“History is often made,” said SMU Chairman Mr Ho Kwon Ping, “by having the right person, in the right place at the right time. This was exactly the case in South Africa in 1989 when Mr Frederick Willem de Klerk became President, at a time when the tide was turning against the apartheid regime.”

Mr Ho was welcoming Mr de Klerk, Nobel Peace Prize Laureate and President of South Africa (1989—94) as the speaker of the Fifth Ho Rih Hwa Leadership in Asia Public Lecture on 25 March 2013. During his presidency, Mr de Klerk initiated a paradigm shift in the modern history of South Africa, by opening the way for the first fully democratic election in 300 years, promising “a totally new and just constitutional dispensation in which every inhabitant will enjoy equal rights, treatment and opportunity”. He also released political prisoners including Nelson Mandela and together, they received the 1993 Nobel Prize for Peace for their collaboration in ending the apartheid. Ironically, F.W de Klerk’s greatest achievement as a leader may well have been his willingness to surrender leadership, when President Mandela was inaugurated in 1994.

[Photo: Kim Haena, a member of the SMU Ambassadorial Corps, was one of more than a dozen people who asked Mr de Klerk questions during the question and answer session.]

Mr de Klerk’s lecture at SMU was titled “Tipping the Balance of History: Perspectives into Dilemmas of Leadership.” He spoke in the Mochtar Riady Auditorium, and with video feeds to various other venues on campus, his lecture was watched and listened to by some 600 participants. Among the members of the audience were SMU Chancellor Mr Yong Pung How, members of the SMU Board of Trustees, friends and donors to SMU, foreign ambassadors and diplomats, members of the business community and public administration, students from a variety of educational institutions, as well as SMU students, staff and faculty members.

He spoke for some 45 minutes, in which he outlined seven key requirements of leadership: relentless self-examination, acceptance of the need for real change, communication of a clear and attainable vision, a willingness to take calculated risks, a sense of timing, the need to persevere, and acceptance that change is a never-ending process. He illustrated these points with anecdotes from his own political career as well as through references to great leaders from recent history.

[Photo: Mr de Klerk spoke in the 300-seat Mochtar Riady Auditorium. Another 300 people watched from various function rooms and contributed to the question and answer session via an audio-visual link.]

Mr Ho then joined Mr de Klerk on stage to moderate a question and answer session. More than a dozen participants stepped up to the microphones in the auditorium and external function rooms to ask Mr de Klerk a string of searching questions on the process of change in South Africa, his own development as a leader, the nature and skills of leadership, as well as his analysis of the changing situations in Burma and Palestine. He gave swift, direct and well-argued answers which were delivered with persuasive conviction. The ‘question’ that took both Mr Ho and Mr de Klerk by surprise was posed by a student from Anglo-Chinese School (Independent), who simply wanted to thank Mr de Klerk for his lecture and went down to the stage to give him a single, yellow flower. Mr de Klerk was perceptibly touched by the gesture.

The Ho Rih Hwa Leadership in Asia Public Lecture Series seeks to inspire students and the public with the views and valuable opinions of accomplished entrepreneurs, business and political leaders, from within Asia and beyond. Former speakers include former Singapore Prime Minister Mr Lee Kuan Yew, former Malaysian Prime Minister Dr Mahathir Mohamad, Chief Executive of the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region Mr Donald Tsang and President of the Philippines Mr Benigno S. Aquino III. The series was established at SMU by philanthropist Mrs Ho Lien Fung, in memory of her late husband, former Singapore Ambassador and successful businessman Mr Ho Rih Hwa.

[Photo: Mr Ho Kwon Ping (L) hosted the lecture and acted as moderator for the question and answer session. The lecture series was established by his late mother, Ms Ho Lien Fung, in honour of his late father, Mr Ho Rih Hwa.]

[Featured photo: Mr de Klerk said, “It’s great to get to know what’s happening at SMU. You have a wonderful campus and it’s impressive what you’re doing here.”]