The impact of your giving

The Low Tuck Kwong Foundation Scholarship at LKYSPP has been a life-changing opportunity. As a lawyer working in public service, it gave me the chance to step back from the day-to-day demands of legal work and reflect on the broader systems that shape governance, policy, and reform. It deepened by understanding of how law and policy intersect, and strengthened my ability to craft solutions that are not only legally sound but also socially responsive and grounder in the public good.

The generous scholarship has been truly life-changing for me and my family. Coming from a low-income background in a rural part of Aceh, I never imagined having the opportunity to study in such a globally recognised institution at LKYSPP. This experience has broadened by worldview, nurtured both my soft and hard skills, and sharpened by creativity and perspective in ways I never thought possible.

The unique opportunity offered by the Li Ka Shing Foundation Scholarship has enabled me to embrace and reaffirmed the spirit of social entrepreneurship within me to want to create an impact and contribute back to society. The LKY School is a melting pot of distinguished academia, policymakers, and students from the world over. With such a vast and diversified network and culture, as well as an interdisciplinary curriculum, I am better equipped to be a future leader and contribute more to my home country, Hong Kong, and be a bridge to Asia and the rest of the world. This would not have been made possible without the support from the Li Ka Shing Foundation, and for this, I am grateful.

My years at the LKYSPP and living in Singapore has been a journey of discovery in so many ways. Foremost, it was a discovery of Asia and embracing the diversity of this region. Secondly, it was an intellectual discovery where I learned new concepts and was immersed in the world of public policy. Lastly, it has been a journey of self-discovery where I was given a chance to learn more about my passions and interests and how best to sharpen my skills to have more impact in this world. All these could not have been made possible without the generous support of the Lee Foundation.

For a country like the Philippines, there is a constant struggle to develop and innovate domestically, while there is pressure to perform outside as countries in Asia try to seamlessly integrate. To do this, we need a new breed of public servants and development workers with international exposure and local know-how. The scholarship allows me to be part of this future, and I am honoured to have benefited from the academic excellence of the faculty, the diversity of my peers, and the great learning environment here at LKYSPP. More importantly, I have grown and matured in my character and in the way I think and look at things. I am truly grateful to my gracious donor, Dr Li Ka-shing, for this amazing and life-changing experience.

In Venezuela, we see Asia as a distant land which we know very little about. I would never have imagined that I would be given the chance to study in Asia. Upon arrival, I discovered a whole new world. I am amazed by Singapore's achievements in such a short history. Singapore is truly an example to other nations. At LKYSPP, each day was a new learning experience that inspired me to constantly think of ideas which can be implemented in my country in the next few years.

It is an absolute thrill for me to be the Wang Gungwu Chair in East Asian Affairs. Prof Wang Gungwu is a household name in the field of East Asian history and regional affairs. Even more impressive than his scholarly acumen and deep understanding of history is his humility and nurturing spirit, especially towards younger scholars. I have benefited so much from sitting at the feet of this master. I am also delighted that the contributions that Prof Wang has made have been recognised by generous donors who have contributed to the establishment of this prestigious Professorship. As the world takes a turn toward greater uncertainty, it is the qualities that Prof Wang embodies that must guide efforts to understand where we came from in order to know where we are going. It is in that spirit that this Professorship will enable me to pursue more ambitious and collaborative research, strengthen partnerships with scholars and institutions across the region, and support the next generation of researchers and policymakers, just as Prof Wang has done.

The Li Ka Shing endowed professorship has been a key enabler for my research on inequality and social mobility, and on great power competition and the new economic world order. The professorship has allowed me the space to rethink inequality as the critical social challenge, a narrative on which so much conventional wisdom has settled, or whether instead that narrative hides yet deeper problems and has been inappropriately identified in public conversation, and social and traditional media. At the same time, the world is undergoing a profound shift in the international system, shifting from the liberal, rules-based form it has taken for nearly a century: The professorship has given me unique opportunity to rethink the principles on which the international community has built our world order. As recipient of this professorship, I am privileged indeed to lead the work at the Lee Kuan Yew School drawing parallels between global issues and the local context in Singapore and ASEAN, that we might better navigate the challenges that lie ahead.

Although I grew up in Southeast Asia, I have spent much of my career as a political scientist in the U.S. and the U.K. I have always been interested in U.S. foreign policy (what I taught at Harvard and Oxford), the international relations of Aisa, and cognitive approaches to social science. As the LKS Professor in Political Science at the Lee Kuan Yew School, I am able to do more in-depth research in these areas, particularly the role of the U.S. in Asia, the rise of China and the responses of the Southeast Asian countries, while observing and trying to understand the tremendous economic and power shifts that we are taking place right before our eyes. In the midst of the current global coronavirus pandemic, we have seen how the souring relations between the U.S. and China have been aggravated further. This pandemic could not have come at a worse time for US-China relations: the mixture of geopolitical competition, trade frictions, and the ensuing blame game stemming from the global pandemic will undoubtedly pose serious challenges to the security and prosperity of Aisa and beyond.

One of the reasons I study public policy is that we can make a difference by offering innovative ideas to policy makers and governments at different levels in their efforts to address specified problems. Nowhere is this more important that when it comes to the environment. I am honoured to be selected for this prestigious LKS Professorship, which is allowing me to engage in systematic conceptual and empirical research aimed at generating insights for developing, and managing, problem-oriented "anticipatory policy design” exercises. I am especially interested in uncovering “easy to pull, but hard to reverse” policy levers that are capable of addressing the climate and biodiversity crises. I am also excited about my current work that has expanded to assess the COVID-19 pandemic. This research has already uncovered four different moral philosophies that help explain differences in country level approaches to COVID-19 management. More recently we have expanded our analysis to assess how our work on climate policy might help identify techniques for managing COVID-19 as a “super wicked” problem.

I am deeply honoured to be conferred the Yong Pung How Professorship. The Yong Pung How Professorship will help raise the profile of the school as well as my own work in the broad fields of international macroeconomics and development. Of particular research interest is the question of how several open economies in Asia including Singapore are able to navigate the macroeconomic and financial policy complexities arising from a world characterised by significant economic and geopolitical disruptions such as the Global Financial Crisis of 2008-09 and the COVID-19 pandemic. My research to date has largely focused on understanding the interactions between international capital flows, exchange rate regimes, financial sector development, and macroeconomic and financial stability. While my research has largely had a pan-Asian focus including Singapore, as Yong Pung How Professor, I expect to dedicate even more time research and teaching issues pertaining to Singapore, in particular, the constant evolution of the country’s policy toolkit in maintaining macroeconomic and financial stability over time. Some illustrations of areas of growing interest among LKYSPP students include Singapore’s eclectic and pragmatic approach to financial globalisation, as well as its innovative use of instruments such as Macroprudential policies to handle concerns about financial stability. This endowed professorship is highly meaningful because it provides me a timely opportunity to expand my research frontier further to focus specifically on the macroeconomic and financial policy challenges confronting Singapore, especially in light of the rapidly transforming financial and trade landscape in the region, including those arising from the fallout of the COVID-19 pandemic. I am particularly pleased that this professorship will also support my engagement in policy outreach and deliberations on some critical research questions in the international finance and development space.