Why American presidents matter

 

Strong leaders club: Lee Kuan Yew was an admirer of Reagan and Nixon.— AP Photo/File 

 

 The zeitgeist of the world is infused by the character of the US leader. Biden will bring back the civility and generosity that the American spirit is associated with.

THE first American president to enter my personal consciousness was John F. Kennedy. It wasn’t his stirring rhetoric that reached me as a child in Singapore. It was the news of his assassination. The sense of loss was globally palpable. History has been kind to him.

He was succeeded by Lyndon Baines Johnson. As a child, I was puzzled. How could someone so ugly succeed someone who was so attractive? Indeed, he was boorish. Legend has it that he would summon his staff to meetings while sitting on his toilet seat, doing his business.

Still, history will be kind to him. His bold and massive civil rights legislation changed the course of US history. Which may explain why he has the most voluminous and still unfinished biography of any recent American president, in the four volumes by Robert Caro.

History has been unkind to Richard Nixon, his successor. Watergate killed him. The liberal media has not forgiven him. Yet there’s no doubt that he changed the course of human history. Without Nixon, Henry Kissinger could not have gone to China.

Lee Kuan Yew named Nixon as the greatest American president he had met, saying: “But for the misfortune of Watergate, I would say Richard Nixon. He had a realistic view of the world. He was a great analyst, realistic, but also a tactician to get things done.”

When Nixon stepped down, Lee lost a true friend in the White House, a major asset for the leader of a small country.

This partially explained the contempt Lee had for Jimmy Carter, whom he considered naive. In Tom Plate’s book, Giants Of Asia: Conversations With Lee Kuan Yew, Lee named Carter the worst president, saying of him: “Your job as a leader is to inspire and to galvanise, not to share your distraught thoughts. You make your people dispirited.”

Fortunately, Carter was succeeded by the two-term Ronald Reagan, another admirer of Lee. I was present when they met in the White House. Still, as a Singapore diplomat in Washington and New York during Reagan’s era, I experienced the condescension the liberal media displayed towards him. However, history has been very kind to Reagan, especially because of his spectacular victory over the Soviet Union.

Reagan was succeeded by another great friend and admirer of Lee, George H. W. Bush. I was present in a small room in St Petersburg, Russia, in the late 1990s, when Bush confirmed that the No 1 leader he admired in the world was Lee.

I reported this to him. Sadly, Bush became a one-term president, and his departure was another huge blow to Lee.

The point of these stories is a simple one. The selection of an American president has huge consequences for the world, including Singapore.

What Biden offers

Indeed, given the overwhelming power of America, especially in the media and communication dimensions, the zeitgeist of the world is infused by the character and personality of the American president.

Donald Trump’s narcissistic and self-absorbed personality has deprived the world of a major source of inspiration, especially after Barack Obama.

So what does the election of Joe Biden bring to the world? Will good times return? The short answer is yes and no.

Biden is a truly decent human being. He will bring back the civility and generosity that the American spirit is associated with.

However, Biden also knows that he is taking over a deeply divided country, as demonstrated by the huge numbers who voted for Trump even though he was defeated. His priority is to heal his country, not create a better world.

Nonetheless, Biden has at least three opportunities he can capitalise on to retain his positive glow.

First, he can bring back some boredom to the White House. Both America and the world have become exhausted by Trump’s tweets and in-your-face presence. Some calm and reticence by the Biden administration will help to return the world to a certain degree of normalcy.

Biden knows that he cannot do this alone. Fortunately, he has assembled a formidable transitional team of real American heavyweights. They share Biden’s distress over the divisions in the country. Repairing the wounds in American society and bringing back a happy America will be the main priority.

The second opportunity is geopolitical. Biden cannot reverse the US-China geopolitical contest, for reasons I have documented in my book, Has China Won? He would be persecuted if he is seen to be soft on China. Yet, even if he cannot reverse course on China, he can press the pause button on the contest.

Americans believe in common sense. Simple common sense would say that Americans should first deal with the pressing challenges of Covid-19 and economic slowdown, not to mention global warming.

