SINGAPORE — Professor Kishore Mahbubani will step down as dean of the Lee Kuan Yew School of Public Policy (LKYSPP) at the end of the year, said the National University of Singapore (NUS) in a media release on Monday (Nov 6).
Explaining his decision, Prof Mahbubani wrote in a letter dated Monday and sent to the LKYSPP governing board — where he has served for more than 13 years — that he had realised that “the time had come for me to take a fresh look at what I should achieve over the next decade as I enter my 70s”.
He turned 69 about two weeks ago, and as his birthday neared, he had thought about his experience with a double heart bypass surgery last year, he said.
Prof Mahbubani, who is the school’s founding dean, made headlines in July when his commentary published in the Straits Times on how small states should behave like small states drew criticism from Law Minister K Shanmugam and senior diplomats including Ambassador at Large Bilahari Kausikan.
NUS will begin its search for the next dean and an acting dean will be appointed from January next year. In his letter, Prof Mahbubani noted that he has been working in an administrative position for 46 years, including 33 years in the Singapore Foreign Service, with postings in Cambodia, Malaysia, Washington DC, and twice as ambassador to the United Nations. He left the Foreign Service after he became the dean of LKYSPP in 2004.
“After 46 years, I thought that my life should take a new direction,” said Prof Mahbubani, who was Permanent Secretary of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs from 1993 to 1998.
“I have therefore decided to step down as Dean on Dec 31 this year and to focus on a new career that involves more time spent on reading, reflection and writing. I need to re-build my store of intellectual capital, if I am to carry my writing up to a higher level.”
NUS has allowed him to go on a nine-month sabbatical from Jan 1. After which, he will return to the university, before retiring fully in 2019.
Recognised internationally as an expert on Asian and international affairs, Prof Mahbubani was selected as one of Foreign Policy’s Top Global Thinkers in 2010 and 2011.
Emeritus Senior Minister Goh Chok Tong, who chairs the LKYSPP governing board, lauded Prof Mahbubani’s “dedication and leadership” in building up the school from scratch. “He has firmly established the school as an internationally renowned institution for public policy education and research in Asia. The governing board deeply appreciates Kishore’s tireless efforts as the founding dean of the LKY School,” he said.
NUS President Professor Tan Chorh Chuan also praised Prof Mahbubani’s work, noting that he had built a “solid academic and institutional foundation for the school… positioning it as a global thought leader in public policy with an Asian focus”.
The university said that during Prof Mahbubani’s tenure, LKSYSPP gained a strong international reputation as Asia’s leading public policy school, and a thought leader in key areas of public policy research, such as topics like global governance, policy studies and public management, water and environment policy, competitiveness in Asia, and social policy in Asia.
Thanking the university, the governing board, as well as colleagues and students for their support, Prof Mahbubani said: “It has been a real privilege and honour to be the founding Dean of the LKY School and to watch its spectacular growth and success. It is now in a very strong position to move ahead on its own.”
In July, Prof Mahbubani published a commentary titled Qatar: Big Lessons from a Small Country where he wrote that Qatar’s rift with Saudi Arabia and its allies stemmed from the belief “that it could act as a middle power and interfere in affairs beyond its borders.”
The article drew a sharp rebuttal from Mr Kausikan, who wrote on Facebook post that “independent Singapore would not have survived and prospered if they always behaved like the leaders of a small state as Kishore advocates”. He said he was “ashamed” that “Kishore should advocate subordination as a norm of Singapore foreign policy”.
Mr Shanmugam subsequently called the piece ‘‘intellectually questionable’’, adding that Singapore did not get to where it is by thinking small.
In response to the criticism, Prof Mahbubani noted that the responses to his piece reflect the state of intellectual discourse in Singapore. “I hope you will agree with my big point that Singapore needs to become more prudent in its public statements,” he had added in a note to media editors.
http://www.todayonline.com/singapor...p-down-dean-lee-kuan-yew-school-public-policy
