May 16, 2010
His work was his passion
The late Goh Keng Swee's brilliance showed even when he was a child
A rare family portrait taken just after the Japanese Occupation showing (clockwise from top) Dr Goh's father Goh Leng Inn, Dr Goh, his first wife Alice, son Kian Chee, sister Ida and niece Lillian. --PHOTO: COURTESY OF TAN SIOK SUN
It was clear from the beginning that Dr Goh Keng Swee was destined to be a great man.
The first to notice his potential was his father, the late Mr Goh Leng Inn, an assistant manager at a rubber plantation here.
The younger Goh was only in his teens when his father remarked: 'One day, my son will be the saviour of Singapore.'
He said this to the late Mr Lim Kim San - a childhood friend of Dr Goh's. Indeed, both went on to become first-generation leaders of Singapore.
That was in the 1930s, in the days of the economic depression, when the younger Goh often discussed economics with his father.
Born on Oct 6, 1918, into a middle-income Peranakan family in Malacca, Dr Goh was the fifth of six children. When he was two, the family moved to Singapore, where his maternal grandparents owned several properties.
The family initially lived in one of these - a terrace house in Geylang. According to a book by daughter-in-law Tan Siok Sun titled Goh Keng Swee - A Portrait, Dr Goh's earliest childhood memory of that home was of him savouring a banana while sitting on the five-foot way in front of the house.
Although his mother was not well-educated and spent most of her time cooking, Dr Goh's father - who had an earlier job as a teacher at the Anglo-Chinese School - believed in educating his children.
The Goh siblings attended Anglo-Chinese Primary School in Coleman Street. Two elder sisters, Ida and Dawn, later became English teachers. They instilled a lifelong love for reading in him. They often read to him before bedtime.
As life on the Pasir Panjang rubber plantation, where they moved to, was lonely, he would read and re-read his father's books.
By the time he entered school, the young Goh had no problems coping. He topped his first year at primary school and was allowed to skip an entire grade.
He later attended Anglo-Chinese Secondary School, where he was always in the top class. His favourite subject was mathematics, particularly algebra and geometry.
It was in ACS that he began expressing himself through his writings. As Ms Tan noted in the book:
'By the time the young GKS had begun his journey into young adulthood, he was already armed with a healthy respect for good writing, and had acquired from his father and older sisters, a remarkable vocabulary and a mastery of the English prose.'
He finished second in school in the Senior Cambridge examination, scoring distinctions in English language, literature and geography.
His results were good enough to qualify him for a Queen's Scholarship - and the opportunity of a sponsored education in England - but he opted for Raffles College in Bukit Timah instead.
Apparently, the decision had to do with the toll the Great Depression had on the family finances.
Baffled by the downturn, he made economics his major.
In college, after the death of his Canadian lecturer Ralph Arakie, he would study economics on his own, reading tomes by Alfred Marshall and John Maynard Keynes from cover to cover.
Raffles College was also where he made good friends, among them, the late Mr Lim Kim San and Mr Eu Chooi Yip, who would later become a senior cadre of the Malayan Communist Party.
He graduated from the college in 1939 with a diploma in Arts and joined the War Tax Department as a tax collector soon after.
He was not a very good tax collector, according to his colonial bosses, and was almost sacked. It was there that Dr Goh met and fell in love with his first wife, Madam Alice Woon.
They dated for several years and married in 1942 during the Japanese Occupation. Their 'honeymoon' consisted of a hurried ride around the Esplanade in a borrowed car.
Their only child, Kian Chee, was born in 1944 on the eve of Chinese New Year. In 1968, Mr Goh Kian Chee married Ms Jennie Chua, who is now chief corporate officer at CapitaLand.
Their son, Ken-Yi, who was born in 1972, instantly became the apple of his grandfather's eye.
'He never failed to be amused by each and every facial expression of his grandson. He was keen on photography and Ken-Yi soon became the more-than-willing subject of GKS's lifelong hobby,' Ms Tan noted.
Dr Goh would get another grandson, Shaoyi, 17 years later. This was from Mr Goh Kian Chee's second marriage to Ms Tan, who authored a book on her father-in-law.
Dr Goh's own marriage to Madam Woon lasted for more than four decades. But they went their separate ways in 1986.
Then in 1991, at age 73, he married an Education Ministry colleague, Dr Phua Swee Liang.
His retirement and his remarriage gave him a second lease of life. They travelled widely, to Thailand, Australia and China, among other countries.
In a booklet that Dr Phua published in 2008 after she set up the Goh Keng Swee Foundation, she described her husband as humble, magnanimous and frugal.
She disclosed how he wore a Casio digital watch for years. If the strap broke, he would replace it with a rubber band.
Yet he would not think twice about donating $5,000 to a hospice which sought funds to buy an electronic wheelchair for a patient.
Even in his later years, he remained ever chivalrous: 'Whenever he was warded, he would never forget to order an extra meal for me. When his food was served, he would not start on his until the nurse brought in my food tray.'
And he enjoyed books and documentaries. Documentaries on animals were his favourite, said his sister-in-law, Madam Phua Soh Lian.
Indeed, it was Dr Goh's idea to start the Jurong BirdPark. He was inspired by a free-flight aviary he visited in Rio de Janeiro and envisioned a similar attraction here, where people could escape the hustle and bustle of city life.
The Underwater World in Sentosa was also his brainchild. Impressed by one he visited in the Bahamas, he rang the Sentosa Development Corporation to convince them to start one here.
Music was his other passion, particularly classical music. It was thus no surprise that he initiated the idea of the Singapore Symphony Orchestra.
But his biggest passion was undoubtedly his work.
'You know, as a Minister, your work is your life. Even when you are not working at the desk, you are still thinking of your work. You've got no other life outside your work. But really, there's no other interests outside your work,' Dr Goh was quoted as saying in Ms Tan's book.
'Such other pursuits that you undertake, such as exercise, golfing, is really to make you more fit to work. Even listening to music is just to clear your mind so that you can address your mind to work problems more effectively. So we just get encapsulated in this business.'
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