Aug 19, 2007, The Straits Times

New British envoy is where he wants to be
Paul Madden chose to serve in Singapore as he believes it is in the frontline of globalisation - By Cheong Suk-Wai

The sun is fierce on Wednesday, but new British High Commissioner Paul Madden seems hardly to break a sweat as he poses for The Sunday Times in front of his official residence, Eden Hall, in Nassim Road.

Here, he tells you, pointing to the front lawn, is where a budding musician played God Save The Queen on her electric guitar in June to toast the Queen's health.

We soon hotfoot it into the cool of Eden Hall, where the affable Mr Madden, 48, finds himself having to keep his blue-red-cream tie in place for yet more snapshots.

You tell him it is a beautifully patterned tie, and the soft-spoken career diplomat says: 'It's actually the molecular structure of brandy.'

Thus is this conversation a kaleidoscope of facts and figures and crackling with the verve and curiosity afforded by his warm candour and droll wit.

Gin and tonic is more his drink, actually, he tells you later, but he bought the tie in aid of Mothers Against Drunk Driving in Washington, DC, where he was Britain's First Secretary from 1996 till 2000.

He went directly from that to becoming the Deputy High Commissioner here from 2000 till 2003, a span blighted by the Asian financial crisis, the Bali bombings and Sars.

So, he is only too pleased to find Singapore awash with discernible 'optimism' these days - especially since he bid specifically to come back here.

Mr Madden, who has been the High Commissioner for four months, says: 'It's not so much saying 'yes' to your HR department, but I actually have to compete for an ambassadorial place nowadays, so you have to go through interviews and things.

'So it's more a question of me being really keen to come back rather than someone tapping me on the shoulder and saying 'you've got to go'.'

Before he became the High Commissioner in March, he was the globe-trotting managing director of UK Trade and Investment, a government agency which is a sort of cross between Singapore's Economic Development Board and International Enterprise.

He says one of the reasons he plumped for his present post was that, with the rise of China and India, South-east Asian countries are 'in the frontlines of globalisation' - and, economically as well as intellectually, Singapore 'feels right at the centre of it all'.

His 'set of agendas' for his current four-year stint here is three-pronged:

Working with Singapore on shared global challenges such as climate change and responses to terrorism.

Boosting British trade and investment here and keeping South-east Asia on Britain's radar, even as his countrymen go ga-ga over the potential of China and India.

Strengthening Singapore-British ties in science and education.

With investments here totalling S$50 billion to date from more than 700 British companies, and with two-thirds of Singapore's European investments being in Britain, he calls Singapore-British ties 'strong and diverse'.

More than 20,000 Britons live here today, up by 10 per cent from the time he left in 2003, while half a million more visit Singapore every year.

He adds that Singapore has contributed in quieter, though no less significant, ways - singling out, for example, the Islamic Religious Council of Singapore (Muis), which has worked closely with Britain on the religious rehabilitation of those who have adopted extremist ideology, showing Brits 'how to take them back to understand what their faith is all about'.

Indeed, at a big British inter-faith conference in June, then premier Tony Blair specifically mentioned Muis in his speech there which, Mr Madden says, 'was quite a tribute'.

What does he make, then, of the way Singapore is sometimes treated as if it were a, well, pipsqueak by some of its neighbours, being nudged here and picked on there?

He says: 'My impression is that Singapore is pretty good at standing up for its interests. And when you get a lot of froth around Malaysia or Indonesia - on any given day there's going to be some spat on like, say, sand or water - if you look at the fundamentals, everyone is actually locked into each other, with Singapore needing its hinterland and Indonesia and Malaysia needing Singapore's role as an economic power.' You wonder how Singapore-British ties will change now with British Premier Gordon Brown at the helm, but Mr Madden's personal take is that little will be tweaked as Mr Brown's approach to globalisation is simpatico with Singapore's, that is, keeping markets open and investing in education, youth and science.

In fact, Mr Madden says, Singapore and Britain are alike in many ways: 'We're very pragmatic countries by nature and none of us are particularly given to grandstanding.'

He could be describing himself, seeing as he is just at home having a chinwag with actor Ian McKellen as he is breaking bread with young jailbirds at Changi Prison, where he attended the Brit-allied National Youth Achievement awards recently.

Much of that, perhaps, comes from his childhood. Born amid the rolling green hills of Devon in the town of Ottery St. Mary (population: fewer than 10,000), his father is a retired draughtsman and mother a retired secretary who once worked for the headmaster of his alma mater, King's School.

He went on to read economic geography at Cambridge University and, upon graduating in 1980, went into government because, among other things, 'I was brought up a Catholic and taught that your role in life is to contribute, not to take'.

After six years in the Department of Trade and Industry - where he met his future wife, Sarah - he was made Britain's First Secretary to Japan till 1992. He returned to London to work on European Union, environment, science and energy issues before being posted to Washington and then Singapore.

That's fitting, as travel is huge with him. He, his wife and their three children - Sebastian, 16, Rupert, 15, and Francesca, 11 - have visited all the 50 states that make up the US - most of it in a recreational vehicle, or RV.

His days are always packed, but he has squeezed time out to secure his MBA and then write a book on Stamford Raffles.

On being a high commissioner, he muses: 'I guess people assume you spend your time going to glamorous cocktail parties and, obviously, there is some of that.

'But I've also been to prison for lunch, and how many people can say that?'

On how Singaporean he feels his family is
'I'll give you a good example of my son, Rupert. At the end of our three-year posting in Singapore, he'd have been around 11, we were driving across the English countryside, passing the beautiful green fields of Devon. He looked out of the window and said: 'There's a lot of wasted space in this country.'

On eating incognito at hawker centres
'Well, actually, the best security is just to do things spontaneously.'

On keeping Singapore on Britain's radar screen
'In some ways, Singapore sells itself, because it is a good proposition if you want to get someone to come and visit or work or live here, so that makes people's jobs easier.'

On one lesson Britain could learn from S'pore
'The way when they are developing policy in an area, the ministers and bureaucracy will look very carefully at what is happening in other parts of the world, and they will take the best of it.'

On what Britain's Cabinet thinks of Singapore
'Our ministers are always interested in talking to their Singapore counterparts because they feel they have always something to say.'

On Singapore's flourishing arts scene
'I chatted to Ian McKellen at the after-show party for Lear, and he said he found the Singapore audience very sophisticated in the way they responded to him. Coming from someone like him, and he wasn't saying it to anyone publicly, it was very good.'