Yong Pung How left an impact on Singapore law, finance and government
Tributes pour in, lauding former CJ's judiciary revamp and his work with GIC, MAS, OCBC
By Selina Lum, Law Correspondent, The Straits Times, 10 Jan 2020
Former chief justice Yong Pung How, who implemented key reforms to transform the Singapore court system into a model of efficiency, died yesterday. He was 93.
He is survived by his wife, Madam Cheang Wei Woo, and their daughter, Ms Yong Ying-I, who is permanent secretary at the Ministry of Communications and Information.
Mr Yong and Madam Cheang met in 1950 when they were both studying in London. They married in 1955, when he was 29 and she, 26.
Tributes poured in yesterday from across the many areas in which Mr Yong had left an impact, in a career that spanned the Government, law and finance.
The legal fraternity saluted him for revamping Singapore's judiciary in his 16 years as the country's top judge from 1990 to 2006.
"Yong Pung How was a towering figure in the law. Respected as chief justice - and occasionally feared - the sweeping reforms that he introduced helped establish Singapore's reputation as a legal hub with a world-class judiciary," said National University of Singapore law dean Simon Chesterman.
Singapore Management University law dean Goh Yihan described Mr Yong as a titan of the Singapore legal system, which he said "is world-class and internationally recognised because of Mr Yong's steadfast push towards modernisation and efficiency in the 1990s".
Mr Yong was born on April 11, 1926, in Kuala Lumpur, the only son in a family of six children. His father Yong Shook Lin was a prominent lawyer who co-founded the firm Shook Lin & Bok.
He read law at Downing College in Cambridge University after World War II, and it was there where he would strike up a lifelong friendship with Mr Lee Kuan Yew, who would go on to be Singapore's founding prime minister.
Mr Yong was admitted to the Singapore Bar in 1964 and migrated to Singapore with his family in 1969. He was a senior partner with Shook Lin & Bok until 1970.
He then went into merchant banking and finance, ending up as chairman and chief executive officer of OCBC Bank from 1983 to 1989.
On a secondment from OCBC from 1981 to 1983, he helped form the Government of Singapore Investment Corporation - Singapore's sovereign wealth fund, now known as GIC - and became its first managing director.
He was also managing director of the Monetary Authority of Singapore (MAS) from 1982 to 1983, working closely with Dr Goh Keng Swee, who was chairman.
GIC CEO Lim Chow Kiat said Mr Yong's contributions were foundational. "He incorporated it as a private limited company, a form GIC still operates by, so that it can focus solely on managing the foreign reserves," said Mr Lim.
Mr Yong worked with the appropriate ministries on a rigorous governance framework for GIC and was instrumental in recruiting the first investment managers globally, ensuring that the officers were armed with sharp investment skills, as well as a strong sense of rigour and conviction, said Mr Lim. "We appreciate that what GIC is today is the product of Mr Yong's talents in manifold areas: legal, banking, business and administration."
MAS credited Mr Yong for steering the authority and the financial sector through a period of slower growth globally. "He helped implement a new approach towards reserves management, where foreign assets in excess of what MAS needed to manage the Singapore dollar were transferred to the newly created GIC for long-term investment by the Government," it added in a statement.
OCBC's group CEO Samuel Tsien said that when Mr Yong led the bank, it was a time of change, especially in consumer banking, when customer demand for services significantly increased amid intense competition.
Under Mr Yong, OCBC rolled out the largest network of ATMs in Singapore and was also the first to introduce Sunday and night banking.
He also drove the growth in the bank's property and residential loan areas, and modernised the look of OCBC's Chinese sailing vessel symbol that forms part of its current logo.
Still, the part of his career that he is perhaps best known for was to come.
On July 1, 1989, at age 63 - despite nearly two decades away from law and having already once declined an offer to be a judge - Mr Yong was persuaded by Mr Lee to join the judiciary with a view to him becoming the chief justice.
He was appointed a Supreme Court judge and took office as the chief justice a year later on Sept 28, 1990. When Mr Yong took the helm at the judiciary, there was a backlog of more than 2,000 cases.
He introduced case management measures that cleared the backlog by the mid-1990s and reduced the time for cases to be concluded.
He harnessed technology to streamline court procedures, set up specialist courts, raised the salaries for judges to attract legal talent and initiated the Justice's Law Clerk scheme to recruit top law graduates to the legal service.
In his first speech as chief justice, he abolished the traditional wigs worn by judges and lawyers, and salutations such as "My Lord" or "Your Lordship" for Supreme Court judges.
