Thailand and Singapore - Reflecting on Governing Institutions

These are thoughts which I felt deserve to be memorialized.

Firstly, I feel sad for Thailand - for the bloodshed and destruction - but also at how the institutions are unravelling. The monarchy, the army, its democracy, constitution, the entire establishment, in fact, are frayed and are being discredited bit by bit, day by day.

I do not doubt for a moment that Thailand is a wonderful nation as a people or that it can still have a promising future; but one wonders if it will go the way of a chronically failing state like the Philippines or will the current throes will throw up much needed reforms and lead to a new era stability like what Indonesia has just gone through.

The other reason for sadness is that I happen to have met and known some of the people at the helm of the current government. Back in 2003, Asia Inc Forum ran its inaugural ASEAN100 conference in Kuala Lumpur which I helped to put together. Abhisit was one of the key speakers; later I chatted with him a little while and I was impressed by his gentlemanly demeanor and earnest nature. Likewise, his associate Dr Bunaraj was an equally young and positive. Another prominent Democrat is Dr Surin the former Foreign Minister and current Secretary General of ASEAN. They are all smart and serious about public service, all a million light years away from the typical money/power grubbing oligarchs and political wheeler and dealers one sometimes meet in Southeast Asia. Now their reputation and the verdict of history is are in tatters, and I believe the future of the Democratic Party - once the most respected and non-personality based political party - is finished. Their mistake was to be used as a front for the anti-Thaksin forces and eventually being overwhelmed by forces that outside of their control. More likely they were out maneuvered - the irony is that Democrats are traditionally not known for being very effective in the bare-knuckled Thai politics.

But the fact remains that Thailand have had trouble building and sustaining a set of stable governing institutions. The present crisis is both a cause and a symptom of this.

My second thought is about the passing of a giant in the history of Singapore - Dr Goh Keng Swee last week at the age of 91. In terms of contributions to the Singapore miracle, I would consider him the equal to Lee Kuan Yew. In fact, Singapore won't be what it is without him even if history gave Singapore Lee Kuan Yew alone. Well actually, Dr Goh Keng Swee was a Peranakan born in Melaka.

If Lee Kuan Yew was the front man and the political and intellectual force. Dr Goh Keng Swee is the man who created the Singapore "system" by being the man responsible for implementing and executing Singapore's modernisation through the 60s, 70s and 80s. He was the economic and managerial power behind the Singapore miracle.

He was responsible for building Singapore's modern economy, and was instrumental in creating its key institutions of excellence like the EDB, GIC, Temasek etc., established the modern Singapore Armed Forces and architect of the Singapore education system and its support system of merit scholars. Equally important, he was responsible for creating and moulding the corporate culture of the Singapore Civil Service; and personally moulding the careers of countless men and women - those army of plainly dressed, smart, honest, dedicated, hardworking, details-and-results oriented, 'Kiasu" bureaucrats - that populated what many consider the world's best civil service. They were in many ways replicas of the original mandarin, Dr Goh Keng Swee.

Good ideas are nothing without proper execution and no outcome is sustainable without it being institutionalized. And there lies his gift.

He is a great man and I salute his singular accomplishment of having built Southeast Asia's finest institutions for governance. Against the pall of what is happening up North, one can better appreciate that there is nothing about his achievements that was inevitable.