All these problems would be better handled with some degree of cooperation with China. Just as Winston Churchill partnered an adversary, Joseph Stalin, to defeat Adolf Hitler, Biden can partner a competitor, China, to defeat Covid19. Both Nixon and Lee would have approved such a Machiavellian manoeuvre against a common foe.

The third opportunity lies in stopping America’s drift towards a plutocracy. One key reason why Trump was elected in 2016 was because of the “sea of despair” among the white working classes. This is because America is the only major developed economy where the average income of the bottom 50% has gone down. The anguish of these white working classes must be dealt with. Some redistribution must take place.

Reagan delegitimised taxes. Biden must re-legitimise them. And, if America’s many plutocrats are wise, they would support him.

In short, Biden can apply some gentle soothing balm on the many wounds generated by the Trump presidency. His greatest asset is his decency. Plain decency will bring a lot of healing to America. Trump may have been cruel to call him “Sleepy Joe”. Yet a “Sleepy Joe” and calm American presidency may be good for America and the world. 

 By KISHORE MAHBUBANI Kishore Mahbubani is a distinguished fellow at the Asia Research Institute, National University of Singapore, and the author of ‘Has The West Lost It?’ and ‘Has China Won?’-ANN

 

Related posts:

 

America’s third Covid-19 surges

  https://www.vox.com/21523039/covid-coronavirus-third-wave-fall-winter-surge Coronavirus: Mapping Covid-19 Confirmed 

US President-elect Joe Biden to form pandemic task force as the superspreader of Coronavirus worsen

US President-elect Joe Biden has announced he will form a task force of scientists and experts to bring COVID-19 under control in ...

Freedom & hate speech hypocrisy

Freedom per se has no value. It is what freedom is for. It is the use to which it is put. It is the sense of responsibility and restraint with which it is exercised. 

THE crude and disgusting video by some American citizens mocking Prophet Muhammad has caused great anguish to Muslims around the world. Blasphemous provocations by some media mavericks in France are adding insult to injury.

Even before the sacrilege perpetrated by the video Innocence of Muslims, the deeply-wounded Muslim community was living in humiliation and helplessness.

The 65-year-old American-aided genocide in Palestine continues to rage unabated.

In Syria, Western mercenaries are leading the civil war with overt and covert help from the Western alliance. Iran is under daily threat of annihilation. In blatant violation of international law, American drone attacks continue mercilessly to murder innocent civilians in Afghanistan, Iraq, Libya, Yemen, Somalia and Pakistan.

There is in most Muslim minds a perception that Islam is under attack; that Muslims are under siege; that behind the beguiling rhetoric of democracy, human rights and the war against terrorism, there is a cunning plan to re-colonise Muslim lands and seize their wealth for the insatiable appetite of Western economies.

It is in this background that the exploding Muslim rage against blasphemy must be understood.

However, understanding something does not mean justifying it. Human life is sacred and no idea and no theory can excuse the murder of innocents.

It is with sadness and shame that I note the violence and deaths resulting from the airing of the obnoxious video. Equally painful is the mindless damage to Buddhist religious places in Bangladesh because of Facebook insults to Islam.

Having said that I must state that we all have a duty to show respect to others and to not denigrate what they hold as sacred.

We have a duty to censor ourselves when we speak to others about what lies close to their hearts and souls.

Blasphemy violates the sacred; it trespasses boundaries that must exist in every civilised society; it causes pain to millions.

God and all His prophets must not be defiled. Blasphemy should be a punishable criminal offence in much the same way sedition and treason are.

Unlike free-speech advocates who place this freedom at the heart of their new abode of the sacred, I think that freedom per se has no value.

It is what freedom is for. It is the use to which it is put. It is the sense of responsibility and restraint with which it is exercised.

Blasphemy is a form of hate speech. Andrew March admits that “many in the West today use speech about Muhammad and Islam as cover for expressing hatred towards Muslims”.

Geert Wilders and makers of Innocence of Muslims are hate mongers, not human rights pioneers.

