Footnote on nature, character of African elite
Singapore’s transformation offers Africa a lesson: lasting economic progress requires a clear national vision, strategic security and leadership anchored in coherent objectives, writes Kenneth David Mafabi
Kenneth David Mafabi. (File)
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OPINION
By Kenneth David Mafabi
Flashback to July 2022... Last week, we shared feedback from our readers regarding regional integration as a sine qua non for our very survival and flourishing as African people. We particularly made reference to Mzee Museveni Muzzukulu, who flagged a number of issues regarding East African integration. We responded to his concerns that the President is pushing “the political at the expense of the economic... ignoring questions of capital formation and accumulation ...” We clarified that an overall political superstructure in our fragmented reality is an absolute necessity for successful economic integration. Today, we deal with concerns that the leadership is “unduly derisive of our elite...”
The biggest challenge for our political and technical leadership is not a lack of necessary knowledge or expertise. Neither is the challenge an absence of “people of goodwill”. No. We have all these in great abundance. The biggest challenge is a lack of a generalised philosophical anchor or worldview among the leadership elite. Such a worldview has of necessity to reflect a clear appreciation of the National Objectives and Directive Principles of State Policy.
We use the experience of Singapore over the last 60 years to illustrate our point.
In 2019, the highly respected International Institute for Management Development ranked Singapore first in the world’s most competitive economies. But, just how did an island city-state move from a developing country to a first-world country — within a generation?
For comparative purposes, Singapore’s GDP per capita in 1965 was $516.5 (Rwanda, Kenya and Uganda in 1965 were at $45.9, $104.7 and $110.8 respectively). Today, Singapore’s GDP per capita is some $131,000! We must bear in mind that Singapore has an area of only 733.1 square kilometres, and a population of just over 5.4 million people! Now, The Economist magazine has previously identified “three main factors” in explaining the Singapore “miracle”: “The strategic location of the island... suspended in the Malacca Strait that guarantees the control on 40% of trading passes”; “the friendly policies adopted by the government towards foreign investments”; “an efficient and ‘honest’ government”.
We must, therefore, look at an additional parameter — which is always ignored by analysts in the case of Singapore. Without that parameter, the “miracle” would not have happened — or would have been much slower. The additional parameter is that of systematically building versatile and modern national defence capabilities, while decisively managing global geopolitical and regional settings.
In this regard, Singapore qualitatively and exponentially built up its otherwise extremely low strategic depth index — in what is sometimes referred to as “creating artificial depth”. In military science, the strategic depth of a country broadly refers to the distance between its borders and potential combat zones on the one hand, and its industrial and production hinterland, the capital city, etc., on the other.
So, how did Singapore rump up its low strategic depth index?
The Singaporean military is probably the most technologically advanced in Southeast Asia. It is the guarantor of the country’s autochthonous development, and involves the entire citizenry in national defence. High by regional standards, Singapore spends up to 4.9% of the country’s GDP on the military.
At independence in 1965, Singapore had only two infantry regiments — moreover commanded by British officers. The Singaporean leadership looked at this as being woefully inadequate and unsustainable — and made the development of the Singaporean military forces top priority. systems. The SAF is developed to be versatile in both conventional and unconventional warfare. The otherwise low strategic depth index dictates that the SAF must always be prepared to repulse attacks — as they have nowhere to fall back to. The small size of the population has determined the basic doctrine of the SAF — with a small professional core, and a large number of reservists. Singapore has.
The SAF is developed to be versatile in both conventional and unconventional warfare. The otherwise low strategic depth index dictates that the SAF must always be prepared to repulse attacks — as they have nowhere to fall back to. The small size of the population has determined the basic doctrine of the SAF — with a small professional core, and a large number of reservists. Singapore has conscription for all able-bodied males above 18 — with a few exceptions.
Singapore is part of the Five Power Defence Arrangements — a military alliance with Australia, Malaysia, New Zealand, and the UK. Large-scale training drills have been performed in Taiwan since 1975, and in a dozen or so, other countries. Due to airspace and land constraints, the Republic of Singapore Air Force maintains a number of overseas bases in Australia, the US and France.
Singapore is also one of the five founding members of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) — a strong supporter of the ASEAN Free Trade Area and the ASEAN Investment Area. Significantly, it is also a member of the Non-Aligned Movement.
As mentioned earlier, Singapore has trained her military in Taiwan since 1975... Yet, her largest trading partner since 2013 is the People’s Republic of China — in which Singapore is the largest foreign investor. This is the Singapore which enjoys a close and long-standing relationship with the US while maintaining warm diplomatic relations with the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea.
The explanation for the Singapore “miracle” in a word, therefore, goes beyond “good and prudent” national economic management. What we have reflected above are policy formulation and implementation firmly anchored in very clearly defined national objectives — in a most complex situation. The national objectives themselves reflect necessity, and resonate with a compelling internal logic and cohesion.
A political and technical leadership elite at home in Mother Afrika with narrow and disjointed worldviews slows down and complicates our struggle for transformation. Such an elite, unless they are assisted to see the light, slows down our regional integration efforts.
We will conclude this discussion about the African elite next week.
The writer is a senior presidential advisor/political affairs (special duties), State House kdavidmafabi1@gmail.com