Closing Thoughts on 50 Years of Singapore and the United Nations

And that’s the last chapter.

This is the closing post of my retelling of “50 Years of Singapore and the United Nations” (Tommy Koh, Li Lin Chang, Joanna Koh, 2015, ISBN: 978-9814713030).

Over the past 48 days, we’ve gone through 45 essays written by the people who actually lived this story. Ambassadors, ministers, soldiers, police officers, statisticians, lawyers, doctors, and aid workers. All connected to one tiny island nation and its relationship with the world’s largest international organization.

So what did we learn?

Small Doesn’t Mean Powerless

This is probably the biggest takeaway. Singapore has about 6 million people. It’s smaller than most cities. But it created the Forum of Small States (105 members), the Global Governance Group (30 members), chaired the UN Security Council twice, and hosted the first WTO ministerial conference. It even got World Toilet Day recognized by the UN.

How? By being useful. By showing up prepared. By building relationships. And by understanding that in a room full of big countries, the small country that has good ideas and does the work gets noticed.

The UN Is Deeply Flawed and Still Necessary

Almost every essayist in this book acknowledges the UN’s problems. The Security Council is controlled by five countries who got their seats after World War II. Budget politics let rich countries dictate priorities. Corruption exists. Reform is nearly impossible because the people who benefit from the current system are the ones who would need to approve changes.

But here’s the thing. Before the UN existed, small countries were invaded regularly. After the UN Charter, that happened less. The UN didn’t make the world perfect. It made it somewhat safer. For a country like Singapore, surrounded by much larger neighbors, “somewhat safer” is worth a lot.

As Bilahari Kausikan put it in his typically blunt way: “Is it better to have no UN if we cannot have a perfect UN? I think not.”

Personal Relationships Matter More Than You Think

This came up again and again. The diplomat who got 130 countries to co-sponsor a resolution about meeting room chairs. The ambassador who broke a climate change deadlock with a footnote. The minister who resolved a trade dispute over bananas at the eleventh hour.

In every case, personal relationships and trust made the difference. Lord Palmerston said countries have no permanent friends, only permanent interests. That’s true at the macro level. But at the human level, the diplomat who builds real relationships gets more done than the one who doesn’t.

You Can Start From Nothing

Singapore in 1965 was a poor country with no natural resources that had just been kicked out of a federation. It needed UN membership for basic survival and recognition.

Fifty years later, Singaporeans were running UN agencies, commanding peacekeeping forces, leading humanitarian missions during famines, judging war criminals, and shaping global trade rules.

That transformation didn’t happen because Singapore is special in some inherent way. It happened because of consistent, practical, unglamorous work over decades. Show up. Be competent. Keep your promises. Help others when you can. Don’t punch above your weight just to show off - do it because you actually have something to contribute.

The Quiet Work Matters Most

The flashiest parts of the UN are the Security Council debates and the General Assembly speeches. But the essays that stuck with me most were about the quiet stuff.

Andrew Toh setting up food distribution in Ethiopia during a famine. Vernon Lee tracking disease outbreaks in Indonesia. Cecil Ee managing UN finances for 33 years. The Singapore police officers maintaining order in Timor-Leste. Paul Cheung building global statistical systems.

None of that makes headlines. All of it makes the world work better.

What This Book Got Right

The editors made a smart choice by letting 45 different people tell their own stories. This isn’t a government PR exercise. Some essayists are diplomatic and careful. Others, like Bilahari Kausikan and Kishore Mahbubani, are refreshingly blunt about the UN’s failings. The range of voices gives you a much more honest picture than any single narrative could.

The book also shows something that’s easy to miss: international relations isn’t just about presidents and prime ministers making big decisions. It’s about thousands of people doing specific, technical, often boring work that keeps the global system functioning.

Final Thought

S. Rajaratnam said it in 1965, six weeks after Singapore became independent: “Singapore has faith in the future of the United Nations simply because without it there is no worthwhile future for humanity.”

Sixty years later, that’s still true. The UN is messy, political, often frustrating, and occasionally corrupt. But the alternative - a world where might makes right and small countries have no voice at all - is worse.

Singapore figured that out from day one. And it spent 50 years proving that even the smallest country can make a difference if it takes the work seriously.

Thanks for following along with this retelling. If any of these posts caught your interest, I’d recommend picking up the actual book. The full stories are richer than any retelling can capture.

Book Details:

• Title: 50 Years of Singapore and the United Nations
• Editors: Tommy Koh, Li Lin Chang, and Joanna Koh
• ISBN: 978-9814713030
• Publisher: World Scientific Publishing
• Year: 2015

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