JUIX/AUGUST
Approaching
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BRAND SINGAPORE
W h a t is our brand? H o w authentic is it? W h y do we need it?
"I SAY WHAT I THINK" In a wide-ranging interview. Permanent Secretary of the Ministry ofForeign Affairs Bilahari Kausikan likens diplomats to potters, calls the study of international relations a"frauddiscipline" and says every public officer has a duty to speak up - like he does. by Wong Sher Maine
M R B I L A H A R I K A U S I K A N SAYS he d i d not choose to j o i n the elite Administrative Service and he wants to put this on record.
"The world is fundamentally illogical and therefore unpredictable," he said. " I f i n diplomacy, you try five things and two work, you are actually doing quite well."
" L e t us be very clear," said the Permanent Secretary, M i n i s t r y o f Foreign Affairs. "The Administrative Service imposed itself o n me and several others i n the Foreign Service. W e were shanghai-ed i n against our w i l l . "
A d d i n g to the turbulence is the world's profound, uncertain state o f transformation. "There are new centres o f power emerging i n C h i n a , India, and while the U S used to be at the top o f the hierarchy, it has found it increasingly difficult to act alone. The result is a less governable w o r l d where many things w i l l be sub-optimally dealt w i t h , i f at a l l . "
Then a Foreign Service Officer aged 29, M r Kausikan and some o f his colleagues were marshalled into their boss's office and told this handful o f non-scholars w o u l d be absorbed into the A d m i n i s t r a tive Service the following M o n d a y .
W h a t this calls for is a tad less bureaucracy at the M F A and diplomats w h o can empathise - "I don't mean w a r m and fuzzy feelings but being able to understand where another person is c o m i n g from i n order to get your o w n way", w h o can keep their eye o n the goal amidst a confusing swirl o f events and w h o have acquired instincts to k n o w w h i c h way the w i n d is blowing.
" W e thought it was extremely divisive, to suddenly separate the sheep from the goats. I said no, but it was not a matter of choice." N o w 57, M r Kausikan has spent three decades i n the M F A where he was ambassador to Russia, and Singapore's Permanent Representative to the U n i t e d Nations i n N e w York. In public memory, he is better-known as someone unafraid to speak his m i n d , from w r i t i n g a personal letter to a blogger w h o criticised a speech he had made at her school i n 2006, to a speech i n 2004 w h i c h is still m a k i n g ripples i n the P u b l i c Service, that the P S 2 1 E x C E L movement had "lost its way". "I say what I think. I am me, I can't be anything but me," he said.
Getting to the MFA M r Kausikan is a voracious reader "even o f the telephone directory i n the extreme" - w h o was once o n the road to academia. W h i l e w r i t i n g his dissertation for his international relations P h D at N e w York's C o l u m b i a University, he had a "satori" - a moment o f enlightenment: "I realised I'd be a d a m n rotten teacher. A n d w h y w o u l d I want a P h D w h e n it's just a trade u n i o n card for teaching?" H e chose to serve out his eight-year b o n d i n the Foreign Service as his father had been an ambassador, and the M F A was "the only place I k n e w something about." "I ended up struggling to forget everyt h i n g I had learnt," he said. "Interna-
H e tells his officers: " A diplomat is a potter w h o forges a beautiful relationship. B u t one day I might order you to smash the pot hecause it's i n the national interest. B e i n g nice or having friendly relations is a means'. The end must be national interest."
A diplomat is a beautiful^relata order you to smash the pot becaafe^4t's in the national interest. tional relations is a fraud discipline and is the worst possible training for a career i n the foreign service. A s a P h D student, we spent an inordinate amount o f time debating what the fundamental basis o f a country's foreign policy was: i f it was economic, financial or domestic. I thought the w o r l d was a logical place. "I have n o w concluded that foreign p o l icy is really a series o f improvisations towards a goal that should be agreed o n . "
Working in unpredictable world W h a t really distinguishes M F A from the rest o f the P u b l i c Service is that it operates i n a global environment.
A scholar-blind culture W o r k at the M F A is very different from other ministries, stressed M r Kausikan. The risk o f failure is h i g h due to the intrinsically uncertain environment, and officers w h o formulate policies are also expected to carry them out d i recdy, hence requiring "a different frame of mind". The need to be empathetic, to adapt to breaking w o r l d events, and that special instinct to analyse and understand situations are qualities needed i n a good Foreign Service officer. Intelligence, he added, is therefore overrated as it is not the only necessary quality.
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being frank with each other. Sometimes leaks happen. Everybody takes it in their stride." If public officers are cautious about what they say, this is what he would tell them: "Then [you] are not doing [your] job because the job of a public officer is to give advice... If you get reprimanded, so what? Are you such a shrinking violet that you'd wither away and die?" To him, a good public officer is not afraid to speak up and will vigorously defend his view, but once the decision is made, sticks with it even i f it may not be what he agrees with.
Aschglarship is just a point o I..donjt care if people are I cUscrimm do their.wo
"You are complicit," he stressed. "You carry out the decision and don't complain after the event. This is the value of the Public Service. If you had really felt so strongly about it at the time, you should have resigned."
Hence, the ministry has evolved what M r Kausikan calls a "scholar-blind" culture.
"Yes, I have," he said. "Then I think, is it such a big deal? It wasn't. O n the whole, am I content? Happy? Doing something useful? Yes. I came here intending to serve out my bond but I forgot to leave." D
"A scholarship is just a point of entry. It would be a grave mistake to think that it is an escalator. I don't care if people are scholars or not. I discriminate between people who can do their work and people who can't," said M r Kausikan, who acknowledges that the scholarship system has "worked fairly well" in reeling talent into the Public Service. However, he notes that there are some scholars who have admitted to him that they were reluctant to join the M F A because it is scholar-blind. "I'm told some Management Associates don't like to come here because they think they get no special privileges here, which is true, and they have to compete with a lot of clever people. They felt they would have less chance of shining and therefore transiting to A O (Administrative Service Officer) scheme if they came to the Foreign Ministry because we treat everybody equal. "In my personal opinion, those scholars who have a huge sense of entitlement are the ones who are probably not going to make it."
Scholars aside, what matters more is who can contribute best where. For instance, while the M F A has become larger and more professional over the years, an i n ternal challenge he is now grappling with is manpower demographics. M F A , which went on a recruitment drive in the 90s after a decade-long stagnation, is now peopled with young directors ready to go out and replace ambassadors for whom suitable jobs will have to be found back home. "(MFA) is an animal with a huge head, huge bottom with a rather thin waist," described M r Kausikan. "We have a larger proportion of super-scale and senior positions than any other ministry. Some senior people will have to come back and take advisory positions in other agencies that are discerning that they need to be able to act internationally and regionally."
No regrets
Looking back over his own career, he has no regrets, never over anything he has said, and certainly not over the incident when unflattering statements he had made of the Malaysian leadership were published on whistleblower website Wikileaks. "Diplomacy is about
Has he ever thought of resigning?
Trust Me
m the ^ JOSS What's usually in your cuppa? Coffee in the mornings; green tea in the afternoons. In the evenings, more often than not, Jack Daniels \What's your favourite drink? Bourbon — Jack Daniels or Maker's Mark Where do you normally go for your favourite drink? I refuse to reveal my favourite bar those who need to know already know and those who do not already know obviously do not need to know:-)