This is the story of a boy from Singapore, whose parentage are from Semarang, Indonesia. He grew up as a peranakan, which is to say he looked like a Chinese but acted like a malay. Peranakans are an ethnic group not entirely accepted by the Chinese in Singapore, mostly on virtue of the fact they do not speak Chinese/mandarin and also because their cuisine is not identified as Chinese and neither is their culture. Peranakan families send their kids to Malay stream in school and in most cases, Bahasa is the language spoken at home and perhaps occasionally some chinese dialect like hakka is also spoken. The Malays do not accept them either because they are not muslims and because they are Chinese that speak malay, eat malay style food, and study malay in school. In other words, they are on the periphery of society.
Into this culture, this boy was born into a middle to upper class family. No peranakan family are in the top tier of society because most Chinese will not do business with them, rather they deal with their own Tong society, of which the Peranakans do not belong. This boy did not even speak Chinese until his late 30s when he became Prime Minister and a Chinese tutor was hired for him. And growing up, he always had an English name, Harry, which everyone called him by. This peranakan Chinese boy realized that if he wanted to be financially well off, he could not rely on the typical route of the Chinese business protégé. He would have to earn that money himself by whatever means he could. It’s akin to what a young ambitious Jew might do in a European country, knowing he is shut out of the right clubs, right associations and right levels of society.
So, he sells his countrymen out, and works for the enemy during the war. What did they ever do for him anyway? And he amass some money to send himself to Cambridge university in the UK to study law. Now readers, I want you to take a step back and consider this. Nowadays, its quite common to see young Singaporeans go to study in Cambridge on govt. scholarships or privately. But back then, it was a rarity. Not only because it was very expensive, it bucked the norm. A rich Singapore Chinese family would send their son to China to study, not the UK. Imagine what it must have cost him and his family. His future spouse was studying there too, but she was from a rich family and no doubt led a more comfortable life in London then he could have.
Cambridge was a veritable nest of socialist and communist sentiment in the 1930s. The Soviet spy ring known as the Cambridge 5, were all recruited there from students who studied at Cambridge in the 1930s. These were spies like Kim Philby, Guy Burgess, etc. By the time Harry Lee arrived in the mid 40s, Cambridge was in the throes of socialism, anti establishment, political system reform. Socialist and communist dominated labour unions were growing in power and even young Harry lend his support to his English friend David Whitticombe who was in the Labour party. While Harry had a few British and Canadian friends, mostly he hung out with fellow Malayans in London. In addition to Kwa, his future wife, he spend a lot of time with Goh Keng Swee, Toh Chin Chye and Tun Abdul Razak. Not only because they were interested in freedom from British colonialism, but lets face it, Cambridge in the 1940s was still very much an elitist university. Aristocrats, old money, landed gentry, noblemen, members of the Peerage, send their sons and daughters there. While in the UK, Harry Lee could see that once again he was on the periphery. He would never be accepted no matter how smart he was simply because he was an Asian colonial from the Far East and did not have the right money and run with the right crowd. He would never be invited to the right dinner parties at Cambridge, or the right clubs or the right networking events. Doors opened for the right people with the right connections, and he was not one of them. The Old Boy’s network was tried and true there and Harry was not a member of it. Just like he was not in the old boy’s network in Singapore.
It is important to distinguish here that being in the Old Boy’s network is not necessarily for the people who cannot make it. Some very connected and very capable people were in the Old Boy’s network. Winston Churchill, for example, could not study at all. He was a poor student, but because of his heritage, many doors were still open to him, especially in the British Admiralty. Ian Fleming was another such person who benefitted from it and later became very successful. Lord Lovat, of Oxford University, led the SAS on the D-day landings, and is also another example of being a credit to the old boy’s network.
Herein, lies the conflict that Harry saw. How does he translate the Old Boy’s network into a Singapore syntax, and how does he benefit from it? His interpretation of the British Old Boy’s network is what we have now in Singapore, the Scholar system. The scholar system is the aristocracy, nobility and the right connection, all rolled into one. Harry started the scholar system with 8 levels of scholars, and his son was the initial candidate. At the very top, you have graduates of Harvard, Stanford, Cambridge, Oxford, etc. These are level 1. At the bottom level 8, you have grads of local unis like NUS. In between, you have graduates of Australian, Canadian, other US and UK universities and they are accorded a level based on the reputation of the university that they graduated from. This is inline with the aristocracy system where you have kings, queen, princes, and princess at the top and it goes down to earls, counts, viscounts, barons, etc and and other people of lower peerage.
