follow her Visited Singapore for the first time in March 2017The Western Cape Premier at the time, Helen Zille, was embroiled in a media storm over her comments about colonialism. She had tweeted that while colonialism was an oppressive and evil system, judging by Singapore’s success, not all outcomes were negative. The result was a storm on the ANC’s Twitterati, which quickly exploded in manufactured outrage.
The squall was so great that Jill was disciplined by the party for bringing the party into disrepute. Despite Prime Minister Gill’s “unreserved” apology for the tweet, then-Democratic Alliance leader Mmusi Maimane said the prime minister “relinquishes his position in all decision-making structures because it is in the party’s interest. I agreed,” he said. ”.
The effect of Media Scrum on one aspect of this, Jill’s views on the relative merits and demerits of colonialism, is to draw attention away from issues of current importance in Africa, as countless government tours to Singapore remind us. It didn’t help to deflect. If we are going to reform to improve our development prospects, why not?
The marble statue of Sir Thomas Stamford Raffles was erected on the Singapore docks in 1972. This is the place where the man considered to be the founder of modern Singapore is thought to have landed 150 years before his arrival. This white statue is a copy of the original bronze statue, which now stands in front of the Victoria Memorial, just a short walk away. This bronze version, sculpted by the famous British artist and poet Thomas Woolner, was unveiled on June 27, 1887, Jubilee.
Lessons for Africa
Dozens of African delegations visit Singapore each year to learn from the island’s success in transforming its real per capita GDP from $4,214 to $67,360 since independence in 1965. During this period, sub-Saharan Africa’s per capita GDP rose from $1,259 to $67,360. $1,623.
Singapore’s share of global GDP per capita has increased from just below the global standard of $4,257 in 1965 to six times the 2022 average of $11,315, while sub-Saharan Its share has halved to just 14% over the past 60 years.
Singapore’s GDP is currently $380 billion, slightly larger than South Africa, despite having one-tenth the population. In 1965, South Africans were on average 10% wealthier than Singaporeans.
The cost of failing to follow the same reformist path as Singapore has not gone unnoticed by African leaders.
Raila Odinga served as Prime Minister of Kenya from 2009 to 2013. Before and during that time, he led a Kenyan delegation to study Singapore’s success.
“It seems unusual now that Singapore was looking to Africa for economic growth insights in the 1960s,” he recalls. “In 1968, a team of Singaporeans traveled to Kenya to learn our lessons. At that time, we were a more developed country than they were. Forty years later, I went to Singapore with six pastors. This was the latest of many Kenyan government trips to the island, but no report was written about the trip and all participants were was kept a secret.
“I’m sure this has been a depressing experience for many African government officials and politicians. There’s been a lot of research, but much less subsequent action.”
Tough decisions and sound leadership
There are many good lessons to be drawn from Singapore, including not only accepting the past, but also a willingness to make tough decisions and a continued attention to detail. It requires a combination of sound leadership and a highly competent, meritocratic civil service.
Strength in diversity — Raffles meets Asia at Victoria Memorial Hall. (Photo: Greg Mills)
Unlike most African and other Asian political economies, corruption is severely punished and (economic) growth is fundamentally important. For example, if Africa had increased its wealth at the rate of Vietnam, which had a difficult road to independence, its wealth would have been closer to the global average, rather than one-seventh of it.
And if Africa had grown at Singapore’s pace, Africans would be twice as wealthy as the global average.
If there is one important lesson to be learned from Singapore, it is about pragmatism in government management.
Most African countries have been independent for longer than Singapore, so there is no need for more time. Lee Kuan Yew may have been prime minister for his 30 years, but his tenure was so impressive that it lasted a long time. If the latter had been poor, I doubt LKY would have survived, whatever its authoritarian tendencies.
Geography and neighborhood helped, but not for long. From Korea to Vietnam, there was a time when the region was defined by war. China’s poor performance was a scourge during the first four decades of the People’s Republic.
It’s not because Singapore has been able to escape the clutches of unscrupulous multinational corporations. Rather, Singapore has been actively working to attract these companies to the country, given their role in bringing skills, technology, finance and, importantly, knowledge and practices. of market. The number of multinational companies has been an important indicator of success for many years.
It could also be defined as such, not because of the relative absence of neocolonialism, but because the United States and the Western powers have maintained a stable presence since 1945. Once again, the role of Western companies and countries has been actively encouraged. Singapore Terms and Conditions.
