The End of an Era - Goodbye Dr Goh Keng Swee

(photo from CNA website)

Like so many Singaporeans, I was saddened to hear last Friday 14 May 2010 of the death of Dr Goh Keng Swee.  I have never met Dr Goh, but his policies and actions have surely shaped my life in so many ways. I was probably one of the first batches of Singaporeans to go through streaming in secondary school (ended up in the Express class), and of course encountered his legacy in the workplace, through dealing with agencies he created and through reading and hearing of his actions and practices from others. 

For that reason, I thought I would also join the crowds to pay my last respects to Dr Goh as he lay in state in Parliament House.  It was a hot day with the sun positively blazing down on us, but still the queue built up steadily.  It did move quite fast, with crowd control done by the SAF officers.  There were young school children, parents with their kids, older Singaporeans coming alone including a short, elderly lady with swollen legs which made it difficult for her to even walk (not to mention rather improbably dyed raven black hair).  We moved forward, signed the many condolence books, and walked forward to the coffin where he lay.  His widow was seated beside it.  I said a quick prayer and then it was over. 

As I left, I realised that the Old Guard of leaders was indeed slipping away.  Mr Rajaratnam, Mr Lim Kim San, and others, and nearer home amongst the MPs, Mr Ho See Beng.  One of my younger colleagues confessed that she was not familiar with what Dr Goh had done.  I was surprised as somehow, I thought that there had been so much written in recent years (eg MM's Memoirs, the recent book "Men in White" etc.  It is sad to think that the younger generation these days probably don't read the newspapers, or books of this nature and because of that take for granted the Singapore of today.

But when I was reading through the stories on Dr Goh in the papers over the past few days, it struck me that the first generation of leaders were perhaps far less distanced from the rest of us masses than their legacy makes them out to be.  The stories of Dr Goh sitting and drinking in the mess with his soldiers, and telling risque stories; and working out how to improve his golf, paint a far different picture (or maybe a more complete picture) than the analyst par excellence and the architect of the Singapore economy and the builder of its defences.  We owe him a tremendous debt.

Not sure how long this will stay up but here is link to channelnewsasia videos on Dr Goh.