On the world stage

The tiny, independent city-state of Singapore has long punched above its weight. The Singaporean diplomat Kishore Mahbubani – former president of the UN Security Council, celebrated author and permanent fixture at Davos – made his mark there by serving as both the founding director of its Civil Service College and the founding dean of the Lee Kuan Yew School of Public Policy.

Mahbubani is famous for books with provocative titles such as Can Asians Think? (1998), and for his blunt criticism of what he sees as sanctimonious liberal intellectuals in the West. The subtitle of his latest book, Living the Asian Century: An undiplomatic memoir, suggests that it will be an account full of grievances, potshots and payback. What we get, surprisingly, is heartfelt and introspective, covering the whole sweep from Mahbubani’s “born poor” beginnings to “the last lap of my life”. The author is heavily self-critical, with frank confessions of the insecurities concealed behind his self-confident exterior, and he goes out of his way to credit others – his courageous mother, supportive academics and political mentors – for his achievements. His storytelling often contains surprising twists. I loved the anecdote about his philosophy teacher, Colin Davies, who became so engrossed during one lecture that he lit his hair with his cigarette.

The author’s training in philo­sophy inspired a commitment to questioning conventional wisdom, and with it a willingness to speak truth to power, starting during his university days, when he wrote an article censuring his country’s longstanding leader, Lee Kuan Yew, for putting Singapore on the road to dictatorship. This disposition was key to Mahbubani’s success, but it repeatedly got him into trouble, as when he was turned down for a high-level position because Lee valued conformity and political loyalty over truth- telling in cabinet meetings. (On private Lee was a good listener and valued candid feedback.)

Living the Asian Century lays bare the reality of hierarchy in international relations. Large states can get their way by dint of sheer power, but small states must emphasize international norms such as respect for sovereignty, as well as for institutions such as the International Court of Justice. Their diplomats rely more heavily than those of larger states on cleverness, charm and trust-building via games of golf, elaborate meals and heavy drinking.

This memoir also sheds valuable light on Singaporean politics. Lee’s influence was paramount, but the city-state’s success also owes much to other founding fathers such as the economist and educationalist Goh Keng Swee. Goh mentored Mahbubani, inviting him to give lectures on Marxism to senior military officers in a regime with little taste for communism.

This book is eminently readable, but hardly undiplomatic. On several occasions Mahbubani hints at things that went wrong and people who sought to destroy his career, but he doesn’t pull the trigger. It could be that the information is still classified. It could also be that the author has mellowed with age.

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