Allot gets said about the Singapore government in the online sphere. I should know, I’ve often been critical of the way things are and like many of my fellow keyboard warriors, I’ve found it easy to blame the government.
However, there’s one area in which I’m really grateful
to the Singapore government and that is the fact that our government’s have
resisted populist measures and remained open world. Sure, I get where people
are coming from when they complain about the “crass” behavior of Mainland
Chinese and the complaints about Indian nationals stealing jobs. Yet, when you
look at the bigger picture, Singapore and dare I say, Singaporeans have
benefited from the fact that our society has stayed open.
If I take myself as an example, I got lucky because of
that. As a freelancer with no experience in a notable agency, I managed to work
on prestigious jobs thanks to Indian nationals and that’s before mentioning
that I had a steady marriage with a Vietnamese girl for 13-years. Even if you
don’t work for someone from elsewhere, you’ll find that most of the “high paying
jobs” in Singapore are based on servicing and supporting people from elsewhere
and businesses in bigger markets.
Singapore was founded on international trade. It’s the
reason why we exist and should we ever adapt a “MAGA” movement or do the ASEAN
equivalent of Brexit, we’d have secured our place as the swamp we once claimed
to have emerged from.
I’m glad to see the government resisting isolationism in
an age where its cool to be a chest thumping nationalist gorilla (which is
unfair to gorillas). Not only is the government resisting going down that
slippery slope but doubling down and pushing Singapore deeper into the
international community.
We’re a trading nation so it’s obvious for us to
continue trading. The technologies that we consider necessary are so in part
because they make global knowledge available. Now, we’re going further and
trying to integrate our commercial system into the global grid.
This was particularly clear through my day job.
Singapore is now playing host to a flurry of legal conferences and that theme
was clear in the two that I attended.
It started with the Turn Around Management Association’s(TMA) Asia Pacific conference which was held on 20 and 21 August 2025 at the
Marina Bay Sands. Mr. Murali Pillai, Senior Minister of State for Law and
Transport told the delegates “Insolvency matters do not stop at national
boundaries.
One of the key moments of TMA Asia Pacific was having
a panel discussion with judges from Australia, Hong Kong, Malaysia and
Singapore discuss the key issue of how court judgments are enforced outside national
boundaries.
Here’s the reality, the world is open. The days when businesses
only focused on the West are long gone. In Singapore’s case, we can, at best,
offer a fantastic place for a headquarters but the truth is, we don’t have a
domestic market worth speaking of. So, the multinationals come here and set up
camp because we’re safe and stable and so business in places where things are
less so. Our commercial legal system is well regarded enough for people like my
favourite Indian IT boys to ensure that “All deals in the APAC region are signed
under Singapore law.”
Yet, what good is it when judgments in your courts
cannot be enforced elsewhere? It only makes sense for countries like Singapore
to work with other countries to get the judgments of Singapore courts recognized
outside of Singapore. It also makes sense for markets like Indonesia and
Malaysia to do the same. I think of one of my employer’s cases where he got his
appointment in Singapore recognized in Australia.
The theme repeated at the ADVOC conference, where
there was a panel discussion on getting recognition in different jurisdictions.
Look at the places that are isolated. How many of you
honestly want to live in say, Pyongyang? The unavoidable truth is that places
that integrate into the rest of the world tend to be places that thrive. They’re
places where you want to live.
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