BUILT TO LAST: SUCCESSFUL HABITS OF VISIONARY LEADERS TEN LESSONS I LEARNT FROM THE BOOK “FROM THIRD WORLD TO FIRST WORLD”

Successful habits of LEE KUAN YEW (LKY) By Samuel DanAuta Kyarshik (SDK)

Lessons from the Book “From Third World To First World by Lee Kuan Yew”

I bought the book in 2013 and started reading but didn’t finish. It was INT that helped brought out the value of the book in my leadership and mentoring life. “From Third World To First World is a Classic” I believe very strongly that no man should be appointed or elected into the position of leadership without having that man go through this great leadership classic of our time. The history of the post-colonial period shows that few newly-independent countries have succeeded. It is consequently noteworthy, how well Singapore has done in just about 4-5 decades. In 1965 when Singapore became independent, according to Lee Kuan Yew (LKY), there was total gloom and doom because Singapore was literarily fired from Malaysia. No doubt according to the book, that at independence, Singapore was poor and struggling surrounded with very dangerous enemies.

Today, Singapore has one of the highest Human Development Index (HDI) in the world – 9th in the world with a score of plus or minus 0.901. Singapore has the 4th-highest GDP per capita in the world at $76,237 (in PPP terms), nearly double that of its former colonial master, the UK ($37,017). More than one Singaporean in six households have $1 million in cash savings. In the past decade alone, the number of Singaporeans running their own business has doubled. The US is the only other country in the world with more entrepreneurs-per-capita.

It is also no news that Singapore is consistently and continually categorized as one of the best cities in the world to live in. People travel from around the world to Singapore because of the state-of-the-art education and health systems readily available. Besides the fact that, Singapore is also currently ranked as one of the safest countries in the world.

 10 lessons from the Book “From First World To Third World”

After reading the book, one of the questions I asked myself was: how did Singapore succeed? The answer to the question above is the ten lessons I discussed at the last Leadership Breakfast Meeting and they are here below:

Lesson # 1:

Selfless & Dedication People

I believe very strongly that unlike Nigeria, Singapore was blessed with good founding fathers, such as Lee Kuan Yew, S. Rajaratnam, and Goh Keng Swee. These trios were amazingly wonderful men who dedicated their lives for the development of Singapore. According to LKY in the book, these men were amazingly incredible. They were all very brilliant. They were totally dedicated and selfless to improving the lives of Singaporeans. This trio were good learners. For example, Goh Keng Swee learned from the Meiji reformers in Japan. Hence, they formulated policies which benefited Singaporeans. Singapore was also blessed with other good founding fathers, such as Xanana Gusm?o, Mari Alkatiri, and Jose Ramos Horta.

If Nigeria had men like the ones mentioned above, we would not be where we are today going through what we are going through. This simply means that with the right leadership in place, Nigeria will succeed and Plateau can be great again..

Lesson #2:

Understanding Who To Walk With

On page 5 and 6, you see how LKY displayed his understanding of the good men around him. He knew the good and bad guys. Because he knew all his men he chose the right men for the right position. He avoided the mistake of putting a square peg in a round hole. This is one of the problems we still have today in Nigeria, appointing people into offices they have little or no knowledge of. Take for instance, Fashola is a Lawyer, but his is the minister of Power and housing. Ngige a medical doctor is the minister of labor. These are things LKY never committed and Singapore became a great nation by using the right people for the right jobs.

Lesson #3:

Leading On The System of Meritocracy

One of the reasons why Singapore succeeded was the implementation of meritocracy by its

founding leaders. The delegated responsibilities on other good people to lead the country and laid down a solid foundation based on meritocracy as the cornerstone of public service appointments. According to LKY, “A strong political leadership needs a neutral, efficient, honest civil service. Officers must be recruited and promoted completely on merit. They have to share the same nation-building philosophy and development goals of the political leaders. They must be adequately paid so that temptations would not be difficult to resist. An impartial, capable Public Service Commission had to be shrewd at assessing character. Appointments, awards of scholarships must be made to the best candidates.” This is something that Nigeria can do as well. Meritocracy ensures that the best talent in the country is attracted to public service and also serves to create a fair society. On page 27, LKY said “whether your father is a minister, banker, professional, laborer, taxi driver or hawker, your military standing depends on your performance”. One of my biggest question to politicians is “what has zoning done to the Nigerian people? When are we going to start building a system based on merits and not connections?

