Goh Chok Tong and Low Thia Khiang make their exits.

What do Goh Chok Tong, 79, and Low Thia Khiang, 63, have in common? 

Well, they both served about four decades in politics. GCT was 44 years and LTK, 40. They both brought in flesh young/vibrant blood to their respective parties. 

GCT talent-spotted LHL and persuaded him to join the election in 1984. He also had a hand in bringing 3G leaders into politics like Teo Chee Hean, Tharman, Khaw Boon Wan and Lim Swee Say. 

As for LTK, he had “secured a group representation constituency for the WP (in 2011).” He also renewed WP ranks by grooming current leader Pritam and outgoing Chen Show Mao and Png Eng Huat. 

And perhaps lastly, they changed the style of leadership to a more consultative, approachable one. 

GCT took over from LKY who had a more stern and firm leadership style, while GCT’s was a kinder and gentler approach. He also set a Feedback Unit to allow Singaporeans to share their views on policies. 

Further, he “used budget surpluses to set up endowment funds that to this day provide financial support to less well-off Singaporeans.” And he started “redistributing budget surpluses to citizens in the form of Central Provident Fund top-ups.” 

As for LTK, he took over from the more adversarial JB Jeyaretnam. The party then was plagued by infighting and that hindered the search for good candidates. 

When LTK helmed WP in 2001, he took “a different direction, focusing on issues of the day and creating a brand of constructive politics that strives to provide a check in Parliament.”

He said: “If I compare myself with my predecessor Jeyaretnam, I think I am probably mild, right? So probably this political progress, where you become less aggressive and you can sit down and talk about things rather than just political brickbats, is a good thing.”

So, those are the commonalities between GCT and LTK. Both leaders are nevertheless retiring from politics. LTK said he felt his work was done. And for GCT, he wrote in his farewell letter to LHL the following: -

“Marine Parade is my second home. I live the people...Many urged me to stand for another term. But I should not. I would not have the same energy when I cross into my 80s.”

And there you have, the life and times of politicians, both debating at the opposite sides of the parliamentary long table for decades. 

FYI, LTK saw his role as “a co-driver that would slap the driver, the PAP, if the ruling party were to go off course in governing the country.” And GCT saw it as a leadership to ensure Singapore flourish in every possible way, with a government “that listened and paid attention not just to material well-being but also matters of the heart, or “heartware””.

Now, the question, as posed by GCT, is “Quo vadis, Singapore? Quo vadis, me?” And in case you’re wondering, “Quo vadis” is Latin for “Where are you going?”, and that is for Singapore and, well, GCT and LTK to think about.

In reflection, GCT said his current priority is to complete his second part biography entitled Tall Order: The Goh Chok Tong Story.

As for LTK, he has this to say: “I do not have this hope that others will (remember me in any particular way). I have done what I should do, I have no regrets. Of course everyone will have different views. And as a public figure you have to accept them. That’s all. I would not be surprised if someone is scolding me; I accept it. I will remember the people, the voters. I think these are important life assets, friends in Hougang. I will remember them.”

Lesson? One. That’s the long journey of a political life in service. 

Politics is proned to acquire a bad name because it promises too much, and most of the time, it achieves much lesser than promised.

That is all in a day’s work for a politican trying his darnest to win your vote, and every one of them counts. He has to prove his mettle to the masses in rally after rally, and speeches of that sort always come in more exaggerative and idealistic form than in realistic self-assessment.

At its lowest, they are all professional performers marketing their perceived suitability and viability to persuade the majority and win their trust and favour. 

You can therefore expect a lot of bravados, at times, braggadocio, in order to fire the crowd. They spin some make-beliefs together with trust-me spiel to bridge the gap and win hearts. Not all of them feel at all natural “selling” themselves in that open, shameless and blatant way. 

