Both Mr S. Rajaratnam and Dr Goh Keng Swee contributed a lot to Singapore. However, I think that Dr Goh contributed more as his ideas were more beneficial to Singapore. You see, he turned Jurong which was then a swamp into a place where people go to shop, do businesses. In addition, he was strengthened Singapore's military and domestic security capabilities. If he did not, what would happen if Singapore met with disasters? He made Singapore a stronger and safer country. Besides that, he introduced streaming in education which channeled students into different programmes of study according to their learning abilities. That way, more people will have the chance of studying. Dr Goh did not forget about leisure as he was responsible for project such as Jurong Bird Park, Singapore Zoo and Singapore Symphony Orchestra!
On the other hand, Mr Rajaratnam did things that were less beneficial but without his help, I think Dr Goh would not have come out with so many policies. Both of them devoted most of their time helping and improving our country so we should be grateful to them. If it was not them, I think Singapore would not have come till today.
Dr Goh Keng Swee was born in Malacca in the Straits Settlements on 6 October 1918 into a middle-income Peranakan family, the fifth of six children. His father Goh Leng Inn was a manager of a rubber plantation, while his mother Tan Swee Eng was from the family that produced the Malaysian politicians Tun Tan Cheng Lock and his son Tun Tan Siew Sin, who would later become Dr Goh's lifelong political opponent.
Dr Goh was given the Christian name Robert, which he disliked and refused to respond to. When he was two years old, his family moved from Malacca to Singapore where his maternal grandparents owned several properties. The Gohs later relocated to the Pasir Panjang rubber estate when his father found work there, and became manager in 1933. In common with many Peranakan families, the Gohs spoke both English and Malay at home; church services were held at home on Sundays in Malay.
After studying at the Anglo-Chinese Primary School and the Anglo-Chinese Secondary School between 1927 and 1936 where he was second in his class in the Senior Cambridge Examinations, Dr Goh went on to graduate from Raffles College in 1939 with a Class II Diploma in Arts with a special distinction in economics. He then joined the colonial Civil Service as a tax collector with the War Tax Department but, according to his superiors, was not very good at his job and was almost fired. Shortly after the start of World War II, he joined the Singapore Volunteer Corps, a local militia, but returned to his previous work after the fall of Singapore. Dr Goh married Alice Woon, a secretary who was a colleague, in 1942 and they had their only child, Goh Kian Chee, two years later.
Key Achievements
Dr Goh was as one of the prime architects of Singapore’s economic success and is the key in Singapore’s journey from Third World backwater to a globalized Singapore.
Successfully contested the Kreta Ayer seat in the 1959 general election, he was elected to the Legislative Assembly on 30 May, and joined the first government of Prime Minister as Minister for Finance. In this role, he assumed stewardship of Singapore's economy. As a budget deficit of S$14 million was forecast that year, he introduced stringent fiscal discipline which including cutting civil service salaries. As a result of these measures, he was able to announce at the end of the year when delivering the budget that the Government had achieved a surplus of $1 million. He initiated the setting up of the Economic Development Board which was established in August 1961 to attract foreign multinational corporations to invest in Singapore.The next year, he started the development of the Jurong industrial estate on the western end of the island which was then a swamp, offering incentives to local and foreign business to locate there.
Jurong Industrial Estate with Jurong Island in the background, photographed in November 2006
Dr Goh fought to protect Singapore's interests against the Federal Minister of Finance, his cousin Tan Siew Tin, "who was out to spite Singapore". Goh played a crucial role in orchestrating the subsequent secession of Singapore from the Federation on 9 August 1965.
Upon independence in 1965, Goh relinquished his finance portfolio and became Minister for the Interior and Defence until 16 August 1967, assuming responsibilities for strengthening Singapore's military and domestic security capabilities.
Infantry soldiers of the Singapore Army awaiting the arrival of the deputy commanding general of the Army National Guard, United States Army Pacific, for a joint training exercise in July 2009. Compulsory National Service was initiated by Goh when he was Singapore's first Minister for the Interior and Defence.
Dr Goh encouraged the establishment of the Institute of Southeast Asian Studies in 1968, and on 11 August 1970 he was reappointed Minister for Defence.
He was also responsible for projects that sought to improve Singaporeans' cultural and leisure life, such as the Jurong Bird Park, the Singapore Zoo and the Singapore Symphony Orchestra. He backed the construction of the Kreta Ayer People's Theatre in his constituency as a venue for Chinese opera performances. He was also instrumental in introducing rugby in the Singapore Armed Forces and later in schools. In recognition of his role in promoting the sport, the Schools "C" Division Cup is named after him. Impressed by an oceanarium in the Bahamas, he contacted the Sentosa Development Corporation and convinced them to have one. Underwater World Singapore opened in 1991.
Jurong Bird Park
Singapore Zoo
Singapore Symphony Orchestra
On 1 March 1973, Dr Goh was appointed Deputy Prime Minister of Singapore concurrently with his other Cabinet portfolio.On 12 February 1979, he moved on from the Defence Ministry to the Ministry of Education, where his Goh Report greatly influenced the development of Singapore's education system. He set up the Curriculum Development Institute, and introduced key policies such as religious education (subsequently discontinued) and, in 1980, the channelling of students into different programmes of study according to their learning abilities, known as "streaming". Goh served two terms as Education Minister, his first ending on 31 May 1980, and his second following the 1980 general election from 1 June 1981 till his retirement. From 1 June 1980 he was redesignated First Deputy Prime Minister upon S. Rajaratnam being made Second Deputy Prime Minister, and served as Chairman of the Monetary Authority of Singapore (MAS) until he stepped down from Parliament on 3 December 1984 at the age of 66 years. In a tribute to mark the occasion, Prime Minister Lee Kuan Yew wrote:"A whole generation of Singaporeans take their present standard of living for granted because you had laid the foundations of the economy of modern Singapore."
