Singapore's George Yeo: an Idealist

Yong-Boon Yeo aka George Yeo is a delight to hear. At Thailand’s FCCT, he delivered about an hour of unscripted comments, including many memorable blurbs. I will summarize his talk below.

For Singapore, Thailand has always been an old friend. 

My father used to bank with Bangkok Bank. Banking is about systems, not human beings—and this dynamic will be the downfall of the [heavily intermingled] financial world. 

“No one feels unwelcome in Bangkok.” 

The Thai way is never rigid—it is soft-moving but always retaining its sense of self.

Thailand de-colonized by working with other powers. 

In 2016, [American NBA star and politician] Bill Bradley told me, Trump is pro-business, against free immigration, against free trade [aka de-industrialization], and “Trump has always been against war.” 

“I think he [Trump] will not bite at the bait of a war with Iran.”

No leader in ASEAN understands all of us. 

We [in ASEAN] have 1,000 meetings a year but we never vote. This is incomprehensible to the European and Western mind. We talk, and the river flows on. 

Indonesia’s Pancasila incorporated a belief in God that meant we are all brothers and sisters. It acknowledged [through Islam] a common humanity.

Re: Myanmar, the protagonists are all exhausted. None of them wants the country to break up. Everyone wants peace, but America… I am not so sure. Peace in Myanmar means a more direct corridor into trade waters [for China]. America may prefer the Straits of Malacca to be a choke-hold on China. Meanwhile, it appears China is helping [new Indonesian president] Prabowo “loosen” the Straits of Malacca. 

Vietnam has made a strategic decision to move closer to China. 

After the Russia-Ukraine war, India began conducting foreign policy on its own behalf [Yeo is implying India was being used as a pawn by the West].

On Western assimilation: “Indians don’t want other people to become Indians, Chinese don’t want other people to become Chinese.” America’s ideals appear premised on everyone becoming like them or conforming to a particular set of cultural values—the opposite of unconditional love. [Yeo is Catholic.] 

Singapore knows tough policies work, but we are open to learning from other solutions; at the same time, Singapore does not necessarily want to be a trailblazer. 

© Matthew Rafat (December 2024)