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A SINGAPOREAN taxi driver's chance remark set Dr Fareed Zakaria
thinking how best he might write about a world in which people are
richer than ever before and many players are jostling for supremacy. Meeting The Straits Times in his London hotel suite earlier this
week, the editor of Newsweek International recalled how the cabby
pointed to the Republic's new ferris wheel, the Singapore Flyer.
'I looked at it and I said - I suppose in a somewhat patronising voice: 'How nice, you have a ferris wheel.'
'And he turns around and says: 'Sir, that's the largest ferris wheel in the world'.'
A month later, he was being shown around the South China mall
in Dongguan, when his host told him that the 9.6 million-sq ft complex
was the world's largest. Dr Zakaria did not buy that at first. He
thought The Mall of America in Minnesota still held that title.
(Actually it is only the 18th largest these days). Dr Zakaria recalled: 'At that point I decided I had learnt my
lesson. I began to realise these anecdotes I had been hearing about
this country growing and that country growing were adding up to
something quite significant.'
So he decided his new book - his second after the best-selling The
Future Of Freedom - would examine how the world's new thriving
countries will change the character of international economics,
politics and culture. Dr Zakaria's big, hawk-sharp eyes, which are very alert
indeed, give the lie to his relaxed demeanour. His laptop pings away
with news updates on a side table while we talk. Everything about him tells you he is his own man - from his
powder purple polo T-shirt, an unusual colour choice, to his
Indian-accented English, although he has been a naturalised American
citizen for many years now. He was in London for the launch of his new weekly current
affairs show on CNN. Called Global Public Square, it premiered on June
1, and the first episode saw him interviewing British Prime Minister
Gordon Brown and the Conservative Party leader David Cameron. The son of an Indian politician and a newspaper editor, Dr
Zakaria is a Harvard political science alumnus. He had the ear of such
luminaries as former US secretary of state Henry Kissinger from early
in his career. But he really made his mark with his 2001 essay, Why
They Hate Us, which he wrote just after the Sept 11 terror attacks on
the US. His weekly column in Newsweek is now required reading for
anyone interested in global affairs.
The way forward
THIRTY years ago, if anyone from Brazil, India or Mexico had
predicted his country would soon be revving the world's economic
engines, he would have been brushed off as a wishful thinker at best.
But today, these countries are charging into the future after having
embraced capitalism. As a result, three billion new players are
competing for the world's ever-dwindling resources. Indeed, as Dr Zakaria points out in his new book, The
Post-American World, the economies of 124 countries, including 30
African states, are now growing at the rate of at least 4 per cent a
year. Compare that with the only 35 countries that enjoyed that sort of
growth 30 years ago, he says, and what you have is 'the birth of a
truly global order'.
Singapore, he adds, is handling this brave new order very well.
'What Singapore has done very adroitly is to have moved up the
value chain - to have said that 'okay, we can't compete with other
countries in cheap labour, and so we're going to do value-added
products, we're going to try services, we can compete (in) these areas,
we're going to move to the next level'.' He applauds the Republic's 'very clever' forays into such
areas as tourism, film-making and software design. And all this, on top
of managing good relations with both the United States and China, he
notes admiringly. But he adds that Singapore is the only rich country in the
world without a fully functioning multi-party democracy. That will
hobble its advance in the long run, he believes, because people 'want
not only economic rights, but also freedom of association, freedom of
speech and freedom of thought'. 'You may get lucky with a particular autocrat, but what
happens after him?...If you could guarantee me in advance that you'll
get Lee Kuan Yew, that's a whole different thing. But there's no way
beforehand to know that you're going to get a leader like Lee Kuan
Yew.' He adds wryly, wondering whether this would get into print:
'I think that the political system is rigged in favour of the People's
Action Party (PAP). Some of it is formal...Some of it is informal. But
all of it is largely unnecessary.' Singapore is already 'a very open society in many ways', he
points out. 'I often say this to people because they have an image of
Singapore which is essentially incorrect...It is a place where you
would certainly feel as if you had many, many freedoms and
liberties...It has been lucky in having very wise leadership.'
But it has to widen its political outlook much more, he insists.
'Singapore's leaders have succeeded more than they realise.
They created a modern society, and in creating that modern society,
they must now also trust it more than they do.' He adds: 'That, in some ways, is the genius of democracy. It
turns the relationship between governed and governors into a two-way
street, and that will make for a much greater degree of sense of
loyalty and pride in Singapore for the next generation.' He muses: 'It's funny: Whenever I meet senior Singapore
government officials, I will sometimes mention this. And they'll go:
'Oh, no, no, it's not a real problem, don't worry.' And I'll say: 'You
know, younger Singaporeans do feel frustrated.' And they'll say: 'Oh, I
don't know if you are right about that.' 'And then, as I'm escorted out by one of the young aides to
the senior government officials, they will tell me: 'By the way, Dr
Zakaria, you are 100 per cent right. We are very frustrated'.'
'And these,' he notes, 'are people in the heart of the political structure.'
Dr Zakaria is quite sure that if the PAP held what he calls 'open competitive elections', it would do 'quite well'.
And as for Minister Mentor Lee's view that a non-PAP government
would act irresponsibly by exhausting Singapore's coffers, Dr Zakaria
says: 'You can produce checks and counter-checks. Nobody's talking
about giving day-to-day control of Temasek (Holdings) and the
Government Investment Corporation to Parliament. You can create
institutions that are independent and therefore somewhat sheltered from
day-to-day political control.'
Tackling global crises
AND political control, by the way, is what he feels the new
global order needs in a big way. Great global growth brings with it
great global worries. And therein lies the rub. The current lone superpower, the US, is not only being
outstripped by new players on the economic front, it has also lost its
intellectual and moral high ground since it invaded Iraq in 2003. On top of that, though food, fuel and weather woes have
spilled over into the international arena, most countries are still
thinking of how to solve these problems locally, when what is really
needed is greater global consultation, cooperation and compromise.
'We have crises now. The question is whether we have the leadership.'
China, he feels, is not ready to fill the vacuum America has left for two reasons.
First, there is considerable scepticism about China,
particularly in India, Japan and Indonesia. 'It's not as if the world
is hungering for Chinese leadership.' Second, if China or any other Asian economic dragon wants to
lead the world in the way the US has in the past 60 years, it would
first need to present 'a compelling vision for other people to buy into
and say, 'You know, we like the way Asians think about the world'.' 'It's not just about money,' Dr Zakaria insists. 'It's about
setting an agenda, making people feel that there's a vision that you
want to work towards.' For that reason alone, he thinks the US can still play a
pivotal role. It can bring the world together to work out solutions to
problems like energy and global warming. Asked which US presidential contender is better poised to
lead in a post-American world, he plumps firmly for the Democrat,
Senator Barack Obama. He finds Mr Obama's willingness to challenge
settled wisdom in Washington - like his willingness to talk to US
'enemies' - 'refreshing'.
'And though he was criticised for it, he stuck to his guns,' notes Dr Zakaria. 'I think that was very impressive.'
Mr Obama's rival, Senator John McCain, on the other hand, is 'a
Cold Warrior', says Dr Zakaria, referring to the Republican's less than
friendly references to Russia and China. 'That is just the wrong vision
for the future.'
Dr Zakaria himself is a long-term optimist about the post-American world.
'At the end of the day, the power of two to three billion
people for the first time consuming, investing, producing, dreaming,
inventing and problem-solving is very, very powerful,' he proclaims.
suk@sph.com.sg | 
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