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PS3249 Singapores Foreign PolicyGuest Lecture : Singapore and Soft Power?

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Assoc. Prof. Alan ChongS. Rajaratnam School of International Studies, Nanyang Technological Universityiscschong@ntu.edu.sgWhat is Soft Power?Nye (1990, 2004, 2009): the ability to get others to want what you want through co-optive power, i.e. persuasion and attraction, instead of coercion.

Nye posited culture, values, foreign policy; other scholars locate soft power through communitarian showcase; sustaining credibility; and the confidence to demonstrate a model to omnidirectional audiences

Giulio Gallarotti: soft power as cosmopolitan power2

(A) IDEAS AND CULTURE IN SINGAPORES FOREIGN POLICY3CONTEXT (1): Why is Soft Power intrinsic to Singapores Foreign Policy?GEOGRAPHICAL LOCATION

IMAGE PROJECTION

STAGE OF DEVELOPMENT4

Handy guide to unlocking the first half of the lecture!SOUTHEAST ASIA REPRESENTATIVE OF PROBLEMS PLAGUING THIRD WORLD STATES Singapore as Different from these characteristics list on your own? Complex and motley region representative of problems plaguing Third World states everywhere: inter-ethnic and religious strife;

Separatism Culture, Identity and Economic Possession joined, or in disjoint?

Politics of pride in uniqueness Politics of blood ties and emotionWhat is political culture in a developing context?

Post-colonial state-building issues;respect for authority and constitution to be sustained;police forces under question;stability of institutions.

Underdevelopment and unequal wealth distribution; politics of envy.

Obsession with sovereign equality in foreign relations. Neighbours and extra-regional powers as sensitivities.5Roots of the Asian Values Debate in Singapores Political HistoryIdeological features arising from the 1959-65 period struggle for self-government 1957-9; promoting Malaysian federation abroad to thwart Sukarnos Konfrontasi;Third World protest against western hegemony Developmental trajectory from sense of vulnerability - search for a governing system that will deliver political stability and prosperity6IDEOLOGY of SURVIVAL?(1) Singapores survival will depend upon the adoption of a new set of attitudes, a new set of values, or in short a new Man (new woman) ;(2) The importance of producing a tightly organised society with little room for wastage of resources and possibly the luxury of political opposition:in July 1966, Lee said Societies like ours have no fat to spare. They are either lean and healthy or they die. We have calculated backwards and forwards for eleven months, on an independence we never sought that our best chances lie in a very tightly organised society.7

(3) Nation-building as a priority need to quickly instil a sense of a common rootedness and loyalty in spite of multiethnic diversity; nation-building through multicultural secular accommodation [consult relevant books from other Singapore Studies modules?] (4) Need for the people of Singapore to come to terms with the notion of Change is the essence of life. The moment we cease to change, to be able to adapt, to adjust, to respond effectively to new situations then we have begun to die. (The Mirror Vol.3, no.19 8 May 1967, p.1 quoted in Chan, Politics of Survival, 53) 8THE SINGAPORE MODEL of DEVELOPMENTCredibility of political promises, programmes and personnel, and which includes talent promotion and uncompromising anti-corruption vigilance; Cohesion of the nation-state expressed in the qualities of teamwork, diligence and harmony of purpose in the face of common threats;Plus: scientific formulae in the service of coordinated economic planning, strategy and

Confidence in paternalistic leadership, its virtues in implementing strict law and order and planning for a long-term communitarian good. Ostensibly these link to the dominant discourse of culturally and historically-derived political and social order.

9Does the SMD Need Justification to Outsiders?Yes: Singapores open economy, communicationsNature of the politics of Southeast Asia envy factor in ASEAN Kechil; beacon for; and search for allies in rest of Southeast AsiaPAP PersonalitiesLiberal v. Illiberal Democracy Debate Worldwide10PM Lee Kuan Yew on Ideological Sovereignty of Ones Government[Debate with external critics] brings home to Singaporeans that regardless of the pontifications of foreign correspondents and commentators, it is the values of the elected government of Singapore that must and will prevail.

Ministers in Singapore are rational and logical people. They do understand the Western world and the changes which Western technology has brought about. They welcome, indeed they embrace, these changes. Singapore has found its niche in the world as a centre for trade, finance, banking, transportation and telecommunications because its ministers have recognised and embraced these innovations.

But the Singapore Government cannot change its stand that the political process of Singapore is reserved only for Singaporeans.