My thoughts of Dr Goh Keng Swee:
I did not know who is Dr Goh until the period after he had passed away as news about his death were all around and thats when I knew him. He contributed a lot to Singapore, for example many of the tourist attractions were set up by him.
Mr S. Rajaratnam was borned in 1915 in Jaffna, Ceylon (now Sri Lanka). His father wanted him to be borned there for auspicious reasons after the premature death of his older brother. He was then brought back to Malaya and raised in Seremban, Malaysia, where his father rose from being a supervisor of rubber estates to a plantation owner. He attended the Convent of the Holy Infant Jesus for six months and was transferred to St Paul's, a boys' school. He continued his education in the prestigious Victoria Institution in Kuala Lumpur and then in Raffles Institution(picture down), Singapore
In 1937, he went to King's College, London, to pursue a law degree. There he received his political awakening, became a fashionably anti-imperial, anti-British, joined the socialist Left Book Club and became a Marxist.
<----King's College
However, during the Second World War, Mr Rajaratnam could no longer receive money from his father to continue his education.
He therefore turned to journalism to earn a living, never returning to university to complete his degree. He met his wife Piroska Feher, a Hungarian teacher while in London.
He returned to Singapore in 1948 when he joined the Malayan Tribune. In 1954, he joined The Straits Times as a journalist. He wasbold in writing about the way Singapore was governed by the British. This incurred the displeasure of the colonial government. His column, "I write as I please", attracted so much attention that he was called for questioning by the government.
Political Career
Mr S. Rajaratnam met Mr Lee Kuan Yew by chance at the Chinese Swimming Club. Recognising that they were both dissatisfied with the prevailing political situation, they arranged to meet to discuss about it. In the same year, he cofounded the People's Action Party(PAP) together with Mr Lee Kuan Yew, Dr Goh Keng Swee and others.
He became popular among his supporters for being able to effectively follow the 'mood of the people'. He thought of a multi-racial Singapore and envisioned her to be a 'global city'. He was also actively involved in organising major political campaigns against Singaporean groups on the far left. During his years in parliament, he served as Minister for Culture (1959), Minister for Foreign Affairs (1965-1980), Minister for Labour (1968-1971), and Second Deputy Prime Minister (1980-1985) and was later appointed as Senior Minister until his retirement in 1988.
Key Achievements
He was Singapore's first foreign minister, following its abrupt independence in 1965. During his tenure as foreign minister, Mr Rajaratnam helped Singapore gain entry into the United Nations and later the Non-Aligned Movement in 1970. He built up the Foreign Service and helped to establish diplomatic links with other countries and secure international recognition of the new nation's sovereignty.
He carried out the foreign policy of international self-assertionto establish Singapore's independence during the period when the country faced significant challenges including the Konfrontasi conflict in the 1960s and the withdrawal of British troops in the early 1970s.
Being the Minister of Labour, he implemented tough labour laws to attempt to restore stability in the Singaporean economy and attracted multinational corporations to invest in Singapore. This important appointment emphasised the trust that the government had in him in overcoming the challenges Singapore faced.
Throughout his political career, he played a key role in the successive pragmatic and technocratic PAP governments that radically improved Singapore's economic situation, alongside huge developments in social development on the island with massive expansion of health care programmes, pensions, state housing and extremely low employment.
Mr Rajaratnam did not believe in the need for a strong opposition in parliament, which he considered "non-communist subversion"; he was unapologetic about the dominant party system in Singapore saying:
Given a one-party government, the capacity of such a government to act far more independently than if it were harassed by the opposition and by proxies, is obvious. In the game of competitive interference pawns which can behave like bishops, castles and knights can in certain circumstances be extremely inconvenient and very irritating.
Most importantly, he was a strong believer in multi-racialism in Singapore and the one who wrote the Singapore National Pledge in 1966.The pledge goes like this:
We, the citizens of Singapore,
pledge ourselves as one united people,
regardless of race, language or religion,
to build a democratic society
based on justice and equality
so as to achieve happiness, prosperity and
progress for our nation.
The pledge is very meaningful as it emphasizes on how a Singaporean should be like. We, students, recite the pledge every morning during assembly.
Later life
Unfortunately, he retired from political office in 1988 as part of the leadership transition. He then served at the Institute of South East Asian Studies as a Distinguished Senior Fellow from November 1, 1988 to October 31, 1997.
Death
In 1994, Mr Rajaratnam was diagnosed with dementia and was unable to move or talk by 2001. He was assisted by six maids including his long-time maid of 21 years, Cecelia Tandoc. Sadly, he passed away on 22 February 2006 of heart failure, 3 days shy of his 91st birthday. As a mark of respect, Mediacorp channel 5 and 8 observed the one-minute of silence of procedure that night. The State flag on all government buildings was flown at half-mast from 23 February to 25 February 2006.
The body of him rested at his home in 30 Chancery Lane from 22 to 23 February. Some of his former colleagues, Toh Chin Chye, S Dhanabalan, Othman Wok, Lee Hsien Loong, President S.R. Nathan and Tharman Shanmugaratnam paid their last repects at his home. His body was lay in state at the Parliament House from 9.30am to 9.00pm on February 24, 2006.
My thoughts of Mr Rajaratnam:
When I first looked at the history assignment, the only person I knew was Dr Goh Keng Swee as he had passed away recently. However, I had no idea who Mr Rajaratnam was even the fact that he was the composer of the Singapore National Pledge. I can tell that he is very educated.
Mr S. Rajaratnam(1915-2006)
Dr Goh Keng Swee(1918-2010)