The Wisdom Of George Yeo

Over the past few weeks, many Singaporeans have urged me to run for the Presidency. This is a major step which I could not rush into. I thought over it long and hard, consulting not only colleagues, friends and family members, but also taking in the advice and views which many of you conveyed to me in person, on FB, by mail and email, and through friends and relatives.

After considering all factors, I have come to the conclusion that, in this phase of my life, I can better contribute to the Singapore we all love in other ways. I have therefore decided not to run for the Presidency this August.

It is not a decision I take lightly. I know many of you will be disappointed but I ask for your understanding. I will continue to work with you to make Singapore a home rich in memories and full of hope for the future.

I would like to express my deep appreciation to all of you who believe in me and offered me your kind support.

Why isn’t George Yeo running for president? I think it’s because he’s intuitively grasped an important idea that will play a huge role in the coming years: Social media (Which George has been quicker to embrace than the rest of the PAP) has shaken up and democratized conventional structures of power and influence. New avenues have opened up for asymmetrical warfare, and the former Brigadier-General wisely senses that by staying out of the current political structure, he has the opportunity to create a role for himself that has not existed before.

Presidents and and heads-of-state are no longer as powerful as they used to be. The choices, power and autonomy they have are limited because of the roles that they play- there are certain things that a President simply can’t do or say without unwittingly sabotaging himself and his organization.

George has already earned the respect of the online community with his conduct so far (consider his farewell video, expressing sincere humility and grace), PAP and Opposition supporters alike. It would not be an exaggeration to describe him as the most liked man in Singapore right now, kind of like the opposite of Steven Lim.

Lee Kuan Yew described how he felt that Machiavelli was right about being feared rather than loved. This is only holds true if you need to RUN a state. Running a state is a hideously difficult and largely thankless job. It does not apply if, like George, you choose to nourish a movement or a philosophy rather than an organization. Gandhi, Jesus, Malcolm X, Martin Luther King- these were great men of influence who avoided actual positions of power, and whose legacies continue to live on to this day. That’s the lasting power of investing in a movement or philosophy that’s greater than a single organization. (Check out Seth Godin’s awesome description of the differences between organizations, movements and philosophies here.)

If you lead a movement, or philosophy, your followers are drawn to you. You aren’t responsible for people who disagree with you. This isn’t the case if you’re running a nation-state: running a state is kind of like running a public school. You have to enforce discipline, or your authority will be undermined by dissidents and anybody who senses weakness.

Given the chance to run a nation-state… I wouldn’t. People are generally unappreciative of decisions made by statesmen, and as a statesman you lose the privilege of doing as you please. (George has described himself before as a “free spirit”, which I admire deeply in a man.) A statesman has to make decisions on behalf of the state that he wouldn’t have made as an individual- Lee Kuan Yew’s Operation Cold Store being a particularly poignant example. Running a state means acknowledging that some people will have to bleed, suffer and die. If not at your hands, then at the hands of others- often their own. It’s a difficult and necessarily dirty job, and you can never please everybody.

George is aware of this, I believe. The Harvard man would be familiar with the principle that if you don’t like the jobs available to you, you create one for yourself. If he became President, he would probably polarize his supporters, and perhaps be put in positions where he does not have much autonomy to do anything. Autonomy is becoming more valuable than ever before in this day and age, where people are increasingly free to do as they please without the support of larger organizations. You can now make movies and sell albums without needing the large amounts of capital and funding from major producers and record companies, and similarly, an influential man like George Yeo can do a lot of good without the help of the Government. By the time a President gets to make a decision, it’s usually damage control- and by then it’s kind of too late.

What George has now, and would be prudent to develop further, is his direct influence over Singaporeans as a public figure. The powerful people in the world today aren’t bound to any single organization- consider Bono, Oprah, Ellen, Chomsky. Let’s face it- if George started a full, proper blog, he would quickly be up there with Xiaxue and mr brown, almost immediately! He has the opportunity to speak his mind as an independent agent, influencing not just policy but public sentiment, ideology and indirectly, behaviour itself.

When he was Brigadier-General, he might have had some degree of autonomy over how the military doctrine was to be executed- as a free individual, he now has the liberty to reveal, perhaps, how the current doctrine might be obsolete. The rules of the game haven’t changed, but the structure of the court certainly has. (Check out TIME’s article on the democratization of influence.) George has not left politics per se- he has transcended it. Personally, I am excited to see how he plays his hand, and I will be taking notes for sure.

Godspeed, good sir!

George Yeo, like a Boss.