The Admin Service sadly began to be politicised in the late 90s. The old guards like Ngiam, Pillay, Hochstadt, Boggars, Sim etc had left and the Scholars began to insight for positions. The less capable ones chose to easier way to advance their career. That speech by LHL is disgraceful.
When Pillay was Perm Sec and was Chairman of SIA and Ngiam who was also a Perm sec and was Chairman of DBS, Devan Nair complained to the old man that SIA Unions are not member of NTUC and DBS did not allow staff to join a union. Both Perm Secs told Nair to fuck off.