Book summary: George Yeo - Musings

Summary: George Yeo’s Musings series is a rich collection of his reflections, speeches, and essays, offering a profound exploration of politics, culture, history, and global affairs. Drawing from his extensive experience as a Singaporean politician, he provides a unique perspective on the challenges and opportunities facing the world in the 21st century. The three volumes are interconnected, weaving together personal anecdotes, philosophical musings, and astute analyses of global trends.

On our identity

Identity centres our entire being. A person’s identity is multi-faceted and often subconscious. We are no defined by the present but by our collective past. We are products of cultural, historical and familial influences flowing down generations. Without this software, we are no better than apes

Among Singaporeans, it is essential that some of us master Chinese, Bahasa and other languages. It is right that English is our common language and the principal language of administration.

We should not, however, become principally monolingual in English. As a population, we will never be able to master English like the British, Americans or Australians.

However, when we travel to China, Indonesia or Malaysia, our command of Chinese or Bahasa is often inadequate. Within our own delegations, we find it increasingly difficult to find or include those who know those languages well.

Loss of language facility is also accompanied by reduced understanding of culture, history and politics.

Projecting 10-20 years ahead or more, Singapore will be much better placed to ride the growth of Asia by being a linguistic and cultural hub. The use of multiple languages enables Singapore to access different countries economically, culturally and politically.

Singapore thrives by being a centre of arbitrage. The most difficult arbitrage involves culture. Language is key to this

On Singapore’s future

The heart of Singapore’s economy is arbitrage. The most important arbitrage is not in trade of finance, but culture. Cultural nuances are hard to codify. Dealing with Japanese trading houses is different from dealing with Southeast Asian ethnic Chinese businessmen

Without cultural sensitivity, nuances are missed and mistakes are easily made. In Singapore, we have a multichannel capability. We switch channels all the time depending on whom we deal with. We develop this sensitivity not through formal study but by growing up in Singapore.

Being rooted in reality means taking a lively interest in the situation of the wider region from which we draw our economic life. The smaller a country, the wider must be its external circle of interest.

If MTI is not a busy ministry and the economic statutory boards are not constantly reorganising, Singapore is in trouble. If we are to facilitate Singapore’s growth into the global economy, we must bring the world into the Singapore economy.

If we don’t do this, we are of little interest to the world. If we overdo this, we lose our very being as Singaporeans.

On China

China has always been largely self-sufficient. Today’s dual circulation economy is not new, with its large population, China has always depended more on internal circulation than the world outside.

It protects itself by building walls – not just physical, but cultural and economic ones. With COVID-19, it has built the greatest wall of all – the greatest biological wall of China

The current Western fear that and ascendant China will become imperialistic shows an inability or unwillingness to understand China in the context of its long history. Minorities in China do not pose a threat to the Han people. When they do, they are suppressed. When they are peaceful, they receive better treatment than ordinary Han people.

China’s political system is not exportable. it is built on a political culture that is quintessentially Chinese. Unlike US exceptionalism, China’s civilization has no missionary instinct

This does not mean that China will never intervene militarily outside its borders. It might. During the Ming voyages, Zheng He’s ships carried soldiers who fought battles in foreign lands. However, China’s strategic objectives never extend to incorporating non-Han people into its own realm because it values its homogeneity too much.

Singapore has a unique relationship with China because it is the only country outside China that has a large majority Chinese population. It is impossible for Singapore to have a normal relationship with China because China is in our DNA.

Among younger Singaporean graduates, even those who went to SAP schools, their mastery of Chinese is significantly below that of graduates in China. As older generations of Chinese-educated Singaporeans retire, they will leave a void in many institutions that is not being adequately filled.

Looking 30 years ahead, China will be far the biggest economy in the world and among the most advanced technologically. China will be a very important part of our future. The level at which SAP schools have maintained Chinese education is insufficient for our future needs. We have no means today to replace the current Chinese cultural elite who are getting old. We cannot rely on imported talent because their sense of Singapore will not be deep.

We need a Singapore core around which to accrete them. We need to send many more students to China for further studies as many as those going to US, UK and Australia

For Singapore to endure and to be an inspiration to others, we cannot just be another overseas Chinese state which appears and disappears, but one which represents much more than just being Chinese. Chinese education in Singapore must reflect our position in Southeast Asia

On the importance of the ASEAN region

Singapore must re-root itself more strongly in the region. Our sudden independence stripped us of our traditional hinterland. We had to leapfrog the region and plug directly into the developed world.