(PM Lees speech to the Commonwealth Press Union, 1990)

11CONTEXT (2): FOREIGN POLICY STRATEGYNature of Singapores Strategy Visions of Singapores foreign policy elite softly, discreetly, where possible, try to ameliorate the operating environment

In 1966, FM Rajaratnam envisaged that the Republic could do its bit for ameliorating the polarised atmosphere of Southeast Asia by fostering the cooperative elements.

Power of experimenting with Singapore as a Demonstration of Cooperation in a troubled region (postcolonial Southeast Asia).12Visions of Exceptionalism (contd)Then-PM Lee Kuan Yews notion of Singapore as an oasis of the good life and a node of great power strategic and economic interest.

FM George Yeos view of Singapore and Singaporeans as operators within cultural broadband. Also notion of small as beautiful.13CASE STUDY 1 Scheme of the Asian Values Debate1. Philosophical Value and Systemic Difference Argument(a) Primacy of communitarianism versus primacy of individualism(b) Primacy of order and harmony versus primacy of competitive idealism

2. Normative Governing Differences(a) Which type of government: democratic or authoritarian?(b) Which type of democracy: liberal or illiberal?(c) Which is the superior economic development formula: mixed state-guided capitalism or classical economic liberalism?(d) How large should the role of social discipline be in all-round development: more or less? Communitarianism versus individualism. 143. Policy Political Consequences(a) Human rights as conditionality or marginality in foreign (and economic) policies?(b) Should foreign policy question domestic and regional political legitimacy: ideational incitement to change or maintain inter-state consensus? (c) Should value advocacy be a way of putting down geoeconomic competitors?15REASONS FOR DIPLOMATIC ENGAGEMENT WITH ASIAN VALUES DEBATEPost-Cold War ideological variety v. triumph of liberal democracy.

China was also starting to face increased western censure over human rights atrocities (1989 Tiananmen Incident) and her attitudes towards Hong Kongs handover.Singapores relations with PRC vested interests

This pattern of a western crusade over human rights. Search for civilisational equality16SINGAPORES ASIAN VALUES DIPLOMATIC STRATEGY1. Articulate alternative positions on Good Governance stress difference

2. Singapore uses the SMD and its connection with an Asian and non-western exceptionalist argument in bilateral, regional and global forums to outflank or stalemate western political value impositions.

3. The clearest statement comes from Lee Kuan Yews Foreign Affairs interview:

It is not my business to tell people whats wrong with their system. It is my business to tell people not to foist their system indiscriminately on societies in which it will not work.[1]

[1] Zakaria, Culture is Destiny, p.110.

17TEST CASES / CLASHES OF VALUES1.SINGAPORE AND THE 1993 UN WORLD CONFERENCE ON HUMAN RIGHTS AT VIENNAChina and Hong Kong Handover

Clinton Administration enlargement of democracy

Authoring future standards historical, philosophical and legal binding?182.The Michael Fay Caning Affair 1994Michael Fay first American casualty of the clash of civilisations?

Michael Fay was an 18-year old American student at an expatriate school in Singapore indicted by a Singapore court for vandalising public and private property.

Fays crime was spray-painting more than a dozen cars without permission and retaining public street signs he and his group of friends from the Singapore American School pilfered.19Western critique of SMD (e.g. President Clintons letter to President Ong Teng Cheong)firstly, caning was a barbaric and outmoded form of torture and inhumane punishment;

secondly, since the SMD believed in privileging communitarian order through strict observance of law, the Singapore/Asian Confucian state was a reprehensible authoritarian example contrary to everything western, American, liberal and democratic;

thirdly, Fay was a young inexperienced individual deserving of leniency for future self-rectification.

20Singapore in normative and public relations war.Pan-Asian support was overwhelmingly pro-Singapore.3.The 1997-99 Asian Financial CrisisThe critique of Asian Values went like this:

1. If Asian Values were different and presumptuously superior to western and universal values, they ultimately failed in economic governance in the face of global capital movements;

2. The normative governing differences showed that an Asian style of government could not stand up to the scrutiny of the market

3. Asian-style good governance is a myth perpetuated by unrepresentative and inept elites as a defence against an inevitable embrace of a western liberal democratic model along the path of modernization.

21Asian Financial Crisis (contd)Two dimensions of Singapores role in this segment of the Debate: the inconvenient sample and the indirect target of Asian misgovernance charges, and its opposite, the good governance consultant:ThailandSouth KoreaIndonesia22OUTCOMES FOR SINGAPORESingapores discourse operated effectively as a setting for Chinas defence and a platform for exceptionalism where international trends favour policy combativeness in a fluid ideological environment.

