"Kishore Mahbubani to retire as dean of Lee Kuan Yew School of Public Policy
SINGAPORE: Professor Kishore Mahbubani, the founding dean of the Lee Kuan Yew School of Public Policy (LKY School), will retire from his leadership position at the school on Dec 31 this year, the National University of Singapore (NUS) announced on Monday (Nov 6).
Prof Mahbubani, 69, has headed the LKY School for more than 13 years since it was established in 2004. Prior to that, he served 33 years in the foreign service and was the permanent secretary of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs from 1993 to 1998.
Prof Mahbubani said it has been an "incredible privilege" to be the dean of LKY School, an autonomous postgraduate school of NUS.
"After 13 years, it is timely for a new leadership to take the school to greater heights ... I look forward to the opportunity of the nine-month sabbatical to expand and deepen my research and writing.”
Emeritus Senior Minister Goh Chok Tong, who is chairman of the LKY School governing board, said Prof Mahbubani demonstrated "dedication and leadership in building up the NUS Lee Kuan Yew School of Public Policy from scratch"."
I m NOT a fan of Kishore as I assessed him to idolise late LKY too much to the point of being unable to criticise some of the not so good n wise policies pushed by him, especially in late Mr LKY's last few years of his political n government life.
It is surprising that Kishore is retiring at a ripe young age of 69! There weren't any signs that he planned or wanted to retire given his recent article on how small states should behave created a lot of vigorous n spirited discussions as well as pointed rebuttals fr the government n cabinet ministers!!
The timing of his rather sudden retirement definitely would trigger the people who think, n can think, to link this with the controversy of the event mentioned above n the other "not so good" things of a staff member apologizing to Minister Shan on a "casual comments on laws need to consider public sentiment" n the deportation of another staff who was deemed an agent of foreign influence!!
So maybe Kishore used to be the favourite of the power that be n could get away with much, he now knows how some out-of-favour or never-in-favour critics of the government were treated!!
If he was forced to retire, it will be very sad as we need supposedly intelligent people to provide more insights n ideas that may be different from the ruling government so that the government can hv the benefits of diversity of ideas when deliberating on the "most appropriate n effective" ones for Sgp!!
If dissenting voice fr "established" people r also brushed aside, what more the perceived "evil intentioned" hard-core government critics?
Majulah Singapura. Less tolerance for constructive differing intellectual ideas may set Sgp back!! Beware!!
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