"In the place of these relics, the legacy Mr Yong left behind is a world-class judiciary staffed by first-rate legal talent and deploying cutting-edge technological advances," said Law Society president Gregory Vijayendran.
At the time, Mr Yong's push for efficiency gave rise to questions about whether justice was being rushed. Lawyers quit in droves as they were stressed by court deadlines. Besides his efforts to reform court processes and strengthen the quality of the Bench, Mr Yong also chose to hear all appeals of criminal cases from the State Courts, which were then known as the Subordinate Courts.
He developed a reputation for being tough and enhancing the sentences of those who appeared before him, even as he gave second chances to offenders with psychiatric problems.
Mr Yong was also well-known for his acerbic observations in the courtroom. Once, he was told by the defence counsel that an 18-year-old boy who had sex with a minor was given probation by a district judge. Mr Yong said of the judge: "Maybe he should be put on probation."
He also produced the most judgments in the history of the Singapore Bench, with a total tally of 882 written judgments.
He retired on April 10, 2006, at the age of 80.
His many achievements aside, Mr Yong said his finest hour in life had nothing to do with his illustrious career as chief justice.
In an interview in 2004, he said: "I would say it was the day I married my wife. We have been married for 50 years now, and I still consider her my best friend.
"To stay happily married with a good reputation and a close-knit family must be one of anybody's happiest achievements in life, whatever the work you do."
The wake will be held at 48A Nassim Road between 5pm and 10pm from today to Sunday. The cortege will leave for Mandai Crematorium on Monday for a private funeral service.
Tributes pour in, lauding former CJ's judiciary revamp and his work with GIC, MAS, OCBC
By Selina Lum, Law Correspondent, The Straits Times, 10 Jan 2020
He is survived by his wife, Madam Cheang Wei Woo, and their daughter, Ms Yong Ying-I, who is permanent secretary at the Ministry of Communications and Information.
Mr Yong and Madam Cheang met in 1950 when they were both studying in London. They married in 1955, when he was 29 and she, 26.
Tributes poured in yesterday from across the many areas in which Mr Yong had left an impact, in a career that spanned the Government, law and finance.
The legal fraternity saluted him for revamping Singapore's judiciary in his 16 years as the country's top judge from 1990 to 2006.
"Yong Pung How was a towering figure in the law. Respected as chief justice - and occasionally feared - the sweeping reforms that he introduced helped establish Singapore's reputation as a legal hub with a world-class judiciary," said National University of Singapore law dean Simon Chesterman.
Singapore Management University law dean Goh Yihan described Mr Yong as a titan of the Singapore legal system, which he said "is world-class and internationally recognised because of Mr Yong's steadfast push towards modernisation and efficiency in the 1990s".
Mr Yong was born on April 11, 1926, in Kuala Lumpur, the only son in a family of six children. His father Yong Shook Lin was a prominent lawyer who co-founded the firm Shook Lin & Bok.
He read law at Downing College in Cambridge University after World War II, and it was there where he would strike up a lifelong friendship with Mr Lee Kuan Yew, who would go on to be Singapore's founding prime minister.
Mr Yong was admitted to the Singapore Bar in 1964 and migrated to Singapore with his family in 1969. He was a senior partner with Shook Lin & Bok until 1970.
He then went into merchant banking and finance, ending up as chairman and chief executive officer of OCBC Bank from 1983 to 1989.
On a secondment from OCBC from 1981 to 1983, he helped form the Government of Singapore Investment Corporation - Singapore's sovereign wealth fund, now known as GIC - and became its first managing director.
He was also managing director of the Monetary Authority of Singapore (MAS) from 1982 to 1983, working closely with Dr Goh Keng Swee, who was chairman.
GIC CEO Lim Chow Kiat said Mr Yong's contributions were foundational. "He incorporated it as a private limited company, a form GIC still operates by, so that it can focus solely on managing the foreign reserves," said Mr Lim.
Mr Yong worked with the appropriate ministries on a rigorous governance framework for GIC and was instrumental in recruiting the first investment managers globally, ensuring that the officers were armed with sharp investment skills, as well as a strong sense of rigour and conviction, said Mr Lim. "We appreciate that what GIC is today is the product of Mr Yong's talents in manifold areas: legal, banking, business and administration."
MAS credited Mr Yong for steering the authority and the financial sector through a period of slower growth globally. "He helped implement a new approach towards reserves management, where foreign assets in excess of what MAS needed to manage the Singapore dollar were transferred to the newly created GIC for long-term investment by the Government," it added in a statement.