World public opinion was also fairly malleable and open to partisan mobilisation by coherent ideas in both contexts.23 Soft power requires consistent spokesmen able and willing to effect information formation, and ensure favourable transmission and reception.24

CASE STUDY 2: Singapore Incorporated- Branding the SMD as an Export by Demonstration PSA (and SIA) Image-building was to be the key to the making of a global player. PM Lee Kuan Yew (1966) apart from encouraging major powers interest in the Republics well-being, foreign policy must always offer to the rest of the world a continuing interest in the type of society we project.[1]

[1] Lee Kuan Yews speech titled We Want To Be Ourselves in Peng-Khaun Chong (ed.), Problems in Political Development: Singapore (Berkeley, California: McCutchan Publishing Corporation, 1968), pp.87-88.

25PSA enjoyed a headstart upon Independence by inheriting the physical infrastructure built by Britain but the business prospects looked more uncertain.

Industrial harmony.

PSA prepared for second-to-none competition by aiming for shortened ship turnaround time and one of the lowest freight handling costs by percentage of import value in Asia.

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PSAs Worldwide Operations: 15 overseas BelgiumDelwaide DockEuropa TerminalNoordzee Terminal Churchill DockDeurganckdok West(Antwerp) BelgiumOCHZ Terminal (Zeebrugge)

ItalyVoltri Terminal Europa (Genoa)Venice Container Terminal

NetherlandsHolland Terminals(Rotterdam)

PortugalSines Container Terminal

Argentina Exolgan Container Terminal

27IndiaTuticorin Container Terminal South KoreaIncheon Container TerminalBusan Terminal SingaporeBrani Terminal Cosco-PSA TerminalKeppel TerminalPasir Panjang TerminalTanjong Pagar TerminalMulti-purpose Terminals

ThailandEastern Sea Laem Chabang Terminal

PanamaPSA Panama Container Terminal

DalianDalian Container TerminalDalian Dagang TerminalFuzhouFuzhou Qingzhou Container TerminalFuzhou Jiangyin Container Terminal

GuangzhouGuangzhou Container Terminal

JapanHibiki Container Terminal

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CASE STUDY 3:The Singapore Cooperation Programme

Official explanation:

Singapore has provided technical assistance to other developing countries since the 1960s.

As a country whose only resource is its people, Singapore believes that human resource development is vital for economic and social progress.

In the last 40 years or so, Singapore has benefited from training provided by other countries and international organisations. Through the SCP, Singapore is glad to share its development experiences with other developing countries.29.grounded in the philosophy that human resource development is best given on the understanding that "give a man a fish and he will eat for a day. Teach a man to fish and he will eat for the rest of his life."

30Between 1992 and mid-1999, the SCP sponsored both bilateral and third country training programmes in Singapore for 7000 officials from 105 developing countries from Botswana to Vietnam with a modest annual budget of S$17 million.

Expenditures today while no longer declared explicitly in the MFA budget is likely to be around the same level. This is a fraction of the S$300-410 million annual MFA budget between 2005 and 2013. Latest budget reported SCP together with membership in Intl Organizations cost S$120.1 million.

To date, the SCP has reached out to more than 80,000 government officials from 170 countries in the Asia-Pacific, Africa, Middle East, Eastern Europe, Western Europe, Latin America and the Caribbean. 31SCP (contd)Subjects covered by the SCP include: civil aviation, port and environmental management, telecommunications, productivity, information technology,public administration and law, banking and finance,The Singapore Scholarship [ASEAN only]. Following the 1997-99 financial crisis, the SCP has linked up with the IMF and the World Banks Economic Development Institute to conduct workshops and conferences on public finance.

32MORE on Singapore Cooperation ProgrammeClick on: http://www.scp.gov.sg/

Five Main Sets of Programmes: Differentiated by Aid Giving Collaborations & Regions: Bilateral; TCTP; IAI; Study Visits; Singapore Scholarship for ASEAN countries.

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SMD IS IT A LIABILITY OR AN ASSET?Birthmarks of circumstances in the 1960s Politics of Survival and the Peoples Action Partys sense of emergency.

A Singaporean contribution to debates on Democracy worldwide?

Is there also a Singaporean model for trading off/balancing Democracy, Development and Culture? Interest for relations with MIDDLE EAST, AFRICA AND LATIN AMERICA.

