$900m government funding for SPH is for 'common good': 'Musings' author George Yeo

SINGAPORE — Last Monday (15 August), ex-Foreign Minister George Yeo, 67, spoke to Yahoo News Singapore in his office at the Lee Kuan Yew School of Public Policy about his new book "Musings". Based on interviews with media veteran Woon Tai Ho, it is the first of a three-part book series where Yeo expounds on varied subjects such as his personal life, China, India and his time in government. The following is part II of edited excerpts from our conversation. Read part I here.

The Singapore media scene

The SPH Media Trust is getting up to $900 million in taxpayers' money over the next five years. It's no secret that the Straits Times is perceived by many to be pro-establishment and often faces a credibility issue. What do you make of this investment? Is it justified?

There's always been an element of state intervention and state subsidies in the way the media was managed in Singapore. We all know that the way we talk to ourselves and the way we communicate with government, the way government communicates to us, is very important for the cohesion of society. So I do not know whether or not $900 million is too much or too little. But you do need state intervention because it is for the common good.

But it still costs money to buy the paper. And often there's a perception that the reporting is skewed, it's not giving a full picture of things. So I think for the average reader, they would say, my taxpayer money is going to subsidise the paper and the product isn't quite up to the mark. Then I think you can see why there might be a bit of discontent there.

In any society, it's important that governments are able to communicate directly and accurately to the people. The problem in many societies is that what government says is mediated through the media, which is constantly looking for angles.

I use this metaphor often: it's like the Vatican. When the Pope speaks, he must be able to communicate directly to the last Catholic in the world, and there were a billion of them. He does this through official media: Radio Vaticana, Vatican TV (and so on). They put out compete statements and encyclicals, raw footage. Then Catholic Dioceses all over the world, they will take these sources and then they package stories around them.

Then there are others like Yahoo News and CNN, they will say, we zoom in on this part. You're a Catholic. You read what the Vatican puts out, you read what CNN has put out, you read what Straits Times has put out, you get a diversity of views. But you know what the Pope has said.

It's very important in Singapore that we know what the government has communicated. And this, the mainstream media must do. Yahoo News is not mainstream media, so it can have more room to look for angles and to say other things.

But if the reader feels that, I have to go to Yahoo to find a more nuanced and objective picture, isn't the mainstream media slowly just losing its audience and therefore its effectiveness?

Well, I wouldn't say more objective. Yahoo News or news agencies may find interesting angles. They bring in collateral material and enrich your story. I think that's good for the readers to access, but you cannot put all this into the mainstream media because it confuses the main message. So depending on your market position, as it were, there are certain disciplines that you have to work under. If you were to do what the mainstream media does, no one would access you. But if you look at it in totality, we need everyone in the ecosystem (and) there must be the mainstream media. Because if we don't, we're in trouble.

Choosing Singapore's new PM

Speaking of the Pope – it's almost like the new Prime Minister was chosen by a college of cardinals. It feels that the selection process is still very opaque, and the mainstream media puts out that official narrative, and very uncritically so. What do you make of this selection process? Should it be more transparent?

The PAP developed a cadre system and almost a Leninist structure, because it had to combat the communists. Mao Zedong and Ho Chi Minh, they learned from the Bolshevik experience. So Lenin was a master of organisation, he had a concept called democratic centralism - we have democracy, but certain decisions are made secretively. That is an inheritance of the PAP. I don't think it's simply a matter of choice. I think it it arises out of the culture of a people. Maybe it's in the nature of our society that you don't want people to lose face. You don't want to, as it were, air dirty linen in public. You only present outcomes. You assure people that there was an internal process, and these are the outcomes.

So what about an open leadership election like what you see with the Tories or Labour in the UK? Would that work for us?

I don't think so. I think it will lead to a lot of politicking, and we may lose the effectiveness of leadership. Look at what's happening in the West, in England and America. Do they throw up the best leaders? I'm not so sure.

What is your take on Lawrence Wong?

I don't know him well. I know Ong Ye Kung well, because Ye Kung worked for me. I've interacted with Chan Chun Sing a number of times, Lawrence Wong much less so. I don't really have personal knowledge of him. Well, he's eloquent. He handled COVID well. I think he comes across friendly. But we have to wait for a crisis, to see whether behind the exterior, there is a core.

Ties with China

Where do you see Singapore's ties with China going? Will we still come under pressure to take sides with them just because we're a Chinese-majority nation?

Taiwan, Hong Kong, Macau, mainland - they are part of one family. We are relatives. So we share certain emotions. We are more interested in what goes on than strangers. It also leads to complexities in the relationship. If you're a relative dealing with the family, then you get entangled. Sometimes, relatives need each other's help. And we being three quarters Chinese in Singapore, this is the reality. This is who we are. So we have feelings, and these feelings complicate policies. But they're also a benefit to us.

When Xi Jinping met Ma Ying-jeou, it was in Singapore. They could meet on one side or the other, but they chose Singapore because they know we're a well-meaning relative. And don't forget, China will be a huge reality for us. Asean is already the biggest trading partner of China, overtaking Europe, but the margin will continue to widen. And we're in the heart of Asean. There's much going for us if we understand the relationship and be disciplined in what we do.

In the book, you talk about the re-education camps in Xinjiang, and how Chinese policies have led to peace in the region. My sense is that you broadly support these policies, or at least feel that they are necessary?

The policies on Islamic extremism in Xinjiang instituted by the Chinese have been very tough. They have neglected this issue for too long. And they had a spate of violence which was spreading so they decided they had to act decisively. It's easy for us to tell the Chinese that look, you should do this and not do that. Islamic extremism is not a problem in China only, it's a problem in Singapore, it's a problem in the West. Just see the way Salman Rushdie was brutally attacked in New York. So we have a problem and different countries solve it in different ways. So at one end, US has Guantanamo, the CIA has rendition programs. And they use drones to go after Al Qaeda and Islamic State leaders. In China, they decided, better re-educate the Muslim minorities in Xinjiang.

So you have camps with high walls and barbed wire. People say, well that's genocide. That's to use the word genocide too loosely. The population has increased, so there is no biological genocide. Is there a cultural genocide? All those who have been to Xinjiang will know that there is no cultural genocide. Is there strong action taken against Muslims? No doubt. Are they excessive? I cannot be a judge on that because every country faces this problem, no one with complete success. I mean, in Singapore for instance, Muis vets every sermon given on Fridays in mosques. Is that censorship? Not for me to say, but it's kept the peace in Singapore.

"Musings" launches on Wednesday, 31 August at the National Library.

Do you have a story tip? Email: sgnews.tips@yahooinc.com.

You can also follow us on Facebook, Instagram, TikTok and Twitter. Also check out our Southeast Asia, Food, and Gaming channels on YouTube.