Former top civil servant Ngiam Tong Dow dies, aged 83

Mr Ngiam Tong Dow, son of a court interpreter and a washerwoman from Hainan who rose to be a top civil servant and later an outspoken critic of the public service and the Government, died yesterday morning.

He was 83.

His family told The Straits Times that he had been in ill health for 4½ years.

Mr Ngiam spent 40 years in the apex Administrative Service developing policies on the economy, defence technology, transport, savings and retirement, as well as housing.

He worked closely with founding prime minister Lee Kuan Yew and his successor Goh Chok Tong, as well as former deputy prime minister Goh Keng Swee.

He was also chairman of the Economic Development Board (EDB), DBS Bank, Central Provident Fund Board and the Housing Board.

But it was a twist of fate that put him on the road to success in public service.

Tuberculosis - a disease that killed his father when the younger Ngiam was just a nine-year-old - scuttled his ambition to be a postal clerk. A pre-employment medical check-up showed he had contracted early-stage tuberculosis.

After he was declared unfit for work, he went back to his books and won an open bursary to the University of Malaya, where he got first-class honours in economics.

He joined the Administrative Service in August 1959.

Few could tell the story of Singapore's transformation from Third World to First as he could - from the days of high unemployment, squatters and tin-shed factories when he began working life, to a high-tech economy with a First World per capita income when his career came to a close.

He became the youngest permanent secretary at age 35, and made the rounds in key ministries such as Finance, National Development, and Trade and Industry.

Sharp and forthright, he quickly developed a reputation for having iron in his spine.

Former Cabinet minister S. Dhanabalan said Mr Ngiam was his first choice for permanent secretary when he was given the National Development portfolio in 1987.

The ministry was undergoing a "major shake-up" then, he added. Its previous minister, Teh Cheang Wan, had been investigated for corruption and committed suicide a year earlier.

"Then Prime Minister (Lee Kuan Yew) said I could have a choice of anybody to be the permanent secretary. I asked for Ngiam Tong Dow, who was known to be analytical and prepared to speak his mind," said Mr Dhanabalan, 83, who joined the EDB with Mr Ngiam when it was set up in 1961.

Former head of civil service and Enterprise Singapore chairman Peter Ong said Mr Ngiam's influence on the civil service was "legendary". "Many of the older civil servants will recall the need to bring forth robust arguments to support their funding requests to the Ministry of Finance when he was the permanent secretary."

Mr Ngiam held the post for 13 years until he retired in 1999.

He subsequently joined the boards of companies, including Temasek and Singapore Press Holdings.

DBS chairman Peter Seah said Mr Ngiam was instrumental in boosting the bank's support for homegrown companies.

The man enjoyed a simple and frugal lifestyle, he said. "He would go to his favourite coffee shop along Telok Ayer Street and share a table with the lunchtime crowd to have his favourite Teochew porridge."

Even after his retirement, affairs of state continued to weigh on his mind. He often spoke about his worries for the future of Singapore.

In an interview with The Straits Times in 2003, he said Singapore is "larger than the PAP", and talent should be allowed to spread throughout society.

"So far, the PAP's tactic is to put all the scholars into the civil service... But in my view, that's a very short-term view," he said.

He credited the EDB for his hands-on approach to public service. "Investment promotion then was all about hard foot slogging and personal persuasion, which teaches you to be very humble and patient," he said.

"I learnt to be a supplicant and a professional beggar, instead of a dispenser of favours."

He also pushed for more government support to grow local small and medium-sized enterprises, instead of over-relying on foreign multinationals.

This, he believed, was the way to ensure that knowledge would be rooted in Singaporeans and based in Singapore.

Ultimately, it was not the dollars and cents, but the compassionate side of policymaking, that mattered to him.

In 2010, he said in a Business Times interview: "We should be a humane society where people have respect for each other. Then we can survive. That's the Singapore I would want for my grandchildren."

Mr Ngiam is survived by his wife Jeanette Gan Choon Neo, daughter Selina, son Kelvin, and three grandchildren.

The wake will be held at 4 Chestnut Avenue between noon and 10pm today and tomorrow, with a prayer service at 8pm. The cortege will leave for Mandai Crematorium on Sunday for a private service.