Dr Goh Keng Swee

2nd Deputy Prime Minister of Singapore
In office 1 March 1973 – 3 December 1984
Prime Minister	Lee Kuan Yew
Preceded by	Toh Chin Chye
Succeeded by	S. Rajaratnam
Constituency	Kreta Ayer
Minister for Education
In office 12 February 1979 – 31 May 1980, 1 June 1981 – 3 December 1984
3rd Minister for Defence
In office 11 August 1970 – 11 February 1979
3rd Minister for Finance
In office 17 August 1967 – 10 August 1970
Preceded by	Lim Kim San
Succeeded by	Hon Sui Sen
1st Minister for the Interior and Defence
In office 9 August 1965 – 16 August 1967
1st Minister for Finance
In office 5 June 1959 – 8 August 1965
Succeeded by	Lim Kim San
Born	6 October 1918 Malacca, Straits Settlements
Died	14 May 2010 (aged 91) Singapore
Birth name	Robert Goh Keng Swee
Nationality	Singaporean
Political party	People's Action Party
Spouse(s)	Alice Woon (1942–1986), Dr. Phua Swee Liang (from 1991)[1]
Children	Goh Kian Chee[1]
Alma mater	Raffles College (Dip. A.), LSE (B.Sc. (Econ.), 1951; Ph.D., 1954)
Religion	Methodist[2]
Military service
Years of service	1939?–1942
Rank	Corporal
Unit	Singapore Volunteer Corps

Early life/ Background

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."

<sup>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.</sup>