In your opinion, who contributed more to Singapore’s progress, explain your answer?

In my opinion, Dr Goh Keng Swee contributed more to Singapore’s progress. Without him, Jurong would not have become an industrial estate and there will be mass unemployment, starvation and riots just like what Foreign Minister S.Rajaratnam said in 1968.But now it offers incentives to local and foreign business to locate there and jobs for people. If he had not make National Service compulsory, Singapore then would not be able to defend itself and may not survive untill now. If he had not pushed for the forming of the Singapore Symphony Orchestra , there would be no orchestra in Singapore. He also greatly influenced the development of Singapore's education system and introduced streaming in schools. If he had not set up Singapore Zooological Garden, the Jurong Bird Park, an 18-hole golf course in Jurong and Sentosa Golf Course, we would not have a sanctuary for us to unwind and relax and increase the number of tourists that come to Singapore. If he had not warned the Singapore Manufacturers’ Association that the “unthinking and unenlightened employer who pushes his labour force around” would be dealt with severly by the government and initiated a movement that improved workers’ lives -cooperatives- during a seminar in 1969. Formed NTUC Income, a cooperative insurance society, formed in 1970. After that came Comfort, a cooperative to organise the rag-tag band of taxi drivers, strikes would have taken place and this would then hamper Singapore’s march to progress and prosperity. If had not initiated the setting up of the Economic Development Board which was established in August 1961, foreign multinational corporations would not have been attracted to invest in Singapore and Singapore would be still a 3rd world country and not a 1st world country today. All of these things that he had done for Singapore make me feel thathe contributed more to Singapore than Mr S.Rajaratnam. However, i feel that both of them contributed a lot and led Singapore to what it is today.

What he did for Singapore?

2nd Deputy Prime Minister of Singapore: In office: 1 March 1973 – 3 December 1984

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
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

•Singapore’s finances were in a mess when Dr Goh took over as Finance Minister. He instituted reforms to strengthen Singapore’s financial position and cut the pay of civil servants, including parliamentary secretaries and ministers.
Coupled with stringent economy in government spending, he was able to announce by September that instead of a budget deficit of $14million, Singapore had a surplus of $1million.

•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.

•It was the work of Dr Goh and his team that led to the creation of Jurong, an industrial estate literally hacked out of swamp and jungle. About 8600 acres of land were drained, levelled and developed over 10 years. Foreign Minister S.Rajaratnam said in 1968 that “if there were no Jurong today we might have instead mass unemployment, starvation and riots”. It now offers incentives to local and foreign business to locate there.

•Both Singapore Zooological Garden and the Jurong Bird Park was set up by Dr Goh to attract tourists and as a sanctuary for people to unwind and relax.

•He also setting up an 18-hole golf course in Jurong and Sentosa Golf Course to draw tourists.

•He was also the man who pushed for the forming of the Singapore Symphony Orchestra, and introduced National Service and streaming in schools.

•He was instrumental in creating Singapore’s army. He was Minister for Defence since the time Singapore left Malaysia in 1965. He created a modern army, set up the People’s Defence Force of civilian volunteers and started the compulsory National Service.

•As early as 1968, he announced an exercise to take the education system in a new direction. The 1979 Dr Goh Report led to a major overhaul of primary and secondary schooling in Singapore, and introduced streaming.

•In 1969 , he warned the Singapore Manufacturers’ Association that the “unthinking and unenlightened employer who pushes his labour force around” would be dealt with severly by the government.

•He also initiated a movement that improved workers’ lives -cooperatives- during a seminar in 1969. NTUC Income, a cooperative insurance society, was formed in 1970. After that came Comfort, a cooperative to organise the rag-tag band of taxi drivers.

•This would prevent strikes from taking place which would then hamper Singapore’s march to progress and prosperity.

•He provided jobs for people, encourage capitalism and private enterprise.

Dr Goh Keng Swee

Dr Goh Keng Swee (6 October 1918 – 14 May 2010) was borned in Malacca into a middle-income Peranakan family, the fifth of six children.
He studied in Anglo-Chinese Primary School and later the Anglo-Chinese Secondary School between 1927 and 1936 where he was second in his class in the Senior Cambridge Examinations, he then went on to graduate from Raffles College in 1939 with a Class II Diploma in Arts with a special distinction in economics.



•He married Alice Woon(1st wife from 1942–1986 then later Dr. Phua Swee Liang from1991) a secretary who was a colleague, in 1942 and they had their only child, Goh Kian Chee, two years later. In 1945 he relocated his young family to Malacca, but they returned to Singapore the following year after the Japanese occupation ended. That year, he joined the Department of Social Welfare, and was active in post-war administration. He became supervisor of the Department's Research Section six months later.
•He won a scholarship which enabled him to further his studies at the London School of Economics and Political Science (LSE). During his time in London, He met fellow students seeking independence for British Malaya, including Abdul Razak (later Malaysia's second Prime Minister), Maurice Baker (subsequently Singapore's High Commissioner to Malaysia), Lee Kuan Yew and Toh Chin Chye. A student discussion group, the Malayan Forum, was organized in 1948 with him as the founding chairman. He graduated with first class honours in economics in 1951, and won the William Farr Prize for achieving the highest marks in statistics. Upon his return to the Department of Social Welfare, he was appointed assistant secretary of its Research Section. In 1952, together with fellow civil servant Kenneth M. Byrne, he formed the Council of Joint Action to lobby against salary and promotion policies that favoured Caucasians over Asians.
•In 1954, he was able to return to LSE for doctoral studies with the help of a University of London scholarship. He completed his Ph.D. in Economics in 1956, and returned to the Department of Social Welfare, where he served as Assistant Director and then Director. In 1958 he was made Director of the Social and Economic Research Division in the Chief Minister's Office. He resigned from the civil service in August that year to work full-time for the People's Action Party (PAP).

What he did for Singapore?

•In 1954, S.Rajaratnam cofounded the People's Action Party together with Lee Kuan Yew, Goh Keng Swee and others. He thought of a multiracial 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. Rajaratnam is remembered for writing the Singapore National Pledge in 1966.
•He was Singapore's first foreign minister, following its abrupt independence in 1965. During his tenure as foreign minister, he 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-assertion to 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.
•During his term as 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 People's Action Party governments that radically improved Singapore's economic situation, alongside huge developments in social development on the island with massive expansion of healthcare programmes, pensions, state housing and extremely low unemployment.

S. Rajaratnam

S. Rajaratnam(25 February 1915 – 22 February 2006) was born in Vattukottai, Jaffna, Sri Lanka for auspicious reasons after the premature death of his older brother. He was then brought back to Malaya and raised in Seremban and Selangor.He studied in Convent of the Holy Infant Jesus, St Paul's boys' school, Victoria Institution in Kuala Lumpur, and later in Raffles Institution in Singapore. In 1937, he went to King's College London to pursue a law degree.
Due to World War II, he was unable to receive funding from his family to continue his studies. So,he turned to journalism to earn a living. 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.