OCBC's group CEO Samuel Tsien said that when Mr Yong led the bank, it was a time of change, especially in consumer banking, when customer demand for services significantly increased amid intense competition.
Under Mr Yong, OCBC rolled out the largest network of ATMs in Singapore and was also the first to introduce Sunday and night banking.
He also drove the growth in the bank's property and residential loan areas, and modernised the look of OCBC's Chinese sailing vessel symbol that forms part of its current logo.
Still, the part of his career that he is perhaps best known for was to come.
On July 1, 1989, at age 63 - despite nearly two decades away from law and having already once declined an offer to be a judge - Mr Yong was persuaded by Mr Lee to join the judiciary with a view to him becoming the chief justice.
He was appointed a Supreme Court judge and took office as the chief justice a year later on Sept 28, 1990. When Mr Yong took the helm at the judiciary, there was a backlog of more than 2,000 cases.
He introduced case management measures that cleared the backlog by the mid-1990s and reduced the time for cases to be concluded.
He harnessed technology to streamline court procedures, set up specialist courts, raised the salaries for judges to attract legal talent and initiated the Justice's Law Clerk scheme to recruit top law graduates to the legal service.
In his first speech as chief justice, he abolished the traditional wigs worn by judges and lawyers, and salutations such as "My Lord" or "Your Lordship" for Supreme Court judges.
"In the place of these relics, the legacy Mr Yong left behind is a world-class judiciary staffed by first-rate legal talent and deploying cutting-edge technological advances," said Law Society president Gregory Vijayendran.
At the time, Mr Yong's push for efficiency gave rise to questions about whether justice was being rushed. Lawyers quit in droves as they were stressed by court deadlines. Besides his efforts to reform court processes and strengthen the quality of the Bench, Mr Yong also chose to hear all appeals of criminal cases from the State Courts, which were then known as the Subordinate Courts.
He developed a reputation for being tough and enhancing the sentences of those who appeared before him, even as he gave second chances to offenders with psychiatric problems.
Mr Yong was also well-known for his acerbic observations in the courtroom. Once, he was told by the defence counsel that an 18-year-old boy who had sex with a minor was given probation by a district judge. Mr Yong said of the judge: "Maybe he should be put on probation."
He also produced the most judgments in the history of the Singapore Bench, with a total tally of 882 written judgments.
He retired on April 10, 2006, at the age of 80.
His many achievements aside, Mr Yong said his finest hour in life had nothing to do with his illustrious career as chief justice.
In an interview in 2004, he said: "I would say it was the day I married my wife. We have been married for 50 years now, and I still consider her my best friend.
"To stay happily married with a good reputation and a close-knit family must be one of anybody's happiest achievements in life, whatever the work you do."
The wake will be held at 48A Nassim Road between 5pm and 10pm from today to Sunday. The cortege will leave for Mandai Crematorium on Monday for a private funeral service.
Former chief justice Yong Pung How's mission from Lee Kuan Yew: Shake up and modernise courts
By Yuen Sin, The Straits Times, 10 Jan 2020
Singapore's former chief justice Yong Pung How, who died yesterday morning at the age of 93, was "one of Singapore's finest sons", said Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong.
In a Facebook post, PM Lee said Mr Yong, also a former banker who had helped set up sovereign wealth fund GIC (formerly known as the Government of Singapore Investment Corporation) and served at the Monetary Authority of Singapore (MAS), had left an indelible mark on the country's legal profession and society.
But it was in the judiciary that Mr Yong left his deepest legacy, PM Lee noted in a condolence letter to Mr Yong's wife.
A close friend of Singapore's late founding prime minister Lee Kuan Yew, Mr Yong agreed when Mr Lee asked him to return to the law in 1989, and to become chief justice in 1990, said PM Lee.
"Mr Lee wanted him to shake up and modernise the courts, which had become slow and out of date," said PM Lee.
To enhance efficiency, Mr Yong set up specialist courts, increased the size of the bench and introduced major reforms to court processes to shorten the time taken to dispose of matters, he said.
To encourage judges and magistrates to start hearings on time, he would even occasionally appear at the Subordinate Courts at 8.30am to personally greet latecomers, PM Lee said. This contributed to High Court case disposal times dropping from five years to below 18 months in less than a decade.
"Our legal profession, and indeed our society as a whole, owes him an immense debt of gratitude for this accomplishment," said PM Lee.
Mr Yong regularly visited university campuses to identify the ablest law students and encourage them to apply to become justices' law clerks, said PM Lee, and some have since become judges of the Supreme Court and senior officers in the legal service.
