HK needs skills to navigate geo-political storm – top analyst
Hong Kong must develop the geo-political skills to navigate the next turbulent decade, one of Singapore’s top ex-diplomats said.
Kishore Mahbubani served as the country’s Permanent Representative to the United Nations for a total of 11 years and was President of the U.N. Security Council in January 2001 and May 2002. Since his retirement, he has held senior posts in universities, including distinguished visiting scholar at the Centre on Contemporary China and the World at HK University. He has written many books.
He was giving an address at the Asia Society, to promote his newest book “Living the Asian Century: An Undiplomatic Memoir”.
“The next 10 years will be very exciting for Hong Kong,” he said. “It will be a key political football kicked around between the U.S. and China. Now is the time to develop the skills to monitor and understand the geo-political forces. The Hong Kong government needs a thinktank. You need a high degree of sophistication. These forces will shake you.”
He said that, to deflect the geo-political pressure, Hong Kong must emphasise the ‘two systems’ part of ‘one country, two systems’, including the legal system it inherited from Britain.
“You are part of China but are different to China. U.S. politicians will try to bring down Hong Kong,” he said.
The session was chaired by Ronnie Chan, chairman of the Hong Kong Centre of the Asia Society.
“We are collateral damage,” Chan said. “The Hong Kong government and people are asleep. We are more left than the leaders in Beijing. We respect ‘one country’ but should emphasise ‘two systems’. Hong Kong is undergoing a lot of changes.”
Mahbubani said that such geo-political skills and knowledge were critical in creating the ‘miracle’ of Singapore since its independence from Malaysia in 1965.
He praised its three founding fathers – Lee Kuan Yew, Goh Keng Swee and Sinnathamby Rajatnam. “They lived through the brutal Japanese occupation, the fight against British colonialism and the acrimonious divorce with Malaysia. At independence, the British media said Singapore would fail because it had no hinterland.”
He said that, during these struggles, the three could have lost their lives and could have been imprisoned by the Malaysian government. “They had a common experience of suffering together. They developed trust and camaraderie.”
Chan said that, by contrast, the PRC prepared everything for the handover of Hong Kong. “It was too easy. We did not struggle or fight.”
Chan said that Hong Kong had produced no such great people. “We have business leaders and arts people. Singapore is a state and produced brilliant people.”
Mahbubani said that Singapore had had four very competent Prime Ministers and developed strong institutions, including a Foreign Ministry that now had more than 1,000 people. “Our leaders were among the best in the world to manage geo-political risk. Who were the Prime Ministers of Britain – Boris Johnson and Liz Truss.”
Mahbubani gave another piece of advice to the Hong Kong government. “Bring global talent here. There is a lot of young talent looking for opportunity and China is the fastest-growing economy, Many Western countries are closing the door to global talent, including the U.S. and Canada. Talent is self-reinforcing.”
He said the Western dominance of history was ending and a multi-polar world was being formed. “I am glad to be alive today. You will see incredible changes on many fronts.”
He described a poor childhood. He was born in 1948 in Singapore “a poor Third World colony. At six months, I had severe diarrhoea and the doctor said I was lost.” When he went to primary school at six, he and a dozen other under-nourished children were given milk and nutritious food to build them up.
In 1967, he won the President’s Scholarship to study at the University of Singapore, where he earned a first class degree in philosophy. He then completed an MA in philosophy at Dalhousie University, Nova Scotia in Canada. In 1971, he joined the Ministry of Foreign Affairs.
His life was transformed not only by education but also by an American exchange student at his school who gave him a present of US$2,000 before he returned to the U.S. With this money, he visited Malaysia, Thailand, Kolkata and other cities in India and then Katmandu in Nepal. Without this generosity, he would never have been able to make such a journey.
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