At its highest, a politician put himself or herself out there to be lynched, pilfered, stoned, denounced and ridiculed. And because you can never please everybody, and it is a politician’s greatest mistake to even try, and also because you can’t ensure every citizen will get their fair share of the fruit of society’s economic labour, that is, the inevitability of the blind assortment process, there will therefore always be a section of society that blames them for their blighted state, causation notwithstanding. 

In a family, the father as the head of the household will always be respected. His proximity to his offspring and their dependence on him are the familiarity and nexus needed to ensure the reverence to him is properly accorded. 

But as a father of a nation, as a politician taking the helm, not all your children recognise your authority. There will always be the prodigals, the sidelined and those by the wayside. In other words, there will always be those who perceive you as exercising favourtism and discrimination, turning a blind eye to their plight, when the reality of things is indeed something that is clearly beyond you and your leadership. 

So, in the end, I guess LKY puts it aptly when he was asked - “What does it take to be a politican?” And he said: “You must have convictions. If you don’t have convictions, you are going in for personal glory or honour or publicity or popularity, forget it.” He also added “democracy as practised by the West is not a universal good.” 

Indeed, what is universal good is a heart that is humbled, a spirit for the welfare of others, and a mind that never let up to find solutions to bridge the gap even at one’s own expense. 

And I believe the best of our politicians embody most of all that, in good measure. 

Ps: Farewell GCT and LTK, a long journey completed, a good race finished.

Age is a number: Reinventing yourself.

We all age. The moment we are born, we age. The chronological clock starts counting down. We draw closer to death. But as William Wan put it, “Ageism is far from dead.” Maybe I should call it “counting up”?

In the article today entitled “Reinventing oneself for the workforce”, William detailed a life after 50 that is quite illuminating and inspiring. Here is a walkthrough as he had journeyed it. 

After a turbulent time overseas, a bitter split with his business partners (that story is in his previous article which you can google), he returned totally crestfallen, despondent. But the spirit in him refused to take no for an answer. 

At 51, he returned to the legal profession “after having left it for nearly 25 years”. 

He wrote this: “I was considered too senior to be paid a junior’s salary and too out of touch in a rapidly digital, paperless world of law practice to be deserving of a senior’s pay.” 

So, in his fifties, he decided to strike out on his own. He said, “I would eat what I hunt.” Proving that age was not a barrier, he “was made a senior partner” within 8 months.

At 60, this dare devil of a young-at-heart man decided for the second time to quit the legal profession. He reinvented himself as a psychometric analyst “by learning this complex and techno-driven system to become the managing director of a psychometric company.”

Then, at 64, he was asked to helm the Kindness Movement. 

He wrote: “I quickly adapted to the art of leading a not-for-profit organisation where the KPIs (Key Performance Indicators) are totally different from what I was used to. I wasted no time in learning to be social media savvy in the digitally driven world of online marketing and video casting.“

Lesson? One. What is age except that it is only a number. Cliché? Another platitude? Circular bromide? Heard it, tired of it?

Well, the mind can make heaven out of hell and hell out of heaven. It can also make age about purposeful youthfulness and purposeful youthfulness about a tired, jaded old man in a young man’s body. 

I am sure you have read about a Dutchman Emile Ratelband, 69, who applied (in 2018) to the court of Arnhem in the Netherlands to have his age changed to 49, by legally rectifying his birth from 11 March 1949 to 11 March 1969. 

He said that “he did not feel comfortable with his official chronological age, which did not reflect his emotional state - and was preventing him from finding work, or love online.” (”Extra time” by Camilla Cavendish). 

Of course, the court rejected his application. But the point is not about chronology, but life-purpose, or as the Japanese would call it “ikigai” - “reason for being”. 

Ikigai is an intersection of four things: -

First intersection is between that which the world needs and that which you can be paid for and it is called Vocation. 

Second intersection is between that which you are paid for and that which you are good at and it is called Profession. 

Third is between that which you are good at and that which you love and it is called Passion.

And fourth is between that which you love and that which the world needs and it is called Mission. 