Lesson #4:

The Principle of Pragmatism: The Talk Less and Do More Principle (TL-DMP)

A leader must be able to select very practical people who will talk less and do more. People who will be able to command results. This is one of the reasons Singapore succeeded as a nation. LKY in choosing leaders considered their pragmatic outlook and configuration in terms of their willingness and ability to learn from other countries. According to one of LKY strong men, Dr Goh Keng Swee, he said, “no matter what problem Singapore encounter as a nation, somebody, somewhere has found the solution. Let us find that solution and adapt it intelligently to Singapore.” This is what made Singapore the most pragmatic country in the world because of her ability and humility to copy solutions from all other countries. This is also why Dr Goh studied the Meiji Restoration very carefully. Few will doubt that LKY succeeded in this goal. This I believe is something Nigeria can do as well. In Singapore, the LKY School Graduate Education and Executive Education programs are dedicated to disseminating best practices from Singapore to developing cities across the world. Nigerian leaders must learn to adopt best global practices.

Lesson #5:

Good Foreign Policy (Strong Institutions Not Weak Institution)

LKY understood the fact that they can’t afford to have enemies abroad because of their small size as a nation. So their approach to their foreign policy was very strong and also pragmatic. Take for instance when Singapore was literally expelled from Malaysia, there was cold war between Singapore and the rest of her neighbors and even internally, there was rising tension amongst different tribes. Most importantly during the Cold War and internal turbulent times, Singapore was friendly with the United States but it did not ignore the Soviet Union. The masterminds behind Singapore’s fine foreign policies was a guru in the person of Mr. S. Rajaratnam, the legendary Foreign Minister of Singapore. Rajaratnam said in his 1965 speech at the United Nations on Singapore’s foreign policy, “We want to live in peace with all our neighbors simply because we have a great deal to lose by being at war with them. All we therefore ask is to be left alone to reshape and build our country the way our people want it. We have no wish to interfere in the affairs of other countries or tell them how they should order their life. In return we ask other countries to be friendly with us even if they do not like the way we do things in our own country. This is why Singapore has chosen the path of non-alignment.”

Pragmatism in foreign policy is something Nigeria can do as well. Most Nigerians said we have good policies but they are not being implemented. I believe that any good policy that is not implemented is not good enough. I want to believe that our policies are not good enough and need to be rewritten or reviewed. Our economic policy, health and primary education policies etc. are all not good enough for the problems we are currently facing.

Lesson #6:

Start with Quick Win Projects (QWP)

The people LKY worked with were very focused leaders who agreed to start leadership by winning the confidence of the people. And the only way to win the hearts of the people is to do a quick win program. A quick win project is a small project that doesn’t need much money but at least will meet the smallest immediate need of the people. As small as sinking a bore hole in an area where water is scarce can quickly win the hearts and confidence of the people to trust and believe in that government but don’t stop at bore hole. It is a focused government that understand that small improvements can lead to big achievements. Over here in Nigeria, there are no small quick win projects, every politician wants to do very big projects in order to take the glory and they eventually never finish such projects. Lee Chiong Giam one of LKY’s strong men once said, that in the early days, if they could just get a standing pipe in a village to provide water, the governing party would get the villagers’ votes. This would in turn lead to the provision of public housing and schools. Development cannot be achieved through big sweeping reforms alone. Small steps that have a huge impact on the everyday lives of people are necessary to ensure that progress happens in a meaningful way. These are quick wins and it can be done here in Nigeria.

Lesson #7:

A Self-Dependent Nation (An Inward Look To What Singapore Has And Can Do For Herself)

There is no doubt that Singapore did not rely on foreign aid to achieve its development goals. LKY had to make his crew members I mean national executives see the fact that they must look inward and by all means avoid calling for foreign aids. Truth is, when you look at the intention of foreign donors, you will realize that the primary intention is to enhance the national interests of the donors and not to help the interest of the receiving nations. According to John Perkins, the author of the Confession of the Economic Hit Man, a large chunk (about 80%) of Western aid goes back to the donor country in the form of administration expenses, consultancy fees and contracts for donor country corporations. He also said since 1970, during this period known euphemistically as the Oil Boom in Ecuador, the official poverty level grew from 50 to 70 percent, under- or unemployment increased from 15 to 70 percent, and public debt increased from $240 million to $16 billion. Meanwhile, the share of national resources allocated to the poorest segments of the population declined from 20 to 6 percent.' Unfortunately, Ecuador is not the exception. Nearly every country controlled by western economist suffered a similar fate. Third world debt has grown to more than $2.5 trillion, and the cost of servicing it was over $375 billion per year as of 2004. That amount is more than all third world spending on health and education, and twenty times what developing countries receive annually in foreign aid.  

In short, LKY and his men realized that there was very little actual transfer of aid to the developing countries. So Singapore has always distrusted foreign aid and depended on what they can produce and offer within. LKY believed in trade and investment: LKY believed that trade, not aid, was the way forward for Singapore. When other countries like Nigeria in the 60s shunned investment, Singapore welcomed it. I want to suggest that Buhari Economic Team if he has one should go and understudy the Economic Development Board of Singapore. The EDB was set up in 1961 to create economic opportunities and jobs for the people of Singapore, and to help shape Singapore’s economic future. Over the last 45 years, Singapore’s EDB has done tremendously well as Singapore is today a First World Nation.

