“What is the New Normal for the Public Service?” - Speech by Mr Eddie Teo, Chairman PSC, at the 2011 Singapore Seminar on 5 November 2011 in London

1       Welcome to all of you.

2       Those of you who were in Singapore during the two elections this year or followed the events closely from abroad, would have noticed a significant change in the political environment back home. Political commentators refer to GE 2011 as a “watershed election” and call the present political climate “a new normal”. The changes have been noted by the ruling party, which now seeks to reinvent itself.

3       What does the “new normal” mean to the Public Service? As future public servants, how the PAP reinvents itself should be of great interest to you because so long as it continues to form the government, what changes the party makes will affect the way you will carry out your duties and responsibilities and how you have to conduct yourself as a public servant. Public servants take instructions from politicians and must abide by the policies decided upon by the government of the day. Outwardly, and to the general public, there should not be any visible difference between the views held by public servants and those held by their Ministers once a policy is fully hatched and accepted by Cabinet.

4       This does not mean that within Government, and on the way to a decision, there are no different viewpoints. Enlightened senior public servants and political leaders appreciate that recruiting the best and the brightest into the Public Service means that they cannot, and must not, deprive our public servants of their voice and they should indeed encourage them to speak up and express alternative, and even dissenting, views, during the process of policy-making. No government policy can be said to be well-formulated unless it undergoes many rounds of debate, discussion and questioning of assumptions – both within Government, among different departments, and externally, with those outside Government.

5       I wish to briefly discuss three changes which our political leaders are presently grappling with: a more engaged government, a more open and responsive government, and a more inclusive government.

A More Engaged Government

6       Given the outcome of GE 2011, our political leaders have declared that Government should engage and consult the public more, and even “co-create” policy with the public. What does this mean in practice for the public servant? “Co-creation” sounds simple but is fraught with practical difficulties. Before you can “co-create”, you need to listen. In a more demanding and diversified Singapore, you must listen to everyone but whose views should you take into account? In the past, life for the public servant was simpler because the people mostly listened to the Government, not the other way round. The social compact then was that the Government will look after the economic interest of Singapore and Singaporeans will listen to what the Government wants them to do socially and politically, often without question. In today’s more mature and divergent society, the people want to question and they want to be heard. If our people are politically aware, more of them will join NGOs and behave like active citizens, fighting for causes they feel strongly about. Civil society will develop and grow. They will also join political parties – not just the PAP – and debate about political issues and contest in the next elections. I personally believe that this is something we should welcome and not fear or resist.

7       But potential public servants like you need to be alerted to problems you will face when you seek to engage with such a diversified society. Different segments of society and different groups have different interests and if there is no spirit of compromise or a sense among Singaporeans of what is in the common good for Singapore, they will all want Government to take their interest into account, and not that of other groups. This is the fundamental basis of politics – who gets what, when and how? In formulating its policies, does Government listen to the vocal minority or the silent majority? The old or the young? The rich or the poor? The religious or the secular? The new citizen or the old citizen? How much does Government assuage short-term complaints at the expense of long-term benefits and how much short-term political pain can it bear to ensure Singapore’s long-term interests? Does it make sense for the Government to eschew economic benefits because of potential social harm or is the social cost worth bearing? Should the Government go for speed and efficiency or does it go for more extensive consultation and delay its decisions?

8       Policy decisions are always about trade-offs, and if Singaporeans fail to compromise and are unwilling to accept some pain for the long-term or overall gain of all Singaporeans – consultation and co-creation will not work and we will end up with a dysfunctional government. The challenge for Singapore is to have diversity without gridlock and to embrace divergent views while staying united as one nation. The challenge for the government is to listen to the public and accept different viewpoints without becoming populist. As public servants, you must have the empathy to listen to and understand people’s desires, aspirations and anxieties but you must also be aware of policy trade-offs that need to be explained clearly to those whose views cannot, and should not, be taken into account. In other words, public servants, like politicians, need to know how to say “Yes” and also how to say “No” – always politely and humbly, and with the patience of a saint, for some citizens can now be quite abusive and unreasonable. The public servant’s decisions must always be impartial and non-partisan, whatever his personal values and views may be. He cannot collude with the ruling party against the people nor should he subvert the government from within. And he must carry out his duty “without fear or favour”.

