Lim Chong Yah: Ideals and the man

Singapore's economics doyen talks about 'shock therapy' and the Pledge, sending more Singaporeans abroad for PhD studies - and wooing his wife with a poem
by Derrick A Paulo, TODAY, 13 Oct 2012

When Professor Lim Chong Yah was asked by the Economic Society of Singapore to give a public lecture in April, he chose a topic that he titled, matter-of-factly, Economic Restructuring II.

It was the use of the words "shock therapy" during the question-and-answer session later, he thinks, that got people's attention instantly after it was reported.

With all the responses that followed, "sometimes I think I sacrificed a bit of my sleep, reading what they said", he admits.

Looking back now, his view of the lively public discussion that took place on how to narrow the wage gap is that it was - distilled to its simplest - a "search for consensus" by a "participatory society".

While he is glad that the National Wages Council (NWC) later recommended a S$50 increment for all workers earning less than S$1,000, "satisfied" does not quite describe his sentiment.

"My shock therapy was supposed to last for three years, not just one year," he points out in his soft-spoken way, and after one of his usual thoughtful pauses, adds: "But I don't know what the NWC is going to do next year."

What he does know, or at least firmly believes, is that it is possible to freeze top wages for that duration. 

"In 1985 and in 1998, we had a wage cut, not a wage freeze, across the board, from the President to the Chief Justice and down to the humblest worker in Singapore. So a wage freeze is very mild," he notes.

MEETING Lee Kuan Yew

Having afternoon tea at The St Regis' Brasserie Les Saveurs with Singapore's pre-eminent economist is like an afternoon stroll through moments of the Republic's history.

Born in Malacca in 1932, Prof Lim began his journey in economics in 1951 with a scholarship in the discipline at what was then the University of Malaya in Singapore.

And he has a story to tell about those days, when some students "agitated" for a law school to be established: "We invited a young lawyer to ... speak on the proposition to establish a law school as soon as possible. He immediately agreed."

That was the first time, in his sophomore year, that he met Mr Lee Kuan Yew, nine years his senior.

"But all of us, as undergraduates, had heard a lot about him, and we had great admiration for him. We knew he had come back from Cambridge, and he was our icon, our nationalist, fighting for independence already," says Prof Lim.

The next time they met was when he was in the Singapore Administrative Service, and Mr Lee visited its offices in 1959 after the People's Action Party came to power.

"I told him something very silly, I think: We should ban all strikes," recounts Prof Lim. 

"Strikes were very prevalent then. But how can you ban strikes in a democracy ... he listened to me, probably laughing at me."

IDEALISM FOR LIFE

It was an idea born of youthful idealism, says Prof Lim - which begs the question of whether he is now no longer as idealistic.

"I think idealism should stay with one until one dies - a certain degree, although idealism's foundation must change with circumstances. If circumstances change, one should not put one's head in the mud, unchanged," he replies.

Without saying if any of his ideals have changed, he keeps returning, though, in our broad-ranging conversation, to the ones that have not: Those encapsulated in the National Pledge.

"To build a democratic society, based on justice and equality - that has not changed. That we are becoming one united people, regardless of race or religion - that has not changed. And that we should strive for peace, progress and prosperity," he says. "And inclusive growth - also has not changed. Hence, Economic Restructuring II."

POLYTECHNICS INTO VARSITIES?

When discussing economic issues, Prof Lim is "never cautious". 

He makes the point, though, in one of his trademark wry expressions, that he does "not wish to have an opinion on every subject".

The other area that interests him greatly is education, having been in academia for 57 years.

Asked for his thoughts on recent education announcements, he offers some. But it may be too late, he observes, for one of his ideas: That we should "convert, one at a time, two of our best polytechnics" into Singapore's fifth and sixth universities.

"That would be faster and cheaper. Looking into the future, I am not sure we will have to establish more polytechnics. We will have to establish more universities ... All you would need to do is lift up the quality of the two polytechnics and expand their courses."

It is a Pandora's box that requires a lot of explanation, he admits, but one worth exploring.

While the authorities have planned to make the Singapore Institute of Technology and SIM University the newest public universities, another idea of Prof Lim's may yet, he hopes, one day be realised: A future university called the Maritime University of Singapore.

It could span facets from maritime tourism and maritime architecture to maritime engineering, and would "fit in with us as a very important maritime centre and economy, an island state with trade as our lifeblood and shipping as one of our main activities".

