Acknowledgement

1.http://infopedia.nl.sg/articles/SIP_662_2005-01-11.html

2.http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Goh_Keng_Swee

3.http://viweb.freehosting.net/SRajaratnam.htm

4.http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/S._Rajaratnam

5.http://www.google.com.sg/imghp?hl=en&tab=wi

About Dr Goh Keng Swee-pictures

About Mr S Rajaratnam-pictures

Reflection

I think that Dr Goh Keng Swee contribute more to Singapore. He helped to improve Singapore more than Mr S Rajaratnam. For example:Dr Goh Keng Swee helped Singapore to make money during the time when Singapore's economic was in trouble. He also changed the Singapore's educational system that benefit Singapore until today. Due to his change in the educational system, more and more children are able to finish their education and find a better job. These children can contribute more to Singapore as compared to their parents when they grow up. Dr Goh Keng Swee also built up the National Service which enable Singapore to be perpared for wars and fights. While for Mr S Rajartnam, he only wrote the National pledge and helped to improve in other areas of Singapore. Although Mr S Rajaratnam did contribute to Singapore, his contributions were not as much as Dr Goh's. Also, Dr Goh's changes benefit Singapore more than Mr S Rajaratnam's. Dr Goh 's change gave Singapore a bright future while Mr S Rajaratnam 's change only helped the Singapore at that time.

About Dr Goh Keng Swee-acheviements

• When Dr Goh Keng Swee was the minister of Finance. He assumed stewardship of Singapore 's economy.

• As a budget deficit of $4 million was forecast that year, Dr Goh Keng Swee introuduced stringent fiscal discipline which including cutting civil service salaries. As a result of these measures, he was able to announce at the end of the year when delivering the budget that the Government had achieved a surplus of $1 million.

• Dr Goh Keng Swee initiated the setting up of the Economic Developement board, which was established in August 1961 to attract foreign multinational corporations to invest in Singapore.

• In 1962, Dr Goh Keng Swee started the development of the Jurong industrial estate on the western end of the island which was then a swamp, offering incentives to local and foreign business to locate there.

• There was a clash of fundamental principles, both political and economic, notably on the issue of Malay dominance. Communitarian violence in 1964 was inflamed in Singapore by Malay and Chinese activists. At that time, Dr Goh Keng Swee fought to protect Singapore's interests against the Federal Minister of Finance, his cousin Tan Siew Tin, "who was out to spite Singapore".

• Dr Goh Keng Swee played a crucial role in orchestrating the subsequent secession of Singapore from the Federation on 9 August 1965.

• In 1967, Mr Lee asked him to negotiate with the Malaysian Deputy Prime Minister Tun Adbul Razak and Minister for External Affairs.However, following the discussions, Goh decided on his own that it would be better for Malaysia and Singapore to have a clean break.He would later claim this was the "best thing that ever happened to Singapore".

• Dr Goh Keng Swee initiated the Compulsory National Service when he was Singapore's first Minister for the Interior and Denfence. It was a mandatory conscription system for able-bodied young males.

• Dr Goh Keng Swee was again Finance Minister between 17 August 1967 and 10 August 1970,during which time he declined to allow the central bank to issue currency, favouring instead a currency board system as this would signal to citizens, academics and the financial world that governments cannot "spend their way to prosperity".

• In 1981, Dr Goh Keng Swee expressed the view that the central bank need not hold large amounts of cash in reserve to defend the currency, proposing that the Government of Singapore Investment Corporation(GIC) be established to invest excess reserves. At the time, it was unprecedented for a non-commodity-based economy to have such a sovereign wealth fund.

• Dr Goh Keng Swee encouraged the establishment of the Institute of Southeast Asian Studies in1968.

• In1971, Dr Goh Keng Swee put together the Electronic Warfare Study Group, a team of newly graduated engineers who had excelled in their university studies which was headed by Dr. Tay Eng Soon, a university lecturer. The group worked on Project Magpie, a secret project to develop Singapore's defence technology capabilities. In 1977, the group was renamed the Defence Science Organisation (DSO). Originally part of the Ministry of Defence, in 1997 the organization became a non-profit corporation called DSO National Laboratories.

• Dr Goh Keng Swee did projects that sought to improve Singaporeans' cultural and leisure life, such as the Jurong Bird park,the Singapore Zoo and the Singapore Symphony Orchestra.

