Being a Diplomat

How did your formal education contribute to your awakening? I'm curious as to what are the factors that led you into diplomacy.

I did not want to become a diplomat. That was the last thing on my mind. Actually, what happened was that when I was young, what saved my life was that even though we had no books in the house, I discovered a little branch of a library about a mile away from my house, and I would go there and read ferociously. I read novels and books, whether Tolstoy, Dostoyevsky, or H.G. Wells, whatever it is. As a result of this love of reading, when I went to university (and it was also by accident that I ended up in university, because I got a scholarship that paid more than what I would've earned as a textile salesman), I discovered I loved philosophy and I dreamt then, as a young man, that I would spend the rest of my life as a philosopher.

But because of the scholarship, I was bonded to the Singapore government for five years, so I joined the foreign service and worked within the foreign service for five years, thinking it would be temporary. I ended up staying there thirty-three years.

Tell us what it takes to be a diplomat, both in terms of skills and in terms of temperament.

A very famous British diplomat, Harold Nicholson, wrote a book called Diplomacy, and fortunately, I happened to read that book very early on in my career. Most people have the impression that diplomats are devious, that as [in] the older days, diplomats are "sent abroad to lie for their country." But when I read his book I was encouraged, because he emphasized the importance of integrity. He said that a successful diplomat is someone who speaks as truthfully as possible. By speaking as truthfully as possible, you win the trust of the person you're dealing with. I've discovered that in diplomacy, winning the trust and confidence of the people you're dealing with is far more important than trying to lie for short-term gain. If you can't tell them something, don't lie to them; say, "My instructions are not to reveal that." That's a much more open way of behaving. So, I am, in that sense, what you might call an old-fashioned diplomat.

What about temperament. Patience?

Yes, you have to be patient. When I was ambassador to the UN, representing a small country, I would tell my staff, "Listen, we're a small country. There's no reason why anybody would want to listen to us when we speak. You only have three weapons when you walk into a United Nations room to try and defend your country's interest or to put forward your point of view. The three weapons are reason, logic, and charm. That's all you have."

So the philosophy paid off, in part?

Oh, the philosophy was immensely valuable. I think my life would have been quite different [without it].

When I would travel around the world, when I would go to meetings of the nonaligned movement, at all meetings, I found that if you tried to put across your argument in a very clear and logical fashion, especially when you say "first, second, third," you would translate very well, because when you speak in the United Nations, everything you say is translated into five other languages. If you don't speak clearly and logically, the message gets lost through the process of translation. So, I owe a lot to my philosophical training.

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