I believe the above intersections do not favour one for the other, and they exist not in any particular order. Your job can be your vocation (what you are paid for to feed the family and save for retirement), your profession (what you are good at) and your passion (what you love to do). 

Or, you can have your vocation/profession and at the same time, serving in a church ministry or a charity organisation you are passionate about or running a part time business you love and are equally good at. 

The bottom line is that iki (life) and gai (purpose) or ikigai (“reasons for being”) is what you do not just for extrinsic motivation - more money, more possession - but more significantly, intrinsic motivation, that is, pursuing a purpose that passes down a rich, resilient and inspiring legacy to your children and your children’s children. 

And when it comes to passion, honing your skills, and living with a mindset that makes the most of what you are prepared and willing to do, the only limit is what you have set for yourself in your mind and heart. 

Camilla of the book “Extra Time” wrote: “Tina Turner made the cover of Vogue at 73; Yuichiro Maura climbed Everest aged 80; Warren Buffett is still investing in his eighties and David Attenborough is making hit TV series in his nineties”. 

If so at their age, what then is your excuse at your age when you are still physically healthy? 

If you think, well, these people are giants in their own field, they are rich and powerful, and already established, mm...nobody is asking you to be like them, at where they are. Don’t be delusional and deepen the delusion by conveniently resigning to your fate. Never forget that the most enduring privilege in life is about being you, changing you, not being someone else, and dreaming endlessly about it. 

Obviously, we all have our own platform or launchpad of potential and excellence (at whatever age), impacting lives in our own way, even if it is within our own family, or friends/work colleagues. 

We may just be a little pebble taking that plunge or leap of faith into society’s placid waters. But it is not the size of the pebble so much as it is the ripple we make. 

You see, we can sit idly by the shore and lament until the sun sets on our chronological age, counting down to our death. 

Or, we can “count up” by taking that leap regardless of our chronological age, and create the ripple of effect. And then, take another leap and create another ripple of effect. 

However small the pebble, it can create limitless ripples. And that is what counts - for not all things that are countable counts. But, some things like “ikigai” clearly is not countable, yet it counts most in our life, that is, a life of youthful purpose at whatever the age. 

For sooner or later, it is never the size/status of the object/person taking the plunge, it is the size of the difference that plunge or leap makes, even if it is to a handful of souls within his/her modest circle of influence. 

Let me just say that I believe the same way we make excuses for ourselves, we can turn that around and create opportunity for ourselves. 

These opportunities do not have to cause a big splash because that never lasts for long. These opportunities can be purposefully modest, touching one or two lives, but what makes the difference is how such purpose-driven life never gives up, and through perseverance, it makes a bountiful difference to the lives of many. 

Let me end here, most appropriately, with a crucial nudge from a man who knows what he’s talking about. Here are some helpful tips for living a youthfully purpose- driven life from the indefatigable Mr Wan.

”So how do I reinvent myself? And what do I do right? 

First, I reframe my thinking by recognising what has changed, accept the new reality and adapt to it.

It also means that I cannot insist on the old adage that I know more just because I have lived longer. I am hardly as tech-savvy as the young digital natives.

Second, I am positive and embrace the challenges of having to learn new skills.

Though my memory is not as good as when I was younger, I resist the idea that old dogs cannot learn new tricks.

It means I have to work harder and longer to get there, and I am willing.

Third, I am resilient. I mentally prepare myself to be rejected because of my age and I refuse to be devastated.

I am courageous and persistent and do not allow ageism to determine my self-worth.

And fourthly, I submit to the authority of those who are the contemporaries of my own children.

Organisational authority is not a function of age. It is a function of appointment by the powers that be and since I choose to work in that organisation, I willingly abide by its polity.”

Ps: indeed you stand tallest when you are on your knees, not begging or resigning to fate, but learning, humbling and reinventing to sharpen your heritage. 

Remember: You are never too old. It’s not about age. It’s just that you’re never giving up. And a person like that never makes age an impediment, or excuse, but an empowerment. Cheerz.