On Friday (18 September) former Foreign Minister George Yeo was at Bedok Reservoir to attend the launch of a mural graffiti artwork by Niklas Bo Beckert and Dennis Kaun titled the Kings of Freedom.

26 years ago, the two graffiti artists spray-painted graffiti on four panels of the Berlin Wall which was then subsequently displayed at Bedok Reservoir from 2010 to 2013 to commemorate the 20th anniversary of the fall of the Berlin Wall.

The four panels were returned to their owner Robert A. Hefner III in 2013. Since then, the space which the panels were at were left vacated until there was the idea to invite the original graffiti artists back to create a new mural graffiti artwork.

Speaking to the media, Yeo said that the mural would be a permanent feature at Bedok Reservoir, while the reverse side of the wall is open for Temasek Polytechnic students to paint on; and plans would be for students to renew that side of the wall every year with new paintings so that they "will leave an imprint".

Yeo also shared the importance of the fall of the Berlin Wall which ended the Cold War, reunited Europe, and "ushered in a new chapter of world history".

The message painted together with the mural reads:

“In spiteBecause of our differences, we are one”.

Those words by Yeo were inspired by the late Pope John Paul II. Yeo first mentioned this quote in his message to his Facebook friends after his electoral defeat at Aljunied GRC.

Perhaps it was a thought-provoking message, or maybe members of the media had not gotten over their GE2015 hangover, the doorstop interview quickly shifted from the Berlin Wall to GE2015. Indeed the mural got reduced to just an 'art installation' in this report while this report was more generous with three paragraphs.

Here are our three observations on Yeo's responses to GE2015 questions:

1. Refusing to tie the artwork’s message directly to GE2015

When asked if the mural's message extends to political affiliations, the first sign of the direction the questions were headed, Yeo insisted, “it’s much more than politics. It’s the way we look at one another.”

Later on, when he was explicitly asked about the message’s context within GE2015, Yeo replied in a similar manner, “Well to me it’s the guiding principle about how we should live our lives, how we should cooperate and interact with one another, whether it’s family, the workplace or society in general. Respect the diversity.”

Undeterred, the media pressed on with, “When you say that, do you think there is a place for different views, different political affiliations in this country?” Yeo responded, “Of course. That’s what makes us quintessentially human. To be human means to be unique, which means two unique individuals having differences.”

Perhaps realizing they were never going to pin him down in this manner, the media decided to change tack.

2. Cooling-off Day Effect

In response to the direct question "Could you give your take on the GE results?"

Yeo momentarily laughed about how it was "straight to the bottom line" for the reporters and replied, “I think the results were a surprise to most people because very few expected a landslide. I didn’t expect a landslide. I think on cooling-off day, after all people that people saw and heard, people got a little worried the day after may result in a very different Singapore. So everyone took two steps back and reflected ‘Well, yes, there are problems but this is a wonderful country and we all like coming back here when we travel. This is home.’ And that, collectively, when everyone came to this conclusion, I think, contributed to this outcome.”

3. On Aljunied

On Aljunied results, Yeo said, “It was very close and I thought the team did a very good job in winning back a large part of the crowd.”

However, when the question shifted to “If Mr Low had really lost Aljunied and we only had one opposition member, do you think that would have been healthy?” Yeo answered, “Philosophically, I’m a Taoist. When the pendulum swings too far to one extreme, it tends to swing back to another extreme. It’s better not to have a wide amplitude.”

In the end, the media decided to shift the line of questioning to back to diversity by ditching the link to the artwork’s message and asking him point-blank if “only the PAP can provide the strength to unity?”

To this, Yeo replied, “It’s not just the PAP. It’s all the political parties, the people of Singapore, living in their own segments, different races, different religions; we must be able to transcend our differences and say ‘look, despite our differences, what we are, because we are this and that and Singaporean, we help one another move together as a team. However brilliant you are as an individual, there’s only so much you can do.’”

He added, “If you’re disunited, however brilliant each (individual) is, you can’t achieve much.”

So philosophy, much deflect.

Photos by Jonathan Lim

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