What made you devote your life to social work at the age of 40?

I was a school failure! I could not study very well because I was a very playful child. I could not do anything that educated people do and with no choice left, I became a businessman as it didn’t require a degree. I started with no money and went to investors. In those days we didn’t know a thing called start-up; it was a start-up of building material. I realized that it is quite easy to make money and went on to start 16 businesses altogether.

By the time I turned 40, I had enough money to retire. I left the rat race and became a social entrepreneur because I didn’t want to make any more money. One should make money only when one needs it and not otherwise. This is because, whatever you earn you are going to exchange it with time, and time is the only commodity that you can spend with great people. Then why would I want to spend the most precious commodity of my life in exchange for more money that I do not need? Some people will say leave it to your kids. But why should I stop my children from the struggle and all the fun of life?

Life is a skill training programme where everybody must be given the chance to train themselves. That chance is given with basic education and more importantly, basic moral values so that they do not just have the skill of survival, but they also the skills to become a good and useful person in society. I chose social work to show my children that there are other ways to become useful human being. Children do not believe you unless they watch you do it. For the benefit of the future generation, my children, and other young people, if more people contribute back to society and live their life for the service of others, a culture of service will spread.

If people only think about themselves and focus on getting rich, they make others poorer, and society will start to deteriorate and break up because of wealth materialism. There is also spiritual materialism when people want to be a hero and take all the credit. If you want to solve things, the best way is to start a movement for everybody to participate and not attribute it to only one person.

What was your motivation to start the Restroom Association of Singapore and the World Toilet Organisation?

I was 40 years old and at 40 you have many new questions in your mind. It is called the midlife crisis. You have everything and feel the need for new excitement in life. The noblest thing you can do is the service to mankind, start an NGO. You can also feel very happy If you enjoy it. Choose an important social cause, the one that nobody wants to work on. Today, if you need funding, then you should either work on COVID-19 or climate change. But the actual problem still exists. Therefore, you should work on something different. I was looking for a relevant issue than a bigger one to work on.

When our Prime Minister said that we should measure our graciousness against the cleanliness of public toilets, I thought that nobody is going to do this because it is disgusting! I followed the subject of sanitation to break the taboo and talk about it, and soon enough, the politicians used it to win the election, the media used it to get more readership, the academia started researching and publishing, and the NGOs started to collect money from funders, and the markets started to move. Most of the work was not done by me, I was just a storyteller. Eventually, we created the United Nations World Toilet Day, 19th November, which is the founding day of our NGO, the World Toilet Organization (WTO).

In a blink of an eye, it is now 20 years! We are celebrating the 20th anniversary of the World Toilet Organization! I am glad that within this lifetime, I have created a UN policy and a UN day, and this has been one of the higher points of my life. If you want to do something, then the mission must be higher than you. If you are very concerned about self-image, then you cannot be free for altruism.

We are very small and created a big impact because we do not implement. We are a movement.  Funders say, if you are a movement or advocate, we will not fund you because we want to fund the implementing organisation. I say that is okay. If it is solving the sanitation problem, this is what we want. I keep my overheads very low and can manage with little funding. I need the people on the ground to have funds. If you talk about a movement, you must make people on the ground sustainable and therefore, the social entrepreneur idea happened. The social entrepreneur idea also runs into this spiritual materialism issue because each of them wants to save the world all by themselves. I think that the next step of solving problems would be by cooperative social enterprise.

If social enterprises become a cooperative movement, they will share the business model, the technology and without increasing overhead costs, they can increase distribution 100 times. This is the model and the spirit of cooperatives. The mission is higher than us. We are not important, we are a conduit, we are a vehicle for the greater good of society. This is the philosophy that I expect.

Tell us about some of the key initiatives of WTO and how do they ensure adequate and equitable sanitation and hygiene for all?

The main thing we do is to make the subject of talking about going to the toilet a normal subject. If one day, people can just talk about poop, pee, menstruation, diarrhoea, and dirty toilets, that will be a success. What you put inside your body, it does come out. We can talk about what goes in but cannot talk about what comes out. That makes no sense at all. Every taboo before it was broken, it is always seen as just normal, but we don't speak about it. The same has been with women’s issues and choices. The MeToo movement, LGBTQ movement, trees conservation hippies protecting trees by hugging them, contraception, etc. All these later turned into movements when people started talking. I am glad to be one of the first people in history to create a movement on sanitation, and of course, it is not done alone but with all the people in the world.

