The
development story of Singapore is arguably a legend among the developmental
economists because of reasons more than one. The first key feature about the
growth is the speed and consistency with which it took place. Hardly
could anyone have imagined that this “tiny little dot” of a city would become a
thriving global financial powerhouse, once it unwillingly gained independence
in 1965.
The second
key feature that sets this story apart is the network of constraints within
which Singapore has grown. It wasn’t ready for political independence- The idea
of securing its borders and the maritime offshore interests from the world was
a nightmare for its political leadership. It had a nearly fully migrant
population that resided in closely packed squatter settlements, making a living
out of the port operations. Singapore has handled these constraints in a
spectacular way and even today while the global financial powerhouse shines to
its strength, the potable water to be used by its residents finds its way from
Malaysia. Hence, Singapore’s story of governance is not a “done and
forgotten” type, rather a “continuous blossoming” type.
Amidst such
continuous tweaking, it is important for the government to have a set of underlying
principles that need to be mandatorily followed amidst all the policy
experimentation. Singapore has been smart enough to define them thus -
1:
“Leadership is the Key”- Singapore looks at leadership as both political and administrative.
Efforts are actively taken to ensure that the best talents of the nation is
recruited and retained in the public sector. This is done through fair and
meritocratic selection process and pay parity with the best in the private
sector.
The fact
that this is the first principle enunciated by Singapore in its list also shows
their perception of their political leaders. The fact that the same party has
been in power in Singapore right since its independence and a single person has
been at the helm for 35 continuous years and still remains overtly powerful as
the Minister Mentor of Singapore, calls for an analysis.
Being a
small state that started its journey by fending for its own survival, Singapore
and its people have put the stability of government’s vision and policy as
their topmost priority.
2.
Anticipate Change and Stay Relevant- Given the strict and quick enforcement of its policies,
Singapore has to be more cautious about making mistakes in its policies. Such
course corrections require the governmental sector to be attuned to receiving
feedback and acting on them positively.
A number of
sessions that we attended in our stint at the Civil Services College showed how
smoothly Singapore’s government has pro actively addressed the changing needs
of its population. Eg. The design of public housing projects and the
allotment policies were changed in the real time due to the changing needs of
the clientele – Hence, increase in the car ownership led to constructive
planning for inclusion of parking spaces and the change in the location
preferences of the people led to restructuring of tariffs of the public housing
projects.
3. “Reward for work, and Work for Reward” - Singapore is the melting point of
civilizations and financial business houses of the world. It naturally
understands the concept of incentives and opportunity costs in human resource
management. Young and talented people are recruited and retained in the public
sector through competitive salaries and professional growth opportunities.
4. “Create
a Stake for Everyone and Opportunities for All” - Singapore as a democracy maybe doing
a devil’s job in curtailing civil liberties when it comes to protests and political
demonstrations, but, inter-alia, the
involvement of the citizenry in governmental processed serves as real tool for
democratization.
All the
policy interventions in Singapore are oriented to include the relevant people
as important stakeholders. It provides scope for participation in planning,
enforcing, implementing and in course correction.The people
we met in our visit also showed a keen understanding of their stakes and show
how proud they felt in being included. This gave people a sense of “one
country, one government” through their most routine interactions with the
government.
Singapore
has its turfs guarded very possessively. There are a number of blanket
restrictions regarding ownership of private property and other associated
rights for migrants. Similarly even the migrants, who obtain “Permanent
Residency” of Singapore, receive fewer governmental privileges. However, when
it comes to its citizens – Singapore offers them a number of opportunities in
employment, ownership of property and education.
“Leadership is the Key”: Messiah from the
Indian Chaos?
Given the
political stability in Singapore, a shared vision and policy outline that
remained consistent through more than 5 decades was made possible. One can
argue how much of the same is possible in India and how one can assist in that.