Why do African (and other) leaders insist on the need for highly specialized civilians, especially when we know how Singapore did it and where this island came from? Will we choose to (mostly) ignore the lessons about the need for leadership at all levels, including gender? service?
Several reasons stand out.
For one thing, as Barry Desker has suggested, “Africans may relativize the Singapore experience and overemphasize differences in circumstances and backgrounds (cultural, historical, environmental, etc.).” People who visit Singapore come to the conclusion that Singapore is a small place and easy to govern,” says a veteran Singaporean civil servant.
Africans may not feel the same existential threat that Singapore felt during the dissolution of the Federation of Malaya in 1965. They believe that even without reform, their relative size and natural resources will allow them to avoid severe and far-reaching reforms. Their preferred ignorance is therefore a defensive reflex to exonerate their own inability to adopt a similar strategy.
local role models
But such existentialism is on the rise as the business-as-usual assumptions of most African leaders become hollow in the face of burgeoning demographics. It is one thing to advance reforms to ensure that 1 billion people in Africa have access to food, but it is another thing to advance reforms in response to the projected population of 2.5 billion in 2050. The current surge of instability in the Sahel provides a window into the dystopian consequences of inaction.
Former Nigerian Head of State Olusegun Obasanjo (full disclosure: we are writing a book together on Asia and he is honorary chairman of the Brenthurst Foundation) is described as “transformative, focused, courageous and determined.” Given that there is a premium for development on what we perceive to be “leadership with” leadership, the question is how to encourage it along this path.
Ironically, the answer lies in having the kind of local role model that Singapore offers to other countries in the region, just as Japan once provided for the reinvention of the Asian Tigers.
Under Deng Xiaoping, China learned from Singapore the need for skills and the benefits of openness. (Photo: Greg Mills)
This aspect is personified in the bust of Deng Xiansheng, the real name of Deng Xiaoping, considered the father of modern China, located just 100 meters below the Raffles statue on the Singapore River.
Unveiled by Lee Kuan Yew and then Chinese Vice President Xi Jinping in 2010 to commemorate the 20th anniversary of the establishment of diplomatic relations between Singapore and China, the monument includes the words “development” and “development” to describe Deng Xiaoping’s accomplishments. is more important than anything else,” are the words of Deng Xiaoping. It details his early life, political activities, his (only) visit to Singapore in November 1978, and his role in Singapore-China relations.
Deng Xiaoping became the first senior Chinese leader to visit Singapore. His visit in 1978 facilitated subsequent exchanges between the two countries in various fields. In the same year, he launched a dual policy of economic reform and opening up. Following the famous “Southern Visit” in 1992, which noted Singapore’s good social order and management, a number of Chinese officials were sent to the island for training. Take lessons from the small things.
Deng Xiaoping is remembered as one of the great modern politicians and a driving force behind China’s economic transformation through reforms. Although he remained a staunch communist, his reforms were notable for their pragmatism: socialism with Chinese characteristics. He says it best when he says, “It doesn’t matter whether the cat is yellow or black, as long as you catch mice.” He was proven right, and by unleashing market forces and allocating resources, China achieved the greatest economic turnaround of modern times.
Development heroes matter. While Raffles’ legacy remains complex and even controversial in some quarters, his role reminds us of the need to take the best from the past in order to progress into the future.
Standing with his arms folded and the spectacular skyline behind him, Stamford Raffles marvels at Singapore’s transformation from a malaria-infested swamp of just over 150 people to a $400 billion economy with 6 million people. will do.
Today, his gaze ironically focuses on the Museum of Asian Civilizations, a reminder that the history of this island nation did not begin and will not end with his role. Rather, Raffles is largely embraced and admired among Singaporeans, given the lack of unifying historical figures in our multicultural society.
From a South African perspective, the question is therefore less about the extent to which views of the past or future are allowed to be confined, and more about the current state of reform.
A large church like the ANC, whose core membership has a narrow but deep-rooted interest in maintaining the status quo, is it capable of self-correction and transforming itself, or is it in a position to get more? One might wonder whether it is the ability to emphasize numbers that unite when visible. Even if development is the objective of political power and has paramount importance, it will be free from identity politics and division in the short term. DM
author of rich states, poor statesDr. Mills www.thebrenthurstfoundation.org I am writing from Singapore.