Behind hate speech is the ideology of racial or religious superiority. Hate speech amounts to discrimination.

It promotes denigratory stereotypes. It attacks basic premises of the human rights system, premises as deep as equal human dignity, respect for others and equal protection.

It must be asserted that Islamophobia is a new form of racism.

Further, the claims by Western leaders, including President Barrack Obama and Secretary of State Hilary Clinton that the constitutional principle of free speech permits no state interference is an overstatement.

In the US, the First Amendment of the Constitution has since the beginning been interpreted to mean that “prior restraints” on freedom of expression are not allowed.

But this does not exclude the legal possibility of post-event prosecutions and sanctions. For example, defamation is actionable. Contempt of Court is punishable.

For much of its history the USA has had a Sedition Act. Supreme Court decisions over the decades have vacillated between various criteria for determining the justification for invasion of free speech.

But there has always been the possibility of post-event restrictions to avoid danger to society. There is freedom of speech but sometimes no freedom after speech!

An Espionage Act exists. Whistleblowers are prosecuted. Under the Obama administration, six prosecutions under this Act were all directed against journalists exposing government wrongdoing.

At the Food and Drug Administration, they spy on their own employees’ email. At the Department of Defence any soldier who speaks about government lies in Afghanistan or Iraq is jailed. Twenty-seven laws exist to monitor social media content.

The State Department blocks Wikileaks with its firewall. The founder of Wikileaks is being hounded.

European record is even more reflective of double standards. Public order laws are used regularly in Britain and Germany to criminalise “politically incorrect” expressions or pro-Nazi ideas and to punish any comment, research or analysis that departs from the officially sanctioned version of the holocaust.

In February 2006, Austria jailed British historian David Irving for three years for denying the holocaust.

Overt and covert censorship is very much part of Western societies. Only that it is more refined; it is non-governmental; it is de-centralised. Its perpetrators are publishing houses, financiers, advertisers, interest groups, editors, publishers and other controllers of the means of communication.

Obviously free speech in the USA and Europe is not absolute save when it demonises, dehumanises and denigrates Islam and Muslims. Then it is part of the new abode of the sacred.

COMMENT
By PROF SHAD SALEEM FARUQI

Shad Saleem Faruqi is Emeritus Professor of Law at UiTM

Related:

Time to reform Malaysia's tax system?

Comprehensive review timely as Malaysia is driving its transformation programme

RECENT developments in parts of Europe have sparked a debate in the eurozone on austerity and growth. Those who argue for austerity or “fiscal prudence” claim that debt management is key to restoring investor confidence and, therefore, long-term prosperity.

Borrowing more is not an acceptable response to a crisis caused by over-borrowing and over-spending. In contrast, those who prefer greater stimulus claim that, without further investment, growth will simply not return, and without some Government stimulus, no economy can pull itself out of recession to achieve long-term stability and growth.

Whilst there is no clear “right” answer, there is one aspect of Government policy that is absolutely central to this taxation. Governments must ensure a balanced system of taxation that provides the right incentives to business and citizens, while enabling the Government to meet its debt and spending obligations. Getting this balance right can drive increased confidence among the investor community and stimulate economic activity, international competitiveness and long-term growth.

A new approach

In the past, many countries have relied on the support of international bodies and other inter-governmental assistance to begin the process of tax reform in respect of designing the tax system itself and in improving the ability to collect taxes. In the post “credit-crunch” world, it has become apparent that the operational ability to increase tax revenues is somewhat limited. A new hands-on approach is required to assist the public sector, generating increased tax revenues and driving corporate activity without raising taxes or damaging international competitiveness.

Malaysia has never had a comprehensive review of its tax system

 

Like any business, a Government has costs and it has revenues. A framework is required to help Governments optimise their tax revenue and balancing this need with the creation of the right incentives for citizens and businesses to stimulate the economy. To achieve this, our experience in working with Governments is typically structured around three core work streams:

● Tax reform design - Modeling the economy and designing a new system of taxation appropriate for the jurisdiction, with the emphasis on simplicity, fairness, participation and economic stimulus;

● Tax compliance - Building the taxpayer base to ensure all taxpayers have paid the correct amount of tax under the law and will continue to do so and;

● Tax operational improvements - underpinning both streams, identifying and delivering detailed operational improvements, ensuring transparency of data and processes within the tax administration, across Government departments and with taxpayers.