Hence, Ministers, scholar generals, etc are recruited from level 1 universities and other lower level posts are filled with graduates from other universities deemed to be less worthy. The problem with this system is that it is a bastardized system that the Brits had. The British system even though it is primarily an old boy’s network, still recognizes true talent and allows it to come to the top. Witness Winston Churchill. Harry’s system does not do this at all. It’s a play safe system.
For example, if you are a SAF scholar and you decided to go to Cambridge for an engineering degree, you are bonded for 8 years when you come back. During this time, your superior will come to you with your entire career laid out in front of you. After the first 8 year bond is finished, you should, or rather I would say you will be a Major. If you re-up for another contract, you will make Lt Colonel by this and this a time, make Colonel by this and this a date and retired by this and this a time. After which a job in politics awaits you or one in a GLC or a stat board, regardless of your qualifications. As long as you don’t screw up during your army term, this will be your locked in career course. Even if you do screw up in the SAF, I have seen many times that a scholar is given another opportunity to try the same exercise again until he gets a good score or a pass.
This sort of a guaranteed career plan is very tempting to a scholar. He does not need to rely on himself too much, everything is planned out for him. And by the time he has put in his 20 years with the SAF, he is too old and too out of the loop to practice his original degree course anyway, being that he will be in his mid 40s minimum. However, it does not bring out the best in them. It brings out people who try not to take risks and try not to think too much and try not to buck the trend. That is what we have today. They will continue to collect their bonus, and salary as long as they don’t screw up in a major way. This is the definition of the Old Boys network. How does this help Singapore to have this system in place? It does not help at all. In a small country with no resources, we need forward thinking, creative, and savvy people, the exact type of people the scholar system weeds out.
This is the legacy left in place by Harry and now perpetrated by his son with an unholy zeal. Witness his comments said to Fareed Zakaria, the Washingotn post reporter, last year. He mentioned to Zakaria that there should be a “certain natural aristocracy in the system”. Ah Gong really brainwashed his son before he died. But what if the natural aristocracy was useless? What if there is no one like the calibre of Winston Churchill in the system? What if the system does not recognize a real talent when it saw one? Would the Singapore Harry Lee natural aristocracy recognize a Margaret Thatcher (who did not do well enough to get a scholarship to Oxford, and only got one after another student withdrew, and who only got second class honours)? What if the natural aristocracy was so wrongly set up that it cannot weed out the weak links, it does not promote accountability and worse of all it keeps the incompetent in place for the sake of “saving face”. We are currently seeing elements of all of this in the system set up by Harry Lee.
Yes, one man was shut out of the Singapore “aristocracy”, and the Cambridge one too, and in the end decided that he will make the rules and set up his own “natural aristocracy” as revealed by his son. He has left us this legacy. Whereas there are some check and balances in the UK one, there is non in the Singapore one. This does not bode well for the future of Singapore. We are starting to see the system straining and creaking at the joint with all the screw ups going on. If Lee Hsien Loong and the PAP are honest with themselves and we us, they will see that it is not working. But then, when have they ever been honest?
In many ways, I feel that Harry Lee put the system in place to punish singaporeans and to retaliate against them. I doubt if this person ever love singapore. I never once heard him say he loved his country or that he loved the people. He never once said that he was totally devoted to making singapore into something. He remembered how expensive and how much money he had to spend for his UK study and his first act in the implementation of the scholar system was to send his on an overseas scholarship to UK. Let the taxpayer pay for it. He must have felt singaporeans owed him that one. This system is a self perpetuating designed to keep him and his family in power by placing trusted and beholden people in positions of power. Lets all wake up now and smell the coffee.
Just my 2 cents.