"In these last few weeks, as he lay ill in hospital, his former law clerks were among his most regular visitors," said PM Lee.
"Most importantly, Mr Yong understood how Singapore worked, the fundamental realities of our society, and how laws should be administered and applied in our context so as to ensure good governance for Singaporeans."
PM Lee added that Mr Yong and Mr Lee Kuan Yew, who studied law at Cambridge University together, had a friendship based on mutual respect. "(It was) forged in their fight against colonialism, and reinforced by their shared commitment to build this nation. Even in old age, they enjoyed each other's companionship and would often have meals together," he said.
Tributes from across the government flowed yesterday after news of Mr Yong's death.
President Halimah Yacob said she was deeply saddened by Mr Yong's passing.
"Mr Yong was a shining example of a gentleman who responded to the nation's call to serve," she wrote in a condolence letter to his wife.
During his time as managing director of MAS and GIC, Mr Yong used his extensive experience in commercial banking to successfully reorganise the management of Singapore's financial reserves, said Madam Halimah.
He also continued to serve Singapore in various capacities after retiring as chief justice, such as being part of the Council of Presidential Advisers from 2007 to 2013, she said.
"He had left behind a better place for our future generations," she added.
Deputy Prime Minister Heng Swee Keat said Singaporeans have Mr Yong to thank for a fairer and more efficient judicial system.
"Those of us who served in the Singapore Police Force during the 1980s knew that the system then often took a long time for justice to be served. Mr Yong shared the belief that justice delayed is justice denied - he introduced wide-ranging reforms to improve the efficiency of the court process," said DPM Heng.
Chief Justice Sundaresh Menon recounted how the courts "groaned under a backlog of 2,000 suits which, at that time, would have taken many years to dispose of" when Mr Yong took office as chief justice.
But Mr Yong, "a prodigiously talented individual", met the challenge with steely resolve, CJ Menon said. He introduced the system of pre-trial conferences, established the Night Courts, launched the Electronic Filing System and Technology Courts, and opened the Singapore Mediation Centre.
"By the opening of the legal year in 1994, the backlog had largely been reduced to a footnote in our legal history. In successfully modernising the justice system and expeditiously clearing the backlog, Mr Yong's tenure as chief justice perhaps stands as the most consequential in our history," he said.
His jurisprudential approach was also marked by pragmatism, boldness and conviction, said CJ Menon.
"In civil law, Mr Yong's approach was practical and commercially sensitive, undoubtedly informed by his long experience in business and finance... In criminal law, Mr Yong saw the first responsibility of the courts as the protection of the public, tempered by a sensitivity to the individual's potential for rehabilitation.
"While his emphasis on deterrence as a principle of criminal justice is well known, Mr Yong never overlooked those who deserved a second chance," said CJ Menon.
In a Facebook post, Home Affairs and Law Minister K. Shanmugam said Mr Yong was a "selfless titan who dedicated himself to building up Singapore and her institutions".
He was privileged to have been a practising lawyer when Mr Yong was a High Court judge and then chief justice, said Mr Shanmugam, recalling that Mr Yong was "sharp, immensely practical, and formidable to appear before".
He also "shook the Bar out of its lethargy and modernised it", said Mr Shanmugam, noting that Mr Yong had introduced close to 1,000 initiatives in the then Subordinate Courts within a decade of taking office.
These efforts contributed greatly to Singapore now being regarded as a trusted international legal centre with a strong judiciary, he added.
Minister for Social and Family Development Desmond Lee said Mr Yong was his first "big boss" when he started working in the legal service in 2001. "He held exacting standards, but would patiently listen to his staff and to his clerks, even if they (had) contrarian viewpoints... He was genuinely interested in people and was prepared to give advice when we sought it.
" 'With affection and respect' was how he would often sign off on photos he sent to staff each year. For me, and I would dare say for all of us who have ever worked under him, we held Chief in the highest regard, and with deep respect and affection too."
By Yuen Sin, The Straits Times, 10 Jan 2020
In a Facebook post, PM Lee said Mr Yong, also a former banker who had helped set up sovereign wealth fund GIC (formerly known as the Government of Singapore Investment Corporation) and served at the Monetary Authority of Singapore (MAS), had left an indelible mark on the country's legal profession and society.
But it was in the judiciary that Mr Yong left his deepest legacy, PM Lee noted in a condolence letter to Mr Yong's wife.
A close friend of Singapore's late founding prime minister Lee Kuan Yew, Mr Yong agreed when Mr Lee asked him to return to the law in 1989, and to become chief justice in 1990, said PM Lee.
