Natural Born Singapore Winner

 I’ve often said that Singapore is in many ways what a city should be – namely rich, clean and green. A large part of our success was due to the fact that our post-colonial leadership took a different turn from most post-colonial nations. Instead of turning away foreign investment, we took what was considered an unusual turn at the time and welcomed Western multinationals, who provided us with capital and skills to produce what is now a well-documented economic success story.

However, as the rest of Asia has started to catch up, Singapore has been at something of a loss. The role of being a bridge between West and East has started to vanish, as the Western multinationals have gone to the bigger Asian markets directly (think of prominent Westerners like former Australian Prime Minister, Kevin Rudd who speaks fluent Mandarin to appeal to China directly) and the foreign investment community has found us increasingly expensive.

If you look at the economic policies of the last decade, you’ll get the sense that our government is scrambling to look for a “winner” that will propel our economy. We’ve done industrialization, trying digitalization and reinventing ourselves as a fun place for the world’s well to do – just think of the casinos and Formula One. Our government, which has become used to instant formulas of success, is now at a loss and is seeking all sorts of ways for that Holy Grail of shinny economic figures.

I had the privilege of being summoned by my old “food buddy” for a meal at the Sheraton hotel today. He had run into a common friend whom we had known as the manager of the Bar & Billiard Room in the Raffles Hotel, which was an old haunt of ours (back in the days when I had a magic card that gave huge discounts). This friend of ours had described the offer at the Sheraton as a “Die-Die Must Try” meal.

The meal was delightfully display of Peranakan (Straits Born Chinese) culture and then it hit me. If there’s one thing that Singapore can win at, it’s our cuisine. Singapore is a “foodie” paradise in as much as you’re going to get decent quality cuisine of any culture on the planet (I used to eat Nigerian food in Singapore). However, in addition to the availability of good cuisine of most cultures, there is a distinctly unique Singapore cuisine that combines the best of Chinese, Malay, Indian and to a certain extent some Western influence. If you look at my meal at the Sheraton, you will note that the dishes cannot be classified as particularly Chinese or Malay and they are unique to this part of the world.

The food was delicious. Meat dishes were tender. The coconut rice was flavorful and the vegetables were fresh – I am told that the Sheraton has a garden on its premises and the produce was grown in house, literally.

What makes this Singapore cuisine so special, is the fact that it was not something created by the government. Ever since he took power, Lee Kuan Yew and his successors have spent some 55-years trying to invent a culture for Singapore and Singaporeans. They have tried to enforce rules on “mother-tongue,” (a Chinese is only supposed to speak Mandarin) and tried to redefine cultural identity. Yet, these government led initiatives have largely been costly and ineffective.

However, while the government was trying to redefine culture and winners for Singaporeans, the people came together and worked together and produced something. Our Singapore cuisine is the result of people from different cultures, living together, trying each other’s cuisine and adapting what they liked and what they didn’t like thus creating something wonderful.

It’s not just at the Sheraton end of the market where this is happening. About a week back, I was in the Chua Chu Kang area of Singapore, where I met a Chinese hawker, selling Nasi (Malay for Rice) Rempah, which was his own invention – a take on the normal dish of Nasi Lemak. Once again, the meal was exceedingly enjoyable and a true celebration of our home-grown Singapore cuisine.   

If there’s anything encouraging about Singapore, its in the areas that have been overlooked by officialdom. This is the small spaces where people have been allowed to mix together free of the influence of dictated thought. This is the space where cultures have been allowed to meet at a particular cross roads and where people have been able to find common ground.

If the government is struggling to find a winner for Singapore, they should look into these spaces and encourage them to grow. Rather than dictate, they should allow people to feel their way. The results will be as tasty as our organically developed cuisine.