Into this culture, this boy was born into a middle to upper class family. No peranakan family are in the top tier of society because most Chinese will not do business with them, rather they deal with their own Tong society, of which the Peranakans do not belong. This boy did not even speak Chinese until his late 30s when he became Prime Minister and a Chinese tutor was hired for him. And growing up, he always had an English name, Harry, which everyone called him by. This peranakan Chinese boy realized that if he wanted to be financially well off, he could not rely on the typical route of the Chinese business protégé. He would have to earn that money himself by whatever means he could. It’s akin to what a young ambitious Jew might do in a European country, knowing he is shut out of the right clubs, right associations and right levels of society.
So, he sells his countrymen out, and works for the enemy during the war. What did they ever do for him anyway? And he amass some money to send himself to Cambridge university in the UK to study law. Now readers, I want you to take a step back and consider this. Nowadays, its quite common to see young Singaporeans go to study in Cambridge on govt. scholarships or privately. But back then, it was a rarity. Not only because it was very expensive, it bucked the norm. A rich Singapore Chinese family would send their son to China to study, not the UK. Imagine what it must have cost him and his family. His future spouse was studying there too, but she was from a rich family and no doubt led a more comfortable life in London then he could have.
Cambridge was a veritable nest of socialist and communist sentiment in the 1930s. The Soviet spy ring known as the Cambridge 5, were all recruited there from students who studied at Cambridge in the 1930s. These were spies like Kim Philby, Guy Burgess, etc. By the time Harry Lee arrived in the mid 40s, Cambridge was in the throes of socialism, anti establishment, political system reform. Socialist and communist dominated labour unions were growing in power and even young Harry lend his support to his English friend David Whitticombe who was in the Labour party. While Harry had a few British and Canadian friends, mostly he hung out with fellow Malayans in London. In addition to Kwa, his future wife, he spend a lot of time with Goh Keng Swee, Toh Chin Chye and Tun Abdul Razak. Not only because they were interested in freedom from British colonialism, but lets face it, Cambridge in the 1940s was still very much an elitist university. Aristocrats, old money, landed gentry, noblemen, members of the Peerage, send their sons and daughters there. While in the UK, Harry Lee could see that once again he was on the periphery. He would never be accepted no matter how smart he was simply because he was an Asian colonial from the Far East and did not have the right money and run with the right crowd. He would never be invited to the right dinner parties at Cambridge, or the right clubs or the right networking events. Doors opened for the right people with the right connections, and he was not one of them. The Old Boy’s network was tried and true there and Harry was not a member of it. Just like he was not in the old boy’s network in Singapore.
It is important to distinguish here that being in the Old Boy’s network is not necessarily for the people who cannot make it. Some very connected and very capable people were in the Old Boy’s network. Winston Churchill, for example, could not study at all. He was a poor student, but because of his heritage, many doors were still open to him, especially in the British Admiralty. Ian Fleming was another such person who benefitted from it and later became very successful. Lord Lovat, of Oxford University, led the SAS on the D-day landings, and is also another example of being a credit to the old boy’s network.
Herein, lies the conflict that Harry saw. How does he translate the Old Boy’s network into a Singapore syntax, and how does he benefit from it? His interpretation of the British Old Boy’s network is what we have now in Singapore, the Scholar system. The scholar system is the aristocracy, nobility and the right connection, all rolled into one. Harry started the scholar system with 8 levels of scholars, and his son was the initial candidate. At the very top, you have graduates of Harvard, Stanford, Cambridge, Oxford, etc. These are level 1. At the bottom level 8, you have grads of local unis like NUS. In between, you have graduates of Australian, Canadian, other US and UK universities and they are accorded a level based on the reputation of the university that they graduated from. This is inline with the aristocracy system where you have kings, queen, princes, and princess at the top and it goes down to earls, counts, viscounts, barons, etc and and other people of lower peerage.
Hence, Ministers, scholar generals, etc are recruited from level 1 universities and other lower level posts are filled with graduates from other universities deemed to be less worthy. The problem with this system is that it is a bastardized system that the Brits had. The British system even though it is primarily an old boy’s network, still recognizes true talent and allows it to come to the top. Witness Winston Churchill. Harry’s system does not do this at all. It’s a play safe system.