"Mr Lee wanted him to shake up and modernise the courts, which had become slow and out of date," said PM Lee.
To enhance efficiency, Mr Yong set up specialist courts, increased the size of the bench and introduced major reforms to court processes to shorten the time taken to dispose of matters, he said.
To encourage judges and magistrates to start hearings on time, he would even occasionally appear at the Subordinate Courts at 8.30am to personally greet latecomers, PM Lee said. This contributed to High Court case disposal times dropping from five years to below 18 months in less than a decade.
"Our legal profession, and indeed our society as a whole, owes him an immense debt of gratitude for this accomplishment," said PM Lee.
Mr Yong regularly visited university campuses to identify the ablest law students and encourage them to apply to become justices' law clerks, said PM Lee, and some have since become judges of the Supreme Court and senior officers in the legal service.
"In these last few weeks, as he lay ill in hospital, his former law clerks were among his most regular visitors," said PM Lee.
"Most importantly, Mr Yong understood how Singapore worked, the fundamental realities of our society, and how laws should be administered and applied in our context so as to ensure good governance for Singaporeans."
PM Lee added that Mr Yong and Mr Lee Kuan Yew, who studied law at Cambridge University together, had a friendship based on mutual respect. "(It was) forged in their fight against colonialism, and reinforced by their shared commitment to build this nation. Even in old age, they enjoyed each other's companionship and would often have meals together," he said.
Tributes from across the government flowed yesterday after news of Mr Yong's death.
President Halimah Yacob said she was deeply saddened by Mr Yong's passing.
"Mr Yong was a shining example of a gentleman who responded to the nation's call to serve," she wrote in a condolence letter to his wife.
During his time as managing director of MAS and GIC, Mr Yong used his extensive experience in commercial banking to successfully reorganise the management of Singapore's financial reserves, said Madam Halimah.
He also continued to serve Singapore in various capacities after retiring as chief justice, such as being part of the Council of Presidential Advisers from 2007 to 2013, she said.
"He had left behind a better place for our future generations," she added.
Deputy Prime Minister Heng Swee Keat said Singaporeans have Mr Yong to thank for a fairer and more efficient judicial system.
"Those of us who served in the Singapore Police Force during the 1980s knew that the system then often took a long time for justice to be served. Mr Yong shared the belief that justice delayed is justice denied - he introduced wide-ranging reforms to improve the efficiency of the court process," said DPM Heng.
Chief Justice Sundaresh Menon recounted how the courts "groaned under a backlog of 2,000 suits which, at that time, would have taken many years to dispose of" when Mr Yong took office as chief justice.
But Mr Yong, "a prodigiously talented individual", met the challenge with steely resolve, CJ Menon said. He introduced the system of pre-trial conferences, established the Night Courts, launched the Electronic Filing System and Technology Courts, and opened the Singapore Mediation Centre.
"By the opening of the legal year in 1994, the backlog had largely been reduced to a footnote in our legal history. In successfully modernising the justice system and expeditiously clearing the backlog, Mr Yong's tenure as chief justice perhaps stands as the most consequential in our history," he said.
His jurisprudential approach was also marked by pragmatism, boldness and conviction, said CJ Menon.
"In civil law, Mr Yong's approach was practical and commercially sensitive, undoubtedly informed by his long experience in business and finance... In criminal law, Mr Yong saw the first responsibility of the courts as the protection of the public, tempered by a sensitivity to the individual's potential for rehabilitation.
"While his emphasis on deterrence as a principle of criminal justice is well known, Mr Yong never overlooked those who deserved a second chance," said CJ Menon.
In a Facebook post, Home Affairs and Law Minister K. Shanmugam said Mr Yong was a "selfless titan who dedicated himself to building up Singapore and her institutions".
He was privileged to have been a practising lawyer when Mr Yong was a High Court judge and then chief justice, said Mr Shanmugam, recalling that Mr Yong was "sharp, immensely practical, and formidable to appear before".
He also "shook the Bar out of its lethargy and modernised it", said Mr Shanmugam, noting that Mr Yong had introduced close to 1,000 initiatives in the then Subordinate Courts within a decade of taking office.
These efforts contributed greatly to Singapore now being regarded as a trusted international legal centre with a strong judiciary, he added.
Minister for Social and Family Development Desmond Lee said Mr Yong was his first "big boss" when he started working in the legal service in 2001. "He held exacting standards, but would patiently listen to his staff and to his clerks, even if they (had) contrarian viewpoints... He was genuinely interested in people and was prepared to give advice when we sought it.
