Goh Keng Swee On China

Touted as one of the main engineers of Singapore''s economic growth, Dr Goh''s collection of writings and speeches seek to shed light on the various challenges that China faced in the early 90s. His arguments and analyses were presented clearly and concisely while being firmly established upon economic principles. Covering a broad range of topics from the growth of industries and enterprises to financial reforms and the difficulties of doing business in China, this collection provides a comprehensive view of problems the Chinese government faced while providing possible solutions. Despite being written two decades ago, the issues raised in these papers and speeches are uncannily relevant to the issues that the current Chinese government faces today.

Dr. Goh Keng Swee's extensive career as a public servant was dynamic as well as distinguished, in many ways decisively instrumental in the making of the Republic of Singapore. This distinctive collection of essays attempts an assessment of the long-term influence and significance of Dr. Goh's major contributions. Commissioned as a companion volume to Goh Keng Swee: A Public Career Remembered, this volume brings together an exceptional team of Singaporean scholars whose interdisciplinary expertise and cross-generational perspectives offer a balanced analysis and nuanced appraisal of Dr. Goh's lifetime of public service. The book's contributors argue that Dr. Goh's past endeavours bequeathed an enduring legacy, meriting fresh examination and careful evaluation in order to appreciate the heroic scale of such achievement. Particularly instructive are the examples of Dr. Goh's thinking patriotism, fiscal prudence, strategic pragmatism, and creative imagination at work technocracy at its finest which could be of immediate, practical benefit to a wider 'nation of technocrats'. Further illumination comes from the insights of those contributors who had worked with the former Deputy Prime Minister and knew him personally. For a half-century that witnessed key turning points and phases of development in Singapore's transformation from colonial port city to independent global city, Dr. Goh played a leading role in the crafting and conduct of public policy, as with the creation of public institutions, which made the difference between survival and success. Goh Keng Swee: A Legacy of Public Service will be read by present and future generations of public servants, by Singaporeans in general, and by all students and laypersons with an interest in the modern history of Singapore social, economic, political, military, and cultural to which a characteristically simple and frugal Dr. Goh contributed both decisively and unreservedly. The organization of this volume reflects both a thematic approach and a chronological arrangement of material, the focus and the order of chapters corresponding to the historical sequence of public offices that Dr. Goh held: social welfare; political and constitutional evolution; development economics and finance; the armed forces and defence industry; the education system, from schools through higher education to the research institutes; Chinese studies, from Confucianism to 'China watching'; and cultural development, with special emphasis on the creation of the Singapore Symphony Orchestra.

Born in Malacca in 1918, Dr Goh Keng Swee reached maturity at a time when European colonialism was breathing its last. By the time this keen-eyed Malayan Became self-governing Singapore's first Minister of Finance in 1959, he had made a name for himself s the colony's foremost social scientist, having carried out groundbreaking surveys on urban poverty and housing. He immediately initiated pioneering projects that laid the ground for the island's economic success. When Singapore separated from Malaysia in 1965, Dr Goh took charge of building an army from scratch.

Dr Goh Keng Swee was Singapore's first Minister for Finance from 1959 to 1965 who initiated Singapore's first industrial estate now known as Jurong Town. He was also the first and longest serving Defence Minister after Singapore became independent in 1965, responsible for building up the Singapore Armed Forces from scratch. Later he became Minister for Education in 1981 and revamped the education system to what it is today. Dr Goh was also concurrently Deputy Prime Minister from 1973 to 1984 during which time he set up the Monetary Authority of Singapore. While Dr Goh's public career and achievements are well documented in press reports and archival records as well as in photographs and speeches, what is missing is an insight and exposition of Dr Goh as an individual in his various roles. "Goh Keng Swee: A Public Career Remembered" seeks to provide this missing dimension of Dr Goh as a person to work for. Thirty-eight persons who had the opportunity of closely observing or working with Dr Goh have contributed their reflections and recollections of Dr Goh as a person, colleague and ?boss?, to this book. They have given candid and personal pen portraits of an unusual leader and minister, revealing a glimpse of the working habits of Dr Goh not known to most people. Drawn from oral histories and recent interviews, these reminiscences have been chronologically arranged, from those who recalled what it was like to work alongside Dr Goh on the Malayan Forum in London in the early 1950s, through his various ministerial positions, to travelling with Dr Goh after he ?retired? from politics in 1984. What emerges from these anecdotes of Dr Goh is that he could be an extremely demanding ?boss?, who could also be very supportive of his subordinates. They show him to be a person with a very inquisitive and creative mind capable of making great leaps of lateral thinking, able to connect disparate ideas and data to propose new and innovative solutions to intractable policy problems. He was truly a Singaporean for all seasons. Foreword Foreword (116 KB)Contents: Foreword by "President S R Nathan"AcknowledgementsRemembering Dr Goh Keng Swee (1918?2010) "(by Kwa Chong Guan)"Dr Goh Keng Swee: Public Service Timeline"Section 1: Goh Keng Swee as a Politician: "Hon Sui SenOthman WokPathmanaban SelvaduraiOthman Haron EusofeMaurice BakerHedwig Elizabeth AnuarBernard Chen"Section 2: Goh Keng Swee as a Civil Servant: The Social Welfare Department Years: "George Edwin BogaarsChia Cheong FookAnn Elizabeth Wee"Section 3: Goh Keng Swee as the Economic Architect of Singapore: "Othman WokLim Kim SanAlbert WinsemiusS Chandra DasHwang Peng YuanJames Koh Cher SiangPhilip YeoRichard HuNgiam Tong DowJoseph Yuvaraj PillayTeh Kok PengS DhanabalanOthman Haron Eusofe"Section 4: Goh Keng Swee as Defence Minister: "Othman WokCheong Quee WahLim Siong GuanPhilip YeoWinston Choo Wee LeongKirpa Ram VijRamachandran MenonGoh Lye ChoonJohn MorriceLai Chun LoongLee Onn PongNgiam Tong DowChan Chik WengChia Cheong FookEddie Teo"Section 5: Goh Keng Swee as Education Minister: "Eugene WijeysinghaRobert BalhetchetAng Wai HoongLim Siong Guan"Section 6: Goh Keng Swee's Contributions to Cultu

