Wolf Review(The Last Fools by Peh Shing Huei)

 

(Contents)

For every successful individual, there are probably hundreds or even thousands toiling their time away, working behind the scenes to make things happen. Nothing out of the ordinary when bosses get the credit and the subordinates gets the work. The Last Fools: The Eight Immortals of Lee Kuan Yew by Peh Shing Huei, plays tribute to those deputies for their important role in our initial years of nation building. They are your Robin means to Batman. Charlie Munger to Warren Buffett. Dr. Watson to Sherlock Holmes. They are the important side-kick that makes things work behind the scene. They are not often in the limelight, but without their strong executional ability the bosses of the world can’t flourish. 

We all know about the brilliant of Lee Kwan Yew, Goh Keng Swee and S.Rajaratnam. Most Singaporeans knew little about the heroes behind the implementation of our national policies. In the book, there are men that literally change the course of history. Men that drove the enterprising spirit of Singapore. Men that set up the building block of the essential infrastructure and services which we had taken for granted. 

I drew some inspiration from Andrew Chew who saw the improvement to our medical system in the early 70s during the British withdrawal from Singapore. He oversaw the improvement to our hospitals when he was Director of Medical Services (Hospital). Andrew was the key person on the naming and formulating of our medisave system. The policy helps usher in affordable and quality healthcare in Singapore. 

Hon Sui Sen is our ex finance minister. He also lead the EDB in attracting investment into our country. His effort of drawing multi national companies to Jurong was one of his many accomplishments, a Herculean effort when Jurong was a swamp during its infancy stage of nation development. Unfortunately, Minister Ho met his death due to a sudden heart attack at a very young age. His meticulous work was missed after his passing, a great loss for our nation.

Lee Ek Tieng was given a title of Aquaman. Without his executive brilliance, we wouldn’t have clean drinking water and waterways. The Permanent Secretary for Environment was the person to fulfil Lee Kwan Yew’s promise of a clean Singapore river. The task was made challenging as many people rely on the river for their livelihood. Hawkers, squatters and farmers had to be relocated, a task difficult by all measures. The upgrade to our sewage system bring about a significant improvement to the quality of life of Singaporeans.

The chapter “This Is Your Captain Speaking” written by my friend, Aaron Low, spoke of the importance of J.Y Pillay’s contributions in setting up Singapore Airline. After Malaysia and Singapore got separated in 1965, Malaysia-Singapore had an uneasy arrangement of having joint ownership of the National Carrier. Everything was written on the wall for a separation. Boardroom disagreements were common due to historical baggage. Both set of directors representing Malaysia and Singapore can’t see eye to eye. Ambitions were different. The Malaysian management was very focused on making Malaysia-Singapore Airline (MSA) a domestic carrier, whereas the Singapore management was in favour of going international with Singapore as the hub. Eventually, both set of management were split into what we know now as Malaysia Airlines and Singapore Airlines. It was close to an impossible task for J.Y Pillay to set up an airline from scratch with no domestic market to offer, but he stuck to his belief. With his determination and gumption, J.Y Pillay was able to make Singapore Airline the best airline in the world.  

Singapore Airlines enduring success lies within the focus on services. Free snack, in-flight entertainment, comfortable seats and new planes were part of SIA innovative services design to set them apart. The foundation brings the company on the path to be the best airline in the world. The chairman was very hands on. He goes on board to check the passengers’ services. Sometime unannounced. 

There was trouble brewing in our stock market in late 1985 when Pan Electric crisis erupted. The saga involved a major shareholder of Pan Electric selling forward contracts of his shares multiple times, failing to met his debt obligations. The collapse of the company and the ensuing stock market crash caused millions of losses in our stock market. The worst stock market crash in our history caused a few brokerage firms to go under. The stock exchange had to be suspended for 3 days. It was a crisis of epic proportions happening to our market. J.Y Pillay was appointed as Managing Director of MAS a few weeks before the crisis. He had to sort out the mess in our financial market. His other appointments included Chairman of SGX and The Council of Advisors to the elected President of Singapore.

The Last Fools by Peh Shing Huei is an informative book to know the history of Singapore nation building and the many men that make up the Singapore story. It goes on to Lone Wolf Investor highly recommended list. With over 10,000 copies sold, I can’t be more convinced with my recommendation. God Bless. 🙏

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