Learning from Lee Kuan Yew’s leadership
Mr Lew Kuan Yew (LKY), former Prime Minister of Singapore, is no more in this world yet his leadership legacy will endure. He passed away last week at the age of 91. He would certainly be remembered as an iconic political leader. I met him, if my memory doesn’t betray me, at LUMS in 1987. He was visiting Pakistan and had been invited to LUMS to address a group of businesspersons.
While addressing the audience, he shared his experience of the way he transformed Singapore from a Third World city-state to First World country. From his discourse of the time I recall from time to time two things he said: First, he said that he didn’t believe in grandiose plans sans execution. Second, he said that, as per his knowledge, rulers in Pakistan had sound plans without giving much thought to execution.
When asked how he controlled corruption in Singapore, he said that ‘he didn’t make any exception in dealing with corrupt elements of either elitist status or those who were close to him’. He shared a very interesting example of his approach to dealing with corruption cases. Once a minister who happened to be Lee’s close friend with family ties was reported to have been involved in corruption. It was, sadly enough, a tough decision to take. Since he didn’t believe in the ‘rule of exception’, he decided to send the minister to prison after his conviction but decided to support his family respecting the social ties. How many of our ruling elite would follow this example? Our practice, unfortunately, in such situations goes by ‘the exception rule’ and not by universal application of rule of law.
Reminiscing Lee’s visit to LUMS on his passing, I felt it would be desirable to share his leadership legacy with our people. There are two very important books which document his achievements as a leader. The first book is his biography and titled ‘The Singapore Story’ which was published in 1998, and the second one relates to the transformation of Singapore and is titled ‘From Third World to First’ and was published in 2000. Both these books are recommended as ‘must read’ by our political leaders whether in or out of power.
Turning a city-state around in 30 years from subsistence to one of the highest living standards was no mean achievement by any standard. At the root of this lies the leadership model of Lee. What did his leadership model consist of? First, he gathered around himself the most brilliant minds, transforming the most exacting standards into an efficient system of governance.
Second, under Lee’s leadership, the primacy of general interest, the cult of education, hard work and saving, and the capacity to foresee the needs of the country, enabled Singapore to what is labelled as ‘shortcuts to progress’. One pertinent lessons that our leaders can draw from this is that given Pakistan’s present development challenges, they don’t have the luxury of wasting the available limited time. Leaders who don’t respect the finite time available to them only hurt themselves.
Similar to our population diversity, Singapore was also a diverse community: Chinese, Malay, Indians and Europeans. But opposed to our deep social and religious leaning, Lee assimilated all the diversity into a single socially, economically and politically cohesive community. This harmony along with leadership’s resolve to transform Singapore went a long way to achieve the highest living standards for all.
Lee as an exemplary leader demonstrated that the road to progress was not easy. It needed long, hard work on the part of the leadership to build a great nation and to stamp out corruption without exception. He turned his country into a tropical garden city by planting plenty of trees thus making Singapore a loveable place. The green and clean environment wasn’t only for those living in posh localities but for everyone, rich and poor alike.
On the social front he realised that perseverance and stamina were needed to fight old habits. In this regard his views on human rights were non-conventional. His adversaries would portray him as a benevolent dictator rather than a democrat in the Western way. He strongly believed in bringing order to chaotic conditions if it helped build a great nation without personal vendetta. His non-conventional approach to human rights rested on the premise that no matter how good the system of governance, bad and fickle minded leaders would bring harm to their people.
While describing Lee’s leadership model a few points are worth stressing: First and foremost being that the leadership is more than just ability; it is a combination of ability, courage, commitment, determination and above all character. Lee wanted people around him, read ministers, to be imbued with the foregoing attributes so that people would be willing to follow them. Most of all, Lee wanted people, both in his cabinet and administration, to be activists with sound judgement to tackle complex situations and with strong interpersonal skills and interpersonal conflicts handling abilities.
What can our leaders learn from ‘LKY approach’? To recruit the best talent both intellect wise and with impeccable character to serve the society. To do that it is important to have a deeper appreciation of the present fault lines in the country to turn Pakistan from what it is today to a developed nation within a precisely defined timeframe.
While all positive thinking individuals would be happy to know Moody’s current rating of Pakistan’s economic profile from stable to positive, it may be useful to highlight some of the areas of concern for the rulers to pay special heed to. These include, amongst others, the present high government borrowing, an environment of increasing lawlessness, present ideological divide and bigotry of all sorts, brutalisation of society, a poorly balanced foreign policy and a weak human resource base for achieving competitive edge.