Investments from MNCs enabled us to grow rapidly for over 30 years and streak ahead of other countries in the region. In the process, we lost our sense of the region, especially Malaysia and Indonesia.

Other countries in ASEAN sometimes feel that we look down on them. I received this feedback most strongly after I left government. There is some truth in it.

With the geopolitical shifts around us, we need ASEAN more than ever. By ourselves, bad relations between the US and China can put us in a tight spot. Other countries in ASEAN fear a similar situation.? By banding together, we create a collective buffer. Faced with pressure from one side or the other, we can seek refuge in a common ASEAN position

All of us in ASEAN should steadily develop a stronger sense of ASEAN citizenship. Singapore students should spend more time visiting other ASEAN countries, learning more about their people and making friends.

Singapore should strive to be a capital city for all of ASEAN. A Singapore at ease with the diversity of ASEAN will find itself at ease with the diversity of the world. Our school should teach ASEAN history, geography and cultures more – much more than they currently do.

On Europe

I think an important reason for Europe’s current lack of interest in the history and civilization of China is the limitation of bandwidth. Much of that bandwidth is dedicated to the internal processes of the EU.

In Singapore, Chirac told us that “Europe makes decisions by lurching from crisis to crisis”.

Every major decision involves multiparty negotiations and brinkmanship late into the night. This soaks up enormous intellectual and nervous energy.

In Venice, the Doge was elected not by universal franchise but by a complex system of voting by individuals belonging to important families registered in the golden book. To secure their market in Europe, they had a strong relationship with the Hanseatic League.

To maintain their position in the Mediterranean, they built a powerful navy. The English word arsenal came from its large naval shipyard which, in a time of crisis, could build a ship a day!

Needing something deeper to anchor its existence, the early venetians stole the body of saint mark from Alexandria and entombed it in this Most Serene Republic. The winged lion of venice came from Saint Mark too as the name of the famous square.

The Pope was usually the godfather of the doge’s first son and the Patriach the godfather of his second.

In the treaty of Tordesillas brokered by Spanish Pope Alexander VI in 1494, the New World was divided from pole to pole between them which is the reason Brazil was Portuguese while most of the rest of South America was Spanish. In 1529, the Treaty of Zaragoza resolved a dispute over the Moluccas on the other side of the world. This is the reason why Malacca was Portuguese while the Philippines was Spanish.

When the Great Schism took place in 1054, when both sides excommunicated each other, with either able to declare the other a heresy, the theological issue was over the addition of one word by Rome into the Nicene Creed – Filioque.

The Pope is the successor of Saint Peter, the Patriarch of Constantinople the successor of Saint Peter’s brother, Saint Andrew, both fishermen. One brought Christ into the Latin world, the other into the Hellenic world.

On Indonesia

Singapore is in the heart of the Nusantara, Indonesia is one of the most important countries to Singapore. Historically, our economic development depended much on our links to Indonesia. This continues till today.

In my years in government, of all countries, I visited Indonesia the most. On all important initiatives, I took care to align as much as possible the positions of Singapore and Indonesia.

We need more Singaporeans to be acquainted with Indonesia’s history and culture and be fluent in Bahasa Indonesia.

LKY had a good relationship with Megawati even before she became President. She valued his advice, he was discreet in giving it and when writing to her, and was careful to sign himself off as sahabat or friend in order not to be thought of interfering in Indonesia’s domestic politics

She was very upset when SBY, who was one of her ministers, stood for the Presidency, not because he stood against her but because he had told her earlier that he did not intend to stand.

I told my colleagues in MFA that when the PSI in Singapore was a hundred, it was probably a thousand in Sumatra. We cannot, when our neighbour’s house is burning, complain that the smoke is affecting our health

Indonesia has the great advantage of market size and a favourable demographic profile. Indonesia as a society has greater coherence and is much easier to organizer than India. It is also resource rich. Indonesian Chinese play a disproportionate role in business. When the Dutch ruled Indonesia, the Chinese were the compradores intermediating between the Dutch and the indigeneous population.

Today and tomorrow, the Chinese play an intermediating role between China and indi Indonesians. Singapore is an essential node in this economic network, helping to link Indonesia to China and to the rest of the world. Singapore can only play this role by adding value to the Indonesian economy.

Although the economy faces many challenges, there are opportunities galore for Singapore and Singaporeans. We need more Singaporeans to be acquainted with Indonesia’s history and culture and be fluent in Bahasa Indonesia.

