservative society you know yeah if you look at the recent IPs pose I'm really shocked that 70% of Singaporean think homosexuality is wrong they are against same-sex marriage even in 1992 I wanted to to reduce the h4 seeing RA movies from 21 to 18 I did a poll and the people against me I wanted to lift the ban on magazines with tasteless magazine like Playboy and penthouse and the people against me you make you can say Singaporeans are hypocrites they don't buy this magazine Singapore the moment they go abroad they buy them but hypocrites are not singapore is fundamentally a conservative society we have the progress towards greater freedom at a pace acceptable to the majority I'm like you are liberal you know I wish I could abolish all censorship but it's not possible but the trajectory is a positive one when you were a young playwright Robert you were constantly harassed by by the census but you are no longer you are not only not harass today but you are celebrated as an icon of the Singapore literary well that's progress for you so I think before Tommy and I stand up and unveil the great book can I can you please join me in thanking Tommy Co for being a wonderful gesture you you

Channel: Lee Kuan Yew School of Public Policy

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Rating: 4.5536723 out of 5

Keywords: Kishore Mahbubani (Author), Singapore (Country), Politics (TV Genre), Book, Public Policy (Field Of Study), National University Of Singapore (College/University), Lee Kuan Yew School Of Public Policy (Educational Institution), book launch, Tommy Koh, Q&A, lky school, can singapore survive, the new asian hemisphere, the great convergence, can asians think, SMRT, public transport singapore, MRT, public goods, kishore mahbubani, lee kuan yew, has the west lost it

Id: IlwlkYYIcQI

Length: 47min 32sec (2852 seconds)

Published: Fri Apr 17 2015