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).