This article was first published 9 Aug 2015, written by Imran bin Tajudeen. See the archived version here.
“So the secession of Singapore was well planned by you and Tun Razak! It was not foisted on Singapore!”
“No it was not.”
– Dr Goh Keng Swee’s reply to an interview question with Melanie Chew, 1996, before he fell into a long silence, thumbed through the secret files he named ‘Albatross’ in his possession, and finally closed it, never to re-open it again in this conversation or in any subsequent public ones.
Jurong Town Hall – under construction in 1971 (inset) and today. It was the result of a competition in 1968, won by the architecture firm, Architects Team 3.
Since 1996 an extremely important voice – none other than Dr Goh Keng Swee’s, Singapore’s Minister of Finance (1959-1965, 1967-1970) – has overturned the story we tell ourselves about 9 August 1965. It is contained in a book written by Dr Melanie Chew (1996). But few of us take note of his important testimony. We may cite two examples:
— An Infopedia article on Dr Goh Keng Swee, written in 2010 (Tien and Chew 2010), does not mention Dr Goh’s role in negotiating the Separation with Malaysian colleagues and its record in the secret files in his possession, even though Chew’s 1996 work is listed in its bibliography. (UPDATE: if you check again today, the Infopedia entry states that it has been updated in 2016, but it still does not refer to the Albatross files).
— A Straits Times article from Apr 20 2015 (Ng 2015) reveals the Albatross files and the gist of the information Dr Goh had disclosed to Melanie Chew, but the explanation is all too brief.
The notion that the announcement of Singapore’s expulsion from the Federation of Malaysia on 9 August 1965 came as a shock is a myth perpetuated by others – except Dr Goh himself, who provides us with the exact opposite story. He shows that it was planned for, and desired for economic reasons.
Business as usual: 3rd April 1965, just months before the separation: With the Malaysian Prime Minister Tunku Abdul Rahman in attendance, Singapore’s Minister of Finance Dr Goh Keng Swee delivers a speech at opening of Bridgestone Malaysia Co. Ltd in Jurong Industrial Estate. This company was a joint venture between Bridgestone Tire Co. Ltd of Japan and Pan-Malaysian Cement Works Ltd – it was the first tyre factory in Singapore and financed on a 50-50 basis by Japanese and Malaysian businessmen. Source: National Archives of Singapore.
Working behind the scenes in projects such as Jurong since 1962, Dr Goh Keng Swee had a vision of a Singapore economy in industrialisation and manufacturing that had been initiated before Singapore joined Malaysia, and this was a vision that sustained Singapore after the Separation/ Secession and well beyond it. In fact, as we shall see, it was a plan that was actually thwarted during the Merger era.
From Dr Goh’s speeches we note that things did not go well when the newly elected PAP government stepped into office on 3 June 1959, the same day the Singapore Constitution, crafted for several years before this by the previous Labour Front government under David Marshall and Lim Yew Hock, came into force. Investors were leaving. Dr Goh noted in 1969:
“When my [PAP] government first assumed office on June 3rd 1959…..businessmen and industrialists, far from hailing this event as a happy augury for the future, felt for the most part that the end of the world was around the corner. The stock market collapsed and there was a flight of capital out of Singapore. Several people fled the country. [But] In a short space of ten years, we brought about a transformation of the business climate.”
– Dr Goh Keng Swee, at the combined annual dinner of the Singapore Manufacturer’s Association and the 9th Pioneer certificate presentation ceremony held at ‘Tropicana’ on Friday, 13th June 1969. Source: Ministry of Culture, Microfilm No. NA 1250. Quoted in Khoo (2010).
Some people might point out that Dr Goh probably owes at least part of his success as Minister for Finance to the advice of Dr Albert Winsemius, a UN economic advisor for the industrialisation program who first came to Singapore in 1960. While this is true, we should note the following anecdote that gives proof of Dr Goh’s independent initiative and capability just before Dr Winsemius appeared on the scene. Upon assuming office in June 3 1959, as noted above, there was no confidence in the new PAP government or in Singapore’s economy, and investments dissipated – but by the end of the year Dr Goh “had turned a $14 million deficit forecast into a $1 million surplus” (Ng 2015). The story of surplus has been something we have taken for granted, but in 1959 this would have hardly been an easy task. (It should be noted, however, that Singapore in 1959 apparently had $300 million in reserves (Lee 2010) – inherited no doubt from the previous Labour Front government).
Dr Goh had taken up the task of developing facilities to ensure Singapore’s economic viability and survival even before Singapore joined Malaya to form Malaysia in 1963 and certainly before it separated from Malaysia on 9 August 1965.
In fact Dr Goh revealed in an interview in 1996 with Melanie Chew the following (transcript reproduced in Kwa 2010):
Melanie Chew: When did you feel that Malaysia was going to break up? Was it a surprise to you?
