Dr. Khaled M. Batarfi Singapore is a small island-country surrounded with giant neighbors. It has no oil and agriculture resources like Indonesia; water and industry, like Malaysia or super dimensions, like India and China. It was cut out of the Malaysian federations fifty years ago but guaranteed certain amount of water supplies for a hundred years and… that was it! Two centuries ago, a British official of the East India Company, Sir Stamford Raffles, thought that this island could survive on its own as a trading post when he leased it from the Sultan of Johor in 1819. After the Suez Cannel was opened in 1869, ships needed to pass thru Singapore straight in its way from Europe and the Middle East to China and Japan. The island has been in a perfect position as a strategic port serving those routes since then. “We understand that our city-state has nothing to offer the world but good service. We cannot even produce the basics—food, water and energy—to our 5.5 million people. But we are a top hub for banking and trade, an international port, a place where the world meets and conducts business. We provide stable, peaceful, lawful and secure business environment that understands and links East with West, the developed with the developing worlds.” I heard this message from almost all officials and businessmen I met in my visit to this vibrant and dazzling, yet quite and peaceful nation. More importantly, the message was echoed and certified by the kind of service I received at different levels and the way I was treated by its people. “Here is some water!” The hostess in Singapore Airlines appeared suddenly as I was about to take my medicine. She appeared again to offer bringing down my suitcase from the luggage compartment. How did she noticed I needed my jacket?! Again and again the staff in the airline, airport, hotel, market and everywhere I go showed their interest in my wellbeing and offered their service and help, at times before I even made a request. Their enthusiasm and hospitality made me believe they were genuinely happy and proud to serve. The Singaporean smile is unique in being sincere and shiny. You cannot but return it with a happy and grateful smile. “You have hold on to your core strengths for two centuries, managed to survive and prosper. But times change, and service-based, free-zone, port cities are growing and planned everywhere, inspired, in no small part, by your success. Some of them are strategically located, connected to and supported by super nations, like China. How are you going to guarantee your future in such competitive world? Others may compete in service and may win in cost. After all, you live like a First World country in a Third World neighborhood!” I asked my hosts. “Singapore is a hard model to follow,” answers Masagos Zulkifli, Senior Minister of State for Foreign Affairs. “It was built on four core principles: Integrity, Transparency, Self-Reliance and Meritocracy. "We come from different backgrounds: 75 percent Chinese, the rest are divided between mainly Malays (15 percent) and Indians (7 percent), plus others, including Arabs (3 percent). Yet, you won't find a society in the world with the level of tolerance, cooperation and harmony like ours. That is due to the fact that these principles are followed to the letter.” “Our public servants,” explains Lee Yi Shyan, Senior Minister of State, for Trade and Industry, and for National Development, are the highest paid in the world. However, they are hardly the richest. We have zero tolerance for corruption. You may know exactly how much I earn, and how much my fortune was and will be when I leave office. If I receive a gift while in office, even without any condition attached, I may go to prison for it. Our business partners very much appreciate our Integrity and Transparency.” “Self-reliance saved our nation,” adds Ambassador Rasheed Zainul Abidin Rasheed, Special Envoy of the Minister for Foreign Affairs. “With no resources, we could only depends on our hard work to survive. Thus the fourth tenet Meritocracy. In Singapore a poor child of an ordinary family knows that his way to the top can only be realized by good schooling and honest work.” He would know. Al-Haj Rasheed, with his Indian background, represents a minority both ways (Muslims are .5 million or 15 percent). However, it made no difference. He studied and worked hard and smart, and became the Editor of top newspapers before joining the Foreign Ministry. “With such strong, motivated, ethical, committed workforce, and in well-established strong quality-based business environment, we have always been able to compete with the rest of the world. Quality business people always prefer such quality environment, and quality customers always trust and prefer such quality products. There is always a place at the top for Singapore,” Ambassador Rasheed concludes. I am impressed, are you, dear readers? Do you have an experience or thought about the Singaporean phenomenon? Let's share. – Dr. Khaled M. Batarfi can be reached at [email protected] and followed at Twitter: @kbatarfi
