He was fixated from the 70s and for the second generation he selected only PHDs and they failed miserably. Even then he was into eugenics. He recruited Dr Tan Eng Liang, handsome, 1st class honours, Rhodes scholar, went to Oxford, Olympian, multiple medalist at Asian and SEAP games, won River Valley in GE 72 and stunningly won River Valley again with 81% of votes, only to resign as MOS In 1980.
Even then he did not give up. In August 1983 at the National Day Rally he stunned Singapore and the World by annoucing his grandest scheme - social engineering and the dive into eugenics. Monetary incentive for women who did not complete PSLE to undergo sterilisation, plans for the state to influence marriage choice, etc. Even till today peopl wonder if we missed another Olivia Lum, who was admitted to NUS in 1982.
What was not told was that earlier that year he instructed NUS for the 1983 admission, females from Malaysia seeking admission had much stricter criteria than their male country counterparts. Other below the radar programmes included pre-abortion and pre-sterlisation counselling for better educated males and females and they thought everyone went thru counselling. By end of 1988, his cabinet revolted.
Even today, some of his peers who knew these thought that karma played a part for his daughter's situation.
