Comments made at a symposium to celebrate Choon Fong Shih on the occasion of his 70th birthday, held at the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, 200 Beacon Street, MA
Professor Da Hsuan Feng, Director of Global Affairs and Special Advisor to Rector, University of Macau
Ladies and Gentlemen, I am sure most of you must be wondering why I am at this conference in Harvard University to honor our friend Professor Choon-Fong Shih (施春風.) After all, unlike most of you, except for a graduate course I took as a physics graduate student a zillion years ago using the perennial textbook by Goldstein, I do not have any background in mechanics. In addition, also unlike most of you, who were Choon-Fong’s graduate students, or Choon-Fong was John Hutchison graduate student in Harvard, (that means it happened way way back!), or those of you have known Choon-Fong for well over a decade or more professionally, Choon-Fong and I met for the first time in person in Kuala Lumpur last year when both of us are serving on the Academic Advisory Board of the Universiti Teknologi Petronas (UTP.)
So why I am here and what do I have to say at this meeting that would have any relevance to all of you.
Although Choon-Fong and I have never met until quite recently, I am well aware of his reputation as a global higher educator. Ever since I assumed the position as the Vice President for Research at the University of Texas at Dallas, I quickly realized that in Asia there was someone called Shih Choon-Fong who was the President of the National University of Singapore. Like Choon-Fong, I too grew up in Singapore. Hence, it was natural that I quickly gravitated to carefully study his incredibly profound and provocative speeches. In fact, on one occasion, I actually quoted his famous line in one of my speeches:
“A good university teaches. A great university transforms!”
In our first meeting in Malaysia, it turns out that we had a great deal of opportunities to connect intellectually. The result, I think Choon-Fong would agree with me, was that while we have not known each other a long time, we should have!
Why do I say that?
First of all, I found out that Choon-Fong is older than me by FIVE DAYS! Which means that we are exactly the same generation. It is therefore our experiences growing up in Singapore must be similar..
Second, in Singapore, the high schools’ system then, and still are, not the more well-known 3-3 system (or three junior high and 3 senior high system,) but the British-like 4-2 system (or Sec1-Sec 4, and Pre-U 1 and 2.) Students who intended to pursue a “university education” would complete the 4-2 system before entering universities. The non-standard students who do not intend to or could not enter university would stop at Sec 4. They would either join the work-force or enter the Singapore Polytechnic to become trained technical specialists. So for all I know, we could have pass each other in the corridors of the Singapore Polytechnic or sitting next to each other in the Indian food hawker just outside the “Poly” enjoying the mutton soap!.
Well, Choon-Fong and I stopped at Sec 4. We entered Singapore Polytechnic. He joined the diploma program of mechanical engineering and I joined the diploma program of building and civil engineering. With that as our starting points, the fact that eventually we became not only academics, but also university administrators was something people would probably not expect to happen. Well, it is because in some sense, as Choon-Fong said to me: “We are both mavericks!”
As Choon Fong often said, the mind of a young person works in mysterious ways. The Asian way of only ensuring students becoming good or excellent bookworms may not, and probably is not, the only way for the youth to face challenges in the 21st century!
Many people at this Conference mentioned that the best ways to describe Choon-Fong’s presidencies at National University of Singapore (NUS) and King Abdulla University of Science and Technology (KAUST) are “innovative,” “courageous,” “forward looking!” and “game changing!” I have to tell you, seeing how he transformed himself in early life, I am not in the least surprised that one could use such adjectives to describe his presidencies.
Choon Fong became NUS president in 2000. I think no one would doubt that in his eight years of presidency, he articulated clearly and made the arduous and courageous moves to transform NUS, from a less known teaching institution to a world class teaching and research university. This transformation, in my mind, is not only important to NUS, but it is important for Singapore in general. It could also profoundly impact other parts of Asia Pacific as a higher education success case study!
Finally, I like to make two points about Choon Fong and NUS.
First, although Choon Fong said he wanted to build a university “without walls,” mental or otherwise, there is one other aspect deep in his vision which I think may be even more significant and it is often overlooked. It is that he persistent, even stubbon, that NUS, while global in practice and outreach, must not and should not inherently and intrinsically diminish its Asian soul! Indeed, if the products of NUS, namely its students, who are supposed to become Asian leaders to deal with all forms of human endeavors in the 21st century, they would face insurmountable challenges if they do not possess or understand Asian “political and social habits!”
So where did I learn the term “social and political habits”? Since we are in Harvard today, this fundamental belief of Choon Fong is completely in agreement with one of the greatest Harvard presidents, Charles Eliot, more than a century ago. Eliot was so great a president that even the recent Yale President Richard Levin regarded him as one of the greatest in United States higher education history. I have a favorite line of Eliot as follows:
“... a university, in any worthy sense of the term, must grow from seed. It cannot be transplanted from England or Germany in full leaf and bearing. ... When the American university appears, it will not be a copy of foreign institutions, or a hot-bed plant, but the slow and natural outgrowth of American social and political habits... The American college is an institution without a parallel; the American university will be equally original.”
Yes, it was Eliot who used the phrase “social and political habits”!
Such a comment reflected Eliot’s deep understanding of the meaning of higher education and his inherent self-confidence in how to achieve an “unparalleled American university!” I think you would agree with me that with sligh change of a few words, Eliot’s comment could very well be Choon Fong’s vision of Singapore’s higher education!
Second, I have said often in some of my speeches that
“Higher education is the pulse of a nation. When it is strong, so is the nation. When it is weak, so is the nation”
I do not know of a nation where one could call it strong if its higher education is weak!
If you are familiar with Choon Fong’s speeches, you can immediately tell that this comment of mine was very much inspired by his many speeches. The fact that NUS under Choon Fong’s leadership became an intellectually strong institution, it means directly or indirectly it had contributed to Singapore being an economic and intellectual robust nation in the 21st century.
My friends, since 1965, the world witnessed Singapore becoming a leading economic and intellectual power of the world. I am sure no one would dispute with me that without the late Lee Kuan-Yew’s leadership in the past half a century, to achieve Singapore’s spectacular successes would be extremely difficult, if not impossible.
However, I am also a firm believer that Singapore’s economic success is because it is coupled tightly by its higher education success. In this aspect, Choon Fong’s presidency in creating NUS yeoman’s success is an absolute necessary step for Singapore just as Lee Kuan-Yew’s leadership was fundamental for Singapore!
Finally, there is an old Chinese saying, which is 天時, 地別, 人和, or “the time is right, geographical and social conditions are favorable.” There is no doubt in my mind that while we must recognize the successes of Lee Kuan-Yew and Shih Choon Fong were due to their inherent personal human qualities, it is also undeniable that such successes were erected on Asia’s late 20th century and 21st century rise in political and economic maturation, reaching the conditions of the Chinese saying. I hope the world will understand this entire process and learn these successes as a case study of how to improve the quality of people not just in Asia but humanity in general!
Thank you so much.