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partial or total cost recovery for goods and services provided by the state. This
checks over-consumption of subsidised public services and reduces distortions in
the allocation of resources.
Sustained growth ensures stability, which encourages investments that create
wealth. Because we took the difficult decisions early, we have established a
virtuous cycle – low expenditure, high savings; low welfare, high investments.
We have accumulated assets during the last 30 years of strong growth with a
relatively youthful workforce. In the next 20 years, our economic growth will
slow down as our population ages. Private savings rates will decline, and health
care costs will rise sharply with more old people, just when taxpayers as a
percentage of population will decrease. We can partly meet this problem by
taking steps early to ensure the old will have larger Medisave savings; the better
answer is to attract educated and skilled immigrants to enlarge our talent pool
and increase both GDP and revenue. The government must give increased
financial and administrative support to more community welfare projects, as
many as there are social volunteers to drive and supervise them.
All this fine-tuning to rev up the economy would never have been possible
had the communists retained their baleful influence. Instead their open-front
leaders fumbled and faltered after Singapore became independent in 1965. They
removed themselves from the constitutional arena and left the PAP to set the
agenda. We seized the opportunity and reshaped the politics of Singapore.
In 1964 I toured trouble spots in Tanjong Pagar and other constituencies to
calm down residents terrified by racial clashes.
(SPH)
National Day Parade, August 1971. The SAF marching through North Bridge
Road to boost morale. Loong as officer cadet is second in extreme left row.
(LKY)
June 1973. Four SAF scholar officer cadets of whom three are now cabinet
ministers:
(top)
Teo Chee Hean,
(front left and centre)
George Yeo and Lim
Hng Kiang.
(SPH)
January 1968. Commonwealth Secretary George Thomson brings bad news
that British forces would leave early. Sitting beside me: senior colleagues
Raja, Chin Chye, Keng Swee, Kim San. Behind us, second from left: Hon Sui
Sen, Sim Kee Boon, George Bogaars.
(SPH/Straits Times)
January 1978. Showing Harold Wilson the former Royal Naval Dockyard
which we converted to commercial use as Sembawang Shipyard. Walking on
Wilson’s right is Swan & Hunter’s Neville Watson who stayed on as CEO of
the company.
(SPH/Straits Times)
January 1968. Opening the golf course on “HMS Simbang”. The course was
built by British forces before their withdrawal was announced. They invited
me to open it just before I left for London to see Harold Wilson.
(LKY)
1971. Before dinner at 10 Downing Street with Prime Minister Ted Heath,
Choo and daughter Wei Ling.
July 1965. Reading the riot act to K. Suppiah, president of the Public Daily
Rated Employees’ Unions Federation, to warn against making excessive
demands before an illegal strike.
(SPH)
January 1996. British Labour Party leader Tony Blair accompanied by Lim
Boon Heng, NTUC secretary-general, visiting one of our NTUC
supermarkets, similar to those visited by Russian Premier Nikolai Ryzhkov
and Vietnamese Party Secretary Do Muoi.
(SPH/Straits Times)
November 1980. Comparing impressions with Albert Winsemius during a
boat ride down the “Three Gorges” in China.
(SPH/Straits Times)
1965. Visiting Bukit Ho Swee residents resettled in high-rise flats, four years
after a huge fire there razed a squatter colony.
(SPH)
The Plen as guerrilla commander in South Thailand. He sent this photo to me
with a videotape.
(LKY)
August 1995. A posed handshake with the Plen (Fang Chuang Pi) in
Diaoyutai, Beijing.
(YY Yeong)
April 1955. My first election victory in Tanjong Pagar, which I represent 45
years later in 2000.
(SPH)
December 1980. Speaking in the rain for one hour because the crowd stayed
on.
(SPH/Straits Times)
November 1959. Beginning one of many campaigns to keep Singapore clean.
(SPH/Straits Times)
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