Beloved, do not imitate evil but imitate good. Whoever does what is good is of God; whoever does what is evil has never seen God.
Singapore’s success comes from constant hanker for
change & risk-taking while learning best practices from the rest of the
world.
Kishore Mahbuhani, Singapore's former Ambassador to
the United Nations perceives great potential in the Philippines as one country
that will definitely succeed with meritocracy, practicality and honesty,
believing that Filipinos are among the most talented people in the world today.
Hailed as the most renowned Singaporean abroad after
Lee Kuan Yew (who also believed in the potential of the Philippines), Mahbubani
now leads the Yew School of Public Policy as dean. Together with his
colleagues, they give away the secrets of best practices of Singapore's success
specifically from the old days of its late founding father together with the
first generation leaders who are likewise credited for their good governance
towards building strong institutions.
By boldly prioritizing economic growth over civil and
political freedoms is Singapore’s so-called machine model of governance, which
holds a different view with that of its toughest critics whose governance is
dependent on delivering basic services, infrastructure and engineering.
Let’s find out how this “Fine City” prosperously takes
its place as one of the richest countries worldwide through its top 7 values of
leadership:
1.
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Meritocracy
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The finest should get the
opportunity to be in charge of.
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Mahbubani who was born to Hindu Sindhis, is one of the
best case studies of principle of meritocracy, whose career to the UN Security
Council was not stemmed from family or ethnic connections (the Singapore is
composed of 75% Chinese, 15% Malays, and 6 to 8% Indians).
Singaporean government provides scholarships for
outstanding students to study in prestigious universities abroad. In return,
they serve out bonds in the civil service, giving the ministers and senior
civil servants with dependable remunerations.
Hence, Singapore's brightest minds end up with the government instead of
the private sector.
Unlike in the Philippines wherein there is a common
belief that one successes if she/he is born in Makati, while chances are very
low if one is born in slums of Manila, Singapore’s meritocracy assumes that
everyone should be given the chance to prove they are good, thus, providing the
country with great reservoirs of brain power.
Millions of Filipino men and women leave their country
for jobs abroad beneath their level of education. Filipino professionals who
work in Singapore are as good as theirs. In fact, Filipino architects, artists,
and musicians are more artistic and creative than theirs according to the late
Prime Minister Lee Kuan Yew.
Nevertheless, in President Benigno Aquino’s term,
compensation package for government employees has changed, providing them with
much higher remuneration compared with private sector (except if one is working
in a call center which offers relatively high take home pay). In fact, I’ll be taking my Civil Service
Examination on the second week of April (hope I could make it) because of this
observation.
2.
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Honesty
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Clearing out on corruption
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Singapore minimizes corruption by providing
competitive pay to public servants. They are ranked as among the least corrupt
countries brought by tough legal code and heavy fines.
Lee Kuan Yew being the founder of modern Singapore
(who died last March 23, 2015) established a “zero tolerance” approach even before the term
gained currency, a top-level commitment by Corrupt Practices Investigation
Bureau (CPIB) directly under the prime minister's office.
Economist Donald Low, associate dean at the Lee Kuan
Yew School of Policy says that the ability to mobilize resources for public
services is a central lesson from Singapore through sufficient taxes generation,
than corruption or giving preferentiality to bureaucrats on the basis of
friendship and cronyism.
Singapore has lower taxes at 20% for the highest
income bracket versus the Philippines at 32%. I am hoping that Vice President
Jejomar Binay’s plan of tax-free on salary that ranges from 30,000[4] and below be
pursued even if he’s not elected as the next Philippine president.
Fighting corruption is not just a matter of penalties
and policies but by getting rid of “soft and forgiving culture”. It’s only on
the in the Philippines that a leader like Ferdinand Marcos, who plundered his
country for over 20 years, still be considered for a national burial, and
family members allowed to return and engage in politics despite the
insignificant amounts of the loot that have been recovered. Of course, parent’s sin may not be the
siblings’ sin as everybody is created uniquely, but they’re already old to
weigh what is conscientious and what is not so they’re already equipped with
liberty and mature disposition to return what is not theirs and what is
theirs.