Scholarships and foreigners

Some of his suggestions have seen fruition in the past, such as his call years ago to fund the best students and young university staff to get their PhD abroad. And they went "by the dozens". But the scheme no longer exists, a retrogressive move he still laments.

"They say it is too expensive. Well, we are quite a wealthy nation," he remarks.

Indeed, in a span of nearly two hours, there is only once when Prof Lim says he is "not happy" about something: When talking about scholarships and how "so many" are being given to foreigners to do a doctorate here.

Prefacing his view with the point that he is "not anti-foreigner", he says: "I would prefer to send more and more Singaporeans abroad to Ivy League universities to do their PhD."

It is a tough task, he thinks, to compare current university cohorts to the earlier generation, but he reckons that "the best 5 per cent probably might be better than the former 5 per cent, certainly in terms of quality of education".

Amid a national discussion about the local education system, he feels that the key is to not move from one extreme to another.

While he picks "the tendency to load on children who have no say" as a weak area that needs attention, he also cites a recent article in The Economist magazine that described the education system here as one of the best in the world.

"It's good to look at our shortcomings, but we should also recognise what we've achieved," he says. "By and large, we've struck a good balance, and let's see if we can improve on it."

For now, his own small contribution to the national conversation is this: "The targets cannot be too much away from our Pledge ... If we want to deviate, we have to change our Pledge."

Raising the retirement age

There is no doubting that Prof Lim is proud of the Singapore of today. The highlight of his career as an economist, he says, has been in helping the Republic transform "from a basket case to a showcase state".

And of the several insights he shares of his time as former Chairman of the NWC, one stands out: How the retirement age was raised from its low base of 55 years. 

He begins the story by declaring, softly, that retirement is his "pet topic".

"I had been trying over the years to change the retirement age without success. I could not get enough support."

Then one day, at a farewell lunch with Dr Albert Winsemius, who was retiring as economic adviser to the Government, Prof Lim secured a "final favour" from the Dutchman, who then talked to the political leadership about the issue.

So, the NWC recommended that the retirement age be gradually shifted to 60 years. Says Prof Lim: "I remember, a top civil servant told me ... two persons 'up there' were not happy. They said 60 was too low. Eventually, it must move up, slowly, to 62 if not 65."

The two men were Mr Lee and Mr Goh Chok Tong, the Prime Minister then.

So, has there been anything that Prof Lim has not succeeded in doing?

"I don't think I can succeed in changing the size of Singapore. So I never tried," he says with a straight face.

Religious and romantic

He is not one to complain, says the man who readily describes himself as "very" religious.

Prof Lim studied in Anglo-Chinese School, a Methodist institution, in Malacca. His father ran a coffee shop and, later, a big provision shop. His mother died when he was eight years old.

By the age of 12, he was working on a farm to supplement his family's income. He also delivered bread to coffee shops, to support his education.

In Singapore, he was Deputy Chairman of Methodist Girls' School "for decades". Most recently, he was named Emeritus Professor of Nanyang Technological University, which he moved to in 1992 after retiring from the National University of Singapore. This makes him the only Emeritus Professor of two universities here.

His childhood experience spurred him to approach NTU in 2007 to launch the Lim Chong Yah Bursary Fund for needy students, which he jump-started with a S$100,000 donation.

Newly retired again, he now enjoys passing his time taking walks with his wife of 56 years. He suggests the Labrador Nature and Coastal Walk as especially "poetic and romantic" in the setting sun.

Poetry, in fact, was how he got his wife to marry him, he says with a twinkle his eye before reciting the self-composed poem that won her heart.

Climbing the climbable heights

Just as unexpectedly, he also cites mountain trekking as one of his loves. He has been to the highest mountain in Taiwan and in Britain. He has been to Mount Fuji in Japan and recommends Huangshan in China. He and his wife have also been to the Himalayas.

"And I must confess, I've also been to Bukit Timah, and I loved it. It has its own charms, you know," he says enthusiastically.

With four children - two boys and two girls - and their children, Prof Lim would usually accompany each family to take his holidays. Last year, it was Switzerland. Next, it will be Japan.

He notes how, from the Himalayas to Denmark, he has bumped into Singaporeans.

"You need money before you can travel. That can come about only if we are a wealthy nation ... and we have one of the lowest unemployment rates in the world. To me, that's our great achievement," he says.

"Of course, that doesn't mean we shouldn't grumble, that we shouldn't try to fine-tune our society. And economic restructuring is one of the fine-tunings. We can continue to achieve further. We must continue to climb the climbable heights."