Review — Singapore Is Not An Island (By: Bilahari P S Kausikan)
About The Book
“Diplomacy is not about being nice, polite or agreeable. It is fundamentally about protecting and promoting the country’s interests, preferably by being nice but, if necessary, by other appropriate means.” — Bilahari Kausikan
Small states are always vulnerable. It is this sense of vulnerability that keeps Singapore alert. As a small country in Southeast Asia seeking to survive and prosper, Singapore cannot be ordinary. It must be extraordinary. Otherwise, why would anyone want to deal with Singapore rather than with larger countries? Herein lies the central challenge for Singapore in every area, including foreign policy.
Singapore Is Not An Island is a fascinating and insightful compilation of speeches made by Ambassador-at-Large Bilahari Kausikan. The book deals with a wide variety of topics — North Korea, Middle East, United States, European Union, United Nations as well as the rise of the far right and populism.
Learning Points
If Kausikan’s career in the foreign service was akin to a sturdy tree from which Singapore’s foreign policy was built on, this collection are like the fruit borne from the tree. Coming in at barely 300 pages, the book condenses a career’s worth of accumulated wisdom and experiences.
Here are 4 learning points which stood out to me as I read the book:
(1) Nurturing A Healthy Level Of Skepticism (Not Cynicism!)
Do not confuse the depth of sincerity with which you or others hold an idea, or the number of people who sincerely hold an idea, with its validity. Sincerity is an overrated virtue, if indeed it is a virtue. All of you may be suddenly seized with the sincere conviction that pigs should fly. But pigs will nevertheless never sprout wings no matter how devoutly you hope for them to escape the surly bonds of earth.
…
Rather than sincerity, if we want to do some trifling and ephemeral good or at least to minimise harm, we should approach life with an ironic and humane skepticism. Irony to ensure that we retain a sense of proportion and as ballast against the inevitability of unintended consequences: today’s error being the correction of yesterday’s error. Humanity, so that we may empathise with logics other than our own, if only to better manoeuvre to impose our will because, in a world of competing logics, if we hope to do any good, we cannot hope to do so by logic alone. And skepticism, because the possibility of deception, our own self-deceptions if not those of others casts constant shadows over every human action.
(2) Thoughts On International Law
A world ruled by international law is the ideal world for small states. But is this really such a world? Perhaps sometimes; or even most times; but not all the time.
International law is an instrument of state policy, not an autonomous reality. Great powers resort to it only when convenient.
(3) Thoughts On The Left-Right Divide
In West Europe, for instance, the political arrangements that we now call liberal democracy were arrived at only after several centuries of an often violent process of accommodation between different varieties of Christianity, each of which claimed a monopoly of divine revelation. These accommodations are now subject to the political, economic and cultural pressures generated by immigration — legal and illegal — from North Africa and the Middle East as well as from other parts of Europe. That large numbers of these new arrivals are ethnically distinct and Muslim are additional complications.
European liberalism, indeed all varieties of Western liberalism, have proved inadequate to deal with contemporary challenges. This is because liberalism prioritises one system of values and places it at the head of a hierarchy of value systems. But it is precisely this hierarchy that is now being contested — and contested not only by the new arrivals.
The liberal democratic value systems that formed the basis of late 20th century Europe’s political accommodations are now under pressure from European electorates. Hence, the rise of extreme right-wing — sometimes neo-fascist — movements across Europe. Their emergence points to a gap between the values of European elites and substantial numbers of their peoples that needs to be bridged if it is not to metastasise into something darker and more malignant.
(4) The Effects Of Globalisation On Politics
Globalisation has lifted millions out of poverty and brought prosperity to millions more. But its downsides are also becoming increasingly evident: growing inequality as old economic patterns are dislocated with new sets of economic winners and losers, and equally important as economics, a sense of cultural threat as traditional ways of life and values are brought into ever closer contact with the alien “other”. The consequence has been an assertion of what has been called “nostalgic nationalism” — a hankering after an idealised and simplified past — and a growing gap between the values of elites and the population at large. This often results in disillusionment, often amounting to a sense of betrayal, with established institutions.
This is the common thread linking such seemingly disparate phenomenon as, among others, Donald Trump and the disintegration of the Republican Party, Bernie Sanders and the push of the Democrats leftwards, “Occupy Wall Street”, the “Arab Spring”, various “Colour Revolutions” in East Europe, “Brexit”, the rise of neo-fascist political movements on continental Europe, the “Occupy Central” or “Umbrella” movement in Hong Kong, Neo-Maoism and nostalgia for the Cultural Revolution in China, and, closer to my own country, the election of President Duterte in the Philippines, President Jokowi of Indonesia and perhaps even Prime Minister Modi of India: all are political outsiders, not of the usual political establishments of their countries.
Conclusion
In the book’s Epilogue, Kausikan notes that the collection “is dedicated to my children” and “is aimed at young Singaporeans”. Indeed, Kausikan’s speeches are a treasure trove of insights and analyses on Singapore’s foreign policy. I would recommend this book to anyone with an interest in global affairs and how they can impact Singapore.
