'We in India have much to learn from Singapore'

OPINION

I am grateful to India Club for inviting me to deliver a talk and thus have an opportunity for an interaction with the intellectual, business and cultural elite in Singapore.

This is the third day of my stay in Singapore, and I must confess that I have been bowled over by the unique charm of your country. I cannot quite put my finger on the source of this charm. I cannot say it is the breathtaking skyline of Singapore, which is just one of the many visible signs of it being a vibrant global trading and financial hub. I cannot say it is the neatness and discipline that is embedded in everything that exists here and in everything that is done here. I cannot say it is the amazingly rich socio-cultural diversity that is seen here, and the harmony that is apparent among various parts of this diversity.

The charm and attraction of Singapore can be attributed to all this and more. Perhaps, its source lies in that intangible quality called "national resolve". It is that one quality without which no nation, howsoever well-endowed in terms of natural and human resources, can scale great heights of success and glory. It is also the one quality which, if present in abundance among both the people and the rulers, can propel even a small and resource-poor nation to dizzying heights of achievement.

In the history of the modern world, Singapore presents one of the best illustrations of this truth.

What was Singapore like when it took birth as a separate nation-state in 1965, and what is it now in 2007? How did this incredible journey happen? There might have been many factors behind this success story. But, according to me, the root cause lies in national resolve, which then translated itself into unity, discipline, hard work, innovation and the ability to seize the opportunities to leapfrog into a higher orbit of development.

Of course, the national resolve to continually take Singapore to newer levels of achievement manifested most starkly in its political leadership. Some years ago, I had an occasion to read Lee Kuan Yew's memoirs called 'From Third World to First: The Singapore Story: 1965-2000'. It describes how Singapore was transformed from a small colonial outpost of the British empire into an economic powerhouse in less than four decades. Singapore's per-capita GDP was just $400 when Lee Kuan Yew became Prime Minister in 1959. By the time he left office in 1990, it was $12,200. And when his book was published at the turn of the century, it was $22,000.

But it is not merely the rising prosperity that tells Singapore's great success story. The real story lies in how it was achieved, how the entire population participated in nation-building and benefited from it, and how the whole society's way of living was changed in the process. What strikes me most is the new social discipline and civic sense that Singapore acquired, thanks to the leadership's constant attention and motivation. The fact, for example, that Singapore is the cleanest city-state in the world did not come about on its own. The fact that anti-smoking and anti-spitting laws here are the strictest was an integral part of how the leadership envisioned Singapore's future.

Lee Kuan Yew writes in his book: "We would have been a grosser, ruder, cruder society had we not made these efforts to persuade people to change their ways... It has made Singapore a more pleasant place to live in."

No wonder, the number of foreign tourists who visit Singapore each year is more than double its population.

All these things are obvious to you. But I am stating this because I believe that we in India have much to learn from Singapore. Of course, not everything in one country's success story can serve as a pattern for another. Besides, we in India have many things that we can be proud of. Nevertheless, I have no hesitation in saying that the lesson of what national resolve can do to transform a nation is something that we can profitably learn from this small but beautiful country.

(Excerpts from the speech of BJP leader L K Advani at Singapore's India Club on July 28, 2007)