Letter of Appreciation from Prime Minister Lee Kuan Yew

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1 LETTER OF APPRECIATION FROM PRIME MINISTER LEE KUAN YEW TO MR ONG PANG BOON ON 29 DEC 84 “Dear Pang Boon, In December 1980, after the last elections, when I appointed you as Minister for the Environment, you told me that it was to be your last term. In the Ministry of Education, 1963-1970, you carried out a politically difficult task, that of increasing the teaching of English in the Chinese-stream schools, and of Chinese in the English-stream schools. These policies evolved into bilingualism: English and the mother tongue. I also thank you for helping in the selection of candidates for self-renewal. You had certain reservations. You pointed out that only time and crises can reveal latent defects in a person. I agree with you. You also had misgivings, as had Chin Chye, over the speed of self-renewal and the effect it was having on the morale of old guard MPs. I must take the responsibility for both the method and the pace of self-renewal, though it is reassuring to me that Goh Keng Swee and Rajaratnam supported me. A younger team of Ministers and MPs have now lky/1984/lky1229A.doc 2 become the majority both in Cabinet and in Parliament. There is no turning back. I am confident that the younger leaders will be equal to the task but, if not, the responsibility will be mine, shared with Keng Swee and Rajaratnam. It is some consolation to me that these differences did not stem from personal considerations. You and I have spent the best part of our lives working together in the PAP. You gave up a comfortable, promising career with the Malaya Borneo Building Society in Kuala Lumpur in 1955 to come down and be the first PAP organising secretary. You received only half your previous salary, because, that was all I could afford to give you, my assemblyman’s allowance of $500. I could not have managed the work in the PAP because most of the business was conducted in Mandarin and dialects, and I was then unable to speak or read Chinese. Without you, I would have been a deaf and a dumb Secretary- General. I am grateful for the sacrifice you made, although I know you did it not for me, but for the cause of a more equal and more just society in Malaya. lky/1984/lky1229A.doc 3 We failed in Malaysia. We did, however, get to implement our policies in an independent Singapore. I hope you find some satisfaction in having been a member of a team that improved the lives of our people and made Singapore a more equal and more just society. I wish you an active and a fruitful life outside the Cabinet. Yours ever, Kuan Yew” - - - - - - - - - - 29 DECEMBER 1984 Time of Issue: 1900 hrs lky/1984/lky1229A.doc.

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