35Politics of the SMD (Contd)4. Ponder the role of Soft Power in Singapores foreign policy. Reliance on the subjective human dimension within diplomacy. But inherent difficulty of measuring effectiveness until a crisis compels official revelations of reasons for aligning with Singapore.

5. Foreign Policy in a globalised setting politicises domestic politics in all circumstances.

36(B) ECONOMIC DIPLOMACY FTAS AND THE CAMPAIGN FOR ECONOMIC COMMUNITY(Case Study 4)37

ECONOMIC SECURITY THROUGH EXTERNAL ASSURANCELearning lessons from existing in a connected world (Defending Singapore in the 21stCentury, 2000)A small state like Singapore is vulnerable to the vagaries of the international environment. We will face a more diverse range of security challenges, as we plug ourselves into a global economy.The Asian economic crisis at the end of the last century has driven home the importance of closer international co-operation to deal with common challenges.38The Economic-Security Connection (contd)Full economic recovery in some parts of the region could be derailed by internal instability brought about by political and socio-economic difficulties.

The economic crisis has shown clearly the strong linkage between economics and security. There can be no security without economic stability, just as there can be no sustained economic development without security.[1] [1] Ibid.p.7.39DIMENSIONS OF SINGAPORES ECONOMIC SECURITY --- Source: (Dent 2001) [Which are external?]supply securitymarket access securityfinance-credit securitytechno-industrial capability securitysocio-economic paradigm securitytransborder community security(capitalist) systemic securityalliance security (e.g. FTAs, and next best, getting entry into trade blocs)I propose to add Number Nine: Singapores promotion of the SMD as a form of soft power and an economic aid policy.

40Lee Kuan Yew, 1968: Equating salvation with innovation; Singapores survival via attractiveness as an oasis of the good life. S. Rajaratnam, 1972: Vision of Singapore as a Global City product of geography-crossing commerce and technology world as our hinterland a new entity born of interdependence.Welcoming globalization engage foreign businesses (MNCs) but also make use of their capabilities. 41

Economic Security as Going Global Directions:Historic entrepot trade eclipsed by trajectory of world capitalism and comparative advantages of neighbours development

Free Trade Agreements [FTAs], Regional Trading Agreements (Systemic Security)

EDB promotion: Singapore is located at the heart of [Southeast] Asia, which has a combined market of over 500 million people. Within a seven-hour flight radius, your business can reach out to a market of 2.8 billion people.

42Directions of Going Global (contd):Industrial park joint ventures in China, India, Vietnam, Indonesia, Thailand, Philippines, Myanmar (not quite successful).

Government-Linked Companies property investments overseas and acquisitions of shares in overseas companies;

43Directions of Going Global (contd):All of the last two slides can be classified as Economic Diplomacy : support and extend a neo-liberal economic ideology of free markets (trade and finance) worldwide, with global economic monitoring, as well as selective governmental intervention in markets.

44Directions of Going Global (contd):Growing entrepreneurship at home - EDB:Leveraging on Singapore's unique ability to build international partnerships, several incubators have been set up here to incubate foreign ventures in Singapore to exploit global opportunities. These include the India Centre, Japan Business Support Centre and the Korea Venture Acceleration Centre.45Why FTAs? Engaging in Systemic, Supply, Market Access and Alliance SecurityRetain or maximize access to markets for Singapores manufactures and other exports.FTA will multiply trade opportunities infinitely depending on number of states signing up.

Small countries can maximize bargaining power via institutions like an FTA, or the World Trade Organization (WTO).Multilateralism fosters a rule based system international liberalism in interstate conduct.

Nature of modern production and the multinational corporation, intra-firm and inter-firm trade across multiple national jurisdictions.

46Range of FTAsIn chronological order, 18 FTAs concluded since August 2000:

ASEAN Free Trade Area (AFTA) ASEAN-Australia-New Zealand FTA (AANZFTA) ASEAN-China (ACFTA) ASEAN-India (AIFTA) ASEAN-Japan (AJCEP) ASEAN-Korea (AKFTA) Australia (SAFTA) China (CSFTA)

BILATERAL Hashemite Kingdom of Jordan (SJFTA) India (CECA) Japan (JSEPA) Korea (KSFTA) New Zealand (ANZSCEP) Panama (PSFTA) Peru (PeSFTA) Switzerland, Liechtenstein, Norway and Iceland (ESFTA) Trans-Pacific SEP (Brunei, New Zealand, Chile, Singapore) United States (USSFTA)