" 'With affection and respect' was how he would often sign off on photos he sent to staff each year. For me, and I would dare say for all of us who have ever worked under him, we held Chief in the highest regard, and with deep respect and affection too."
Former chief justice Yong Pung How inspired loyalty and respect in those who worked for him
By K.C. Vijayan, Senior Law Correspondent, The Straits Times, 10 Jan 2020
By K.C. Vijayan, Senior Law Correspondent, The Straits Times, 10 Jan 2020
After 18 years in the commercial sector, the position of chief justice of Singapore was offered to former banker Yong Pung How in 1989.
He asked then Prime Minister Lee Kuan Yew, who put it before him, what he was supposed to do if he took up the position.
"Become chief justice! Just clean up the whole thing, you know what to do," he was told.
Mr Yong went on to do an outstanding job on the Bench, prompting Mr Lee to later say that the appointment was one of the best decisions he had made.
In 2006, the former lord chief justice of England, Lord Bingham of Cornhill, hailed Mr Yong as "a dominant and respected legal presence in Singapore for a lengthy period, during which the legal and judicial systems have flourished as never before".
Lord Bingham, widely regarded as one of England's finest judges of the last century, added: "In no small part has this been due to his energy, imagination and commanding personality, which have commanded loyalty and trust within Singapore while greatly impressing visitors from abroad."
It was a farewell toast to what Mr Yong had described as a "great 16 years" he spent at the pinnacle of Singapore's legal system, from which he retired at the age of 80.
Mr Yong, the only son in a family of six children, was born in 1926 in Kuala Lumpur, where he received his early education. He read law at Cambridge University, qualified as a barrister in 1951 and returned home the following year to practise at his father's legal firm.
In 1969, he migrated to Singapore with his family and was made a judge in 1989 at the age of 63, having declined to be one in 1972.
Mr Yong's transformation of the court system is well-documented. He single-handedly conceived and drove its modernisation, taking the courts from the practices inherited from a 19th century colonial system to the 21st century.
Lawyers say the entire journey was painful for the profession, the litigants, and even the judges and court registrars.
But in retrospect, it might be conceded that the legal system would not be where it is today if Mr Yong had not introduced and persisted in pushing through the wide-ranging reforms, which stretched for more than 20 years.
He was prolific in the number of judgments he wrote, though reactions to those on criminal and constitutional law were, at times, mixed.
But "a great many learned judgments have issued from his pen as well, which constitute a great contribution towards the legal jurisprudence of Singapore", then Justices Andrew Phang and V.K. Rajah said in a 2006 tribute that gave a snapshot of Mr Yong's cases.
The duo lauded his "truly immense intellectual and jurisprudential leadership", highlighting his many ground-breaking judgments that showed the practical approach he adopted in relation to justice and fairness.
In a 1997 landmark case of Abdul Naser Amer Hamsah, Mr Yong, presiding in the Court of Appeal, ruled that "life imprisonment" meant imprisonment for the remaining natural life of the convicted offender and not for 20 years, as previously practised.
In criminal law cases, he was misunderstood as the chief justice who "doubles your sentence if you appeal". But the reverse was true. More often than not, he reduced sentences on appeal, Singapore Academy of Law chief executive Serene Wee wrote in a 2006 tribute.
The tributes were made in a special edition of Inter Se published by the Singapore Academy of Law to mark his retirement in 2006.
While Mr Yong acknowledged, at a retirement dinner, that the court system was transformed in his time, he placed greater importance on a new generation of lawyers he said he was privileged to have brought into the legal service, the Bar and the judiciary, with "keen minds, compassionate hearts and strength of character".
Speaking at the dinner hosted by then President S R Nathan, he added: "It has been said that judges live on through their judgments. Perhaps so. I would like to think that if I live on, it will be through the unstinting efforts of the men and women (present), who have made me proud to have been their leader and associate."
For those who had worked in close quarters with Mr Yong, there is a "bigness" in the man that is difficult to capture on paper, said Ms Wee. "If he gets impatient over anything, it will be in writing. There was always a premium placed on honesty and decency."
Some lawyers who were on the receiving end of a dressing down from him in court would subsequently avoid appearing before him again.
Outstanding in reform, innovation and administration, Mr Yong inspired a fierce and enduring loyalty and respect in those who worked for him.
Mr Rajah, a former attorney-general and Court of Appeal judge, said: "He is the father of the modern judiciary in Singapore.
"His bold leadership, clarity of vision and willingness to swim against the tide of conventional thinking has benefited Singapore immeasurably.