On Vietnam

Like in China, business is considered vulgar in Vietnam. As the Manchus conquered China, thousands of Ming Chinese refugees were welcome in South Vietnam to do business which local Vietnamese felt to be beneath them. They were the Minh Huong people. During the years of conflict with China, they were discriminated against and many left. Some have returned.

With China’s rise as Vietnam grows in self-confidence, ethnic Chinese Vietnamese will again play a more important role in the country’s economic development. Interest in the Chinese language is reviving. Without understanding the written Chinese, educated Vietnamese miss an important part of their long history

The Vietnamese people consider themselves, like the Chinese, descendants of the Emperors Yan and Huang. The cycles of the Vietnamese and Chinese calendars are largely similar. The culture is similar.

However, there is in the Vietnamese genome a strand of DNA which says clearly that they are not Chinese. Many Vietnamese heroes became heroes because they fought China

On a visit to Hanoi after I left government, I asked to call on retired DPM Vu Khoan. I asked him about Vietnam’s relations with China.

He divided them into 3 levels. Between the foreign ministries, there were occasional conflicts. Between the 2 militaries, the relationship was normal. Between the 2 communist parties, the relationship was good.

Of the 3 relationships, what matters most is the party-to-party relations. In recent years, it has become common practice for the VCP to brief the CCP on leadership changes

There is however a major difference between the 2 communist parties. In their long histories, the CCP spilt many times, sometimes resulting in armed conflicts, while the VCP stayed united despite fierce internal struggles.?Vietnam National Assembly is rambunctious compared to China.

There is a long tradition of decentralized rule because of geography. During the wars against the French and the Americans, decentralisation was a necessity

The main bone of contention is the South China Sea which will neither go out of hand or go away. If Vietnam gets the balance right, companies which worry about being caught in the line of fire between the US and China will invest in Vietnam instead.

However, Vietnam cannot be a replacement for China. It will still need to be connected to a larger system of which China is the major part

For a thousand years, Vietnam was under Chinese rule. In the last thousand years, it has been independent but often in a tributary relationship with China.

When the Nguyen Emperor wanted to change the name of the country from Dai Viet to Nam Viet, the Qing Court demurred, arguing that Yue was always part of China. However he could call his country Yue Nan, meaning south of Yue

I have little doubt in my mind that by 2050, Vietnam will only be next to Indonesia in terms of GDP and influence within ASEAN. Singapore’s relationship with Vietnam should anticipate that future

On Catholicism in China

The life of Matteo Ricci has always been a great inspiration for me. I encourage my Western friends who interact with China to emulate Ricci in first understanding the Chinese mind in its historical and philosophical context before seeking to influence it

According to Joseph Needham, the example of China gave heart to French encyclopedists of the European Enlightenment, to men like Voltaire and Jean-Jacques Rousseau, that it was possible to organize human society morally without organized religion.

That knowledge contributed to the anti-clericalism of the French Revolution in 1789 and eventually to the secularization of Europe

Ricci was recognized as an intellectual, a mathematician and an astronomer in the Ming Court and succeeded in converting a Ming minister, Xu Guangqi to Catholicism. He came from the Xu family, which gave the name to the Shanghai district of Xujiahui.

There is a Jesuit project to get both men beatified with the hope that one day, Francis himself can conduct the ceremony at the old St Ignatius Cathderal in Shanghai.

In public and private, Pope Francis repeatedly expresses his affection for China and his love for the Chinese people. He instructs papal diplomats to be creative in finding solutions.

I bumped into Hu Deping, the son of Hu Yaobang, Gen Sec of the CCP from 1982-1987. I had met Hu the year before at Guiyang for China’s Ecological Civilisation Forum. It was only later that I found out that he had called on the Pope and presented him with a tapestry from Xi.

That tapestry was a reproduction of an ancient 8th century Tang Stele describing the origin and the situation of the Nestorian Church in China including the Emperor conveying good wishes to the community at Christmas. Xi’s gift to Pope Francis was rich in symbolism. It envisaged a time when Christianty would flourish in China again

What is fundamental to the future of the Church in China is Sinicisation. This is China’s requirement for all religions. Buddhism was successfully sinicised after many centuries.

China cannot allow Christianity to be used by Western governments to influence China’s internal development. The Christianity of the early Christian missionaries was not a problem. Those who came in the 19th century backed by gunboats were.

In the Vatican, translation is integral to its universal mission. Yet, few Catholics or Christians are aware that China today prints more bible in more languages than any other country on earth by a long shot.

China is not only the world’s biggest market for Bibles, it is also the world’s biggest exporter of Bibles.