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Many tributes were bestowed on Dr Goh
Keng Swee, one of Singapore’s founding fathers, when he
passed away at the age of 91 on 14 May 2010 after a long
illness. He was truly an exceptional leader, visionary,
reformer and entrepreneur, and without a doubt,
Singapore would not be the thriving country it is today
without him.
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Goh had his early education in ACS, where he
excelled academically in the Primary and
Secondary classes. Little was recorded of his
time in ACS but I remember he was among the
pioneering batch of ACS cricketers.
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It all started in 1935 when Mr T. W. Hinch, the
Principal of Anglo-Chinese Secondary School commissioned
Mr Lee Choon Eng, a senior member of the teaching staff,
to introduce the very English game of cricket in the
school. In turn, Mr. Lee obtained the voluntary services
of my father, Mr Evan Wong, to coach the boys in
cricket. I was among the boys who
formed the nucleus of the first ACS cricket teams that
included Goh Keng Swee, Ong Swee Keng, Ong Swee
Law (former ACS OBA President, 1967-69), Solakan Singh,
Ram Singh, Eugene Bong, Chen Jan Jee (former ACS OBA
President, 1955-57), Paramsaweram, Ong Kim Hoe and Fong
Kim Wah.
ACS in the mid-30s was ranked number
four amongst the top secondary schools in Singapore,
behind Raffles Institution, St. Andrew’s School and St.
Joseph’s Institution in terms of facilities. We did not
have a playing field of our own then, and our net
practices were held at the YMCA Bras Basah tennis
complex under the watchful eye of my father.
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The ACS Cricket Team in
1936
Seated (from
left): Lim Kok Ann, Chen Jan Jee,
Mr. T. W. Hinch,
Paramswaram (Captain), Swee Lim Swang
Standing
(from left): Seah Yeak Khiam,
Kanageretnam, Goh Chin Chye,
Cecil Wong , Mr Chan Siew Jiang, [unidentified],
[unidentified], Balasingham |
The YMCA incidentally also kindly set
aside periods for the ACS school boys in Coleman Street
to use their swimming pool at the top of Fort’s Canning
Rise. From these beginnings, the ACS cricket and
swimming teams went on to greater heights in achieving
success in inter-schools competition and national
representation.
Later in his life, Dr Goh became a
good golfer with a competitive single figure handicap
when representing the Royal Island Club and the ACS Old
Boys.
In 1941, Dr Goh was admitted to
Raffles College to read economics.
He was such a brilliant student that he was offered a
job to be a lecturer in Economics on graduation. I was
among his students in his first year as lecturer, and so
was Mr Lee Kuan Yew.
After the war, Dr Goh went to England
to pursue his interest in Economics at the London School
of Economics and Political Science (LSE). During his
spell in London, a group of students from Singapore and
Malaya started Malaya Hall, a place where they could
meet. Dr Goh, Ong Swee Keng, Lee Kuan Yew and I were
among the group, which also included other former
Raffles College colleagues from Malaya, notably Abdul
Razak, Maurice Baker and Raja Azlan. Dr Goh graduated
with first class honours
in Economics in 1951 and subsequently returned to LSE
where he obtained his Ph.D in Economics in 1956.
Dr Goh was Singapore’s first Minister
of Finance under the government of Mr. Lee Kuan Yew in
1959, and the nation’s first Minister for the Interior
and Defence when Singapore became an independent state
in 1965. Besides being the Deputy Prime Minister
(1973-1984), he served in several ministries during his
political career in Finance (1967-1970), Defence
(1970-1979) and Education (1979-1984).
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