SCMP Op-Ed says Lee Kuan Yew’s leadership calibre needed in Asia-Pacific today, also praises examples set by Jacinda Ardern & Joko Widodo

Today’s troubling times require leaders of a high calibre, such as that set by Singapore’s founding Prime Minister Lee Kuan Yew, a US university professor wrote in a July 12 opinion piece. 

It was published in the South China Morning Post and titled, “Asia needs leaders of the calibre of Singapore’s Lee Kuan Yew to navigate a messy world.”

Professor Tom Plate, a longtime columnist with a focus on Asia and America, wrote that the Asia-Pacific region is seeing better leaders today, including New Zealand’s Jacinda Ardern and Indonesia’s Joko Widodo, amid the backdrop of the failure of Sri Lanka’s Gotabaya Rajapaksa as well as the resignation of UK’s Boris Johnson. He also noted the shocking assassination of Japan’s former Prime Minister Shinzo Abe last week.

Prof Plate cites former US Secretary of State Henry Kissinger’s new book, Leadership: Six Studies in World Strategy, which includes only one Asian leader, Mr Lee Kuan Yew, calling Kissinger’s choice of Mr Lee “superb.”

“As Kissinger puts it, Lee’s legacy is of both product – the emergence of the powerhouse city state of Singapore – and process, which Kissinger terms ‘the strategy of excellence’. Under the iron-willed Lee and his capable successors, Singapore attained a standard of governance that, to a certain extent, went global,” he writes.

And while Mr Lee came under criticism for his human rights record, he pointed out that “Lee’s deep understanding of human needs and of the government’s moral obligation to meet them is widely appreciated.”

Prof Plate went on to say that overall, the calibre of leadership in the Asia-Pacific is rising, crediting this in part to “Singapore and Lee setting the standard and also due to the region’s continued economic energy.”

The two examples of leadership he cites are Ardern and Widodo.

Of New Zealand’s Prime Minister, he writes that she had done “remarkable work” since 2017 when she took office.

“She is a clear-headed, adroitly grounded politician who advances realistic possibilities instead of recycling old myths,” he added.

Of Mr Widodo, he wrote, “An impressive Asian leader is Joko Widodo, president of Indonesia, who since 2014 has been leading the world’s fourth most populous country, home to more Muslim residents than any other.”

According to Prof Plate, “These are the leaders Asia needs,” adding that they should “forge a special relationship to help the world work out a more functional approach to China than a containment policy.” /TISG

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