"In addition to legal thought leadership, he introduced modern management to court administration and case management.
"To this day, many of the systems and processes he introduced some 30 years ago remain relevant here, and are emulated internationally. One must understand how poorly the court systems here were functioning before his appointment to properly appreciate the enormity of the positive changes he introduced.
"He always sought to do what he thought was right for Singapore, rather than what might be popular."
Senior lawyer Niru Pillai said: "We have been very fortunate to have had outstanding CJs since independence, with all punching above their weight and each leaving their own distinct indelible mark."
With the wisdom of hindsight, Mr Yong's passing marked the end of a transformative era in the legal system that he launched.
Milestones
April 11, 1926: Mr Yong Pung How is born in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, the only son in a family of six children.
1940: Completes his Cambridge School Certificate at the age of 14.
1949: Graduates with a Bachelor of Arts degree after reading law in Cambridge University. In university, he would strike up a friendship with Mr Lee Kuan Yew.
1951: Qualifies as a barrister-at-law at London's Inner Temple.
1952: Returns to Kuala Lumpur to practise law at Shook Lin & Bok, the firm his father co-founded.
1953: Appointed by the Singapore Government as arbitrator to resolve a dispute between the Government and a union. The union was represented by Mr Lee Kuan Yew.
1955: Marries London School of Economics graduate Cheang Wei Woo, whom he met in London in 1950.
1956 to 1959: Leading member of the Malayan Chinese Association and the Alliance Party.
1964: Called to the Singapore Bar.
1969: Immigrates to Singapore with his family.
1971: Leaves legal practice to go into merchant banking and finance.
1972 to 1981: Member of the Singapore Securities Industry Council.
1981 to 1983: Seconded from OCBC Bank to help form the Government of Singapore Investment Corporation - Singapore's sovereign wealth fund - and becomes its managing director.
1981 to 1985: Member of the Provisional Mass Rapid Transit Authority and later a director of the Mass Rapid Transit Corporation.
1983 to 1989: Chairman and chief executive officer of OCBC Bank.
1984 to 1989: Deputy chairman of Singapore Press Holdings.
1985 to 1989: Chairman of the Singapore Broadcasting Corporation. 1987: First chairman of the Institute of Policy Studies.
1989: Awarded the Distinguished Service Order on National Day.
July 1, 1989: Appointed as Supreme Court Judge at the age of 63.
Sept 28, 1990: Takes office as Chief Justice to lead the judiciary.
April 10, 2006: Retires as Chief Justice at the age of 80.
Ex-staff used to call former chief justice Yong Pung How 'Papa'
They recall former chief justice's warm, personal touch, dedication to legal service
By Selina Lum, Law Correspondent, The Straits Times, 11 Jan 2020
For 35 years, Ms Phyllis See was secretary to former chief justice Yong Pung How, having followed him from his days in merchant banking until he retired as Singapore's top judge.
Yesterday, the 71-year-old was among scores of people who paid their respects at the wake for Mr Yong, who died on Thursday at the age of 93.
"In the court, they find that he was very strict because he was trying to hurry them over the backlog, but actually he was very nice, he was very kind to the staff," she said of her former boss.
She was referring to the reforms Mr Yong implemented to clear a backlog of 2,000 court cases when he took the helm at the judiciary in 1990.
Ms See was accompanied by three others who also worked as secretaries for Mr Yong at the Singapore International Merchant Bankers (Simbl) in the 1970s.
The others, who declined to be named, said he was a very caring boss. They used to call him "Papa", and he would tell them stories about his younger days as he sat with them for lunch.
He had high standards and made them work on Labour Day, but he would buy them a nice lunch and give them a day off later, they added.
President Halimah Yacob, Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong and Chief Justice Sundaresh Menon were among the steady stream of visitors who attended the wake.
CJ Menon, who was appointed to the Bench 10 days before Mr Yong retired in April 2006, also spoke of his kindness.
"He was extremely good to the judges and the staff. He had a wonderful heart for the people who worked with him, and he really looked after them and nurtured their careers," he told reporters.
"I think that is reflected in the sort of loyalty and support those who worked with him have been giving to the family. So, we really do miss him very much."
At the wake, Emeritus Senior Minister Goh Chok Tong recounted that he was managing director of Neptune Orient Lines when he first met Mr Yong.
Mr Yong, who came to see Mr Goh in his capacity as managing director of Simbl, was looking to see whether the bank could do some ship financing for NOL.