For example, if you are a SAF scholar and you decided to go to Cambridge for an engineering degree, you are bonded for 8 years when you come back. During this time, your superior will come to you with your entire career laid out in front of you. After the first 8 year bond is finished, you should, or rather I would say you will be a Major. If you re-up for another contract, you will make Lt Colonel by this and this a time, make Colonel by this and this a date and retired by this and this a time. After which a job in politics awaits you or one in a GLC or a stat board, regardless of your qualifications. As long as you don’t screw up during your army term, this will be your locked in career course. Even if you do screw up in the SAF, I have seen many times that a scholar is given another opportunity to try the same exercise again until he gets a good score or a pass.
This sort of a guaranteed career plan is very tempting to a scholar. He does not need to rely on himself too much, everything is planned out for him. And by the time he has put in his 20 years with the SAF, he is too old and too out of the loop to practice his original degree course anyway, being that he will be in his mid 40s minimum. However, it does not bring out the best in them. It brings out people who try not to take risks and try not to think too much and try not to buck the trend. That is what we have today. They will continue to collect their bonus, and salary as long as they don’t screw up in a major way. This is the definition of the Old Boys network. How does this help Singapore to have this system in place? It does not help at all. In a small country with no resources, we need forward thinking, creative, and savvy people, the exact type of people the scholar system weeds out.
This is the legacy left in place by Harry and now perpetrated by his son with an unholy zeal. Witness his comments said to Fareed Zakaria, the Washingotn post reporter, last year. He mentioned to Zakaria that there should be a “certain natural aristocracy in the system”. Ah Gong really brainwashed his son before he died. But what if the natural aristocracy was useless? What if there is no one like the calibre of Winston Churchill in the system? What if the system does not recognize a real talent when it saw one? Would the Singapore Harry Lee natural aristocracy recognize a Margaret Thatcher (who did not do well enough to get a scholarship to Oxford, and only got one after another student withdrew, and who only got second class honours)? What if the natural aristocracy was so wrongly set up that it cannot weed out the weak links, it does not promote accountability and worse of all it keeps the incompetent in place for the sake of “saving face”. We are currently seeing elements of all of this in the system set up by Harry Lee.
Yes, one man was shut out of the Singapore “aristocracy”, and the Cambridge one too, and in the end decided that he will make the rules and set up his own “natural aristocracy” as revealed by his son. He has left us this legacy. Whereas there are some check and balances in the UK one, there is non in the Singapore one. This does not bode well for the future of Singapore. We are starting to see the system straining and creaking at the joint with all the screw ups going on. If Lee Hsien Loong and the PAP are honest with themselves and we us, they will see that it is not working. But then, when have they ever been honest?
In many ways, I feel that Harry Lee put the system in place to punish singaporeans and to retaliate against them. I doubt if this person ever love singapore. I never once heard him say he loved his country or that he loved the people. He never once said that he was totally devoted to making singapore into something. He remembered how expensive and how much money he had to spend for his UK study and his first act in the implementation of the scholar system was to send his on an overseas scholarship to UK. Let the taxpayer pay for it. He must have felt singaporeans owed him that one. This system is a self perpetuating designed to keep him and his family in power by placing trusted and beholden people in positions of power. Lets all wake up now and smell the coffee.
Just my 2 cents.
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To be considered ministerial material, one must come up through the scholarly system of mandarins and swear undying allegiance to the PAP. Yes the PAP and not the country! This “certain natural aristocracy in the system” is nothing but a shambolic scheme; utterly self-serving and out-of-sync with the times. Power should be returned to the people to select their own leaders without fear or intimidation. These leaders need not be aristocrats but they must have the passion and the qualities to serve. Monetary rewards should be the last thing on their minds! Can the PAP aristocrats stand up for the count? I don't think so. Despite paying themselves the highest salaries imaginable, they still screwed up big time from time to time. Zero accountability means that these ministers play musical chairs with each other and life goes on. The media will continue its songs of praise and porlumpars will come out in full force to show their public affection and admiration. Singapore is surely doomed with such a system. The really bright ones with spines of their own would not want to be called a natural aristocrat and enter politics through the PAP patronage system. I am sure they have better things to do and a higher calling awaits them.
