A tale of two successful national visions

• Singapore and United Arab Emirates (UAE)

For far too long, too many of Ghana’s political and economic leaders have been too clever by half in the attempt to identify the key causes of the nation’s persistent poverty that engulfs so many people. The cleverness has been halved by ignoring the imperative for industrialization and production as a means of employment initiated as a blueprint by Kwame Nkrumah, the first president of the nation, since 1957.

Prophets tend not to be wholly acceptable in their own countries. But such serious neglects cause the persistent economic inertia and mass poverty that has befallen this country, decade after decade. Particularly disturbing is the steadily depreciating cedi, year after year. [The column today is for the younger generation not to take stability, growth and prosperity for granted.]

When one reflects on what it takes to be fit to lead a country, the initial hints that come to mind are focused intelligence and empathy; in other words, smartness and heart power can resolve complex problems to benefit the larger populace. But, over the years, how is one to make of the neglect of the glaringly obvious necessities? Is it doubtful that there’s a dark behavioral streak that chooses to contract loans for all manner of selfish things except for industrialization, production, and mass employment?

The following quote attributed to the Nigerian senator, Peter Obi, seemed to have offered a response: “No country can progress if its politics is more profitable than its industries. In a country where those in government are richer than entrepreneurs, they manufacture poverty”.

Singapore

Early in their independence, Lee Kuan Yew asserted, “We cannot afford to forget that public order, personal security, economic and social progress, and prosperity are not the natural order of things … they depend on ceaseless effort and attention from honest and effective government.”

Additionally, Kishore Mahbubani, a Singaporean diplomat, unveiled this secret formula for Singapore’s success. Captured with the acronym “MPH”, he said, the M stands for “Meritocracy”. It means that you select the best people to run the country. He noted that what brings many countries down – especially in the third world – is that when it comes to selecting the finance minister or the economics minister, they will give the jobs to their brothers, cousins, uncles, relatives, and not to the best people.

The P, he said, stands for “Pragmatism”. And the best definition of pragmatism was given by China’s leader, Deng Xiaoping, who asserted that it doesn’t matter whether a cat is black or white; if the cat catches mice, it is a good cat. So, in the same way, it doesn’t matter what your ideology is, if it works, you use it. Be not bound by any ideology!

He noted that the third pillar, the H, is the hardest to achieve because it stands for “Honesty”. And indeed, what has brought most third world countries down has been corruption. And so Lee Kuan Yew – after he became prime minister – made it a point to punish not the junior people, but the very senior people. That’s the formula for Singapore’s success.

In the very beginning, Singapore (like Ghana under Nkrumah) concentrated on getting factories started. As Lee Kuan Yew put it, “Despite our small domestic market of 2 million, we protected locally assembled cars, refrigerators, air conditioners, radios, television sets, and tape-recorders, in the hope that they would later be partly manufactured locally. We encouraged our own business people who set up small factories to manufacture vegetable oils, cosmetics, mosquito coils, hair cream [and] even mothballs!”

United Arab Emirates

In his book, “My Vision: Challenges in the Race for Excellence”, Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum – the ruler of Dubai – noted, “A nation’s development [does] not happen overnight or by accident. Nor does the development of a nation ever stop once the process has begun. Nation building is the result of intense efforts at building a community and homeland; a phenomenal task not undertaken lightly but shouldered by a nation’s government, its public and private sectors, and its people.”

He believed that “it is our duty to serve our community and embrace its aspirations, both now and in the future, by assuring our people economic growth, education, health, security, stability, comfort, leisure opportunities and freedom of movement [to] guarantee our welfare and a bright future. All those who work for the government must appreciate the task ahead of them and rise up to the challenge.”

At the12th congregation and matriculation ceremonies of Knutsford University, Accra, where I was a guest speaker, it was refreshing to hear the special guest of honour H.E. Amer Ali Alalawi, ambassador of the United Arab Emirates to Ghana, say, in addressing thegraduates, that “Impossible does not exist in the United Arab Emirates.” Having risen from a desert backwater to a prosperous global economy, there’s something to be learned from them.

Critical thinking

Yew’s ideology, for example, flew in the face of traditional western-style economics about the benefits of “economies of scale” that dictated that larger companies with larger outputs will have more cost savings than smaller ones. For Yew, if production for a population of a mere 2 million people could be nuanced to sustain Singapore, let’s imagine the benefits that can accrue for the much larger population of over 30 million people in Ghana.

To think, for example, that the millions of light bulbs that light up the skies in Ghana – so visible from the air – not a single bulb was produced here. The same with car batteries, tires, etc. for the umpteen number of vehicles that ply our roads. Again, why not industrialize for the local production of basic consumables like flour, canned fish, sugar, rice, and so on?

The deep-seated problem with a good many governing politicians and officials hinged on that annoying habit of theirs to routinely repeat the wholesale catalogue of the nation’s problems but hardly with the intent nor ability to solve them.

Email: anishaffar@gmail.com