A More Open & Responsive Government

9       Next, what does it mean for the Government to be more open and responsive? In today’s political climate and with the new media, the Government can no longer behave as if secrecy is a virtue. However, it cannot be totally and completely open either. As Jonathan Powell, Tony Blair’s Chief of Staff, has stated, somewhat tongue in cheek, in his excellent book, “The New Machiavelli”: “policymaking, like producing sausages, is not something that should be carried out in public”.

10       Secrecy is necessary for public servants to give Ministers honest but uncomfortable advice. It is necessary so that Ministers can argue with one another frankly in Cabinet. It allows government officers to first debate issues from their departments’ perspectives and then unite with a common stand in the interest of the public good. Secrecy is necessary to enable Government to make objective and fair decisions without being unduly influenced by the market, or interested parties and lobbies. But unnecessary secrecy may breed suspicion and distrust of Government on the part of the public. The Government needs a proactive media strategy, going out to explain what it is doing and why, because there is much that it does that is good for Singapore and Singaporeans. The mode of thinking should shift from “What can we keep secret?” to “What can we reveal?”. If government does not become more open and proactive, the new media (and perhaps even the old media) will take over and seek to speculate on what Government’s intentions are, and such speculation is nearly always adverse and unfavourable, and sometimes downright wrong. The Government is just learning how to deal with the new media, not in order to determine how to suppress, control or censor it, but to decide how to sieve out good, sound ideas to engage with. Hence, there is still ongoing debate about whether Ministers should engage on Facebook or twitter. As a rule, public servants presently do not go online to actively and officially engage netizens on public policy issues, but many have Facebook accounts and not all of them are always conscious of the line to draw between private and official chatter.

A More Inclusive Government

11       Next, a more inclusive government. This implies that the government must be tolerant of divergent views and welcome different perspectives. In the past, there was a tendency on the part of the government to sometimes quickly rubbish views that did not conform to its existing assumptions and policies. In an increasing complex and fast-changing world, taking such a reflex action will deprive the government of ideas that could help us become more creative and innovative. It is not easy for politicians and public servants used to working out solutions and then prescribing them to the public to switch to a mode where they have to listen, consult, and accept ideas. In fact, it is not easy even for members of the public to adapt to such a mode, used as they are to the idea that if you have a problem, you should complain to the government in order to get it solved. By throwing the ball back to the public, the government opens itself to charges that it is not doing its job and shirking its duty. Some tax-payers expect highly-paid politicians and public servants to solve all their problems, and efforts by the Government to seek ideas can sometimes be seen as buck-passing. But how else can we encourage Singaporeans to be active citizens?

12       Being inclusive means you encompass as many people as you can to join you in nation-building and preparing for the future. This includes people who are critical, who disagree with some government policies, even those who have a genius in making fun of what government does and believe that Singaporeans should learn how to laugh at themselves more. They will include contrarians, mavericks and non-conformists. But they are all Singaporeans who have the interest of Singapore at heart, who criticise because they want us to improve, and who want to help build a better Singapore, not to bring the country down. I leave it to you to imagine who can be included in such a wide umbrella. But on the top of my own list would be Mr. Brown. I am in good company here because a PAP Minister recently put Kumar on his list by endorsing him at his book launch.

Rational & Emotional Connection

13       Lest I leave the impression that I think that government is only about process, let me make one final point. The objective of having a more engaged, open and inclusive government is to ensure that the trust that has been built up between the government and the people over the last 50 years is retained or restored. Some observers talk about building a new social compact. But I think that Lord Peter Mandelson, the “Third Man” in the New Labour government and the latest Lee Kuan Yew Exchange Fellow to Singapore, put it most aptly during his visit. He said that he had pondered deeply over why the Labour Party lost in the last elections in the UK, and he had come to the conclusion that when a Government loses the “emotional connection” with its people, they stop listening. It is not enough for a government to have a rational connection with the people; it also needs to stay emotionally connected with the people as well. In other words, government is about the heart as well as the head. As public servants, you need be empathetic and serve the people with your heart and not just with your mind. And people can see through false empathy.

14       I hope I have not painted too daunting a picture of the “new normal”. The job of a public servant will be more difficult and more challenging, but it will be more exciting and very exhilarating. You will be living through a key transitional period in Singapore’s history and you will directly and personally be involved in making that history, together with the people of Singapore. You will make mistakes, which you should promptly and sincerely apologize for. You will face frustrations, but adversity should be seen as a spur to doing things better, not for you to give up. Life as a public servant will never again be boring.

15       Thank you.