Ex-foreign affairs minister George Yeo on why S'pore is wealthy but unhappy: Unhappiness might be precondition for achievement

When asked during a Bloomberg podcast why Singapore is on both the lists of wealthiest and unhappiest countries, former foreign affairs minister George Yeo quipped that unhappiness might be a precondition for achievement.

Yeo was speaking to Bloomberg host Mishal Husain alongside former Singaporean diplomat Kishore Mahbubani in a live edition of The Mishal Husain Show, touching on a range of topics from geopolitics to AI.

Happiness and wealth

In a clip from the podcast posted to Bloomberg's social media pages on Sep. 24, Husain pointed out that Singapore is in the top 20 list of wealthiest countries, but also ranked highly for unhappiness.

She then asked Yeo for his thoughts on why this might be so.

In response, Yeo recounted a reminder he said he constantly received from Singapore's first prime minister Lee Kuan Yew, which was to "never promise happiness".

"We can promise economic development, infrastructure, education, whatever. But never promise happiness," Yeo continued.

Yeo then went on to share another anecdote from his time in the trade and foreign ministries.

Yeo was the minister for trade and industry from 1999 to 2004, and then minister for foreign affairs from 2004 to 2011.

Yeo shared that when surveys were conducted by the public service on which ministries had the best work-life balance, both the trade and foreign ministries turned out to have "terrible" work-life balance.

"But we had the highest morale," he said.

"So sometimes unhappiness maybe a precondition for achievement," Yeo quipped.

Mahbubani, who served as Permanent Secretary at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs from 1993 to 1998, chimed in, saying that he agreed.

Husain replied that both Yeo and Mahbubani were "quite hardcore on this front".

While the exchange drew laughter and applause from the live audience, some users online were not as amused, with one user pointing out that "happiness" appears in Singapore's national pledge.

Other discussions

Beyond the question on Singapore's wealth and happiness, Husain also asked Yeo and Mahbubani about the challenges facing Singapore today.

Yeo pointed out that Singapore faces a "built-in contradiction" of having to remain united as a people while needing to be connected to the world, segueing into the topic of foreigners in Singapore.

"This town-gown tension will never disappear," Yeo remarked, referring to the relationship between Singaporeans and foreigners.

"The challenge for the government is how to ensure that despite all the changes in the world, social divisions are tackled, ahead of them being too difficult to solve," he continued.