Jeevan vasagar biography

Before joining the FT I spent 12 years at The Guardian, including spells as east Africa correspondent and education editor.
Jeevan Vasagar was Singapore and Malaysia correspondent for the Financial Times from 2015 to 2017, travelling the region to report on demands for political reform, the rise of digital businesses and the growing influence of China.
I still enjoy the range of X, but it's now too noisy to be useful.

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A low-tax libertarian paradise whose government mandates where citizens can live so as to avoid the creation of racial ghettoes. An anti-communist stronghold during the Cold War, now cultivating close links with China. A country that holds free and fair elections, which the ruling party never loses.

Welcome to Singapore, the subject of Jeevan Vasagar’s new book Lion City: Singapore and the Invention of Modern Asia. Cited abroad as either an exemplar or a cautionary tale, depending on one’s political views, the city-state’s remarkable transformation from colonial backwater into one of the richest countries in the world has had an outsized impact on the world’s imagination.

The spark for Vasagar’s new history of the former British colony was the debate over Brexit in his home country, the UK, when some Leave ideologues argued that Singapore’s low taxes and ability to trade freely around the world was a model to emulate.

[see also: Here’s what it would really mean if Britain was like Singapore]

“It is odd, on several levels, for the former coloniser to look to its ex-co

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Everyone looks to Singapore as a role model for what they want their country to be. Several countries from China to Rwanda hope to emulate its high administrative competence, standard of living, and “social harmony”. Post-Brexit Britain wants to copy the city-state’s assertive and independent position in the world economy and its aggressive support for international business. Housing policy advocates look to Singapore and its 90% home ownership rate.

But these are all simplistic views of the city-state, that miss its history, its opportunities, and its challenges. Jeevan Vasagar’s Lion City: Singapore and the Invention of Modern Asia, delves into those more complicated details, giving a better portrayal of the city and the choices it has made as it tries to navigate a more complicated global environment.
In this interview, Jeevan and I talk about, well, Singapore: its history, its leadership, and its policies. We’ll talk about how its administration is trying to chart a future for the country—and whether that might be successful.

Jeevan Vasagar is the Enviro

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Review by Liz Dexter

Open to global flows of capital but largely closed to political change, Singapore is a reform-minded dictator’s dream, suggesting that a country can enjoy the prosperity that comes with being open to foreign trade and investment without giving its people democratic freedoms.

Jeevan Vasagar was the Singapore and Malaysia correspondent for the Financial Times from 2015-2017, but he also has family connections to the nation state and has spent a lot of time there over the years. In addition, his Indian heritage means he’s outside of the colonial attitude to Singapore that has persisted in Britain. This means he’s well-placed to report on the state of the nation and its history, having an insider and outsider’s view of the place. While this reads sometimes more like a report or work of journalism than some of the narrative non-fiction I’ve read recently, this is by no means a failing and gives both an authenticity and an authority to the book. I can’t quite believe it’s Vasagar’s first book, actually, as it’s very well put together, wide-ranging and c