Dr Goh: Now I am going to let you into what has been a state secret up to now. This is a file, which I call Albatross. In the early days there were a lot of discussions about changing the terms of Malaysia by the Prime Minister, Rajaratnam, and Toh Chin Chye. It got nowhere. They discussed all types of projects. Was Singapore to be part of Malaysia, but with special powers, or with no connection with Malaysia?
Now on the 20th of July 1965, I met Tun Razak and Dr Ismail. Now this is the 20th July 1965. I persuaded him that the only way out was for Singapore to secede, completely.
(reading) “It should be done quickly, and before we get more involved in the Solidarity Convention.” As you know, Rajaratnam and Toh Chin Chye were involved in the Solidarity Convention. “Malaysia for the Malaysians,” that was the cry, right?
Melanie Chew: This Solidarity Convention, you felt, would be very dangerous?
Dr Goh: No, not dangerous. I said, “You want to get Singapore out, and it must be done very quickly. And very quietly, and presented as a fait accompli.” It must be kept away from the British. The British had their own policy. They wanted us to be inside Malaysia. And, they would have never agreed to Singapore leaving Malaysia. Now, the details, I won’t discuss with you.
The above testimony, so briefly and tersely presented to us by Dr Goh, has immense significance in our understanding of how and why Separation or Secession occurred. It still remains beyond popular consciousness. Returning to the transcript:
Melanie Chew: How did Tun Razak and Dr Ismail react?
Dr Goh: Oh, they themselves were in agreement with the idea [of Dr Goh’s proposal to get Singapore out quickly]. In fact, they had themselves come to the conclusion that Singapore must get out. The question was, how to get Singapore out?
Melanie Chew: So the secession of Singapore was well planned by you and Tun Razak! It was not foisted on Singapore!
Dr Goh: No, it was not.
(There followed a long silence during which he slowly leafed through the secret file, Albatross. Then he shut the file, and resumed his narrative.)
Now then, independence. The first thing an independent state must have is a defence force …
Dr Goh’s instrumental role
Dr Goh Keng Swee’s testimony and his secret files which he named “Albatross” have yet to be studied independently. Lee Kuan Yew acknowledged in his memoirs The Singapore Story that Dr Goh gave him “permission to read his oral history recorded in 1980-81” (Lee 1998: 633) – we do not know the extent to which this reflects the files in the “Albatross” collection. However, Lee Kuan Yew’s The Singapore Story records Dr Goh’s instrumental role in the secret negotiations with Malaysian ministers and reveals that Dr Goh indeed did not press Tun Razak for “a looser rearrangement (between Singapore and Malaysia, rather than complete separation) as I had asked him to” – in other words, this corroborates Dr Goh’s own statement that he had facilitated the decision for Singapore to secede rather than remain in a modified looser confederation with Malaysia as Lee Kuan Yew would have preferred.
Dr Goh is thus the person instrumental in facilitating the secession of Singapore from Malaysia.
A standoff between Finance Ministers and two political parties
There is reason to suggest that a standoff between the two Finance Ministers of Singapore and Malaysia – Dr Goh and Tan Siew Sin (both, incidentally, hailing from Melaka [and according to one source, were cousins]) – was among the difficulties that spelled disaster for Dr Goh’s envisioned industrialisation program for Singapore, and hence factored in his economic calculations to see a future in separation. Dr Goh was instrumental in the setting up of the Economic Development Board (EDB) in 1961 and Jurong Industrial Estate in 1962 – both moves were made before merger. These were to face difficulties during the merger.
Janadas Devan, Director of the Institute of Policy Studies (IPS) and son of the former minister Devan Nair, in a speech on 26 Jan 2015 for the IPS Singapore Perspectives 2015 seminar (excerpts published in the Straits Times 28 Jan), reveals the following:
“Dr Goh Keng Swee recounts in his Oral History a conversation he had with a World Bank expert who was advising Kuala Lumpur and Singapore on the common market.
“Suppose the Malaysian Finance Minister Tan Siew Sin does not play the game and the common market does not get off the ground – what happens?” Dr Goh recalls asking the World Bank expert.
The expert answered presciently thus: “In that event, Mr Minister, it’s not the common market which should be in danger; the whole concept of Malaysia would be in danger.”
The stand-off between the two Finance Ministers Dr Goh Keng Swee and Tan Siew Sin can be seen as part of the larger rivalry between PAP and the Chinese party in Malaysia’s Alliance, the MCA (Malaysian Chinese Association), which Tan Siew Sin headed. PAP’s entry into Malaysian politics and the proposal that it join the Alliance with UMNO was seen as an affront to MCA’s role there. Lee Kuan Yew (1998: 642) made this claim:
“he [Tan Siew Sin] believed that any concession to Singapore would help the PAP to win over the Chinese in Malaysia… [with Singapore’s exit,] [h]e was only relieved and happy that his position as leader of the MCA and the MCA’s position in Malaysia were now secure. The threat from the PAP and the Malaysian Solidarity Convention had been removed.” .