Malaysia has never had a comprehensive review of its tax system. The setting up of a Tax Review Panel a few years ago basically focussed on the proposed Goods & Services Tax and has done some good work in this area but the focus on income taxes was limited and too restrictive. A comprehensive review is now timely given that Malaysia is aggressively driving its transformation programme towards achieving developed nation status by 2020.

Tax reform design

A tax system is at its best when it is at its simplest, levying the minimal number of taxes, thus making compliance easy for taxpayers and the tax authorities. Headline rates should be minimised, often in exchange for the removal of reliefs or deductions. In addition, it is essential to improve the quality of the taxpayer base. Finally, international trends are to shift the burden of taxation towards indirect taxes to ensure participation in the tax system, improve the reliability of collections and increase fairness.

An effective communications strategy is critical to the success of any tax reform project. To succeed, these projects require a proactive approach to ensure that stakeholders are aware of their progress.

Tax reform projects should have four key phases:

Understand - Work closely with the Government and external bodies to gather and verify data. Quickly establish a detailed understanding of the current tax system and understand the issues from a number of different perspectives. At the same time, model the economy and current tax collections, benchmarking them against other jurisdictions.

Model - Develop an outline model for the proposed tax system, meeting regularly with stakeholders to develop and test ideas and model alternative taxation methods. Produce a detailed proposal for the new tax system, including clear legislative and operational proposals, for political approval.

Implement - Bring the approved model to life. This can include taking a lead drafting new legislation and guidance. A highly operational approach, working to ensure systems, processes and controls are best-in-class and fit-for-purpose is essential at this stage.

Roll-out - Roll out the new system to the various groups of taxpayers and stakeholders and train the Tax Administration teams, including training on tax technical and operational / systems issues.

Tax compliance

In many developing economies, the incidence of tax evasion is certainly not small. Broadening the taxpayer base and ensuring current taxpayers are paying the correct amount of tax under the law helps keep taxes low. Economic and forensic analysis must be applied to identify areas of the economy requiring particular attention. A range of techniques is typically required to provide a complete picture of the tax-paying community.

To deliver real change for the tax administration, forming a single team to identify taxpayers, initiating assessments, managing taxpayer responses and building IT databases is key. Enhancements to processes and systems also drive improved service levels to taxpayers (whether this be speed or quality), which is vital to gain support for the tax system and for improving participation.

Tax operational improvements

Real operational improvements are essential to the successful delivery of any tax reform project. This may include improvements to existing IT systems to automate processes and controls and improve the way data is managed. This applies both to the tax administration's systems and the way it interacts with other Government departments. For example, the tax administration should automatically be informed whenever a new business registers with the Companies Commission.

On a practical basis, it is essential to ensure new tax documents and forms are produced where required, both in paper and electronic form. It makes sense to consider these as part of a wider programme of improving taxpayer interaction, for example, with the implementation of a new website or the ability to file tax returns online. Key to the success of any new document is simplicity both for the tax administration to review and process and for the taxpayer to understand.

Conclusion

The post credit-crunch world has generated a renewed focus on how a Government raises its revenue the right balance of fiscal prudence and stimulus is difficult to achieve. However, with a clear view on what taxes are levied, who pays them and how they are administrated, jurisdictions can drive real improvements in tax collections, real efficiency gains and, in doing so, drive the participation of the taxpaying community. This, in turn, can provide assurance for the investor community, enable the Government to meet its obligations and drive long-term growth for the wider economy, its businesses and citizens.

It is timely that Malaysia announces a comprehensive fiscal reform which is wide-based and wide-ranging and puts into place a long-term plan to mould a world class tax system that will be comparable to the leading developed nations in the world. It is time to let go of the ad-hoc approach of tinkering with the tax system let us get on with it!

