BOOK REVIEW: Unbroken (The Power of Resilience)
By Chee Soon Juan. Self-published, Singapore. 224 pages, S$30
By: Toh Han Shih
When I was a teenager, I was in the same year at the same school in Singapore as Chee Soon Juan. I remember seeing him get into a fight at a soccer game and leaving the fight crying. After his school days, Chee, who is now secretary general of the Singapore Democratic Party (SDP), got into legal and political fights with the People’s Action Party (PAP). The PAP, which has won every election in Singapore since 1959, likewise always bested Chee.
As Chee related in his latest book, “Unbroken: The Power of Tesilience,” “For more than 30 years, I have walked a path that few in Singapore have chosen, a path of dissent in a political climate that punishes it…. Over the decades, I have stood for elections in Singapore seven times. And I have lost seven times.”
In his baptism of fire in early 1993, Chee, who was then an academic in psychology at the National University of Singapore (NUS), was summoned to the Dean’s office by his Head of Department, Dr S Vasoo, who was also a PAP Member of Parliament (MP), Chee recalled. Dean Ernest Chew, who headed the Faculty of Arts and Social Sciences at NUS, sat with Vasoo. They questioned Chee over a reimbursement of S$226 (US$175) he had made using his research funds.
Months earlier, in December 1992, Chee had stood as a candidate for the SDP in a by-election. In March 1993, Chee was dismissed from NUS for misconduct and dishonesty. Chee publicly disputed the dismissal and charges. In response, Vasoo, Chew, and the department’s administrative secretary sued him for defamation. A Singapore court ruled in the plaintiffs’ favor and ordered Chee to pay damages of around S$350,000.
There were further lawsuits against Chee. Two former Singaporean prime ministers, Goh Chok Tong and Lee Kuan Yew, successfully sued Chee for libel. In 2006, Chee was declared bankrupt after failing to pay hundreds of thousands of US dollars in damages to Goh and Lee. In November 2012, Chee was cleared of bankruptcy. From 1998 to 2022, in the strictly controlled city-state, Chee was fined and jailed several times for making political speeches without a permit.
I attended a political rally in Singapore’s financial district around Boat Quay during the late 1990s, when Lee Kuan Yew, Singapore’s first prime minister, derided Chee for supporting the Dalai Lama.
Chee’s book cited a scathing criticism of his first book published in 1994, “Dare to Change: An Alternative Vision for Singapore”, by Lee Kuan Yew’s son, former Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong, who said, “Dare to Change is a rehash of some old Western liberal ideas which have failed, and Chee Soon Juan packages them together, calls it a book.”
Chee’s latest book explained what made him endure those decades of lawsuits and opposition by the powers that be, “But stress isn’t always destructive. If recognized and processed with support and reflection, it can also be the crucible of growth. What makes the difference? Resilience.”
Chee’s book cited Viktor Frankl, a Jewish Holocaust survivor and psychiatrist, who wrote that suffering ceases to be suffering the moment it finds meaning.
“I came to realize that resilience was the capacity to locate a purpose that could withstand the weight of your pain,” Chee wrote.
When Lee Kuan Yew was Singapore’s prime minister during the 1960s, he urged Singaporeans to create “a rugged society” similar to the resilience discussed in Chee’s book. In those days, Singaporeans needed resilience to afford a home and a car. Now, with Singaporeans enjoying a far higher standard of living, they should seek meaning beyond a home and a car. By having a purpose beyond material aspirations, Singaporeans will nurture the resilience to withstand future challenges, instead of being softened by empty comfort.
Beyond personal resilience, Chee’s book advocated critical thinking as indispensable for organizational resilience. Two US media firms, Pixar and Disney, were successful because they fostered a culture of critical thinking where employees were allowed to speak up without being put down, his book said.
The book gave another example of organizational resilience in Airbnb, the online vacation residence company. During the COVID pandemic in early 2020, the US firm’s revenue plummeted by 80 percent in a few weeks, and it laid off a quarter of its staff. Many thought Airbnb would not survive.
“Despite massive losses, it stayed true to its mission. It adapted by sticking to what it believed in and thinking critically about how to live them differently. By the end of 2020, Airbnb completed a highly successful IPO, was valued at over US$100 billion,” Chee wrote.
The Singapore Exchange can learn from Airbnb. In late 2024, the Singapore authorities set up a review group to revive the Singapore Exchange. It is not a coincidence that the Singapore Exchange is far less actively traded and far smaller than the Hong Kong Stock Exchange, the world’s biggest market for initial public offerings (IPOs).
Hong Kong has a more entrepreneurial and less legalistic culture than Singapore. For decades, until recently, Hong Kong had more press freedom than Singapore. Hong Kongers have a reputation for resilience, embodied in what is called the “Lion’s Rock spirit.” The Singapore Exchange and Singapore will do well to learn from the Lion’s Rock spirit. Chee’s book said young people need “resilience, not rigidity.” The same applies to the Singapore Exchange.
The book’s lessons in organizational resilience are useful not only to corporates, but also to the ruling PAP which Chee opposed for decades. The first generation of the PAP government under Lee Kuan Yew possessed the resilience to overcome challenges like a cold war with Indonesia and the withdrawal of the British naval presence from Singapore. The current generation of the PAP under Prime Minister Lawrence Wong faces new challenges, like enabling Singapore to thrive in a world fractured by tensions between the two leading superpowers, the US and China.
To do this, Wong’s government needs Airbnb’s adaptability in coming up with creative new solutions. To create innovative ideas, critical thinking is needed. For critical thinking to happen, there must be a safe environment where people are not afraid to share their views. There should be space for opposition politicians to critique government policies and offer alternative ideas. There should also be space for members of the ruling party to challenge the policies of their own party.
“Psychological safety—the sense that one can fail, speak up, or question without fear of punishment—is essential,” Chee said in his book.
A climate of coercion leads to fear of punishment, which engenders passivity and lack of motivation, Chee wrote, leveraging on his studies of psychology. Fear of punishment causes a citizen to avoid breaking the law, but positive motivation gives a soldier the courage to risk his life in defending his country. Positive strokes enable ordinary citizens, opposition politicians, as well as members of the ruling party to proactively contribute to their country.
This book contains useful lessons in resilience for individuals, companies, opposition politicians, and government officials of Singapore and other nations.
Toh Han Shih is a Singaporean writer in Hong Kong and a regular contributor to Asia Sentinel.