1918 - 2010 Goh Keng Swee - People's Action Party - PAP

Eulogy by Mr Othman Wok
The partnership between Goh and Mr Lee began in London in 1949.
Caring, careful man
I
met Dr Goh Keng Swee for the
first time in early 1953. He was
then the Director of Social Welfare
and I was a journalist with the Malay
language daily newspaper, Utusan Melayu,
as well as the honorary secretary
of the Singapore Printing Employees’
Union.
Bluecollar workers at the Straits
Times Press were on strike because
the management had sacked a union
committee member working as a linotypist.
The strike had gone on for three
weeks and there was no sign of it ending.
The company was a powerful employer
during those days and the management
refused to negotiate with the
union.
One afternoon, Dr Goh came to the
union headquarters to enquire about
the situation.
I wondered why this man popped
out of the blue and went out of his way
to assist us. Later, I learnt that he was
always sympathetic towards the plight
6 PETIR MAY / JUNE 10
of workers and he wanted the strike
settled quickly.
Together with Mr Lee Kuan Yew,
then a lawyer, and Mr K.M. Byrne,
Head of the Civil Service, they met the
It took me almost two
years to convince Dr
Goh to finance the
National Stadium.
He was worried the
stadium would be
under-used, and the
$1 million spent
building it wasted.
management and ended the strike.
I did not meet Dr Goh again until
just before the May 1959 General Election,
when both of us were members of
the PAP committee planning strategies
sembly to defect. They formed the Barisan
Socialis. Then began a long tussle.
Goh Keng Swee was my closest confidante;
together with Raja we worked
out a way to defeat them, by winning a
referendum to join Malaya. They knew
that the Malaysian Special Branch
would be after them once merger came
into effect.
When we found ourselves trapped
in a Malay­dominated Malaysia, I led
the fight for a Malaysian Malaysia.
When the movement gathered massive
Malaysia­wide support from the
non­Malays in Peninsular Malaya, Sin­
to contest the election.
He stressed that Singapore should
change its direction from an entreport
port to a manufacturing country, not
only to survive but to also develop and
progress, and employ thousands of
workers who lost their jobs because of
the communist problems.
When the PAP won, the first thing
he did was look for a suitable site to
build factories. He chose Jurong, a
wasteland of jungle and swamp.
One day I received a phone call
from him. He sounded annoyed and
got straight to the point: “Tell your fire
brigade chief that the way he wants the
fire safety precautions to be installed
is costing investors a lot money and
time. I want to build as many factories
as possible quickly.” I spoke to the fire
brigade chief.
Some time in 1966, Dr Goh announced
at a Cabinet meeting: “I require
all able­bodied ministers and
MPs to join the People’s Defence
Force (PDF) to be trained as officers,