SINGAPOREANS SHOULD NOT OVERLOOK REGIONAL INTEGRATION

Today it is election day in Singapore and the citizens of the city state should reflect that their prosperity is tied to future of ASEAN community

After all it is hardly surprising.

I am referring to the absence of a foreign policy dimension in the ongoing electoral campaign in Singapore.

To some extents it is paradoxical.

While the politics of the city state has always been self-centered, obsessed with the concept of self-reliance and survival in a complex region, its success, the thriving and the standing out in the world has been dependent on globalization, with international trade and finance becoming so dominant in the national economy.

In short surviving for Singapore became synonymous with excelling in creating the best environment for businesses to flourish, attracting capital and with it, the best talents from all over the world, turning the city state in a paradise for high paid expats.

Singapore owns its success story to the People’ Action Party, PAP that has dominating politics, often brutally since independence, instilling a tough work ethics on its own people that definitely own the hard won success story that has defined the narrative of a small nation with global and yet grounded ambitions.

Grounded ambitious because Singapore always had to be one or two steps ahead of the time in forecasting the future, trying to anticipate what was coming next and working hard to imagine how the city state would adapt and thrive with the changing circumstances.

That’s how the world best infrastructures, including the best ever airport terminal was built and with it, the world class hotels and the most prominent finance institutions with world class private banking and wealth management offices.

With its own hard won success came a more and more dependency on the external world compounded by a very fine but also selective diplomacy, investing in building international relations only where it mattered most to the geopolitics interest of the country.

From here you understand the low number of Singapore overseas missions around the world, including consulate general and trade offices.

For example despite the existence of a European Union-Singapore Free Trade Agreement (EUSFTA), the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Singapore only counts on a generically named “Embassy of the Republic of Singapore in Brussels” to deal with the European Union and the entire Benelux countries ( there is consulate in the Netherlands).

A weak and too fragmented opposition, struggling to be heard, with an outstanding number of small parties led by passionate citizens though in amateurish fashion with exception of few like the official opposition the Workers’ Party, WP, the Singapore Democratic Party, SDP and the newly established Singapore Progress Party, SPP certainly does not help elevating foreign policies to the next levels as these parties have to be focused on more immediate issues.

In fairness, with the pandemic and with the four consecutive emergency budgets, it was inevitable that this election was going to be entirely focused on domestic bread and butter matters.

Re-skilling, up-skilling, job retentions and job creation, these are the hallmarks of this electoral campaign, that, as always, is constrained to a week, itself an indicator of the special Singaporean way to democracy.

Inevitably and mostly out of necessity, all candidates, from all political parties, have been steering clear from talking about external relationships even if tackling the pandemic itself and the economic recovery will require a stronger approach to regional cooperation.

So far Singapore played well below its capacities.

The PAP electoral manifesto is an actions laden document setting into motion the pledges announced in the four consecutive emergency budgets without any reference to ASEAN or foreign policy.

The Workers’ Party instead fares slightly better with a small paragraph on ASEAN that calls for strengthening the cultural community blueprint of the bloc with more people to people initiatives and recognizing at the end, a commitment to “strengthen ASEAN as an institution that can better serve Singaporean and regional interests”.

None of the promises being made by the Singapore Democratic Party are related to regional cooperation and the newly established Singapore Progress Party, founded by Tan Cheng Bock, a former PAP prominent politician disillusioned with the ruling party, needs to focus on more pragmatic issues in order to grab people’s attention.

Interestingly enough Prime Minister Lee at the beginning of the pandemic crisis, back at the end of March, had publicly called for a stronger cooperation among ASEAN nations.

Such a statement needs some contextualizing as it was borne more out of general feelings of solidarity in the most difficult days of pandemic rather than out of a long term strategic vision.

Not surprisingly so far the contributions of the city state to the long term development of the regional community are at best patchy with the most visible undertaking being the ASEAN Smart Cities Network, certainly a praiseworthy initiative aimed at establishing sustainable urban spaces in the region but barely enough.

The hottest topic being discussed till now in the campaign is the future demographic trajectories of the city state in the years ahead with the Singapore Democratic Party accusing the PAP to aim to hitting 10 million figures by 2030, something vehemently denied by the ruling party.

In the recent 36th ASEAN summit virtually hosted by Vietnam, PM Lee stressed again the need to work together to overcome the pandemic especially “to explore working together to facilitate and promote cooperation to produce and distribute vaccines” but fell short of any visionary statement to re-launch and reboot the regional body.

The bloc, with all its untapped potential, needs a strong rebooting with more concrete actions that bridge the gap between deeds and rhetoric.

Farsightedness, political capital and adequate resources will be paramount to change the status quo.

Politicians in Singapore should better know that their future and their prosperity will more and more tied to a stronger regional community.

If almost 100 billion Singapore dollars have been injected in the economy in the last few months, hardly is going to be difficult finding additional resources to re-launch ASEAN.

The call for unity at regional by PM Lee requires new and more ambitious deeds on the ground and Singapore must do its own part.

The citizens of the city state should not see this as a generous largesse towards neighboring countries but as a long term indispensible investment.

The Author writes on social inclusion, youth development and regional integration as an engine to improve people’s lives in Asia. He is the Co-Founder of ENGAGE, a not for profit based in Kathmandu.