A 728-page book compiling past speeches and essays by former Foreign Affairs Minister George Yeo will be released soon.

Titled George Yeo on Bonsai, Banyan and the Tao, the book is edited by researcher Asad Latif and Lianhe Wanbao editor Lee Huay Leng. The wide-ranging collection of speeches and essays comes from Yeo's 23-year public life.

You can read the full introduction here.

If not, here are 12 things George Yeo wrote about in the introduction that would leave you enlightened:

1. George Yeo has no interest in writing a book

This book compiles all his past speeches because they are already in the public domain.

"I am not an academic and feel no inclination to discourse on society and government in an abstract way. As for writing the memoirs of my years in government, that would involve combing through records in various ministries, the PAP, Parliament and the constituency I served, over 23 years. Much material would still be classified. "

2. He knew before General Election 2011 that he was most likely going to lose.

He kept this prediction to himself though.

"Just before campaigning began for the May 2011 General Elections, a friend of mine who is a professional pollster told me confidentially that his analysis of the trends indicated that my team would garner 43 to 47% of the votes. I kept this piece of information to myself, not wanting to demoralize my team mates. As it turned out, his forecast range precisely bracketed the 45% we received. Despite being mentally prepared for a loss, the loss when it came was painful."

3. After losing in GE2011, Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong supported George Yeo's candidacy for the Presidential Elections. Initially. 

So, who was the first choice by PM Lee?

"Initially, Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong supported my candidacy but when Dr Tony Tan, former Deputy PM and PAP Chairman, indicated his willingness to run with the PAP’s support, I bowed out."

4. Two people dissuaded George Yeo from running for the presidency though.

Excellent advice.

"Two individuals I respected discouraged me from standing for the Presidency. My taijigong Master, Sim Pooh Ho, who lives in Kunming, took a Taoist view. He took me on as a disciple only after I left government. He said that the times were changing and it was better for me to be free, not to do less, but perhaps to do more. His words then sounded a bit mysterious to me. Robert Kuok whom I had known for over 20 years, and looked up to as a wise man, also advised me not to stand for the Presidency. Through two separate channels, he passed word that the Presidency was not for me and invited me to join him instead which I did after a decent interval."

5. He would probably not have been appointed by Pope Francis to be part of an eight-member commission if he had ran and lost at the presidential election.

On hindsight, it seemed fated.

"Two years later, I was appointed by Pope Francis as member of an 8-person commission charged to recommend changes to the administrative and financial structure of the Vatican. Before flying to Rome for the first meeting, I called on Archbishop William Goh for his blessing and advice. Archbishop Goh began by observing that I could not serve the Holy Father if I had not lost the elections. At that moment, I recalled the words of Master Sim."

6. George Yeo describes himself as a Taoist -- philosophically.

Catholic/ Taoist/ philosopher.

"I describe myself as a Taoist to close friends — in a philosophical not religious sense. I have been fascinated by the Tao Te Ching since undergraduate days and, in recent years, by the I Ching as well."

7. He was a pioneer in his ex-party when it came to embracing digital technology to reach out to the masses.

He's a liberal at heart. Relatively.

"As Chairman of the Young PAP in the 90s, I encouraged a group of young men and women to start a Young PAP website. After telling them not to get me into trouble with party bosses and government regulators, I left them to their own devices."

8. He initially wanted to shut down his Facebook accounts after his exit from politics.

That wouldn't have been wise. 92k FB fans.

"After leaving party politics, I considered winding down my Facebook accounts but was discouraged by many people. In any case, posting on Facebook is now commonplace. It is nice that the children of some friends became my Facebook friends."

9. George Yeo's "pruning of the banyan tree" speech resonated with Singaporeans in the 1990s.

It captured the zeitgeist of that Lee Kuan Yew-to-Goh Chok Tong era for plenty of reasons.

"A speech I made about the need to prune the banyan tree in order that civic participation could flourish resonated with many Singaporeans. Pruning the banyan tree means cutting down hierarchy. Letting more sunlight through enables the social network to be better energised."

10. He encourages citizens to be bigger people, even though Singapore is a small place.

People are what make Singapore possible.

"However, there is one requirement to being Singaporean which is this: a new citizen has to enlarge his heart and broaden his mind to embrace those who are different from him. In other words, becoming Singaporean means becoming a bigger person even though Singapore is a small country. Needless to say, those of us who are already citizens should also manifest this same largeness of mind and spirit."

11. He believes diversity is Singapore's strength as it allows us to arbitrage across cultural domains.

Diversity is Singapore's currency.

"Our diversity is therefore a great strength. Joel Kotkin describes Singapore as a home for many tribes. This enables us to arbitrage across cultural domains. Indeed this arbitrage is at the heart of our economy and foreign policy. As Minister for Information and the Arts, Trade and Industry, and Foreign Affairs, I devoted considerable time to the development of our cultural connections because they underlay our economic, political and social life."

12. George Yeo believes men of goodwill are needed not just in Singapore but everywhere else to lead the way forward.

Why more able and willing Singaporeans need to step up.

"The greatest danger in the age we live is technological development racing too far ahead of man’s moral development. We need men of goodwill coming together from all directions to reflect on the moral challenges of our times and help point the way forward."

George Yeo on Bonsai, Banyan and the Tao is available for purchase online at World Scientific and major book-stores (Popular and Books Kinokuniya). 

Top photo via

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