Lesson #8:

An All-Inclusive Political Institution (LKY unified the people)

The eight lesson from the book is the fact that Singapore’s success depended on inclusive policy on ethnic groups. Singapore’s main ethnic groups are Chinese, Malay, Indian, and others. So there are four official languages: English, Mandarin, Malay, and Tamil. This way, everyone feels included. Singapore’s founding fathers decided in the words of Rajaratnam that in: “In a multi-racial society, one soon learns that no one people has a monopoly of wisdom and that one’s own culture is not without flaws. This breeds not only tolerance for different viewpoints but also a readiness to learn and borrow from the accumulated wisdom of other people.” In a multi-racial society, if there is no common language, the people cannot communicate. That is why the main language of instruction in Singapore schools is English. Singapore made English its common language for pragmatic reasons.  That’s a very great lesson if we can take that down to every state in Nigeria.

Lesson #9:

The Ability to Set A Long-Term Goal (Strategic Planning)

The ninth lesson from the Book is the fact that Singapore’s success was deliberately designed by its leaders, like Lee Kuan Yew and Goh Keng Swee. They believed in thinking long-term. For example, though Singapore had signed a 100-year water agreement with Malaysia in 1961, they knew that Malaysia could threaten them by cutting out their water supply. So, they invested in other means of getting water supply to their people. They built large water reservoirs, desalination plants and water reclamation facilities etc. In March 2013, Dr. Vivian Balakrishnan, Singapore’s Minister for Environment and Water Resources, said: “We will certainly be water independent well before the expiry of the last agreement with Malaysia.” A government that doesn’t think long term and take immediate action is destroying the future.

Lesson #10:

Avoid Populist Measures

The tenth lesson from the book is that Singapore’s government avoided populist measures. Singapore has always been opposed to the welfare state. LKY said, “Watching the ever-increasing costs of the welfare system in Britain and Sweden, we decided to avoid this debilitating system. We noted by the 1970s that when governments undertook primary responsibility for the basic duties of the head of the family, the drive-in people weakened. Welfare undermined self-reliance. People did not have to work for their families’ well-being. The handout became a way of life… They became dependent on the state for their basic needs.”

LKY understood that the welfare state is too expensive for developing countries. It also undermines productivity. However, even though Singapore did not become a welfare state, it cared deeply about the welfare of its people. Singapore found other ways to make sure that its people would be well provided for. It invested in the welfare of its people through universal education, quality healthcare, affordable public housing and public transportation. In addition, it set up the Central Provident Fund, a compulsory savings fund. Singaporeans and their employers automatically contribute some money to this fund when they receive their salaries every month, and the money can be used to buy a house, for medical expenses, and, primarily, as a retirement fund. Singapore also has trade unions, but they are pragmatic. The government, unions and employers cooperate in a tripartite system, which, LKY says, “has brought benefits to workers, the government and employers because industrial peace creates confidence and increases foreign investments. Whenever employers make above average rates of return on capital, profits are shared.” The APC campaign promise to give free food to school students is a small introduction of the welfare state ideology. It won’t work anyway. We should learn from nations like Singapore.

There are many forms of welfare programs until date in Nigeria in forms of allowance, annual leave grants etc. if Nigeria must progress we must by all means avoid the costs of welfare state spending by finding our own innovative methods of cooperating with employers and workers to make sure that employees can earn a fair wage to support themselves, and to make sure that every employee is able to save enough to provide for their own health care, housing, and retirement.

Conclusion:

It is very obvious that leaders must be honest. Because honesty is the most challenging to achieve. The founding fathers of Singapore are very honest people unlike Nigeria’s founding fathers. That generation of Singaporean leaders were brutally honest. A story was told of a Singaporean Minister of State who was invited by a friend to go on holiday. He turned it down because he didn’t have money. The friend offered to pay so he went, by the time he came back he was arrested. When there is honesty in government, the citizens and the investors will trust and believe with understanding that government policies are meant to benefit the country, not to benefit the politicians. That’s the only way the people will feel confident in the leadership and this will eventually create a more stable political system, which gives investors peace of mind. Therefore, in conclusion, a remarkable degree of honesty in a country’s leadership will always lead to national success. In building a nation, it is important to adapt principles that are working and localize them. Actually, Singapore was one of the poorest and unluckiest countries when it achieved independence according to LKY. It had no natural resources. This is why it is useful to study Singapore’s experience. If Singapore can succeed against the odds, Nigeria and other countries can do likewise.