Goh Keng Swee   Tags: english, goh keng swee, history, personalities, singapore, singapore history, singapore politics  

• A Brief Overview
• Books and Reports
• Speeches & Essays
• Newspaper Articles

Referred to by Minister Mentor Lee Kuan Yew as "the best man" in his Cabinet, Dr Goh Keng Swee was a potent player in Singapore colonial civil service and more importantly, Singapore's founding political history. Part of the core group that met in Lee Kuan Yew's Oxley Rise home to discuss founding the PAP, he was a key PAP member along with Toh Chin Chye, S Rajaratnam and Lee Kuan Yew. He resigned from the colonial civil service to stand for elections in 1959 at Kreta Ayer. With the PAP's rise to power, he was appointed as Minister of Finance in the first PAP Cabinet. Other than Finance, he had a series of portfolios to his name. He was Minister for the Interior and Defence in 1965 (9 Aug 1965 - 16 Aug 1967); re-appointed Minister of Defence (11 Aug 1970 - 11 Feb 1979); Minister of Finance (5 Jun 1959 - 8 Aug 1965); Deputy Prime Minister in March 1973, concurrently holding the Defence portfolio; Minister for Education in 1979 (12 Feb 1979 - 31 May 1980, reappointed again during 1 Jun 1981 - 1 Jan 1985); and Deputy Chairman of Government of Singapore Investment Corporation (GSIC) (1981-1994) among many other official posts. He retired from politics in 1984. He was also Executive Chairman of Institute of East Asian Political Economy (IEAPE) (1992 – 1995).

With his wide-ranging portfolios, he oversaw the creation of Singapore Armed Forces (SAF), the beginnings of National Service (NS), the establishment of Jurong Industrial Estate, the formation of the Curriculum Development Institute (CDI), etc. Dr Goh introduced profound key changes to the many positions that he held, setting the public policy climate that we know of Singapore today. He was not only a visionary; he was also a decisive implementer. His partnership with the then Prime Minister Lee Kuan Yew was cemented by their complementary roles in the governance of Singapore. Due to the diversity of roles that he played in Singapore politics, Dr Goh was a prolific thinker on issues regarding Singapore's economic progress, education policies and defence.

Listed in the following pages is a selection of publications by Dr Goh and on him. They are available at Level 11, Lee Kong Chian Reference Library, which houses the Singapore and Southeast Asian collections.

All publications listed in this guide are available at the Lee Kong Chian Reference Library, unless stated otherwise. You can use the NLB catalogue at http://catalogue.nlb.gov.sg/ to find more publications related to this topic. Likewise, newspaper articles from The Straits Times can be found online at http://newspapers.nl.sg/.

By Kartini Saparudin
Lee Kong Chian Reference Library.
November 2007
Updated May 2010

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For a biography article about Dr Goh Keng Swee that includes a timeline of his career, please visit our Infopedia article by following this link: