The Star, 22 May 2010, by Seah Chiang Nee
He engineered Singapore’s industrialisation and overall economy, transforming the country from a squatter city into an affluent, modern city state. Ironically, few Singaporeans under 30 know much about him.
“Without him and a few passionate others, Mr Lee could not have made it,” is a general opinion of old-timers who lived through that period. Today, some Singaporeans are still speculating why the economic icon had left.
One blogger asked: “He seemed to have disappeared completely from Singapore for a quarter of a century. Does anyone know why?”
His exit happened during the People’s Action Party rejuvenation exercise, in which Lee replaced many of his old comrades with younger people, one of them his son. They were asked to leave but not all of them complied happily. Lee himself has remained outside the self-renewal process.
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To me the only unanswered question is :
IS DR GOH KENG SWEE THE TRUE FATHER OF MODERN SINGAPORE?
Who cares for the answers ??
you need to care for TODAY
not about YESTERDAY..
No food for three days and you will die..
No work for too long and you cannot survive in singapore.
You want to talk about old politicians??
you find some that are still alive and talk to them.
Do you know is still alive beside our great immortal MM Lee ??
THEY will have the answer
theoffsidecitizen 24 May 2010 To me the only unanswered question is :
IS DR GOH KENG SWEE THE TRUE FATHER OF MODERN SINGAPORE?
……………..
what will happenned if drGOHkengswee were to replace leekuanyew as prime minister? would you forsee singapoor present situation$ wor$t? would you forsee we lost our cpf$ $avin$ by law$?
do you hav a cpf $avin$ in your account?
do YOU think you would had a chance to ultilize @ all..would leekuanyew guranteed you a lifespan of after 62?
is the answers so important?
Rolando 24 May 2010 is the answers so important?
……………..
why? you hav a filipino maid with nothin to sweep? would you RESIGN and forfeit $100,000++ salary/month? (durin drGohkengswee era..it was only $10,000)
after drGOHkengswee and his more honest ministers RETIRED…leekuanyew immediateLEE raised his humongoose salaries by how many folds?
do you hav the answer?
@myviewsareevenBETTER Thanks You for your answers.
He was too honest,intellegent & at logger-head with head of familee, so he had no choice but to leave and was forgotten only to revive upon his death.
I heard this from someone…
LKY & 2 sons visited Dr Goh at our old airport, Kallang. Dr Goh asked the boys if they had flown in a helicpoter. Ans: No. So he took both the boys up in a helicopter around ,all this without asking LKY. Then was radioed to touch down asap. Once down lky gave a Dr Goh a mouthful, in front of everybody.
Maybe, maybe not.
To make myself at ease, i’ll just say Dr Goh left because he was ill.
‘Goh Keng Swee leaves behind some unanswered questions’
The answers are right before our eyes!
Dr Goh is too old at 65 to contribute but it is perfectly fine for LKY at 87 and Nathan at 85.
Now ask ourselves this, who is sitting on the throne ?
Now ask ourselves one more time, would Dr Goh respect a leader that still needs his papa to hold his hands ?
Let’s cut the pretence, it is a national shame.
Don’t take my word for it, ask around.
Yes, there are many doubts as to why Dr. Goh was asked to resign at the peak of his career.
Did he step on the toes of LKY and PM Lee, did his second marriage had to do with his retirement, did he contract an illness, if he was ill and was forced to resign, then, why PM Lee was not asked to resign when he contracted cancer?
I doubt the Govt would provide us answers, as recently they have resorted to act blur and secretive.
the interesting question that nobody has asked is why did LKY cry during Rajaratnam’s funeral and not during GKS’ funeral?
anyway GKS wont fit in with the current group of PAP fellas and LKY who has a different avatar altogether from previous decades.
In today’s politicial scene, GKS will probably fit in better with Reform Party than PAP.
@myviewsareevenBETTER
your questions are too cheem for my simple intellect.
But i know that you don;t need to be PM to be THE FATHER OF POST-INDEPENDANT INDIA;was that humble lowly GANDHI-JI?
Singapore is the only country in the world where Ministers with all sorts of names like MM, SM, Ministers without Porfolios are paid astronomical salaries for doing nothing and talking cock, day in day out, with the help of the national press.
How can a country progress when it is fed everyday with tons of shit coming from the ruling party and its lackeys (SPH)?
Now we are told that without Goh Keng Swee, Singapore will not be what it is today? Another load of shit.
So what is Singapore today? A country surviving on the reliance of nearly 2 million foreign labour from third world countries and on grossly inadequate infrastructures like transportation, hospitals, schools, and housing estates, all falling apart. Imagine MM as Nero, the Roman Emperor, playing the fiddle while watching Rome burnt to ashes.
Screw the PAP and its propaganda. Singapore will survive better without Goh Keng Swee and the PAP. What can be worse that the current situation. Everything is falling apart. What stands tall are lies and big lies coming out from this PAP propaganda machine that is keeping them in power and tearing the whole nation apart.
My take on GKS. He was with the Social Welfare Dept. as a civil servant an economist.WHY??? welfare of the people obviously isn’t it???pick Kreta Ayer and stayed for 25 years serving the poorest of the poor.
Left after finishing his mission to GOD & NATION, please read his epitaph it says clearly that he does not need more than necessary.
He helped lift our poor to a standard beyond expectations and felt good.He left a HOLY ORDER for others to climb further to heed the needs of the people especially the POOR.
Need I say MORE???
Woohoo! Another conspiracy theory. I was starting to think that the MSM story was boring. Yumyum New Paper material.
One blogger asked: “He seemed to have disappeared completely from Singapore for a quarter of a century.
He disappeared for so long that all along, I thought he was already dead for decades! If not for the news of his recent death, I thought he had died long ago.
If you watched ancient dynastic serial, when the emperor succeeded in stablizing his country, the first thing he would do is to kill his right hand men or asked them to retire. This is because he is worried that they have become very powerful over the years, and a possibility of revolting, meaning they also want to groom their own successors.
It is not a strange them that the batch of comrades were all renewed and GKS asked to step down and make way.
honestly, singapore is becoming very dynastic in its approach. if they would install another person from their family, then we should have 宫女和太监.
theoffsidecitizen 24 May 2010 @myviewsareevenBETTER
your questions are too cheem for my simple intellect.
But i know that you don;t need to be PM to be THE FATHER OF POST-INDEPENDANT INDIA;was that humble lowly GANDHI-JI?
…………………
too cheem or act blurred…
which indians ministers from leekuanyew’s era still in parliament in delhi? even gandhi know it time to step down after TWO terms…
hav you ever ate a chepati? i hav…
He did not disappear, he just leave the scene and retire into the mountains. This used to be so in ancient time when the royal subject lost the emperor’s favour.
Until and unless the members of his immediate family or his closest friends come out in the open to say something about his achievements and reasons why he left the political party, then everything else is just here say and speculations.How can you remove the skeletons when the closet door is still closed?
GOH KENG SWEE is a MAN of few WORDS but should it come forth its words of wisdom.
Having retired and not able to do anything besides what he had done and leaving a HOLY ORDER, I would think his parting shot after leaving when asked for an opinion would be;
“When you have nothing good to say,its best not SAID”
what else can it be if not for the young PRS bride and child and the goody goody image of miw those days.
what else can it be but because of different opinions on nepotism, cronism and biggest threat of “GREED”
You mean to say GKS does not see it all and left us for “good old china”
The cake that Dr Goh Keng Swee baked is not return to the people, All been swallow by the famiLEE.
Does any of you know that Seah Chiang Nee was at one time living in Serangoon Gardens. He has gone away sometime ago to write for the Star and has a big axe to grind!
Recently, he wrote about his inability to buy a house in Singapore. You can look at his articles under the Star newspaper. The rest I leave to you to judge.
preston loon 25 May 2010
Until and unless the members of his immediate family or his closest friends come out in the open to say something about his achievements
…………………..
ole you meant..drGOHkengswee family must blow his trumpets and explaint why he left for china..while leekuanyew’s famiLLEE need not? what achievement do you want drGOHkengswee to produce? the words in china from the peasants right to bejing heaveen square parliaments?
or you need a statue of drGOHkengswee in china to prove his weight in bronze perhaps? do you see any failures in drGOHkengswee projects in china? but i do see leekuanyew’s many failures in china startin from suzhouz…
preston ole boi..please for onced be a man..a BRAVEMAN go to cebu and china..see with your owned eyes..hear with your owned ears…don’t just drink kopi in grassroots office in angmokio..
it do you no good…
Can someone clarify a claim that both our MM and President Nathan worked for the Japanese during the occupation.Both have mentioned that they worked as translator. However I find that hard to digest, how could someone master Japanese so fast to be translators. Other reference indicate that they worked for the Kempetai. Is this true.
I also understand that Mr Goh’s daughter-in-law wrote a book on Mr Goh. Was this ever published.
Curious 25 May 2010
Can someone clarify a claim that both our MM and President Nathan worked for the Japanese during the occupation
………..
leekuanyew is the interpretor..nathan is the polismen wearin a nipponese uniform with a nipponese kap and a samurai sword in arm
only traitors work for the japanese during world war 2. go figure.
To kempataiagent
Holy God, the interpreter and the policeman story, is it true?
We have read about the two men working for the japanese during WW2 over the interenet, and thought they were heresay only.
Also, the show of favouring the Japanese after independence, has it got to do with their past with the Japanese Army during the war.
Here is the book written by Tan Siok Sun, Dr Goh’s daughter-in-law:
“Goh Keng Swee – A Portrait”
http://www.amazon.co.uk/Goh-Keng-Swee-Tan-Siok/dp/9814155829
This land belong to the king . Only king family can rule the land. The rest of the gang members are workers. They need to contended. When the days come they need to retire. It is up to king to decide whether to give a consultant post SM, Glc post CEO or just retire from the scene. This game only one winner which is the king family.
@popcorn
lky DID work for the japanese as a translator during the occupation. go read the singapore story.
all for survival i guess. but many would beg to differ.
not sure abt nathan tho’.
I believe if Dr Goh was to involve in politics, Singapore wouldn’t be in such a mess and employer wouldn’t be so unproductive by exploiting cheaper foreign labours across all sectors. I believe if he were to have more say in parliament, ministers salaries would not be so astronaumical and every cabinet ministers would have been a potential leader and not followers following blindly on one man – who tried to throw all other heros out of his sight. If Dr Goh was in politics and choose not to “retire”, for reason only Lees know, Singapore would have a very vocal person in parliament and bring the house to its senses of putting the citizen first before the pay of the ministers. I salute Dr Goh and he is considered the last hero in Singapore who left us. The rest have yet to prove their mettle – I am not hopeful looking at how over-populated and messy Singapore is becoming.
I feel relieved for him that he was well compensated for his service.
@PeterC 24 may 2010
what HOLY ORDER are you talking about.
come on,if politics is holy,you won;t be here singing such praises as if Dr Goh is a saint or a buddha or a petty god?
politics is dirty and only naive guys like you believe and think otherwise.
i am not saying that dr goh does not deserve adulation or honour but to make him sound like a saint,you must be out of your mind.
but to make him sound like a saint,you must be out of your mind.
……………………
maybe we should make leekuanyew the patriah saint..leehsienlong the trinity lord..and ho ching the mother teresa of finance instead…
so in your owned opinion which minister in singapore qualified to be a saint?
if your answer is NUN of them..how come leekuanyew is still a God in his circus?
preston loon
How can you remove the skeletons when the closet door is still closed?
………
in your owned ears/eyes anyone else other than lauLEE famiLLEE is not speculations and true facts perhaps?
so in order for you not to open any doors..you just migrate right?
what happenned to the democratic country oath? maybe you been livin/hybernatin in siberia for far too long perhaps?
so in your owned opinion which minister in singapore qualified to be a saint?
if your answer is NUN of them..how come leekuanyew is still a God in his circus?
—————————————–
YOU SEEM TO BE READING BUT NOT DIGESTING.
THE MAN SAYS “POLITICS IS DIRTY” BUT YOU INSIST ON ASKING HIM TO NAME A SAINT AMONG THE UN”HOLY”.
ARE YOU DAFT OR WHAT?
FBI 26 May 2010
YOU SEEM TO BE READING BUT NOT DIGESTING.
THE MAN SAYS “POLITICS IS DIRTY” BUT YOU INSIST ON ASKING HIM TO NAME A SAINT AMONG THE UN”HOLY”.
ARE YOU DAFT OR WHAT?
…………
i am neither daft nor DEAF…
so you two on behalf of chris and the grassroot committees cannot even produced 1 holy saint minister?
not even from techgheephuat grc tag team?
and yet YOU allowed all of THEM to be overpaid with YOUR cpf’s savin$
as peter C says…
if you hav NOTHIN to says..better no says @ all..let alone shoutin…
so onced again when leekuanyew command you to jump?
you would had replied…HOW HIGH tuan perhaps?
Reply to Kempataiagent,
You and i know who holds the key to that closet door.Let’s hope b4 he enters into eternity,he would use his fragile wrinkled hands to open for us to see once and for all.
@ chris;
If you had read my post in total with the underlying message than you will understand its true meaning.Likewise the eulogy by the grandson and remember the Epitaph:translated, I need no more than what i have or deserved.
Good day chris and if I am out of my mind others should be locked behind IMH.
@chris
One more thing i fail to mention,I am not promoting any religious order whatsoever but quoting what had been said by GKS and his principal beliefs.
No one is perfect and neither do I see him as a saint but such Man are a rare species and to “bask” in his presence as mentioned by the grandson is indeed an honor & privilege.
mosSADs
“I am not deaf nor DAFT…”
when did i said that you are deaf or DAFT…
you are so blur,pal.
i did not even have any exchange with you here before?????????
who are you referring to by the way? are you merely replying for the sake of some hidden agenda.
i was writing inresponse to kempataiagent and have never in anyway communicate with you,pal?
are you same person as kempataiagent actually?????
are you using different names to support your own points ???
by the way,what are you mumbling about,i don’t get anything logical from your ranting.
FBI & chris are one,where is the missing one to form the TRINITY??? Ha!ha!ha!
thanks TOC of having an avatar for each post.thats the way to catch a thief.
Moderating Editor: Credit goes to the WordPress layout…
FBI or whatever, you are right I am Citizen Reddot @ TR and PeterC @ TOC.That’s to accommodate the blog’s requirement.As for the others??? try harder my friend.You may be putting me in a kettle with others who may not share my post and thoughts.
Abuse???what abuse???if the Hat fits wear it.
preston loon 26 May 2010
Reply to Kempataiagent,
You and i know who holds the key to that closet door.Let’s hope b4 he enters into eternity,he would use his fragile wrinkled hands to open for us to see once and for all.
………………
for a start..tell him not to lock MY gateway too tight via isp.addr…
just because i cannot start my computerS not 1, but 2 mainframes…that doesn’t means i cannot login to rebute?
liked i said before.. i hav lots of computers in hands all over the island
and yes oleboi..if you think pap IT dirtytrick DEPARTMENT don’t exist..you are very very WRONG!!!… i hav dealt with the THAIS most highly intelligence department before when they were causin mayhem in 1 of our singapoorium RED cross volunteers..she cannot even login using so many computers (8 to be exact)
without protectin her bios bootup…
her homelines was tapped and redirected to bangkock… and the thai intelligence captain think he can control her laptops via implantin/repartition a virtual 340meg hidden harddrive without me knowin..he was WRONG!!! i tracked it..i redelete that virtual partition as well…
ole well..tonight i hav to reformat my harddrives again…
IMO, GKS retired and ‘disappeared’ because the chief advisor Dr Albert Winsemius retired as advisor to Singapore one year earlier.
Since he didn’t have any good advisors left. And knowing the rest of MIW are LKY’s Yes-Men, why should he stay?
he himself said was given by his PM son, as it looks more and more suspiciously by his character that it was more likely he “told” his son to give him the “name”! Simply because his Pm son didn’t even have the chance to said it?
A “mentor” indeed? For “mentoring” other much bigger nation’s leaders paid by Singaporeans! Oh I forgot that he once said that the govt reserves were build by the pap as govt! Did he not!
Sorly, was our most revered real People’s President the late Mr Ong also ….. erm….. u know i dunno.
Note the fact that LKY did not shed tears or appear terribly emotional at GKS’s funeral service. It’s notable especially when you consider that GKS was supposed to be his main deputy and closest minister.