By Dr Veerinderjeet Singh and Andrew Burman

● Dr Veerinderjeet is chairman of Taxand Malaysia and Andrew Burman is senior director at Alvarez and Marsal Taxand in the United Kingdom. Both entities are part of the Taxand Global Organisation. They can be contacted at vs@taxand.com.my and aburman@alvarezandmarsal.com respectively.

China, Russia sound alarm on world economy at APEC summit

By Timothy Heritage

VLADIVOSTOK, Russia

(Reuters) - China and Russia sounded the alarm about the state of the global economy and urged Asian-Pacific countries at a summit on Saturday to protect themselves by forging deeper regional economic ties.

Chinese President Hu Jintao said Beijing would do all it could to strengthen the 21-member Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) by rebalancing its economy, Asia's biggest, to improve the chances of a global economic recovery.

Russian President Vladimir Putin said trade barriers must be smashed down as he opened the APEC summit which he is hosting on a small island linked to the Pacific port of Vladivostok by a spectacular new bridge that symbolizes Moscow's pivotal turn to Asia away from debt-stricken Europe.

"It's important to build bridges, not walls. We must continue striving for greater integration," Putin told the APEC leaders, seated at a round table in a room with a view of the $1 billion cable-stayed bridge, the largest of its kind.

"The global economic recovery is faltering. We can overcome the negative trends only by increasing the volume of trade in goods and services and enhancing the flow of capital."

Hu told business leaders before the summit the world economy was being hampered by "destabilizing factors and uncertainties" and the crisis that hit in 2008-09 was far from over. China would play its role, he said, in strengthening the recovery.

"We will work to maintain the balance between keeping steady and robust growth, adjusting the economic structure and managing inflation expectations. We will boost domestic demand and maintain steady and robust growth as well as basic price stability," he said.

Hu spelled out plans for China, whose economic growth has slowed as Europe's debt crisis worsened, to pump $157 billion into infrastructure investment in agriculture, energy, railways and roads.

Hu steps down as China's leader in the autumn after a Communist Party congress, but he promised continuity and stability for the economy.

Putin, who has just begun a new six-year term as president, said on Friday Russia would be a stable energy supplier and a gateway to Europe for Asian countries, and also pledged to develop his country's transport network.

RUSSIA LOOKS EAST

The relative strength of China's economy, by far the largest in Asia and second in the world to the United States, is key to Russia's decision to look eastwards as it seeks to develop its economy and Europe battles economic problems.

APEC, which includes the United States, Japan, South Korea, Indonesia and Canada, groups countries around the Pacific Rim which account for 40 percent of the world's population, 54 percent of its economic output and 44 percent of trade.

APEC members are broadly showing relatively strong growth, but boosting trade and growth is vital for the group as it tries to remove the trade barriers that hinder investment.

The European Union has been at odds with both China and Russia over trade practices it regards as limiting free competition. Cooperation in APEC is also hindered by territorial and other disputes among some of the members.

Putin, 59, limped slightly as he greeted leaders at the summit. Aides said he had merely pulled a muscle. Underlining Putin's good health, a spokesman said he had a "very active lifestyle."

Discussions at the two-day meeting will focus on food security and trade liberalization. An agreement was reached before the summit to slash import duties on technologies that can promote economic growth without endangering the environment.

Breakthroughs are not expected on other trade issues at the meeting, which U.S. President Barack Obama is missing. He has been attending the Democratic Party convention and Washington is being represented by Secretary of State Hillary Clinton.

U.S. officials say Clinton's trip is partly intended to assess Russia's push to expand engagement in Asia, which parallels Washington's own turn towards the Asia-Pacific region.

Also missing the summit was Australian Prime Minister Julia Gillard. Putin said she had dropped out because her father had died.

(Additional reporting by Gleb Bryanski, Andrew Quinn, Katya Golubkova, Douglas Busvine, Denis Pinchuk and Andrey Ostroukh; Editing by Janet Lawrence)

 Newscribe : get free news in real time