Teaching Asians to Think

Just saw a letter in the Straits Times Forum page entitled “Time ripe for a pan-Asian university,” which argues that in light of the blame game for the “Covid-19” and growing anti-Chinese sentiment (which affects non-China Chinese) in the West, it was time for Asians to produce a “Pan-Asian University.” The letter can be found at:

https://www.straitstimes.com/forum/letter-of-the-week-time-ripe-for-a-pan-asian-university

This letter also reminded me of a talk I attended that was conducted by Her Excellency, Ms. Kara Owen, the High Commissioner of the United Kingdom, a few months ago (back in the pre-Circuit Breaker days). In that talk, the High Commissioner acknowledged that Singapore had sent many students to the UK and said that she hoped that there would be more student interaction between the UK and Singapore with more UK students heading to study in Singapore.

Interestingly enough, the topic of universities is one of the classic cases of Westerners having more confidence in the future of Asia than Asians. I remember telling someone of South Asian decent what the British High Commissioner had said and his only reaction was “She must be mad, why would they want to come here when they have the best universities there.” This reaction is, sadly, not a lone one. As far as most Asians are concerned, the world’s best education remains Western.

To an extent, this is true. If you look at rankings of the world’s best universities, they are, with the exception of Oxford and Cambridge, inevitably American. A look at the Times Higher Education Ranking can be found at:

https://www.timeshighereducation.com/student/best-universities/best-universities-world

These rankings are pretty entrenched and if you look at the normal Asian mindset, unlikely to change anytime soon. I look at Singapore as the prime example. We invest heavily in education. We are proud of our universities and we spend a lot of money on them. Yet, despite all our pride in our home-grown universities, our country is inevitably run by people who went to Oxbridge for a first degree and did an MBA in an American University.

There are of course, reasons for the dominance of Western Universities in the top ranks of the world’s best. For all the apparent issues with Western societies (think social unrest on American streets at the moment), they remain societies that are open to free expression and more importantly the free flow of ideas. America in particular has rolled out the welcome mat for the world’s best brains and allowed them to flourish. Furthermore, as in the case of America, there is a culture that encourages experimentation. Part of that culture includes a tolerance for failure, which remains an anathema to many Asian societies

For many Asian governments, there is also prestige in having people trained by the world’s best. Here in Singapore, we take pride in the fact that our top people have not just proven themselves at home but in world-renown places like Harvard, Cambridge and so on. Governments in places like China have also done the same.

Having said all that, the question remains – why can’t Asia produce a world-class university and why can’t we accept the idea that people from the West might want to come to study in this part of the world.

The economics are certainly making Asia a more attractive place to be. For all it’s faults, China is the world’s second largest and most dynamic economy and other Asian countries are also following suite. Business interest in the West has certainly become more focused on Asia. I remember, when Ogilvy hired Tham Khai Meng as its global creative head. While the local media made a song and dance about the first Singaporean to be a global creative head of a major ad agency, there was also another person who got promoted, which was Miles Young, who became CEO. Mr. Young cut his teeth in Asia-Pacific.

A major ad agency thought it was important to fill its key positions with people with Asian experience because it saw that this was where the future consumers would be. However, are Asians being more than just copycats of a Western Mind?

Developing a great university would be the right start to proving that the answer is no. There are positive signs. I think of John Chambers, former CEO of Cisco Systems singing the praise of the Indian Institutes of Technology (IIT). I think of the efforts of Singapore’s Universities to create a start up system in the same way that Stanford did around Silicon Valley (as a matter of disclosure, I am working for NTU’s start up and commercialization arm and I have worked for the IIT Alumni).

However, more needs to b done. Asian societies will need to encourage greater innovation, which means a culture that allows experimentation, failure and questioning of established rules. The money is there to spend on research but cultures need to match. Think of the King Abdullah University of Science and Technology (KAUST), which has the full financial backing of Saudi Aramco, the world’s most profitable company. The facilities are wonderful and its hired famous names but has the culture created innovation and great research?  

Admittedly, I didn’t shine in university but if you look at what universities do, you’ll see that they are the bedrock of producing an innovative and prosperous economy. America has ruled the world in just about every sphere. It has most of the world’s best research universities. Surely that cannot be a coincidence. Instead of sending students there, most Asian governments could do well to ask what makes American universities so good and to replicate it within. There’s no reason why there can’t be a great Asian university.