The best leaders are those you don’t even know about, but the changes they make speak enduringly of their effort, dedication and legacy. And we have a few of those who had worked tirelessly behind the scenes like Dr Goh Keng Swee and S, Rajaratnam, just to name two.
This week, another of such leader has passed on. Mr Ngiam Tong Dow (“NTD”), aged 83. An unassuming man, he spent 40 years in the apex Administrative Service “developing policies on the economy, defence technology, transport, savings and retirement, as well as housing.”
We have to give credit and extend quiet gratitude where such is due, or overdue, and NTD, in passing, has given us, the younger generation, a name (and cause) to remember by when we talk about selfless service in humility and quietude to build our nation.
NTD actually came to the such pivotal role quite fortuitously. His father passed away when he was just 9 yrs old. He died of tuberculosis.
On a checkup, NTD was also diagnosed with early-stage tuberculosis. As he was declared unfit for work, “he went back to his books and won an open bursary to the University of Malaya, where he got first-class honours in economics.” And the rest, well, is history.
Today’s paper shows PM Lee and wife, Ho Ching, paying their due respect to NTD. In a letter, PM Lee wrote that he was a “versatile and outstanding civil servant” from the founding generation. (He) had also served on some of our most important statutory boards...worked tirelessly to woo investors and make Singapore more business-friendly.”
NTD was chairman of EDB from 1975 to 1981. PM Lee said: “He also fostered a go-getting culture in EDB officers that persists even today.”
Then, he went to Ministry of Trade and Industry when PM Lee was a young Minister of State in 1984. “As a young office holder, I benefited greatly from his considerable experience and sage advice.”
From there, NTD sat on the economic committee PM Lee chaired in 1985. “He worked closely with me to implement the recommendations and help our companies regain their competitiveness and recover.”
NTD also helmed HDB, DBS and even had a hand in pushing for the MRT, amid naysayers and opposition. PM Lee penned: “His ethos of discipline and prudence continues to define the bank today. His legacy will live one, and his contributions will touch the lives of many generations of Singaporeans to come.”
Even Tommy Koh, who studied with him at Harvard University in 1963, speaks of him as a “loving critic of Singapore.” He also remembered NTD as “extremely thrifty.”
DBS chairman Peter Seah recalled: “The man enjoyed a simple and frugal lifestyle. He would go to his favourite coffee shop along Telok Ayer Street and share a table with the lunchtime crowd to have his favourite Teochew porridge.”
On that loving critic part, this interview in 2003 would have left a political imprint. NTD remarked that Singapore is “larger than the PAP” and “talent should be allowed to spread throughout society. So far, the PAP’s tactic is to put all the scholars into the civil service...But in my view, that’s a very short-term view.”
I guess PAP has since then gone some way in their journey away from meritocratic elitism or the imperial scholar-bureaucracy.
Notably, two baptism of fire in the GE2011 and the recent GE 2020 were the inflexion points of such an awakening, that is, instead of practising selective diversity in government with extreme bias on a one-trick-pony-like kind of merit-benchmark, what is ultimately crucial for a healthy, enduring and vibrant democracy is universal diversity, truly regardless of race, language, religion and education.
NTD foresaw the long term maturity and thriving of a society, and it is surely not in having a monopoly on the definition of what talent is, but rather one based on a mindset that is inclusive, generous to all, and rooted on character, humility and resilience. These qualities cannot be graded in a classroom, but have to be tested with opportunities granted on the basis of NTD’s words, “talent should be allowed to spread throughout society.”
Let me end with his words again. NTD was one visionary who saw the importance of developing the “intangibles” instead of just blindly prioritising the dollar and cents of things. For it is not the GDP of a country that measures its true wealth. The reality is that we are undeniably objectively better off in economic sense, but studies after studies have shown that we are curiously subjectively worse off, with depression, alcoholism and suicide.
As such, we risk turning our society into one where we view and treat our neighbours as a productive means, devoid of humanity, for our self-enriching end based on a vicious competitive spirit that is driven by an insatiable appetite to horde the tangibles in society for purposes of empty praises. That is something I believe NTD avoided at all costs.
And sadly, NTD saw that coming when he forewarned us with this overarching wish for our nation. “We should be a humane society where people have respect for each other. Then we can survive. That’s the Singapore I would want for my grandchildren.”
And hands down, a Singapore I would want for mine too.
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