Speech by Mr Hsuan Owyang, Chairman of EAI Management Board

EAI
EAST ASIAN INSTITUTE
NATIONAL UNIVERSITY OF SINGAPORE
Embargoed until after delivery
Speech by
Mr Hsuan Owyang, Chairman, EAI Management Board
EAI’s 5 th Anniversary Lectures
17 July 2002, Mandarin Hotel
Your Excellencies, ladies and gentlemen:
Over the past five years, the East Asian Institute or EAI has academically
achieved a great deal. It has produced 25 academic books, 126 EAI Working
Papers and 32 EAI Occasional Papers. Furthermore, it has circulated to the
Singapore government (i.e. Cabinet Ministers, Ministers of State and senior
civil servants) 127 informative and policy-oriented EAI Background Briefs.
The regular publication of these Briefs has been EAI’s unique public service
contribution.
The Institute has also made significant contributions to informed public
discussion of developments and events relating to China and other East
Asian economies by holding over 280 weekly seminars (which are open to
the public) and 29 public lectures. EAI academic staff have frequently
appeared on local and international media as well as in various public
forums. Though EAI scholars publish their research findings mainly in
academic journals, they also from time to time contribute short articles to the
local press.
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Looking back, a number of factors have contributed to the Institute’s
success. To begin with, EAI did not really start as a completely new research
outfit five years ago. In fact, it was the lucky descendent of a wellestablished
academic pedigree in Singapore.
In 1983, Dr. Goh Keng Swee (then Deputy Prime Minister and Minister for
Education) established the Institute of East Asian Philosophies (IEAP) for
the study of Confucian ethics and Asian values. In 1992, IEAP was reconstituted
and re-named the Institute of East Asian Political Economy or
IEAPE in order to shift its research focus from classical studies to research
on contemporary China. In 1997, IEAPE (which was a privately-constituted
non-profit organization) was closed down to make way for the Institute to
become part of the National University of Singapore under the present
name, the East Asian Institute.
Thus, EAI did not sprout up from nowhere. It is a classical case of change
and continuity. In the process, EAI has benefited a lot from the academic
traditions of its predecessors. It also inherited their academic network. More
concretely, it took over IEAPE’s well-established library and data base as
well as its endowment. This explains why EAI could produce such good
results so quickly.
On this occasion, I would like to pay special tribute to Dr. Goh Keng Swee,
who unfortunately cannot be with us here this afternoon. Dr Goh has been
widely acclaimed as the architect of Singapore’s successful economic
development. He has also pioneered many things in Singapore, including
modern Chinese studies. After his retirement from politics in 1985, he
developed a strong interest in contemporary China. In fact, he was
appointed an economic advisor by the Chinese government. Dr. Goh has
left behind some valuable legacies with EAI.
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In the last five years, EAI has grown from strength to strength, under the
able leadership and guidance of its Director, Professor Wang Gungwu, and
its Research Director, Professor John Wong. Professor Wang Gungwu, an
internationally well-known China scholar himself, has accumulated a lot of
useful experiences for running academic institutions, first as Director of the
School of Pacific Studies at Australian National University and subsequently
as Vice-Chancellor of the University of Hong Kong. Professor Wang quickly
brought his experiences to bear by charting new directions and setting up
important development guidelines for the Institute. Largely because of his
international academic reputation, the Institute was able to recruit many wellqualified
China scholars and to attract many eminent academic visitors from
abroad. Personally, I think the Institute is fortunate to have Professor Wang
as its first Director. I am sure in the future he too will leave his legacies
behind.
Professor John Wong is a long-time China expert. He started to specialize in
China back in the early 1960s. John told me that he had also learnt a lot
from Dr. Goh Keng Swee on the practical aspects of “China watching”, when
he worked under Dr Goh as Director of IEAPE. Accordingly, John was able
to quickly put various research programmes in place and started to produce
papers with little delay. In fact, John was able to work closely and effectively
with Gungwu as a team; and the two have worked very hard to put EAI on
the map, making it a lively intellectual centre for contemporary China studies
in the region.
As Chairman of the Management Board, my main role is to oversee the
general development of the Institute. The Board from time to time offers
some broad policy guidelines; but it is usually up to the Institute’s leadership
to organize the necessary resources for their implementation. We all know
that research is a highly personalized activity; research productivity
ultimately depends on the performance of individual scholars. In other
words, the Institute’s research output of the past five years, is actually the
sum total of all the individual efforts of more than 50 scholars who have
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come to work at the Institute in various capacities. In a sense, every past
and present member of the Institute has contributed to its achievements. I
would like to congratulate all of them.
Last but not least, I must stress that the Institute also owes its success to its
special relationship with the National University of Singapore. A good
university is a natural home for a research organization. From the outset,
EAI was established as an autonomous research organization within NUS.
Such flexible institutional arrangements have proved to be a tremendous
advantage to the Institute, allowing it to devote itself in the single-minded
pursuit of its research mission.
Here I would like to thank NUS President Professor Shih Choon Fong and
former Vice-Chancellor Professor Lim Pin for their strong support over the
years.
Looking ahead, the academic challenges for the Institute continue to mount.
China is in the midst of another phase of great political, economic and social
transformation associated with its imminent leadership transition, increasing
pressures for the Party and the political system to reform, WTO-related
institutional adjustments, rising unemployment, and growing social and
regional disparities. The economic rise of China has also started to produce
significant geo-political and geo-economic impacts on Southeast Asia. There
are so many important new developments that the Institute needs to monitor
over the next few years. There are so many worthwhile research topics that
will fully engage the Institute’s scholars. The China field has never ceased to
be an exciting area of intellectual enquiry.
To better meet its growing research demands, the Institute will have to
expand its research infrastructure and to increase its research staff. This
brings to the fore the critical question of funding. In the long run, the Institute
clearly needs to step up efforts to look for ways and means to increase its
funding. Other research institutes in Singapore are facing similar challenges.
It is well known that most of the public research money in Singapore has
gone to supporting the “hard sciences” based on the commonly perceived
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assumption that their economic returns are substantial and immediate. This
may well be true. Since comparatively few resources have been earmarked
for non-natural-science research activities, returns on research in these
areas per dollar can also be very high. Specifically, some of EAI research
programmes can potentially yield relevant findings useful for policy
formulation. In any case, as Singapore has become a developed country,
both the government and society at large should recognize the increasing
importance of area studies and other social science research.
Ladies and gentlemen, EAI has had five good years. It is my duty as
Chairman to welcome you to join us here for celebration. We are very
fortunate to have with us this afternoon three distinguished China experts,
Professor Roderick Macfarquhar, Professor Andrew Walder and Dr. Victor
Fung, who are invited from overseas to give a presentation specially for this
occasion. Above all, we are extremely honoured to have Senior Minister Lee
Kuan Yew join us at the concluding session. I wish you all an enjoyable
afternoon.
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