Despite spending the previous day (July 1) in court cross-examined by CPF blogger Roy Ngerng for close to seven hours and still feeling under the weather on Thursday, Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong managed to leave the audience at the SG50+ conference in stitches with his wit and quick comeback.

The evening conference, moderated by CNN host Fareed Zakaria, who is quite a fan of Singapore's racial integration, saw PM Lee tackle several questions such as why we cannot have anarchy, how terrorism and religious extremism is a scourge to society and how to build on Singapore's progress in the next 50 years.

On this last topic, PM Lee said:

“Is it to be expected that a population of three-and-a-half million citizens and maybe a million foreign workers will have the best airline in the world? The best airport in the world? One of the busiest ports in the world? A financial centre, which is one of three or four key financial centres in the world and an education and healthcare and housing system which gives us a per capita GDP, which is - at least by World Bank calculations if you look at PPP (purchasing power parity) - higher than America, Australia or Japan.

“It's an entirely unnatural state of affairs and one which we should count our blessings for, if not every day, at least every election." (emphasis mine)

Cue LOLs from the audience.

Long story short, he was saying that we should be thankful and grateful for all the progress we've made. And most importantly, to vote wisely.

From the 2:55 mark.

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The conference continues today with questions on geopolitics, governance and climate change.

Top photo via

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