Dr Goh Keng Swee - contributions to Singapore

This is a Integrated Humanities project about the late Dr Goh Keng Swee's contributions to Singapore, also discussing how should we best commemorate Dr Goh's contributions.


But first of all, let's have a good look at his life:


Early life and education

Goh Keng Swee was born in Malacca on 6 October 1918 into a small middle-income family. He studied at the Anglo-Chinese Primary and Secondary schools between 1927 and 1936 and graduated from Raffles College in 1939. He joined the colonial Civil Service and the Singapore Volunteer Corps, but went back to his previous work during the fall of Singapore. He married Alice Woon, who was a colleague of his and had their first son, Goh Kian Chee 2 years after that.


Forming the Malayan Forum and joining PAP

Dr Goh Keng Swee won a scholarship to further his studies at the London School of Economics and Political Science. There, he met fellow students seeking independence for British Malaya, including Abdul Razak, Maurice Baker (Singapore's High Commissioner to Malaysia), Lee Kuan Yew and Toh Chin Chye. The Malayan Forum was then created by Dr Goh. He obtained his Ph.D for Economics in 1956 and resigned from Civil Service in August 1958 to work full-time for the PAP (People's Action Party).

Dr Goh Keng Swee was a key member of the PAP and soon became the vice-chairman. PAP won the 1959 general elections and he joined the first government of First Prime Minister Lee Kuan Yew as the Minister of Finance.

PAP Logo Lee Kuan Yew and rest celebrating victory

Minister of Finance

During his time of the Minister of Finance, he assumed control of Singapore's economy. He initiated the setting up of the Economic Development Board in August 1961 to attract foreign multinational corporations to invest in Singapore.

Jurong Estate now and then

He also 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. He set up the JTC Corporation to drive industrialisation strategy.

Dr Goh set up the MAS (Monetary Authority of Singapore) as a central bank in Singapore, where foreign banks such as Indian Overseas Bank, Citibank, Hongkong Bank and so on.

DBS (Development Bank of Singapore) was also set up as a financing institution led by the government.

Minister of Interior and Defence

Dr Goh inspecting troops at an inspection process

After Singapore broke away from its merger with Malaysia to become an independent country, Dr Goh Keng Swee took up the role of the Minister of Interior and Defence and built up the army of Singapore.

Dr Goh (centre) dressed in colonel's uniform in the Artillery batallion

Dr Goh Keng Swee introduced National Service. He said, to build up Singapore's defences quickly, Singapore must have a capable fighting army of its own. Recruits were drafted into the SAF (Singapore Armed Forces) to build up its manpower.

He gave the green light for the first military institute, the SAFTI (Singapore Armed Forces Training Institute) to be set up to train the recruits into professional SAF men.

SAFTI logo

Dr Goh also used his past experience as Finance Minister to deal with how the army spent its resources. He wanted to spend the least amount of money to build a bigger and stronger army. He wanted to produce military hardware at lower costs. This led to the founding of ST Kinetics, producer of Singapore's defence military hardware. ST Kinetics produces military hardware of all types, from small-arms fire to field howitzers and IAVs (Infantry Fighting Vehicles). With this technologies and skills, the ST Kinetics also houses aerospace, electronics and marine development. It also ended up housing the Singapore Mint, using the same tool-making skills to produce currency for Singapore.

ST Kinetics is a art of the main company, ST Engineering

By the time Dr Goh left the ministry, he had built up a capable fighting force of 30,000 men for Singapore. The SAF was shaped based on a combination of conscription and a professional military on the model of the Israeli Army.

Education Minister

When Dr Goh served the country as the Defence minister, he discovered that there was a problem with the education system as the recruits' educational level was way below par. When he was appointed as the Education Minister in 1979, he formed a group of capable engineers, nicknamed "Goh's Daring Dozen", to help him revamp the education system. After 6 months, a report by him housing all his 'upgrades' of the education system was released. This report was also known as the "Goh report".

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".

He also introduced rugby to the SAF and primary and secondary schools in Singapore.

Arts, Aesthetics and other contributions

Dr Goh convinced Mr Lee Kuan Yew that, as a people, Singapore should have some feelings for the aesthetics in life. In 1979, the SSO (Singapore Symphony Orchestra) was born.

The Singapore Symphony Orchestra performing a tune

He was also in charge of projects to sought to improve Singaporeans' cultural and leisure life, such as the Jurong Bird Park, Singapore Zoo, Underwater World Sentosa and many other projects.

Little facts: Dr Goh was inspired to start the Jurong Bird Park after a visit to the free-flight aviary in Rio de Janerio. He wanted Jurong to be more than just a bustling industrial centre and hence, thought of this project to allow people to have a time to relax and escape from urban life.

He was also inspired to start the Underwater World in Sentosa by the undersa gallery of marine life in the Bahamas.

Later Life and Death

During his later life, he continued to be publicly active in the society, being chairman of many organisations after his political career.

In 1986, he broke up with his first wife and re-married his former Ministry of Education colleague Dr. Phua Swee Liang in 1991. He suffered 2 strokes, one in 1999 and another in 2000, which affected the vision in his right eye. According to his family, this made him become extremely quiet.

Dr Goh died in the early morning of 14 May 2010 at the age of 91. His body lay in state at Parliament House from 20 to 22 May, and there was a state funeral on 23 May 2010 at the Singapore Conference Hall followed by a private ceremony for family members at the Mandai Crematorium. As a mark of respect, the State flag was flown at half-mast from all Government buildings during his mourning.

How to commemorate his contributions

Many Singaporeans had thought up of ways to commemorate the founding father's contributions. Some had suggested that we should rename Jurong Industrial Estate so that it carries his name while others have suggested that a road or a street should be renamed in his honour.

In the end, we decided that this topic about Dr Goh could be included in the MOE Syllabus so that the younger generations would learn about him through studies. Exhibitions about him could be held to educate the society.

Monuments about him could be erected in Singapore, especially at the various SAF bases to show he was the founding father of the SAF.

Others you might want to see...

A tribute to Dr Goh Keng Swee (part 1/6) : http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ibzH-tZ3llg