The country needs exuberant press who could check
corruption, than individual press reporters who could be bought, as could many
judges. A number of Filipinos write and speak with passion. If they could get
their elite to share their sentiments and act could mean achievement.
Recently, the country has been facing another
controversy brought by money laundering perpetrated by hackers; the Senate has
started tracing where the $81-million from the accounts of the Bangladesh
central bank went after the money slipped through the Philippines financial
system, the Rizal Commercial Banking Corporation.[4] Personally, I’m hoping for
the Senate to come up with favorable result to Bangladesh considering the
economic condition of their country, not to mention the global trust rate that
it will cause to the Philippines in terms of exchange of financial investments.
At least, on the redeeming side, the country has now
jailed big names in politics sentenced for their corrupt practices like Former
President Gloria-Macapagal Arroyo, Senator Bong Revilla, Juan Ponce Enrile[5] (whose bail was allowed by the Supreme Court for humanitarian grounds) and
Jinggoy Estrada[6]– a demonstration of impartiality indeed that foreign investors
could look at indeed.
3.
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Rule of law
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application and adherence to
regulations
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Singapore bans chewing gum,
punish vandalism by caning, and impose fines on spitting, littering and even
feeding the monkeys, whose strict implementation helps foster a culture of
discipline that non-Singaporeans appreciate.
This reminds me of a circumstance
in the past about an anti-littering campaign wherein there’s an individual in
the team who approached and accused me that I threw a candy wrapper although
I did not. The guy attempted to pull
me which I resisted because I know that I did not violate anything. In irritation, the guy cursed me while I
walked off. As my immediate immature
reaction considering my young age, I cursed him back to get even and rushed
to go for my appointment. By my
resistance, the guy did not pursue me anymore.
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4.
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Vision
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Long-term planning and building
of institutions
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Singapore's first prime minister, Lee's transfer of
power to former Prime Minister Goh Chok Tong in 1990 was a decade-long process,
voluntarily and unprovoked, but remained as an influential senior minister and
minister mentor.
Singapore was able to build very quickly relatively
autonomous public institutions like the public housing board – the Housing
Development Board – that was able to house 80% of citizens within 20 to 30
years.
Emerging and developing countries should learn to
balance democracy with “a strong, competent, meritocratic state.” Development
should focus so much on checks and balances, accountability, ensuring the
government doesn't abuse its power. The first order of business for government
is to become a modern, effective state.
Go beyond the third-world to first-world formula by
getting rid of old principles and economic model, and public policy experts
that warn against elitism and inequality as a consequence.
Something has been missing, a gel to hold society
together. The people at the top have the same detached attitude to the native
peasants as the mestizos in their haciendas in Latin America had
toward their peons. They are two different societies: Those at the top who
lived a life of extreme luxury and comfort while the peasants scraped a living,
and in the Philippines it is a hard living – people have no land but work on
sugar and coconut plantations.
Back in the 1950s and 1960s, the Philippines was the
most developed brought by the U.S. generous rehabilitation of the country after
the war.
5.
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Learn
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Innovation and constant change
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The country needs to develop discipline more than
democracy.
Growth is likely to last for
many years in East Asia because the peoples and the governments of East Asia
have learned some powerful lessons about the cruelty and devastation of wars
- the more a country engages in conflict, the poorer and the more desperate
it becomes.
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Learn from bold leadership of the past. Success should
not create dislike constancy in change, and risk-taking. No matter how
successful one has been through the years, the willingness and ability to keep
surveying their circumstances, and keep learning from other people must still
be present, as there might still be better ways to do things. No society in human history has been as
triumphant in developing its living standards so fast and so broadly. Singapore
has learned all the best practices from the rest of the world, making it as one
of the best copycat countries. And with a sincerest heart, they’re also
encouraging others to copy whatever Singapore has copied from the other
countries.
6.
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Autonomy
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Protect maritime territories
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The Philippines has the difficulties of trying to
govern with strict American-style separation of powers. The senate had already
triumphed over Mrs. Aquino's proposal to preserve the American bases.
Lee affirmed President Fidel Ramos for being
"more practical" than his predecessor.
