MFA Press Release: Reply by Minister for Foreign Affairs George Yeo to Supplementary Questions in Parliament on Cultural Diplomacy on 2 March 2006

REPLY:

MFA has a good working relationship with MICA, so it is not necessary for us to set up a whole cultural division or department. And what is important is not to have specialists, what is important is to have Foreign Service Officers who internalise culture, knowledge and sensitivities within themselves, in the way they conduct diplomacy because a large part of diplomacy is about understanding human beings, their fears and their hopes. It all comes around culture. So, an effective diplomat is one who understands the culture of the person he deals with. Therefore, it is not accidental that if you look at our Ambassadors and High Commissioners, many of them have a personal interest in the arts. Quite a few are collectors, amateur collectors, like Professor Tommy Koh and Peter Ho, the Permanent Secretary. Many of our ambassadors go out and out of their way to help Singapore artists, sometimes without informing MFA. All you have to do is to ask some of our artists who are overseas, ask them whether our Missions give their support - they always do. This year we have a flurry of state visits. We have the Agong's visit, then we had the President of India who was here. King Sihamoni from Cambodia will be coming, followed by Queen Elizabeth and then the Emperor of Japan. Different countries, different cultures, different civilisations - these are symbolic visits - the rituals and gestures are important and for each one of those visits, we are not robotic at all. I say, look, what is the history of the relationship, where do they come from, what are their likes and dislikes, their preferences, what will win over their hearts? A lot of attention goes into the details and it is for this reason that we don't want just a cultural department, we need to the whole of MFA to be culturally sensitive.

. . . . . .