Live another day

The more things change, the more they remain the same. Another day, another edit. Mid-career, I was fortunate to attend a Master’s programme split between National University of Singapore and Harvard University on an LKY Fellowship. My editorial for that yearbook:

 

 

Leaders for a better Asia

 

 

Leaders for a better Asia – that was the class motto we started with.

 

A little ambitious. But then, we were ambitious. We had to be, to seek admission to the MPM programme. We were searching for excellence. Ours was a group of 22 bright individuals from eight nationalities bringing a diversity of experience, talents and perspectives. All at once, there were the policy memos, presentations, graded class participation. The “search for excellence” slowly gave way to “struggle for survival.” Then came the roller coaster ride – butterflies in the stomach before the first presentation; tense nerves before the exams; panic at the approaching deadline; admiration and exhilaration at experiencing Singapore and the US; triumph or disappointment from our grades.

 

As we complete one year spent from College Green through Copthorne Orchid to New York and Cambridge, and sit down to produce the first ever yearbook by an MPM batch, so many vignettes crowd the memory. The orientation programme when even a class size of 22 seemed unmanageable. Get-togethers at College Green and in Marriot. The very first assignment. The careful guidance of Professors for each individual student. Autumn leaves in New England in resplendent colour. “Cultural exchanges between Columbia and Harvard.” The Outward Bound and our amazing, amazing raft. The other 21 lifelong friends who made the entire journey so special. The Attachment Paper. And of course, the Strategic Triangle. As someone said, nostalgia is not what it used to be. It is much more powerful when it is such a small cohesive group which has shared such a variety of experiences. 

The great takeaways from the course. It is sometimes as important whom you know as what you know. The much broader range of public management as opposed to management. The touchstone of the slippery slope. The marriage of counterintuitive Economics with practical New Public Management. BATNA and SBI. It was such an exciting learning curve. We probably learnt how the world moves. We tried to learn what moves the world. Maybe we learnt how to move the world. Definitely, we learnt how to at least move a small part of the small office of the small organisation and the small part of the world we inhabit. And last, probably the most amazing of all, we learnt that we are leaders for Asia and that we can help make it a better place. Despite the policy memos, presentations, class participation marks. Or was it because of them?