Importance of Being Faceless, Nameless and if possible, Egoless
(1) Importance of being faceless, nameless and, if possible, egoless.
All his life, he has striven to be faceless, nameless and, if possible, ego-less, in line with his Buddhist beliefs. But today, Mr. Khaw Boon Wan finds himself in the public spotlight as Senior Minister of State (Transport and Information, Communications and the Arts). The former top civil servant tells our senior correspondent why he had to say 'Yes, Prime Minister'.
Mr. Khaw Boon Wan has the stricken look of a deer caught in the headlights.
Throughout the interview at the Mita Building on Wednesday, he alternates between a skittish discomfort and agonizing reluctance to dwell on himself.
As a matter of principle, the newly-appointed Senior Minister of State (Transport and Information, Communications and the Arts) says he loathes talking or even thinking about himself. His office walls are free of self-congratulatory artifacts.
Everything about the painfully modest, slightly-built 48-year-old is spare.
He does not like to waste a single movement, detail or minute.
For the past 23 years, the former Permanent Secretary of the Trade and Industry Ministry has been happy, he says, being a 'nameless, faceless' civil servant, doing what he does best, crafting policies well away from the glare of cameras and flashlights.
'Doing public service, a meaningful career, and away from the limelight - this fitted in perfectly with my Buddhist practice,' says the man who has been a practicing Buddhist since he was 15.
'For more than 10 years now, I have worked to diminish the 'self', trying to think less and less of my 'self'.
'While I am not uncomfortable with the limelight, I fear it corrupting me spiritually. I fear it distracting me from my Buddhist practice.'
That is why, he wastes no opportunity in reminding you, interviews are the antithesis to what he stands for.
It is a well-known fact that it took much persuasion and 'a few months' of deliberation before the top-flight civil servant agreed to run as a People's Action Party candidate during the General Election late last year.
Asked what made him give up his privacy and cross over to the public arena of politics, and the stricken look reappears.
After some struggle, Mr. Khaw, who was principal private secretary to Prime Minister Goh Chok Tong from 1992 to 1995, says: 'I couldn't say 'no' to the Prime Minister. That's the frank answer.
He ruminates that a good friend also suggested that he took his political career as a 'spiritual challenge'.
So he has since adopted the late former finance minister Hon Sui Sen as a role model.
'He was totally dedicated to public service, but completely without any ego,' he says.
But can politics and ego, traditional bedfellows, be truly separated?
'Yes, it's a contradiction,' he murmurs. 'Therefore, it's a challenge.'
The man is so low on ego and desirous of anonymity that he relies largely on e-mail for conversing, delegating and getting his work done.
In fact, his aversion to long meetings is so acute that whenever they happen, he settles into the lotus position and meditates.
With life cast in that mould for him, his working style is fast, furious, focused and unflappable.
He has a talent for squeezing a lot into a day and holding snappy meetings which somehow manage not to put anyone down and still garner all the relevant inputs.
He is said to have few detractors and most people who have worked with him over the years are all praise.
PM Goh's press secretary Ong Keng Yong notes: 'People say it feels very shiok to work for him. He hardly ever loses his temper.'
Shying away from compliments, he interjects: 'As a student of Buddha, I try to lead a life of perfection as closely as I can. But I know I am far from it.
'I am just an ordinary man, trying to do an honest and ordinary job.'
'In substance, nothing has changed really. I'm still trying to contribute my bit to make life a bit better for the others.
He says he used to enjoy 'dreamless sleep' but, these days, dreams - which he sees as 'spiritual distraction' - have crept disturbingly into his slumber.
His family, he lets on, left the decision to run for office to him but they worried that he would morph into a different person.
That, too, is his chief worry, he confides a little later.
'If, at the end of my political term, I remain what I was yesterday, I would be personally satisfied,' he says.
This is from the Buddhist Fellowship website.
It is by Susan Long and it appeared in the 'The Straits Times', Jan 11, 2002.