“We don’t need to copy what the rest of the world is doing, we can be pragmatic in developing a system that works for us.” These were the words of Kishore Mahbubani, a Singaporean diplomat and a former President of the United Nations Security Council.
Kishore revealed how Singapore moved from a third world nation into a first world nation.
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He explained that when he was growing up, Singapore was still a poor developing country. He added that when Singapore was gaining independence, its per capita income was 500 dollars, just like any other African developing country.
“I started my education when I was 6 years old. I was underweight and malnourished and I was put on a special feeding programme. The principal had milk and all those pupils who were underweight were put on a special diet. Our house had no flash toilet and we lived like any other struggling family,” Mahbubani said.
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He attributed all the improvement in Singapore’s economic and social status to the use of a special formula known as Meritocracy, Pragmatism and Honesty (MPH)
Meritocracy means selecting the best people to run the country. He pointed out that what brings many countries down, especially in the third world countries is giving critical job positions like finance or economic ministers to relatives or friends. In Singapore, that was not the case.
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“Pragmatism in this case doesn’t matter on the ideologies. If it works well, it can be used for the better of the nation and its citizens. The country would take some policies that are capitalist and some which are socialist and they worked well,” he added.
Honesty means zero tolerance of corruption. The country leadership was keen to punish the senior employees in case of reported corruption scandals in their department.
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