When you listen to Philip Yeo talk about how he got things done in the early years of Singapore’s development, you wonder if he is talking about a different place.

I had been hearing him quite a bit the last year, sitting in in all the 10 interviews that author Peh Shing Huei had with the man for the book, Neither Civil Nor Servant: The Philip Yeo Story, which has just been launched.

Of course, Mr Yeo is not the typical civil servant.

For one thing, he hates to be called one, because he hates writing papers (preferring to just do it), meetings (he can make a decision without having one), and he hates bean counters who block him from charging ahead with his projects.

As I listened to him, it was clear what I was hearing wasn’t just his story but part of the larger Singapore story.

… The writer is also a senior fellow at the S. Rajaratnam School of International Studies.