Taking leave

When we completed the Master in Public Management programme at NUS/HKS, I was called upon to deliver the Valedictory address. Here is the address:

Chairperson for the valedictory session, Guest of honour, Distinguished invitees, Dean, Faculty members, Administrative staff, Batch of MPM 2010, My batchmates of MPM 2009, 

It’s always good to start at the beginning. Why me for the valedictory address, then? I was only the oldest one in the class. By being in the class, I increased the average age of the class but drastically reduced its average IQ. Given that, I am extremely honoured and deeply humbled by being chosen for the occasion.

 

This is the best of times and the worst of times for all of us. An occasion like this entails a certain emotional ambiguity and collective ambivalence. We are shortly going to complete our course and proudly flaunt three prestigious letters after our names: MPM from LKY School of Public Policy. While we are honoured by the cause of our departure, all of us are also infinitely saddened by the fact of it. No more walks from College Green to reach the class in time. No more daily association with a very special group of teachers who gave each of us so much of individualised attention and whose doors were always open for us despite their very busy schedules. No more joys and sorrows of an A+ or a B-. Above all, no more daily interactions amongst probably one of the most cohesive, high energy batches this school has seen – the 22 of us from eight so very different nationalities and cultures who bonded so very well.

 

I personally think, the biggest thing that happened in the year 2009 was not the first African American to become the President of the most powerful country in the world. Nor was it the global meltdown. Nor was it the death of Michael Jackson or the big blockbuster Slumdog Millionaire winning eight Oscars. The biggest thing that happened in 2009 was the 22 of us coming together through this program.

 

At the end of one year, I am amazed at the amount of ground we have covered. I do not think any other course in the whole wide world has as big a canvas as this one. In our first semester, we were exposed to concept subjects like Economics, Public Management, Globalisation and so on. Through visits, attachment and other programs like the Dean’s lectures, we learnt what impossible heights of efficiency public management can be taken to through some of the mechanisms like Statutory Boards, CEP, HAIR appraisals and so on. Then there was the foreign university component where we rubbed shoulders with a large variety of students and faculty from all parts of the globe.

 

Let me talk a little about that canvas. Economics. While I have been a student of Economics and am reasonably fond of the subject, I was indifferent to the idea of the indifference curves ever finding a real life application. The first few lectures of Economic reasoning followed the pattern. Then came Prof Mukul Asher’s brilliant analysis of Singapore’s budget and we all said wow! Economics is bread and butter issues also! Global trends in finance, how to make the strategic shift, the 5 C’s and the strategic triangle, the game theory and the generic solutions – I have merely mentioned the subjects I was a part of. There were a number of equally fascinating courses the others were exposed to. The attachment when we saw first-hand a different scale of public management efficiency. Then all hell broke loose. We went to outward bound and actually we floated – in more senses than one. I would also like to mention the foreign university component. Let me inform this august gathering that we held our heads high. In most, if not all the courses we took, LKY fellows as a group were ahead of the class average including the course which is supposed to be the toughest one at Harvard – Finance.

 

At the end of all that, we are here today for a number of reasons. We are here to re-live the experience and the camaraderie. We are here to participate in a ceremony of which we are the cause as well as the occasion. We will welcome another group of extremely talented resources which are being called the fresh batch of 2010. Most of all, this is a grand opportunity for thanksgiving.

 

First of all, Singapore. This is probably the best place to learn public management in. I do not think there is any other place in the globe which has taken public management to such heights. Learn through a very low unaccounted for water (UFW) of 5 % of Singapore vis a vis 40 – 60 % in most Asian urban centres or 10 – 15 % in England and Wales. Check the 40 % public assisted arrests in Singapore compared to single digit percentages in most cities. The Singapore port managing a 9-tall stack of containers through POLNET and other mechanisms compared to three or four by most other ports so that it makes economic sense for a container from Mumbai to first come to Singapore and then go to UK. And so on. If there is any place I would like anyone to learn public management in, it has to be Singapore. So, thank you, Singapore.

 

A big thank you to the Dean and our very dear faculty. The one thing we missed at the foreign university was the personalised attention they lavished on us so generously. When we think of the difficulty of sitting through a three-hour class, we realise how much more difficult it must be to give that three-hour long lecture to a group of mid-career professionals who would examine every single word against the touchstone of their diverse experiences before internalising it. So, thank you, Dean and the faculty.

 

Now, I would propose a big thank you to us. Even if I say it, we were such a great bunch, weren’t we? We blazed so many new trails. Ours was the first batch ever when the course submissions of three students of the batch, Ivy, KT and Tristan are getting published in the prestigious International Journal of Water Resources Development. Pankaj scored the highest in the toughest course at Harvard, Finance. Apart from academic performance, we have also started a few traditions – a yearbook is just one of them. I have a fond belief that when the history of LKY School will be written, our batch will be talked of in glowing terms. Most importantly, it will be talked of as a batch which worked hard and also played hard. I don’t think any other batch had as many get-togethers as we had. Everything was an occasion for a get-together. Farewell to Profs Alan and Julie, beginning of coursework, end of coursework, even beginning of exam week. I think what I shall remember the most about this whole year is watching “Small dog millionaire” together over beer and Pizza and, at the end of it, our Vice Dean revealing himself to be a closet Elvis Presley and Paul Simon rolled into one in terms of his singing. I shall also remember the critical importance of the number 3, whether it is the three points that always have to be made, or the three children that I already have and most of us are going to have, or the three angles of the strategic triangle, and so on. There are three things that do not exist. First, ghosts; second, weapons of mass destruction; and third, an A or A+ in Economic Reasoning and Policy. Meanwhile, to paraphrase Dean, Kennedy School, three things are inevitable: Death, Taxes and a mid-life crisis – either we have one before coming here or we shall soon acquire it.

 

Finally, I sometimes feel, the English language is a little inadequate in words for expressing things. Where are the words to thank those two gems – Agnes and See? Both of them are a class apart. Any organisation would be proud of them and it has been our privilege to have so generously benefited from their quiet efficiency. So, thank you Agnes. Thank you, See.

 

Having talked about the past and the present, we must turn our eyes to the future. Where do we go from here? Most of us will go back to our previous jobs or similar jobs but now, much richer in terms of knowledge, skills, horizon, commitment and, most of all, a belief that, “yes, we can.” All of us will shoulder higher responsibilities and battle even greater challenges than in the past. More than the authority that comes with our positions, more than the guns some of us police and army officers wield, more than the power we have over the fates of our subordinates, the biggest weapons we will have in that battle will be the concepts and the possibilities we learnt during this one year. We shall mobilise these concepts like a general mobilises his troops and send them out to war in which the victory will be ours.

 

In the state I work in in India, West Bengal, people never say “we are going” or goodbye when they part. They always say, Aashi which means we are coming back. There are no departures. There are only deferred arrivals. So I shall like to close by saying Aashi. This is not goodbye. This is our alma mater. All of us will try to, and like to, and, in fact, insist, that we come back in the future, be it for a reunion, or a seminar, or a lecture, or, as the trend has started, as the guest of honour. So, Lee Kuan Yew School of Public Policy, until we meet again, so long.

 

Thank you.

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?