Q: Any time for hobbies? (Her husband, Mr Teo Eng Cheong, is chief executive officer of IE Singapore, and they have three teenage children)
Every year, I make it a point to travel with my family. It’s my protected time with my kids. Twice a year, I need to remind them that they do have a mother. I enjoy being a mum. I’d have had four kids if not for politics.
Q: What’s your reflection on how Singapore society is going?
Whenever I come back to Singapore from abroad, I feel like I’m back in the domes in Gardens by the Bay. The conditions are perfectly set: humidity, temperature, fertiliser, the eco-system. But if we are perfectly honest about ourselves, this is actually an unreal environment, because nowhere else in the world is like that.
My concern for my children is that if you think the whole world is like the dome, you’ll not be able to adapt when the canopy is eventually lifted. The canopy has to be lifted because we’re an open country. The dome is never a sealed structure. It can at best be a net (which) can be blown about, even dismantled, if, for example, the bigger powers decide to go to war.
This December I brought my children to Nanjing, to the massacre museum. Nanjing Massacre happened in 1937, not so long ago. If you go to Phnom Penh, you’ll see where they imprisoned (people under the Khmer Rouge regime). At the time this happened, I was a kid. Not so long ago.
We talk about “here not so good, there not so good”. But don’t forget it’s still a dome. My message to my kids is that I know, even at home, not everything is perfect...We’ve to ready ourselves because we live in a very imperfect world. You can only continue to strive towards perfection but never get there.
Q: Some people would say it’s also because of the way Singapore has developed that’s why we have this dome – always forward thinking, plan everything?
That’s why our ability to respond when things don’t go as well as we would like them to, has been affected. Sometimes we also scratch our heads and say: “Why are people so angry?”
I had dinner with a well-regarded government leader from our region. This person comes to Singapore for private short breaks. I asked this person: “Why do you come?” (He said): “To be encouraged and to be inspired.” People always say you must appreciate your own home. There’s truth in that.
