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Echo: What is the ACS dimension in your life and work?
Mr. Chan: The sum total of ACS in my life and work is a brief 12
years – 8 years as a student followed by 4 years as a teacher.
Although this is only one-sixth of my life (on present calculation),
it was like a “mustard seed” which grew into a tree and sustained me
in my later years.
Echo: Tell us how it all began.
Mr. Chan: When the Japanese invaded Singapore, a British
colony, in December 1941, I had just completed two years of primary
school at ACS Coleman Street and was preparing to start Standard 1
in 1942; but school never re-opened. The Japanese who had invaded
and occupied Singapore closed all English-medium schools (I do not
know whether they had closed Chinese language schools too), so ACS
was affected. My early education was therefore interrupted.
When World War II ended in 1945 and the British returned to
Singapore, I went back to ACS. But instead of resuming schooling at
Standard 1, I decided to skip two years and joined a Standard 3
class in September 1945. After one term in Standard 3, I topped the
class and was fast-tracked to do my ‘O’ levels in 6 years (1951). My
ACS education, therefore, consisted of two years in primary and 6
years thereafter.
Two years after the end of the war, my father passed away so I
had to complete schooling as fast as possible to go out and earn a
living to support the family. I got a teaching bursary so my career
as as a teacher was already pre-determined. After graduating from
Teachers’ College, I taught for a while at neighbourhood schools in
Rangoon Road and pre-EDB Jurong.
My uncle, Mr Chan Siew Jiang, who was a teacher at ACS from 1922
to 1960, contacted me. He said: “I know you are not going to be a
teacher forever like me, but how about coming back to ACS to teach
for at least a few years? I respected my uncle (father’s brother) a
lot so I took his advice. The rest is history.
Echo: What did you teach?
Mr Chan: Three subjects - English, Maths and Latin.
Echo: Tell us about some high points of your teaching
career
Mr Chan: The teaching was pretty routine – except for Latin.
How I ended up teaching this ‘dead’ language was unbelievable! My
own Latin teacher, Ong Kang Hai, knew I was pretty good at it. He
got me to share his Latin teaching load. I was to teach the
foundation Latin classes (Forms 2 and 3) whilst he taught Forms 4
and 5 (O level). I agreed because I knew the classical Latin “texts”
I had studied with him, cover to cover. Imagine my horror when I
discovered that the MOE had changed the books in the year I was
supposed to start teaching Latin. I ended up relearning “Virgil
Aeneid” in Latin myself every night just to be able to “teach” it in
class the next morning! It was the pits that first year – I was only
five pages ahead of the students and to this day I wonder if they
knew that all along but respected me enough not to reveal it!
The second high point of my teaching career was my ECA duties. A
colleague and friend, the late Tan Soo Liat, who was a national
hurdler, needed an assistant to help him with his sports master’s
duties. He persuaded me to be Assistant Sports Secretary. I enjoyed
this ECA assignment enormously as it gave me the opportunity to
interact with the school’s best performers in the sports field. I had
great fun with the school’s athletes and basketballers in the 1950s,
even though I was not a sports person myself. From these sportsmen I
learned the first lessons of the importance of training, discipline,
mental focus, competition and fair play.
Echo: What other enduring lessons were you able to draw
from the overall ACS teaching experience?
Mr Chan: To succeed in any worthwhile goal in life, one
needs passion and character. Passion is the impetus that drives you
– whether in your studies, on the sports field or at work. Character
ensures the commitment, and tenacity needed when the going gets
tough. Character also determines how you play the game – selfishly or
with fairness, sportsmanship and grace.
Echo: How has your ACS experience helped you in your
public service career of 40 years?
Mr Chan: I would say ACS provided me with invaluable
leadership training. It is not too different leading ACS’s top
athletic team to win a relay and leading a team of young engineers
to clinch a desired project from a global MNC for Singapore. In
fact, in my quiet moments when I think about the “stars” in the ACS
and EDB teams I had led, I find amazing similarities in the character
and personalities of these young men (and women). It is as though
they had been cut from the same mould.
Let me personalise this by naming two “old boys” – one from ACS
and the other from EDB (who also went to ACS but I did not teach
him). The ACS old boy is M. Jegathesan, the lead sprinter in ACS’s
unbeatable 4 x 110 yards relay team. In the classroom, he was the
“little boy” who sat in the front row and diligently took notes of
all the Latin grammar rules I taught. On the sports field, he was the
runner on whom the whole school depended to give our relay team a
head start. Just before a race, Jega would come to me in the stands
and say he was nervous. I calmed him down and said: “Just do your
best. We are going to win”. The confidence seems to reassure him,
every time.
The EDB old boy is David Lim (Tik En). In my book, “Heart Work”
about Singapore’s industralisation and EDB’s role in it, David Lim
wrote: “In my first year in the New York office, I was given
special assignments and mentored by Chan Chin Bock, Deputy Chairman
of EDB and legendary pioneer of the EDB road-warrior tribe. We went
on the road together, and I witnessed first-hand how Chin Bock earned
his reputation for being able to turn any conversation into a
compelling pitch for Singapore”.
It has been many years since I mentored Jega and David but we
have stayed connected. I am full of admiration for what they have
learnt from me and accomplished in their jobs and their lives. And I
am also very impressed by them as heads of their families. They
remain ever appreciative and respectful for the part I have played
in their personal development. I last saw Jega over a drink at the
Hilton Hotel coffeshop in KL where he had come to meet me. Jega, now
a medical doctor, is a top official in Malaysia’s Ministry of Health.
David, as you know, has stepped down from his Acting Minister (at
MICA) position and is now CEO at NOL. I wish more of my former
students and subordinates could be like them.
Not withstanding their important positions in Malaysia and
Singapore, both Jega and David remain the perfect ACSians –
intelligent, capable, dedicated, honest, sincere and always
respectful. They are the products of two of Singapore’s most admired
institutions – led over the years – by exemplary leaders.
Echo: How is good leadership developed in an organisation?
Mr Chan: Leadership is a vital component of a person’s
character and personality – more often the result of nature rather
than nurture. In other words, leaders are typically born, not made.
I have been personally very very lucky to work under FOUR great
leaders. At ACS, it was Dr Thio Chan Bee and at EDB it was Mr Hon
Sui Sen, EDB’s founding chairman who, subsequently became Chairman
DBS Bank and Singapore’s Finance Minister. Great leaders imbue the
organisations they lead with exemplary conduct and distinctive
corporate culture. This, in turn, spurs superior performance in
those they lead. The same thing applies to countries.
Echo: Tell us how you keep busy in retirement.
Mr Chan: Almost 7 years ago, I suffered a stroke whilst on
a family vacation in Australia. As part of my recovery, I have a
heavy schedule of physiotherapy clinics and medical consultations. I
am fortunate that my stroke affects only my physical mobility. It
has had minimum impact on my mental faculties. As a result, I remain
engrossed in personally managing our family investments. I also run
the occasional “tutorial” for newly recruited as well as in-service
EDB officers and advise economic planners and managers of other
countries who want advice on how to attract MNC investments. The
latest instance of this is my discussions with someone who runs the
EDB for Madagascar. Before Madagascar, I have also been involved in
consultancy efforts for Ghana, Oman and Cambodia.
Last but not least, I have a personal schedule of relearning
Chinese. Like everyone educated in ACS in past years, my Chinese is
functional. I hope to improve on it in the next one or two years by
increased exposure to the language and culture. |