Further, the PAP – Lee Kuan Yew himself – had criticised the Budget announced by Tan Siew Sin in the Malaysian Parliament in December 1964, and this drew flak from Malaysian backbenchers, such as Mr Lee San Choon, MCA of Alliance Segamat, Johor (ST 3 Dec 1964).
The Jurong Industrial Estate project that Dr Goh initiated in 1962, before Singapore joined Malaysia, faced difficulties when Central Government in Kuala Lumpur deliberately dragged its feet approving a key policy that was to have allowed the industrialisation project in Jurong to take off. Again quoting from Janadas Devan, we hear of the following:
“… the Economic Development Board had to seek permission from Kuala Lumpur to award pioneer certificates to prospective investors here, entitling them to tax-free status for five to 10 years. In the two years we were in Malaysia, only two out of 69 such applications were approved, and one came with so many restrictions it amounted to a rejection.”
This important economic stumbling block was among the factors which eventually convinced Dr Goh that secession or separation was necessary for Singapore’s industrialisation to take off unhindered by Central Government curbs. He was thus against any kind of further looser confederation and did not follow Lee Kuan Yew’s wishes to this end, preferring to push for separation instead in his secret negotiations.
Dr Goh was also behind many other initiatives and key institutions, though this is not the space to discuss these at length. It is summed up in this accolade from a colleague, who was Chairman of the Singapore Exchange J.Y. Pillay, when he spoke in 2010 one day after Dr Goh’s passing: “Dr Goh was the seminal figure of the 1960s, 1970s and early 1980s. His fingerprints were on virtually every significant policy initiative of that period” (Lee 2010).
Dr Goh passed away on 14 May 2010, without as much fanfare as the public show of grief and mourning accorded to the passing of Lee Kuan Yew. The full story of the Separation/Secession plans in 1965 and contents of the ‘Albatross’ file remains unknown. Dr Goh did not pen any memoirs. Perhaps we may hold out hope that Dr Goh may well have recorded an interview with the very institution of public records he helped set up, the Oral History Department of the National Heritage Board – perhaps an interview placed on embargo until a certain period after his passing.
Epilogue:
A month after this article was first published on 9 Aug 2015, Singapore’s National Museum displayed Dr Goh’s documents on this issue from his “Albatross file” and other related archival materials in an exhibition “We Built a Nation”, which opened on 22 Sep 2015.
Dr Goh also revealed these matters in his Oral History Interview in 1980, which was only released to the public in 2015.
The topic has received numerous alternative accounts which you may read here (from Tunku Abdul Rahman’s perspective, published by Esquire Singapore on 7 Aug 2017) and here (also on Tunku Abdul Rahman, but as published by Singapore’s The Straits Times on Aug 21 2015).
Screenshot of the saved version of the original article in Web Archive:
Original article of 9 Aug 2015, saved in Web Archive (dated 1 April 2016). Click on image to view archived article.
This article was first published 9 Aug 2015, written by Imran bin Tajudeen.
By 1 April 2016, it had received 1.6k (1,600) likes via Facebook (thank you!). Oddly, at some point after April 2016, the article seems to have vanished from the website.
This is a restoration of the article based on what was saved on Web Archive on 1 April 2016.
References
Chew, Melanie. (1996). Leaders of Singapore (pp. 141–150). Singapore: Resource Press.
Devan, Janadas. 2015. Singapore could have become ‘one country, two systems’ within Malaysia, not sovereign country. Straits Times JAN 28, 2015. [Text of a speech delivered at the Institute of Policy Studies’ Singapore Perspectives 2015 seminar on Jan 26.] http://www.straitstimes.com/opinion/singapore-could-have-become-one-country-two-systems-within-malaysia-not-sovereign-country
Khoo, Kelvin. 2010. In Memory of Dr Goh Keng Swee: Architect of Singapore’s Economic, Defence and Education Policies. on-line writing essay services www.nas.gov.sg/archivesonline/public/DR_GOH_KENG_SWEE.pdf
Kwa, Chong Guan. 2010. Remembering Goh Keng Swee (1918-2010). Spotlight. Biblioasia Vol. 6 Issue 3 (Oct) 4-9.
Lee, Kuan Yew. 1998. The Singapore Story: Memoirs of Lee Kuan Yew. Singapore: SPH Times Editions.
Lee, Su Shyan. 2010. From the archives: His fingerprint on every important policy. The Straits Times, May 15. Cheap prices for certified drugs, order tracking, discounts and free samples options. Read more about Buy cheap Viagra dosage information, check ourВ http://www.straitstimes.com/singapore/from-the-archives-his-fingerprint-on-every-important-policy-chance-to-grow-opportunity-to
Ng, Godwin. 2015. Goh’s folly? No, Jurong is Goh’s glory. AsiaOne. Apr 20. http://news.asiaone.com/news/singapore/gohs-folly-no-jurong-gohs-glory
Tien, Jenny and Valerie Chew. 2010. Goh Keng Swee. Singapore Infopedia. http://eresources.nlb.gov.sg/infopedia/articles/SIP_662_2005-01-11.html
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