Dr. Albert Winsemius, a leading Dutch economist, was once called the ‘founding father’ of Singapore by Kees Tamboer in the leading Dutch newspaper ‘Het Parool’ (Tamboer). I personally feel this may be a bit of an overstatement considering Lee Kuan Yew’s essential role in the development of Singapore throughout the second half of the 20th century, but it is indeed correct that Dr. Albert Winsemius played a major role in at least the economic development of Singapore. I have researched Dr. Winsemius thoroughly in my Internal Assessment for the IB History course, but below you will find a more comprehensible, structured piece of research assessing the significance of Dr. Winsemius in Singapore’s economic development.
I would like to start by looking at the beginnings of Dr. Winsemius’ influence in Singapore’s economic development. Dr. Winsemius came to Singapore in 1960 as part of United Nations Development Programme to Singapore (Lee 66). He advised the Singaporean government on a possible economic roadplan to lead Singapore into the future. Dr. Winsemius’ first advise to Lee Kuan Yew was fairly simple; eliminate the communists and leave the statue of Sir Stamford Raffles (the founder of Singapore who landed here in 1819). Lee followed Winsemius’ advise, albeit with a few bumps along the way, as getting rid of the communists was fairly challenging and it was not until a few years later that the role of the communists had diminished.
After Singapore’s independence Dr. Winsemius made a five-point plan for Singapore’s development (Tamboer):
- 1: Manufacturing of low value-industries.
- 2: The Housing programme (HDB) and attracting foreign companies (Esso, Shell).
- 3: Upscaling of manufacturing.
- 4: Turn Singapore into an International Financial Centre.
- 5: Develop Singapore as an international traffic and transport center.
The question of course is whether the Singapore government actually followed his advise, and thus whether Dr. Winsemius was actually a significant contributor to Singapore’s success. Indeed evidence does point to this conclusion. As we know now the HDB-program is is highly successful in Singapore, providing relatively affordable housing in land-scarce Singapore for Singaporeans. Over 80% of Singapore’s citizens live in these HDB flats. Also the second part of the second step; attracting foreign companies, seemed to have been highly successful. Nowadays, Shell is one of the largest foreign investors in Singapore, employing over 2,600 people.
Part of Dr. Winsemius’ plan was to form Singapore into an International Financial Centre. His reasoning behind this plan was that Singapore was located perfectly in a time zone approximately between San Francisco and Frankfurt, and that by turning Singapore into a financial center for banking, it would create a “24-hour round-the-world service in money and banking” (Lee 89). In 1980, Singapore was the 6th largest financial center, compared to rank 11 in 1970 (Choi, Rim, Park, Tschoegl). I have yet to find evidence that indicates that anyone else came up with the idea of Singapore becoming a centre of finance, and am therefore willing to conclude it was indeed Dr. Winsemius who pushed for this concept.
Lastly, point five of Dr. Winsemius’ plan was to turn Singapore into a traffic and transport centre. Again, it seems very clear that this advise has been carefully followed by the Singaporean government and that this was a major contributor to the success story of Singapore. Singapore Changi airport opened in 1981. Not much later (in 1988) it won the title world’s best airport (“Major Milestones.”). Changi is still seen as a major gateway to Southeast Asia, and Singapore’s popularity as a stopover has increased steadily over the years. In fact, Singapore is now the 4th most popular city for overnight visitors (Bender), which I believe is strongly related to Singapore being a popular stopover for tourists travelling onward to other parts of Asia. Tourism accounts for 6% of the GDP this year (Fensom), so it is a relatively significant contributor to the economic prosperity of Singapore.
Yet we have to be careful not to give Dr. Winsemius too much credit. Indeed, he made an economic plan for Singapore that was followed closely by the Singapore government, but Singapore would not have been so successful were it not for its ultra-safe environment and political stability, especially compared to other Southeast Asian countries. Lee Kuan Yew can be credited with enforcing strict rules in Singapore to maintain law and order. According to Michael D. Barr (one of the most respected historians when it comes to Lee Kuan Yew) stated that Lee Kuan Yew strongly believed in Asian values (community over self). His beliefs were that economic prosperity should be regarded higher than freedom of speech or democracy. This belief led to his policy of cracking down hard on crime, but also minimizing power of opposition parties to ensure a stable government that could plan ahead for long periods of time withlut the threat of being removed after elections. This in turn led to more stability in the country and this was in sharp contrast with other countries in the region, making Singapore an attractive place for companies to settle, and thus contributing to economic growth (Barr 2).
Furthermore, Lee Kuan Yew strongly advocated retaining English as the first language of Singapore (Lee 181). I strongly believe that another reason why many companies settled in Singapore was because, just like in Hong Kong, language was not an issue which made doing business much easier. Laws were all written in English, as was the language that people spoke on the street. For expats this made the transition much easier, and Singapore became an attractive place to settle expats and their families.
All in all, Dr. Winsemius has played a very significant role in the economic development of Singapore. Many of his plans were implemented and contributed significantly to the economic growth of Singapore. However, we must recognize that it is not solely economic policies that lead to economic success. In Singapore’s case, the management of society also contributed to Singapore developing into one of the four Asian Tigers, and this can largely be credited to Lee Kuan Yew.
Works Cited
Barr, Michael D. Lee Kuan Yew The Beliefs behind the Man. 2nd. ed. Kuala Lumpur: New Asian Library, 2012. Print.
Bender, Andrew. “Bangkok Tops The World’s 10 Most Visited Cities.” Forbes. 06 Jul 2013: Web. 19 Aug. 2013.
Choi, Sang Rim, Daekeun Park, and Adrian Tschoegl, eds. “Banks and the World’s Major Banking Centers, 2000.” Wharton Knowledge. The Wharton Financial Institutions Center, n.d. Web. 17 Mar 2013. <http://knowledge.wharton.upenn.edu/papers/1141.pdf>.
Fensom, Anthony. “Singapore’s GDP Surprise.” Diplomat. 16 Jul 2013: Web. 19 Aug. 2013.
Lee, Kuan Yew. From Third World to First The Singapore Story: 1965-2000. 1st ed. Singapore: Marshall Cavendish, 2000. Print.
Tamboer, Kees. “Albert Winsemius, ‘founding father’ of Singapore.” IIAS Newsletter. 9. (1996): Web. 27 Feb. 2013. <http://www.iias.nl/iiasn/iiasn9/soueasia/winsemiu.html>.
“Major Milestones.” Changi Airport Group. Changi Airport Group, 25 Sept 2012. Web. 19 Aug 2013. <http://www.changiairportgroup.com/cag/html/media-centre/major_milestones.html>.
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