- 1961 – accepts bursary to study at NUS (possibly as a Colombo Plan scholar)
- 1964 – graduates but tries to defer entry into the SCS by enrolling himself in a postgraduate course but is denied permission and told to start work immediately
- 1965 – breaks bond, resigns from the SCS and joins Shell, only to succumb to pressure, renege on the decision and return to the SCS
- 1966 – secures a fellowship to study at Williams College
- 1967 – returns from sabbatical
- 1969 – seconded to NOL but is still a staff of the SCS
- 1970 – resigns from the SCS and takes up a permanent role with NOL
Goh Chok Tong: The pioneer bond-breaker?
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Friday, 13 November 2009, 10:20 am | 1,654 views
Speech in 1990 seems to suggest that the SM had technically broken his bond in 1964 – albeit temporarily
ONE SATURDAY EVENING ALMOST 19 YEARS TO THE DAY AGO, then First Deputy Prime Minister Goh Chok Tong illustrated the difficulty of getting top talent to enter politics by sharing his own experience when he first graduated in 1964.
“My first choice after graduating was to be a professor. I wanted to do a PhD. So I signed up as a Research Scholar at the Singapore University. Two weeks after I started, the Vice-Chancellor called me up. He said that the Government wanted me to work in the Civil Service as an Administrative Officer. They would not release me. I was then under a five-year bond, because of a bursary I received. I was put in the Economic Planning Unit. I worked there for about one year, until I saw an advertisement by Shell. I applied. After a series of interviews and tests, plus a lunch where they observed how you behaved socially, I got the job. They also gave me a loan to pay up my bond. So I resigned from the Civil Service, brought forward the date of my marriage so that I could go for my honeymoon before starting on the new job, and happily went off with my wife to Malaysia. Halfway through our honeymoon, I got a telegram from Shell: Come back immediately. I thought they needed my services immediately. Instead they told me that Dr Goh Keng Swee had expressed unhappiness over their taking me. They would still take me in, nevertheless, if I insisted on joining them. I sensed their reluctance. So I returned the loan I took from Shell, and went back to the Economic Planning Unit. Later, I was seconded to NOL. I was very happy there. I thought I had found my niche in life.”
17th November 1990
NTUC Income Day 20th Anniversary
The story unfolds rather haphazardly, as though the then freshly graduated Goh Chok Tong had not sought clearance from the Singapore Civil Service (SCS) before enrolling in the postgraduate course, and again, as though he had not properly severed his ties with the SCS before approaching Shell for a new job.
Also, the chronology of the current SM’s career also raises eyebrows as it appears that he may not have wanted to be in the Civil Service in the first place. Piecing together the available information, a pattern emerges as follows:
Although scholarships were in existence in Singapore since the 1800’s, it was only in 1960 that public service bonds were instituted – incidentally just a year before Goh Chok Tong began his tertiary education.
“In 1960, the Government decided to require all scholars to serve a stint in the public service upon graduation. I suppose that is when the PSC bonds began.”
25th July 2009
PSC Scholarships Award Ceremony
Thus the circumstances seem to suggest that the young Goh Chok Tong in 1965 could have very well been one of the first few – if not the first – to have broken a civil service bond in Singapore.
References:
Gale Research Inc. (2008). Volume 6 of Encyclopedia of World Biography. University of Michigan. (Portion on Goh Chok Tong’s biography is reproduced at http://www.answers.com/topic/goh-chok-tong)
Lee, H. S. (2009). Speech at PSC Scholarships Award Ceremony on 25th July 2009 at Shangri-La Hotel – http://www.news.gov.sg/public/sgpc/en/media_releases/agencies/micacsd/speech/S-20090725-2.html
Public Service Commission. (2009) History and Evolution. Accessed from PSC website at http://www.pscscholarships.gov.sg/SCHOLARSHIPS/History_and_Evolution.htm
The Singapore Cabinet, Mr Goh Chok Tong – http://www.cabinet.gov.sg/CabinetAppointments/Mr+GOH+Chok+Tong.htm
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Not only Goh Chok Tong but also many many others as well in PAP for example Ong Teng Chong.
Lee Kuan Yew likes to recruit those from the professional class who have no ambition in politics and them rear them like dogs to be PAP politicians.
This way he can control them and they won't pose a threat to his fucking autocratic rule.
Observed this for a long time already with that old bastard Lee Kuan Yew.
You can't fool me Lee Kuan Yew.
Others you can go and fool.
You can go and spin your tales.
But with me, don't even dream.
It seems that often they did not like it, but let's go back: How did you first get into politics?
In the early 1970s, Lee Kuan Yew asked me for an interview to get me involved to stand for election. I stood in 1972 and I won and became a PAP backbencher. A year later, Lee asked me to take up ministerial office but I turned it down because my younger brother was dying of cancer. I had to assist him and to settle his affairs after he died at the age of 25. Then Lee Kuan Yew approached me again and this time I agreed to take up office. Lee is very persuasive.
http://www.singapore-window.org/sw00/000310a4.htm
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Even today, when Professor Jayakumar recalls that moment, he cannot help tears welling in his eyes. The moment was extremely passionate, which Jayakumar cherishes even till this day and swears never to forget it until he is dead!
Imagine that. It seems when Jayakumar the Professor had asked the question, the young man was surprised why he was chosen. In utter surprise at the question, as was earlier mentioned, he nearly fell off the chair and was rescued by the gallant Professor in the nick of time at great danger to himself!
One thing is clear in the strange island of Singapore.
It appears this man S Shanmugam, had no intention of joining politics at all!
It seems from the article that it was only with great difficulty in persuasion that he was finally made to join politics. A strange parliamentary democracy indeed where reluctant people are coerced and threatened to enter politics and made to rule over Singaporeans!
It seems the odd entry into politics of a reluctant candidate was not only in S Shanmugam's case.
Surprisingly, even the Professor Jayakumar himself, the recent Minister for Law was himself completely averse to politics. In fact, he himself states that he joined politics with great reluctance and did it as a duty to his country.
If I could see Jayakuamr, I would tell him that he should have done whatever he wanted and stop trying to imply that he is some kind of a Godsend for all of us. It would have made no difference had it been a donkey instead of him.http://singaporedissident.blogspot.com/2008/05/singapore-professor-and-very-bright.html
Wow, all the top people in Singapore politics all NO AMBITION AT ALL to join politics.
They won't go and scheme and plot against you right?
You can be secured.
You can't fuck me with your propaganda bullshit Lee Kuan Yew.
Dream also don't go and motherfucking dream.
You think I don't know why you suppress dialect?
You think I don't know why you impose ang moh on us dialect chinese?
You think I don't know you worked with japanese?
You think I don't know you are peranakan?
You think I don't know you are british dog?
Dream also don't go and fucking dream.