The
Accidental
Diplomat
The Autobiography of Maurice Baker
The
Accidental
Diplomat
The Autobiography of Maurice Baker
Maurice Baker
Published by
World Scientific Publishing Co. Pte. Ltd.
5 Toh Tuck Link, Singapore 596224
USA office: 27 Warren Street, Suite 401-402, Hackensack, NJ 07601
UK office: 57 Shelton Street, Covent Garden, London WC2H 9HE
National Library Board, Singapore Cataloguing-in-Publication Data
Baker, Maurice, 1920
The accidental diplomat : the autobiography of Maurice Baker / by Maurice Baker ; edited by Edmund Baker. -- Singapore : World Scientific, 2014.
pages cm
ISBN: 978-981-4618-30-4 (hardcover)
ISBN: 978-981-4618-31-1 (paperback)
1. Baker, Maurice, 1920 2. Ambassadors -- Singapore -- Biography.
3. College administrators -- Singapore -- Biography. I. Baker, Edmund. II. Title
JX1664
327.2092--dc23
OCN 881509045
British Library Cataloguing-in-Publication Data
A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library.
Copyright 2015 by World Scientific Publishing Co. Pte. Ltd.
All rights reserved. This book, or parts thereof, may not be reproduced in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording or any information storage and retrieval system now known or to be invented, without written permission from the publisher.
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FOREWORD
A S A STUDENT at the University of Malaya in Singapore in the 1950s, I had heard of a Maurice Baker a Queens Scholar who was due to return from London, having completed his studies. He joined the Universitys small team of local academics in 1955.
It was only many years later, when I joined the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, that my friend the late Professor Wong Lin Ken introduced him to me. Then, it was because Maurice Baker was heading the local staff association in its negotiations with the University authorities on staff remuneration and terms of service. Before that, I had heard of him as head of the Department of Extra-Mural Studies at the University, where my friend Joseph Conceicao was also engaged.
It was in 1967, when he was about to take up the position of Singapores high commissioner to the Republic of India, that I began a close association with him which has lasted to this day. He turned out to be a remarkable product of our times of political consciousness and struggle. Later, he turned out to be a most distinguished diplomat too.
As I got to know him closely, I found him to be full of humour, and possessed of a special grace. As a literary scholar, his command of the English language and the way in which he used it in his written communications and in his diplomatic engagements was impressive, to say the least, for someone like me who had had limited education.
In his diplomatic exchanges, he used his humour and his engaging skills to great advantage to canvass support, even from those who disagreed with him. From his reports I saw how these interlocutors, who did not hold favourable views about Singapore, its leaders or its policies, responded to his persuasions. They not only listened but also gave their full attention to his persuasive arguments.
Once he embarked on his diplomatic career, his commitment to it overcame his deep affection for teaching, and he took seriously the need to connect with anyone high or low in diplomatic circles who facilitated his diplomatic engagements. He ably harnessed his energies to fulfil the mission he was asked to undertake in the countries to which he was posted.
In the course of his diplomatic career, he stood at the crossroads of many happenings and crises in our early post-independence days. He ably forged relationships that stood the test of time. When our embassy in Jakarta was sacked by demonstrators and our relations with Indonesia were at a low ebb, his friendship with the Indonesian diplomatic staff in New Delhi helped both sides to bear no animosity over these unfortunate developments, providing an example of diplomacy at its best.
I am certain that readers of Maurice Bakers memoirs will be entertained by his many experiences during the years he spent as a diplomat in India, the Philippines and Malaysia. The book is filled with many illuminating anecdotes from these varied postings. He recounts them with candour and in ways most entertaining. Wherever he served, he invested much time and energy building ties for Singapore with ministers, politicians, maharajahs, sultans, scholars and laymen. His encounters with outstanding personalities in the countries in which he served, and his recollections of their conversations with him, are what make his memoirs worth more than a single read. Above all, they reflect the rare qua lities of a school master who successfully became a diplomat.
S. R. Nathan
Sixth President of the Republic of Singapore
Message
I have known Maurice Baker for almost 60 years. I first met him in 1954 when he was a teacher in Victoria School. He was the class master of Form 5 (Arts), and I was in Form 5 (Science) the level which prepared students for the then Senior Cambridge Examination (equivalent to todays GCE O-Levels). Though I was not in his class, I got to know him as Adviser to the Literary and Debating Society of which I was the Secretary.
Later when I was admitted to the University of Malaya in 1956, I came to know him better. English literature was one of my major subjects and he was my lecturer in English Drama. More than being my teacher, he was an angel in disguise in my life. He had time and a ready ear for me. He was someone I could drop in and see in his office at any time to seek advice and confide in. He helped me financially and he played a decisive role, as he recounts in this book, to help me pursue Economics instead of English for my honours degree.
As a teacher, he was infectious in his love for English poetry and drama. That has shaped my own love for poetry and the poetic word. He had an ear for the spoken word which was evident in his ambassadors reports that I was to read many years later. When I visit him, he still remembers and loves to quote the great poets, even at his present age of 94. He always impressed me as a soft spoken gentleman and it came as a surprise to me when I later learnt of his political activities in London. These activities got him into the black book of the official British establishment even though he was a Queens Scholar. It is only when I read the draft of this book that I learnt of his part in promoting the interests of the local staff in a university dominated and controlled by expatriates. In all my interactions with him he never came across as an angry revolutionary in a constant state of war against the colonial masters or the establishment. He was a quiet and soft-spoken nationalist.