47Under NegotiationASEAN-India Services & Investment ASEAN-Japan Services & Investment ASTEP Canada Mexico Pakistan TPP Ukraine

Wider Systemic Goals & Objectives (Read Desker 2004) Dents (2001) systemic security1. Broadening Geographical Market Access: Foot in many doors2. Pre-emption, Demonstration EffectContext of Failure of WTO Pace of LiberalisationGlacial pace of WTO liberalisation

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Wider Systemic Goals (contd)3. Hedging Against ASEANs Contradictions competitor and partner towards Singapore

Fear of Chinas economic potential (market & investment rivalry) among ASEAN states has generated a coincidence between Spore and its neighbours. Scare in 2003: total FDI into China was US$54b compared to US$20b into ASEAN.

Proposals for ASEAN economic community by 2020 7 v. 3 divide; a wider East Asian economic grouping (KL-Beijing position) v. the inclusion of Australia, NZ, and India (Jakarta-Singapore).

49BURDENS OF BEING A GLOBAL PLAYER (Three Points)A. Check and balance between open and closed trade groupings/institutions in the world economy, bilateral v. multilateral trade arrangementsB. Subsidiary leadership in world economy: partial hegemonic role and/or intellectual entrepreneur initiatives like Growth Triangles, IMF & World Bank consultant/collaborator in helping Indonesia and Thailand; bilateral special relationships with Indonesia, Thailand, Philippines, Vietnam and Cambodia, Myanmar;Partnering US, China, India, Japan, Canada, Australia, NZ, Chile & Brunei.

50Then-PM Goh Chok Tong on Global Trade in the 21st CenturyVision of Intl Economic Order (c. 1996):Spurred by Asias economic renaissance, the emergence of a triadic economic world holds forth the promise of rich opportunities for all. But, it also heightens the risk of the world fracturing into three introspective trading blocs [i.e. NAFTA, EU, an Asian bloc]. To reap the benefits and reduce the risks, we need a framework of stable economic relations. All three sides of this global triangle have to be strong.Launch of the Asia-Europe Meeting (ASEM); reiterated hopes for FEALAC & AMED.Argument for its complementation of ASEAN, APEC.51PM Gohs speech to the ASEAN Business and Investment Summit Oct. 2003 in Bali, IndonesiaArguing for an ASEAN Economic CommunityFor businesses, ASEAN has yet to become a single production base that would enable manufacturing operations to be linked seamlessly throughout the region.But many MNCs want to leverage on the diverse cost structure and comparative advantages across ASEAN. They want to measure the different components in the different ASEAN countries, wherever they can be done most competitively. Only when they can do so, will they sink their money in ASEAN.52SM Goh Chok Tong at the Singapore Conference 15 March 2005 in London Vision of Asian Common Market? I like to think of new Asia as a mega jumbo jet that is being constructed. Northeast Asia, comprising China, Japan and South Korea, forms one wing with a powerful engine. India, the second wing, will also have a powerful engine.

The Southeast Asian countries form the fuselage. Even if we lack a powerful engine for growth among the 10 countries, we will be lifted by the two wings.53

Burdens of Being a Global Player (contd)C. Special Intermediary for China, India, Japan and the US in relation to partnering and comprehending ASEANs Political management of their Economies.

[Language, culture, insider knowledge.]

54Conclusion: Conceiving of Singapore as a Global Economic Player?Small state v. weak state? What is/are Singapores soft power(s) in economics?

Dilemma: Should Singapore engage but also surmount ASEAN as a global city (Rajaratnam 1972)?

Are there domestic costs to playing up Singapores economic soft power?5556

Supplementary BibliographyChan, Heng Chee. (1971) Singapore: the politics of survival, 1965-1967. Singapore: Oxford University Press.Chong, Alan (2004) Singaporean Foreign Policy and the Asian Values Debate 1992-2000: Reflections on an Experiment in Soft Power, The Pacific Review 17, no. 1, pp.95-133. Dent, Christopher M. (2001) Singapores Foreign Economic Policy: The Pursuit of Economic Security, Contemporary Southeast Asia 23, no.1, pp.1-23.Desker, Barry. (2004) In Defence of FTAs: from purity to pragmatism in East Asia, The Pacific Review 17, no.1, pp.3-26.Nye, Joseph S. (2004) Soft Power: the Means to Success in World Politics. New York: Public Affairs Books. 57