What Ireland can learn from Singapore
From one ex-British colony to another
Below is an adapted version of a talk I gave to Éire Accelerationism in Dublin a few weeks ago.
The Singapore story is not unlike the Ireland story. Two former British colonies with common law systems and populations in the low millions, later to become glowing economic success stories.
Looking more closely, however, there are key differences. Ireland achieved its economic miracle without a single, totemic figure in the mold of Lee Kuan Yew. Today, it’s much less self-reflective about why it succeeded.
What can the Emerald Isle learn from the Lion City? I offer three lessons based on three core Singaporean ideas.
What makes them great
Singaporeans are paranoid, in a good way: They fear of being eclipsed by others. They even have a word for this: kiasu, the fear of losing.
Every part of Singaporean society has internalised kiasu. While he was Prime Minister, Lee Hsien Loong said: people are always trying to steal your lunch, but you must steal others’ lunch.
Pragmatism also undergirds Singaporean society. The best course of action is identified, regardless of what school of thought it comes from. And then it is pursued diligently, even relentlessly.
What counts as best? Anything that generates economic growth, social peace, and security. (Notably, not what maximises individual freedom!)
This cashes out in many ways. Here are some examples:
Laser-focus on results. Singaporeans want policies that they can measure as working.
A willingness to make tradeoffs in public policy. They don’t try to solve all their problems with each policy (the fabled everything bagel). When the nascent Singaporean military was in desperate need of military training in the late 1960s, they were willing to work with Israel, even though that could have been controversial (especially with its immediate neighbours, Muslim-majority Malaysia and Indonesia).
Strong meritocratic culture throughout society. Singapore has well-known scholarship programmes for top young students, allow them to study at the world’s top universities for free (in exchange for government service post-graduation). They’re not afraid to be elitist.
Singapore also has global ambitions. It rightly recognises that in the twenty-first century, you are competing on a global stage. You have to be aware of what’s going on around the world and figure out how you can be the best at a limited set of things.
This has generated some spectacular results: The National University of Singapore is in top #10 across multiple university rankings. Singapore is also very highly ranked in international educational measures like PISA. Changi airport is globally-renowned, often ranked best in the world. The country’s healthcare system is the regional leader, regarded as very efficient, and life expectancy is very high in global terms.
Crucially, Singapore is a very nice place to spend time – this matters a lot if you want to attract business from around the world. Tanner Greer recently pointed out that if you visit India, an aspiring world power, you have to worry about catching malaria and several other diseases. In Singapore, the foreign visitor has no such worries.
Interlude: What we can’t learn
Although Singapore is great, Ireland shouldn’t emulate it in every way. Singaporean birth rates are very low, and have been below replacement for a long time.
It’s far from clear how they find their way out of this problem. For instance, national service, key to Singaporean security and social cohesion, means that there’s an additional 2 years of young adult life spent in a setting where you aren’t going to get married and have kids.
Relatedly, Singaporean education is too intense. There is lots of academic streaming, lots of homework, lots of private tutoring. Burnout and stress are common problems.
Anecdotally, Singaporean students admit the system squeezes the life out of them. I think this is part of why you don’t see pathbreaking founders coming out of Singapore.
Life can’t just be about GDP go up, there have to be other values. Freedom, community, family, religion…
Think at the margin
Singapore do what they do very well. Ireland shouldn’t simply copy them — in fact, this would be almost impossible.
However, Ireland can change at the margin – not a wholesale change, but smaller changes in Singapore’s direction in certain ways.
First, Ireland should be more paranoid. It’s had a great run, and is enjoying a budget surplus, but it should be looking around the corner at future threats.
Ireland should be pragmatic and focus on what works, not what sounds or feels good. Is it going to build a semiconductor fab tomorrow? Probably not. Can it build more housing? Yes. Can it get out of the way of domestic businesses so it isn’t as reliant on multinationals? Yes.
Lastly, Ireland should be unafraid to talk about being the best place in the world to:
Get educated, e.g. get one of its university into the global top 50
Start a startup, e.g. improving share options schemes
Raise a family, e.g. close the gap between desired number of kids and actual number of kids
Dublin should be a world class city when it comes to transport infrastructure, housing, food scene, artistic scene, public safety, the overall vibes.
Becoming more like Singapore is a choice Ireland can — and should — make.