In an April 2014 issue of Forbes magazine, Lee also
talked about the South China Sea dispute between the China and its smaller
neighboring countries, including the Philippines . The disputes, which surface
from claims based on different principles may be a symptom of improbable
resolution, saying that China does not see itself becoming a global leader
without control of virtually the entire South China Sea, where a third of the
world's trade passes through. Much more is at risk than rocks and resources.
China sees the South China Sea as one of its key interests, claiming historical
rights to these waters.
Lee said Philippine-initiated arbitration through the
United Nations tribunal is a juridical platform that major global powers such
as China and the United States do not submit to.
A re-established China is not going to allow its
maritime frontiers to once again be decided by external.
7.
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Bilateral/Multilateral Relations
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Conserving global trust rate
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Lee Kuan Yew mentions in his book "From Third
World to First," about building Singapore's ties with the
Philippines wherein at one point there’s this event following the assassination
of Senator Ninoy Aquino in 1983 and international outrage that resulted in
foreign banks blocking all loans to the Philippines.
Philippine President Ferdinand Marcos sent his
minister for trade and industry, Bobby Ongpin, to ask Lee for a loan of
US$300-500 million to meet the interest payments. Looking straightly in the
eye, Lee said to the latter, 'Will never see that money back'.
On coup attempts during Corazon
Aquino's presidency that discouraged inflow of investments, the late Prime
Minister Lee says that this was a pity because the country was armed with
loads of adept people, educated in the Philippines and the United States, with
English-speaking workers at least in Manila, so it was illogical why it
should not have been one of the more successful of the The Association of
Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN)countries.
Having mentioned all of these 7
lessons of leadership, it’s evident that none of them have proudly affix the
death penalty law to affirm whether it has been significant or not to check
if it really contributes to Singapore’ economy except that Singaporean
political observer commented on the difference in taxes and services between
Singapore and the Philippines, by a joke saying like, “I think you need to
hang a few people!”
While Philippine presidential
aspirant like Sen. Grace Poe and Davao Mayor Rodrigo Duterte flaunt their
favoring of death penalty specifically on drugs for Duterte, and drugs and
heinous crimes for Poe,[7] Singapore never made any attribution to death
penalty.
Both the late founding father
together with the first generation leaders who are credited for their good
governance towards building strong institutions never mention about death
penalty.
As one who advocates the
preserving of the sanctity of life to give liberty to the criminals towards
transformation and appreciation of life without the aid of any crimes, I make
it a point to constantly provide an insertion to tap about ineffective death
penalty.
Following the executions of
Andrew Chan and Myuran Sukumaran in Bali reported last year around May,
debate about the role of the death penalty in society has led to calls for
Australia to push for an end death penalty around the world.
According to advocacy group Harm
Reduction International, thirty-three (33) nations retain the death
penalty for drug offenses. Not all of which carry out capital punishment for
these offenses on a regular basis, and estimates that "executions for
drug offences have occurred in only 12 to 14 countries over the [five years
to 2012]". It accounts six countries with a "high" rate of
employing the death penalty in drugs cases namely China, Singapore, Saudi
Arabia, Vietnam, Malaysia and Iran. Indonesia which resumed executions for
drug traffickers in 2013 might soon be added to that list "if it carries
out its threat to execute more drug traffickers".
Singapore, Malaysia and possibly
Vietnam may be "ready to be downgraded to 'low application
states'."
Professor Zimring, with
Professor Fagan and David T. Johnson of The University of Hawaii, conducted a
study that compared Singapore - a country that does have the death penalty -
with Hong Kong.
According to the study, in the
mid 1990s, Singapore's execution rate was among the highest in the world.
There was a steep drop off in the decade after 1997 - a reduction of an
estimated 95 per cent.
Hong Kong abolished the death
penalty in 1993.
The three deduce that "the
Singapore experience magnifies the impact of American assertions [that the
death penalty deters] to a patently silly status".
They found that "homicide
levels and trends are remarkably similar in these two cities over the 35
years after 1973, with neither the surge in Singapore's executions nor the
more recent steep drop producing any differential impact".
Over half of all the countries
worldwide retain the death penalty in some form or other. A small number hold
on to it only for war-time offenses and others have not used it for over 10
years, but there are a large number that maintains its use primarily as a
punishment for murder.
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