Name: Ex-American about his 32 years in Singapore
Uploaded: 2025-05-23T12:37:10.000Z
Duration: 18 min 30 s
Description: Thousands of YouTube videos with English-Chinese subtitles! Now you can learn to understand native speakers, expand your vocabulary, and improve your pronunciation...

So there's this moment after you're in the embassy where now you're no longer a US citizen, but you're not yet a Singaporean.

Meet Ron Kaufman, a New York Times bestselling author and ex-American who is now a Singaporean citizen.

Invited by the Singapore government in 1990, Ron has since significantly improved the service levels at numerous companies like Singapore Airlines, Changi Airport, and Marina by Sands.

We explored Ron's experience of renouncing American citizenship, the differences between American and Singaporean dreams, and his personal encounter with Lee Kuan Yew.

So this is after he stepped down as prime minister, minister mentor, and it was January 1st in early 2000s.

And my wife and daughter and I were out walking and we were down by the Merlion, walking along that Fullerton Bayfront.

And they were a bit in front of me and suddenly both of them spun around and they said to me, did you see that?

And I said, you know, see what, see what?

You know, I turned and sure enough, there was LKY.

And he was surrounded on all four corners by people who were guards.

And they weren't dressed in a military style, but it was obvious that these are four guards.

So I was already turned, boom, and I'm heading off in that direction.

And I'm walking up really quickly to catch up.

And the guard behind Lee Kuan Yew could just sense that I was coming.

I mean, he was just had that sense and very gently went like this, just sort of, you know, stay back.

And the guard's hand went like this, just like a sine wave, just waved me right up.

And I walked up and I greeted Mr. Lee and I thanked him for his vision and his commitment and all he'd done for the country.

And he looked at me, he goes, where are you from?

And I said, I'm here to raise the quality of customer service throughout the whole nation.

Two really, really key lessons out of that.

Number one, the guy was on mission all the time, on purpose, on focus.

Like he was happy to meet me, happy to receive my thanks and congratulations, but he wanted to know what I could do for him and what I could do for the country.

But the other was, look at that guard, right?

Service is taking action to create value for someone else.

And when the guard first sensed me coming, and stay back, he was serving Mr. Lee.

But when he realized who I was and what I wanted to do and what I wanted to say, by letting me in, he created more value for me, but also for the person he was protecting.

And he was probably taught to behave this way.

You've been living in Singapore for 32 years, right?

Do you remember your first impressions of the city?

Well, it was the Asian local nature, for example, of the cuisine, so that you can go out to a hawker stall and find multiple styles and flavors right next to each other.

And it was cooked a moment before it was served to you.

This is not the American style for dining, for example.

The people themselves interact differently.

You know, there's a different kind of housing here.

To get equivalent density, you'd have to go to a city in the United States.

And American cities in Singapore as a city back then, quite different, because this one grew up out of the kampongs.

Kampong spirit is that one of, we are here together.

We've got to figure out how to get along with each other.

And of course, just before the founding of the nation, where there was some real tension and difficulty, socially, is a big reason why Singapore said, wait, we have to invent something called Singaporean.

We need to literally create a being, a society, a commitment to one another that is based on, as you know, Singapore, meritocracy, excellence, service, no corruption, and mutual respect.

I'm sure you read the book of Lee Kuan Yew, and you know what he's done for your country now.

What's the main key takeaways you can pinpoint from this book, from his knowledge and his experience?

I mean, the man's life has been very well documented and well studied by many people, and for good reason.

My understanding is that this was a human being who saw an opportunity and a responsibility, very intelligent guy, very, very capable.

And it wasn't just him, it was the team of people around him and the team of people around that, that civil service and political leaders, et cetera.

You start at home, and then you extend out to your community.

And then if your community can become a country, and then you're concerned about the region, and then within the region, you're in the world.

I mean, Singapore is so small, it cannot afford to have an enemy.

You have this tiny little island that is a Chinese, Indian, Muslim, Malay, expat mix in a neighborhood that is a lot bigger and diverse.

In fact, one of his kakis, one of his key people that supported him, a man named Lim Kim Son, I met him when he was the executive chairman of Singapore Press Holdings.

So all the media, the newspapers, et cetera.

And at the time he was also chairman of the Port of Singapore Authority.

And I was doing some work for SPH, Singapore Press Holdings, and I was interviewing starting from the beat reporter and the photographer and the guys who sold advertising and laid out the paper all the way up to executive chairman's office.

And they brought me that day to have the interview with him.

I sat down, I was young, I'd only been in Singapore less than a year.

And I asked him some question, I don't remember what it was.

And he looked at me across the table, it was just he and I in the office, and he banged his fist on the table.

And he goes, always remember this young man.

He goes, our country doesn't have the ballast that your country has.

And he said, if one fraction of what's happening in your country today were ever to happen here.

And that was the day when a police, when a helicopter captured on camera, a policeman beating Rodney King in Los Angeles with a brick during a race riot.

And he said, if that ever happened here, one fraction of it, the next day, all the expats are gone on the airplanes.

And with a few keystrokes, all the money is gone.

He said, we have to sail this small ship with a very firm hand on the sail and on the tiller.

And in that moment, I realized, oh my God, you have this tiny, vulnerable, no natural resources, no agricultural hinterland, no oil reserves.

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Ex-American about his 32 years in Singapore

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commitment

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impact