The Myth of the Self-Serving State: When Leaders Forget Who Pays the Bills
If you ever want to study the fine art of political delusion, look no further than Singapore’s former Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong, who recently ignited the internet with a remarkably plainspoken truth: A normal country, he argued, should never exploit its own people to provide welfare for others, nor should it pander to outsiders at the expense of its citizens.
It sounds blindingly obvious, doesn't it? Yet, in the theater of modern global politics, uttering something so fundamentally grounded is treated like a revolutionary act of defiance.
For decades, the ruling class across the globe has played a very peculiar game. Under the glittering banner of internationalism, diplomacy, and global benevolence, governments routinely squeeze their own taxpayers, driving up the cost of living and diluting public services, all to project an image of effortless generosity on the world stage. Leaders love to pose as generous benefactors with money that doesn’t belong to them, trading local dignity for international applause.
Human history is essentially a long, repetitive loop of elites losing touch with the gravity of everyday survival. Our evolutionary wiring is deeply tribal; leaders are biologically primed to care for the inner circle, yet modern institutional structures often encourage them to expand their loyalty outward to abstract global entities while neglecting the very citizens whose labor keeps the lights on.
A state is not a charity organization; it is a social contract built on mutual protection and shared destiny. When governments forget this basic contract, treating their own people as an endless resource extraction zone to fund foreign ambitions, the foundational trust cracks.
Lee’s blunt reminder cuts through the diplomatic fog because it touches a raw, universal nerve. People do not mind contributing to a community that protects and values them. But there is a profound, burning resentment that settles in when citizens realize their own government views them as little more than ATM machines for global posturing. True leadership doesn't mean sacrificing your own people on the altar of international approval; it means having the spine to remember who you actually work for.