Yah Lah But WP's Eileen Chong on Leaving MFA for the Opposition & the Hidden Cost of Singapore’s Success | #799
From MFA diplomat to Workers' Party NCMP in five months, Eileen Chong is asking Parliament the questions most leave untouched - about Singapore's loneliness epidemic, arts funding gaps, AI's real costs, and the price of one generation's relentless success.
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(00:00) Intro
(00:00:22) Introducing Eileen Chong, WP NCMP
(00:02:09) From Spotlight To Short Runway: Joining WP Before GE2025
(00:03:42) Was Politics Always On Her Radar?
(00:04:52) Scholar, Diplomat, Then Opposition: The Reasoning
(00:07:10) Singapore's Treadmill Culture And The Hidden Wellbeing Cost
(00:09:20) What She Observed In The Diplomatic Corps: Beijing And Seoul
(00:12:25) Does She Even Have Time To Disconnect Now?
(00:13:54) Her Parliament Speech: Time, Presence And Space
(00:16:01) Singapore Exceptionalism: Why Self-Defeating Thinking Holds Us Back
(00:18:33) TFR At 0.87 And What Korea's Reversal Means For S'pore
(00:20:39) How Singapore Is Perceived In Diplomatic Circles
(00:23:35) Why She Pushed For IR Education In Schools
(00:25:02) What Diplomats Actually Do
(00:27:49) S'poreans Spend $1.8B On Tuition: Can The Mindset Change?
(00:32:04) The Culinary School Dream She Never Pursued
(00:33:44) Speaking Up For Small Arts Practitioners In Parliament
(00:35:15) Making The Case For Arts: Beyond Entertainment, Beyond ROI
(00:39:10) Hallyu And What Singapore Can Learn From Korean Soft Power
(00:41:52) 1 In 10 S'poreans Have No Close Friends: Her Response
(00:44:32) Growing Up In Jurong West And West Vs East Singapore
(00:47:05) What's It Really Like Being In WP And Inside Parliament?
(00:50:39) Is There Really A Chinese Faction In WP? And Pritam Singh's Title
(00:53:28) Being An Opposition MP At Official Events: Treated Differently?
(00:55:11) AI In Parliament: Cautious Optimism And The Darker Side
(00:59:31) How She Has Changed And Defining Success As A Millennial NCMP
(01:02:50) What Gives Her Hope About Singapore's Future
(01:03:46) One Shiok Things
(01:11:06) Post-Interview Reflection
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