Amb. Chan Heng Chee

As Singapore's Ambassador to the United States since 1996,

Ambassador Chan has become the respected doyenne of Washington’s large diplomatic corps. A graduate of Cornell University and a Ph.D. holder from the University of Singapore, Amb. Chan previously served as her nation’s ambassador to the United Nations. Our team recently sat down to talk about her experiences in Washington, US-Singaporean relations and the post-911 world. Excerpts from that interview:

QUESTION: You have now been based in Washington for over a decade. As your time here has been far greater than most foreign diplomats, what are some of the social changes you’ve seen in the United States?

Amb Chan: I think the most important political change I have seen has been the swing of the pendulum from progressive, center left, more to the center, and more to the right. And it did mark the swing from the Democratic Clinton administration to the Republican Bush Administration. I thought in the end, the Clinton administration was not left, it was quite centrist. But in the social policies, some of the attitudes were going through the last phases of a more permissive society. But I think American was beginning to swing back. What I’ve seen, also, is the rise of the religious vote. And people talk about the religious vote. Now, the pendulum may be swinging another way at this point. So I think it’s a very interesting time to be in the United States. I’ve always said to people; don’t worry about the United States. It is a big country. It is self-correcting, always! It moves to one end of the spectrum, and then it moves back again. You’re a big country, the population is very diverse. Secondly, your population is constantly renewed by immigration, which now seems to be an issue. And I think immigrants are conservative by nature. They want to go their traditional route; they want to preserve their own authentic values, and they want what is America - American values as they remember them, that is usually the older conservative values; that is, if you work hard you can rise to the very top. Equality. Hard work pays off. Good old solid traditional values!

Q: At first glance, many people assume that there are scant similarities between the US, with its great landmass and large population, and smaller Singapore. Yet from the moment that our team touched down in Singapore, we immediately felt very comfortable there. Can you tell us your own views about how American and Singaporean societies might be comparable?

Amb. Chan: Lee Kuan Yew, the architect of modern Singapore said when Singapore become independent in 1965, his problem was: ‘How do you make something that is really quite impossible, work?’ The idea of Singapore - an island nation-state. He said for Singapore to work, he had to build a first world in a third world. And what did he mean by first world? It’s not just infrastructure. It’s also in the way you do things and that’s why Americans feel comfortable in Singapore. Plus, Singapore is English speaking. Our values are meritocracy, and egalitarianism. We have no aristocracy. We’re very democratic. And our society is very open to the outside world. We are an island city-state, so our survival depends on trade and an international outlook. And I think it’s a rather pragmatic culture in Singapore, which is the basis for many Western societies. And the corporate culture is Western, our way of doing business. We were a colony of the British, so ways of doing things, such as the civil service, reflects that.

In fact a Congressman from the Midwest once said to me: “Ambassador, I hope you don’t take this wrongly: When I met some of your businessmen there; if I closed my eyes, I could have sworn that I was talking to Americans, except for the accent.”

Q: It has often been said in the US media that “911 changed everything.” How has the political relationship between Singapore and the United States changed since Sept 11? In fact Singapore has long been a key ally of the United States in Asia. Yet, outside a few government departments, this fact is not widely known. Would you like to see this close relationship better known among average Americans?

Amb. Chan: The US and Singapore have a very strong bilateral relationship. It is substantially good and atmospherically good. After 911, the relationship did not change. In fact, I think it improved, because we share your same concerns about terrorism: that something has to be done, that countries have to collaborate, to exchange information. And we are a member of the coalition for Iraq, and we are supportive too, in Afghanistan. We sent a small number of Singaporeans to work together with New Zealanders, in a provisional reconstructive team there; we send engineers and medical people. So we work together.
We are a very small country, so our assistance is always commensurate with our size. But we do what we are capable of doing within our ability and resources. What would I like the average American to know about Singapore? That we are a reliable and dependable friend and ally of the United States. And one that is articulate about what we feel about the United States.

Q: How are the trade relations going between the US and Singapore?

Amb. Chan: Our trade relations are going very well. The US-Singapore FTA is often cited where trade is beneficial to the United States. First, you are in surplus. You are a surplus country in our trade balance; we buy more from you than you buy from us. Our total trade in goods was about US$60 billion in the last year. I am told that trade in services was about US$10 billion. Our trade with you, in just goods alone, is larger than your trade with Russia, trade with Brazil, trade with India; and all with just five million Singaporeans! Singapore is your 15th largest trading partner, but we are your 9th largest export market in the world.