Goh Keng Swee: A Singaporean for All Seasons

Dr Goh Keng Swee: The architect of Singapore’s economy.

The man who built the SAF from scratch. The brains behind Jurong Bird Park and Sentosa; the Renaissance man who mooted the founding of the Singapore Symphony Orchestra.

Not forgetting, his role in setting up DBS Bank, the Economic Development Board and the Jurong Town Corporation. But how did this academic, by his own admission a reluctant politician, transform from an ideas man into founding prime minister Lee Kuan Yew’s chief troubleshooter?

This is the premise of this graphic novel, Goh Keng Swee: A Singaporean for All Seasons. Written in the style of creative non-fiction, this innovative book pivots on the development of the Jurong industrial estate as an inflection point of the story. In 1959, when Dr Goh was sworn in as Finance Minister, the stakes could not be higher: 200,000 people, or 14 per cent of the population, were unemployed; the population was growing at 4.5 per cent per year; The Jurong industrial project was Dr Goh’s visionary and gutsy initiative to create jobs for the masses, by clearing vast swathes of swampland, building factories and enticing MNCs to set up shop here.

But it was a gambit – to the tune of $100 million – which, naturally, was met with resistance from some of his cabinet colleagues. Along the way, the country’s founding fathers also had to deal with regular labour strikes and leftists who infiltrated trade unions to stir up trouble.

The Jurong project could have cost Dr Goh his job, the PAP’s reputation and even bankrupted the country.

Instead, what some critics had labelled as “Goh’s Folly” turned out to be a success, heralded as “Goh’s Glory”.