If this happens, then it triggers politics which is very beneficial. Because politicians didn't like it at first until they realized that they can use it to win the election. Politicians need not like something if they can win the election by promising toilets. Bingo! We are successful as people started talking about it. This is the way effective advocacy works.

This guerrilla marketing strategy is very provocative as it breaks new barriers and pushes the envelope, and then the rest is up to the people.

How do you think cooperation and collective action can help reduce environmental degradation?

I think that the Coop model is very new and advanced thinking, but the coop bureaucracy is absurd. We have to break the coop rules to enshrine the coop spirit. The coop organizational structure and moves were pre-internet and the new coop structure has to be a decentralised and loose arrangement. It must not be hard and fast. The basic concept of the coop is to come together and share synergistic exponential impact. The principle is that if you are in a silo and working alone, you will not be able to create the impact that is unleashed by the synergies of putting together. This is the main essence of cooperatives.

However, if you now go ahead and follow the rules of cooperatives you’ll probably not go far. You will get far by running it as a company. Cooperatives all over the world have been very lethargic, and so, we need Coop 4.0 to go in line with the post-industrial revolution with the technology that links each other without controlling each other. Agencies have to be given to the operating unit. The partnership must be because you can use each other’s strength, but not slow down each other. And I think this kind of new thinking needs to be pushed by the International Cooperative Alliance and they have to reinvent themselves.

I have seen a lot of thrift and loan cooperatives in Singapore. They are operated by very old people who are quite happy to be a friendship club rather than a mission-driven thing. It doesn’t work, most of them should close down. On the other hand, we have a very big cooperative in Singapore, run by the union and it is so successful with a billion-dollar business, running supermarkets, media, taxi company, insurance company, even running funeral parlour. This cooperative looks like a big conglomerate. In theory, it is a cooperative, but it is a big company. Even if it is very successful, it has to reinvent itself to grow internationally.

I think that we are at the tip of the iceberg of a transformation of digital cooperative, Coop 4.0. Somebody has to start writing this thesis and the moment we can do that, I think the best dissemination centre will be the ICA. Members of the Alliance, probably, will be shocked that they have to change as well.

So, what I feel is that if you want to solve it for the environment, you still need a business. The business could be to reduce fossil fuels, reduce and renew wastages, use solar energy over the cooking stove. If we can think of all the problems of the 17 SDGs as a business opportunity, then we can keep on relating that and convert it to cooperative business. Climate change is a real issue, but nobody is taking real action. If somebody says that I am going to be carbon neutral by 2050, don't you think that it should not take so long? On top of that, when they pledge to 2050; there is no penalty if they don't deliver. Sometimes, it is just an empty promise. If we are serious about climate change, then we should not go out to the shop anything except when we need it. This means that the consumption and growth economy model has to change, and a lot of the economic theory has to change. Ultimately, we have to change until the meaning of life changes.

As the “Hero of the Environment” what will be your message to the world?

My message to the world is that the only way to save the environment is to not buy things. Maybe, more than half of the things that you have bought, other than food, you probably don't need. A dress lasts very long, and some people say I feel embarrassed to repeat dresses. No, you should feel so proud that you wear the same dress so often because you are preserving the environment.

Don't drink water from disposable bottles. Use tap water and fill a flask for yourself. This plastic bottle is the most ridiculous invention. When I was young, we never had such a product. We would always boil water and drink and it was safe.

If we all ban one-time-use plastic, I think that will be the solution. As long as we solve climate change through a frugal lifestyle, we will have a lot of money to spare. We do not need to spend so much, and we also do not need to torture ourselves with the stress of the rat race so much.

Therefore, my message to save the environment will be - stay frugal, reuse whatever you can, don't buy/ shop unnecessarily, instead give love, care for others, and be a useful person for others.

Key Takeaways:

One should make money only when they need it and not otherwise.

• Life is a skill training programme where everybody must be given the chance to train themselves and by providing with basic education and moral values.
• The noblest thing you can do is service of people.
• If you want to do something, then the mission must be higher than you, if you are very concerned about self-image, then you cannot be free for altruism.
• We have to break the Coop rules to enshrine the Coop spirit. Coops need to reinvent themselves.
• The only way to save the environment is not to buy things unnecessarily.