Wang Gungwu

Member, Board of Governors (2002 – 2007), Chairman, Governing Board of Lee Kuan Yew School of Public Policy (2005 – 2017)

Wang Gungwu was asked to join the IPS Governing Board after following IPS’ activities for some time. Prior to joining the board, Professor Wang had known Professor Tommy Koh for a while, and Prof Koh knew of his interest in IPS.

Prof Wang felt that there was relatively little public support for IPS initially. However, Prof Tommy Koh was helpful in getting more external support and funding, and growing IPS.

The board gave advice to the IPS Director. He spoke about the positive impact of IPS’ leadership, including Prof Koh, who inspired staff and led a small team of researchers to get a lot of work done; and current Director Janadas Devan, who increased the breadth of research topics and grew the number of researchers significantly during his tenure.

Prof Wang spoke positively about IPS’ early start in recognising the importance of and doing research on arts and culture, and its work that looked at balancing Singapore’s national identity with its place in the world. He also saw IPS’ merger with the Lee Kuan Yew School of Public Policy (LKYSPP) as a good fit.

He commented that in the past IPS might have done too much; at the time of interview, the Institute was much more Singapore-centric. Looking to the future, he was emphatic about the need for IPS to discuss politics, even as he acknowledged the unsaid but common practice in Singapore of leaving politics to the politicians.


This interview was conducted on 12 Nov 2019. Click here to listen to the full interview.