SPEECH BY MR THARMAN SHANMUGARATNAM, MINISTER FOR EDUCATION, AT THE LAUNCH OF THE LEE KUAN YEW SCHOOL OF PUBLIC POLICY (LKY SPP) ON MONDAY, 16 AUGUST 2004 AT 4:00 PM AT THE NUS GUILD HALL

President of NUS, Prof Shih Choon Fong

Chairman of the LKY SPP Pro Tem Governing Board, Mr Lim Siong Guan

Dean of the LKY SPP, Mr Kishore Mahbubani

Faculty and students

Ladies and Gentlemen

1      It gives me great pleasure to be here today at the launch of an important new institution.  Today, we take a decisive step towards realizing a vision that has taken a few years to materialise.

2      The idea of setting up a school of public policy had its roots back in 1998, when a review of the Public Policy Programme (PPP) was conducted by a team from Harvard’s Kennedy School of Government.  The Harvard team came to the conclusion that a new school of public affairs was both desirable and attainable.  The team recommended that steps first be taken to strengthen the existing Master in Public Policy programme and start a new one – the Lee Kuan Yew Fellows Programme offering the Master in Public Management.  With the success of the LKY Fellows Programme and given the strong foundations laid by the Public Policy Programme, the Advisory Committee to the PPP chaired by Mr Lim Siong Guan was sufficiently encouraged to recommend the establishment of such a School.

3      An opportune moment arose last year when then Senior Minister Lee Kuan Yew agreed to allow the occasion of his 80th birthday celebrations to be used to raise funds for the School, and for the School to be named after himself.  We are greatly heartened by the generosity of donors, who surpassed the target set by the fundraising committee in just over 3 months.  It is fitting that the LKY SPP will be organising an event at the official opening of the School early next year, to thank the donors.

4      Why a School of Public Policy at NUS?  Our aspiration is that this School will become a flagship institution, another peak of excellence within NUS, no smaller in international eyes than the peaks it has built up in various areas in the sciences and engineering.  However, we are not doing this solely for the sake of raising NUS’ standing as a university.  We hope and expect that the LKY SPP will one day be regarded globally as a reference point in public policy that can provide, through rigorous intellectual study, lessons on the principles and practices of good governance, particularly concerning Asian societies and the challenges of developing, transitional and newly industrialized economies.

5      However, public policy education, perhaps more than any other discipline, is not an academic pursuit.  It is an inherently open-ended, practice-driven enterprise.  It is a process of continuous exploration and continuous learning from practice, and not in one country but many.

6      Sound public policy is grounded in tested principles, derived from past experience, the trials and errors as well as the relative successes of past policymaking.  But it is rare to find a policy problem for which past experience provides an easy or formulaic guide.  There is never certainty even in the best public policy making, only reasonable expectations or a calculated guess of how a policy move might play out, how the markets will react or how the citizenry will respond.

7      And there will be challenges from time to time that each country will face that will have no precedent in recent history.  The challenges faced by the previous command economies in transiting to market economies are perhaps the most important example in recent decades, which is still being played out today.  The range of approaches followed by these transitional economies in restructuring their economies and enterprises, with widely varying degrees of success - in some cases a failure by any honest measure - has now given governments valuable lessons on what to avoid.

8      More recently, in the public health domain, several Asian governments have had to respond to SARS and bird flu, and what would appear to be a new era of infectious diseases.  The SARS crisis illustrated a key task of public policy, which is to win trust in situations where much remains unknown, and mobilize citizens and give them confidence.

9      A good public policy education therefore teaches public officials not to be paralysed by the uncertainties inherent in public policy making.  It does not seek to provide a formula for success, but an approach to help governments learn from experience elsewhere, keep an open mind, consider the interests of all parties affected, and act on a judgement of what is in the best interests of the country as a whole.  It teaches public officials to recognize what can go wrong, and how to change course when things do not pan out the way you expected.  It does not teach officials about how to keep governments popular all the time, but how to preserve citizens' confidence in the future.

10     Public policy education at NUS has matured and acquired credibility over the years, and today enters a new phase of growth as a fully-fledged School.  Mr Kishore Mahbubani’s appointment as Dean has itself given the new School a headstart, given his excellent reputation in international circles.

11     The LKY SPP will strive to become a global centre of excellence in the study of public policy.  I expect that it will develop expertise in a range of areas relevant to Asian nations, ranging from the study of industrial and trade policies, financial regulation and monetary management, the restructuring of state-owned enterprises and agricultural reform, health and education, transport policies and international arrangements to boost collective prosperity.

12     The success of this new School will not rest on how we design the "hardware" of the School, but on the community that comprises the School - the quality, verve and collective experience of its faculty and students.  It will depend also on the support of those who have walked through the doors of the institution.  In other words, the alumni of the School, including those who have been involved in the previous public policy programme, will be key players in building the reputation of the School.  It is faculty, students and alumni who will define the spirit of the School and enable it to enrich future generations.

13     Some of you may be aware that MOE is exploring whether to grant more autonomy to our universities.  The LKY SPP has been established as an autonomous school within NUS, and represents a microcosm of university autonomy.  This School can showcase what can be achieved if its leaders, its faculty and students, and its alumni, feel a deep sense of ownership of enterprise.  Working with the NUS President and top management, the School can show what is possible with its visionary leadership setting new directions, working with faculty and students in an environment of collegiality and mutual respect, and building on the support of other stakeholders.

14     With Kishore Mahbubani at the helm, the School is in confident hands.  He has many years of service both on the national and international stages.  He is a respected thinker, writer and speaker at international conferences.  He is a reflective practitioner, with the right credentials to lead the School forward.

15     Finally, I thank the members of the Advisory Committee to the PPP chaired by Mr Lim Siong Guan for having led the initiative to create the new School, and for agreeing to serve on the Pro-Tem Governing Board for the LKY SPP.

16     I wish the School every success.