To my mind,
it is a fact that the political system in Singapore has elements and traits
of an autocracy in it. There is always a risk involved in such autocratic
regimes – It is Singapore’s fate that its longest serving prime minister
of the country had the abilities of a stalwart. Most importantly it is also
Singapore’s fate that the focus on curbing of corruption was started from its
inception by the political leadership and has continued since then. Systemic
corruption can twist and turn any policy intervention in ways that are
difficult to predict. The fact that the political establishment was highly
motivated to curb corruption, helped Singapore in good stead – one could ask,
what if it would have been otherwise – how and when would the people have
revolted against it.
So even
though “autocratic democracy” worked for Singapore in ways that could
have been best possible, it cannot, to my mind, be prescribed as the panacea
for all developmental ills.
In India,
the nature of polity and politics gives room for change of parties with every
election. It brings in fresh ideas and views, in line with the ever changing
demands of the multi-colored society. Politically, India can come on broad
terms of agreement for governance of the nation and if that is done and agreed
to by all the parties like the “Model Code of Conduct” is, in case of elections
conducted by the ECI.
Such a broad
framework can give the country’s governance a sense of continuity. Similar framework
can be evolved for the state’s administrative setup.
We cannot
dream of a messiah to emerge from our crowds, it’s better we start with what we
can do in the existing milieu of mortals.
“Anticipate Change and Stay Relevant”: Dancing
Elephant?
Based on the
exposure I received during the Singapore stint, this is the single most
important principle for India to learn from.Singapore’s “manageable”
population (it was lesser than the population of my sub division of Raigarh in
Chhattisgarh), makes it easy for the government to proactively assess and
address the changing needs of its population.
The
“manageable population” might have made it possible for Singapore to be a
perfectionist in its service delivery to the people, however as a state,
India can start with adopting an attitude that allows it to introspect and
self-correct.
When a
semi-autocratic public system can go back on its harshly implemented policies
and make regular course corrections to allow for achievement of results, why
the public sector of India doesn’t adopt the humility to receive and process
feedback objectively and tweak the policies based on such real time feedback.
The way I
see it, adoption of this principle in India is not impractical. Visualizing
our system as an elephant that moves at a glacial pace will not help our levels
of public service delivery. For a wise man would have once said, with enough
political will and administrative acumen, even elephants can be made to
dance!
“Reward for Work and Work for Reward”: If You
Pay Peanuts, You’ll Get Monkeys!
A senior
administrative officer of Singapore, on getting candid in an interaction, said “If
you pay peanuts, you will get monkeys.” The simple line summed up the
Indian bureaucracy’s state of affairs beautifully.
Singapore trainers were not proud of paying
their civil servants high salaries. They didn't look at the salaries as “high”.
It was very clear to them that if you want a world class bureaucracy, you need
to give world class incentives. And the salary, they defined, to be “apt and
respectable”. Such a change in attitude is required in the Indian setup to
enable the civil servants from getting de-motivated by seeing their peers in
the private sector.
The Cosmopolitan
Commonality
The one
striking similarity between the two countries is their fundamentally diverse
population. The manner in which Singapore has addressed the issues brought by a
fundamentally diverse type of population is noteworthy. It has given a sense of
inclusion to all the citizenry by including all the major communities’
languages as the official language. Moreover, the country celebrates its
diversity in population – while little india is scintilla-tingly decorated for Diwali, the Malay population area shines during the month of
Ramzan.
The way the
country is run, it makes it clear that Rule of Law is paramount and no
mercy can be expected based on anything that is politically accepted. It’s what
leads to what people call “Curtailing of civil liberties to protest and
demonstrate”, while others find it enabling to have a stable environment to do
business.
It is very
easy to dismiss the entire Singaporean experience as a “chance incident” with
the right mix of political leadership and size.
It is
easier enough to belittle their achievement by smirking on its geographical and
population size.
However, the
future of our country lies in us challenging ourselves to think of ways in
which we can learn from Singapore’s experience. The fact that good policies, if
implemented ruthlessly with eyes and ears open for feedback, can bring about
miracles – is shown by Singapore in more ways than one.
I hope the
exposure offered to us through this short foreign stint will serve us well in
dreaming and creating visions for our own jurisdictions. It also shows how
important a role international exposures play in the minds of young officers;
Any attempt to reduce or abolish them citing that India’s unique problems leave
nothing to be learnt from others, is
short-sighted, in the least.