A crucial founding father of independent Singapore, Dr Goh Keng Swee has his distinguished and unparalleled stint in public service hitherto reduced to dates and designations. The book is the first to collect and present a broad range of historical material commemorating Dr Goh's public career. This book is not a biography of Dr Goh's life. Instead, it commemorates his public career and attempts to portray a more personal and candid perspective of the principal architect of independent Singapore. This is done by pulling together a variety of historical sources, ranging from Dr Goh's public statements and speeches, and existing and fresh oral interviews with his former colleagues to archival documents and imagery. This book is an important contribution not only to Singapore's history in general, providing valuable historical context to the challenges of ensuring the sustainability and survival of a young nation at the highest levels of policy-making, but also a tribute to Dr Goh — how he is remembered, respected and revered by some of his closest peers and colleagues.

"This book record achievements of the East Asian Institute (EAI), one of the top five think tanks in the world under the leadership of Dr Goh Keng Swee, Professors Wang Gungwu, John Wong and Zheng Yongnian. The hard work behind the nurturing of this institute is sometimes invisible, unwritten and under-appreciated but the contributions and results are clear and relevant to the scholarly world. The works of EAI's originating guardians as well as the future endeavours of its current directorship thus need to be chronicled for future generations of scholars to learn from this intellectual experience of managing an institution as complex as EAI. The detailed historiography of EAI in this publication represents the multiple histories of EAI, China's developmental path since the initiation of market reforms as well as Singapore's collaborative interface with China's development."--Provided by publisher.

"The problems concomitant with economic development are basically the same in every country, but the ways of addressing them vary. Singapore, well-known for its economic success, has approached such problems with incisiveness, resolve, and integrity. In his speeches and writings, Dr. Goh Keng Swee gives a clear insight into Singapore's economic miracle and shows his profound understanding of the workings of other East Asian economies." "This compilation reflects the process of industrialisation and the birth of a successful economy. For the older generation, this book traces the struggle of the early years. For the younger generation, it serves as a record of the past, and a blueprint for the future." "This reissue also includes a new foreword by Professor Wang Gungwu (East Asian Institute, Singapore)."--BOOK JACKET.

Lee Kuan Yew through the Eyes of Chinese Scholars is a compilation of essays by highly-respected Chinese scholars in which they evaluate the life, work and philosophy of Lee Kuan Yew, founding Prime Minister of Singapore. Presenting a range of views from a uniquely Chinese/Asian perspective, this book provides valuable insights for those who wish to gain a fuller and deeper understanding of Lee Kuan Yew — the man, as well as Singapore — his nation. Marking the momentous event of his death as well as the 50th anniversary of Singapore's independence in 2015, this compilation reflects both the high regard in which Lee Kuan Yew is held across the Chinese-speaking world as well as the reservations of a few. The contributors are all ethnic Chinese from different academic disciplines ranging from a Nobel laureate in physics, Chen-Ning Yang, to historians, economists and political scientists. They include Singaporeans such as Wang Gungwu and Chew Cheng Hai, as well as scholars from China, the US and Hong Kong such as Yongnian Zheng, Ying-Shih Yu, Lawrence Lau and Hang-Chi Lam among others. Originally published in Chinese, this English translation makes the material accessible to a wider English-reading audience.