• Dr Goh Keng Swee backed the construction of the Kreta Ayer People's Theatre in his constituency as a venue for Chinese opera performances.

• Dr Goh Keng Swee introduced rugby in the Singapore Armed Forces and later in schools.

• Dr Goh Keng Swee contacted the Sentosa Development Corporation and convinced them to have one Underwater World. Underwater World Singapore was opened in 1991.

• On 12 February 1979, Dr Goh Keng Swee moved on from the Defence Ministry to the Ministry of Education. During those time, he set up the Curriculum Development Institute, and introduced key policies such as religious education.

• In 1980, Dr Goh Keng Swee came out with a system, that channelled students into different programmes of study according to their learning abilities. It was known as "streaming".

About Mr S Rajaratnam- acheivements

• Mr S Rajaratnam envisioned Singapore to be a 'global city'
  
• Mr S Rajaratnam actively involved in organising major political campaigns against Singaporean groups on the far left.


• Mr S Rajaratnam wrote the Singapore National Pledge in 1966.


• During his tenure as foreign minister, Mr S Rajaratnam helped Singapore gain entry into the United Nations.


• In 1970, Mr S Rajaratnam helped singapore to gain entry into the Non-Aligned Movement .


• Mr S Rajaratnam built up the Foreign Service.


• Mr S Rajaratnam helped to establish diplomatic links with other countries .


• Mr S Rajaratnam secure international recognition of the new nation's sovereignty.


• Mr S Rajaratnam carried out the foreign policy of international self-assertion to establish Singapore's independence during the period when the country faced significant challenges including the Konfrontasi conflict in the 1960s and the withdrawal of British troops in the early 1970s.


• In 1978, Mr S Rajaratnam helped to draw international attention to Vietnam's invasion of Cambodia.


• During Mr S Rajaratnam's term as Minister of Labour, he implemented tough labour laws to attempt to restore stability in the Singaporean economy and attracted multinational corporations to invest in Singapore.
  
• Throughout his political career, Mr S Rajaratnam played a key role in the successive pragmatic and technocratic People's Action Party governments that radically improved Singapore's economic situation, alongside huge developments in Social development on the island with massive expansion of healthcare programmes, pensions, state housing and extremely low unemployment.


• In the 1980s and 1990s, when the government began implementing several policies to promote the use of "mother tongue" languages and ethnic-based self-help groups such as Chinese development Assistance Council (CDAC) and Mendaki, Mr S Rajaratnam expressed his opposition to these policies which, in his view, ran counter to the vision of establishing a common Singaporean identity where "when race, religion, language does not matter".


• Mr S Rajaratnam disagreed on the policy of giving incentives to women who are college graduates and have more children, as he felt that the policy was unfair.

About Dr Goh Keng Swee

In 1939, Dr Goh Keng Swee joined the colonial Civil Service as a tax collector with the War Tax Department but, according to his superiors, was not very good at his job and was almost fired. However, his career was interrupted by the Japanese Occupation. Shortly after the start of World War Two, Dr goh Keng Swee joined the Singpore Volunteer Corps, a local militia. He then return to the pervious job in 1946. In 1945, Dr Goh Keng Swee joined the Department of Social Welfare, and was active in post-war administration. He became supervisor of the Department's Research Section six months later.

During his time in London, Dr Goh Keng Swee met fellow students seeking independence for British Malaya, including Mr Abdul Razak (later Malaysia's second Prime Minister), Mr Maurice Baker (subsequently Singapore's High Commissioner to Malaysia), Mr Lee Kuan Yew and Mr Toh Chin Chye. In1948, Dr Goh Keng Swee organised a student discussion group, the Malayan Forum. He was the first chairman of the group.

After Janpanese Occupation, Dr Goh Keng Swee joined the Department of Social Welfare. He was appointed assistant secretary of its Research Section. In 1952, together with fellow civil servant Kenneth M. Byrne, he formed the Council of Joint Action to lobby against salary and promotion policies that favoured Caucasians over Asians.

In 1956, Dr Goh Keng Swee completed his Ph.D. in Economics and returned to the Department of Social Welfare, where he served as Assistant Director and then Director. In 1958, Dr Goh Keng Swee was made Director of the Social and Economic Research Division in the Chief Minister's Office. In August 1958, He resigned from the civil service to work full-time for the People's Action Party(PAP).