"We, being a government-owned company, did not need any help. Thereafter, I met him occasionally, socially," said Mr Goh.
He recalled Mr Yong was appointed chief justice a few months before he became prime minister.
"Mr Lee Kuan Yew consulted me as to his appointment, which I happily agreed to. He did a great job. I had, as prime minister, no problems whatsoever with the Bench, and he looked out for the judiciary very, very well."
"We have lost a great Singaporean," said Mr Goh.
Senior Minister Tharman Shanmugaratnam said: "He had an unusual combination of intellectual acuity, the ability to make decisions, but also a very personable style and remarkable memory for human detail, sometimes going back decades... about the individuals he knew and met.
"And he was quite a raconteur, a wonderful storyteller.
"Singapore owes a lot to Mr Yong," said Mr Tharman.
Similarly, many lawyers who worked for Mr Yong as Justices' Law Clerks (JLCs) spoke of his kindness, amazing memory and personal touch.
Speaking to The Straits Times, Senior Counsel Cavinder Bull, chief executive of Drew & Napier, said: "I remember when my son was born in New York a couple of years after I had left the courts, my wife and I received a handwritten letter from the Chief with the warmest words of congratulations.
"When I saw him after returning to Singapore, he immediately asked after my wife and son by name."
Another former JLC, Mr Chou Sean Yu, a partner at WongPartnership, said those who worked for Mr Yong had the privilege of experiencing his "warm, lovely human side".
"He made the effort to get to know all of us who worked for him and would remember very specific personal aspects.
"Even years after I had left the courts, each time he saw me, he would remember where I grew up in Malaysia and mention it," said Mr Chou.
Another former JLC, Member of Parliament and lawyer Christopher de Souza of Lee & Lee, expressed gratitude to Mr Yong.
He told reporters at the wake: "He was always sharing his wisdom and his insights, his experiences.
"He was completely honest about the difficulties that life would present and how to overcome them. He didn't sugar-coat things. And he took so many of us young officers under his wing."
In a Facebook post on the night of Mr Yong's death, Mr de Souza recounted how, with other young law students in England, he listened intently as Mr Yong told them to consider a career in the legal service.
Former senior minister S. Jayakumar, who was also a long-serving law minister, told reporters at the wake that every time Mr Yong went to the United Kingdom, he would make it a point to visit British universities to talk to outstanding law students there to interest them in a career in the legal service and the judicial service.
"I thought that was quite amazing and wonderful for him to have shown so much dedication in trying to bring talent back to our legal service," he said.
1940: Completes his Cambridge School Certificate at the age of 14.
1949: Graduates with a Bachelor of Arts degree after reading law in Cambridge University. In university, he would strike up a friendship with Mr Lee Kuan Yew.
1951: Qualifies as a barrister-at-law at London's Inner Temple.
1952: Returns to Kuala Lumpur to practise law at Shook Lin & Bok, the firm his father co-founded.
1953: Appointed by the Singapore Government as arbitrator to resolve a dispute between the Government and a union. The union was represented by Mr Lee Kuan Yew.
1955: Marries London School of Economics graduate Cheang Wei Woo, whom he met in London in 1950.
1956 to 1959: Leading member of the Malayan Chinese Association and the Alliance Party.
1964: Called to the Singapore Bar.
1969: Immigrates to Singapore with his family.
1971: Leaves legal practice to go into merchant banking and finance.
1972 to 1981: Member of the Singapore Securities Industry Council.
1981 to 1983: Seconded from OCBC Bank to help form the Government of Singapore Investment Corporation - Singapore's sovereign wealth fund - and becomes its managing director.
1981 to 1985: Member of the Provisional Mass Rapid Transit Authority and later a director of the Mass Rapid Transit Corporation.
1983 to 1989: Chairman and chief executive officer of OCBC Bank.
1984 to 1989: Deputy chairman of Singapore Press Holdings.
1985 to 1989: Chairman of the Singapore Broadcasting Corporation. 1987: First chairman of the Institute of Policy Studies.
1989: Awarded the Distinguished Service Order on National Day.
Sept 28, 1990: Takes office as Chief Justice to lead the judiciary.
April 10, 2006: Retires as Chief Justice at the age of 80.
Ex-staff used to call former chief justice Yong Pung How 'Papa'
They recall former chief justice's warm, personal touch, dedication to legal service
By Selina Lum, Law Correspondent, The Straits Times, 11 Jan 2020
Yesterday, the 71-year-old was among scores of people who paid their respects at the wake for Mr Yong, who died on Thursday at the age of 93.
"In the court, they find that he was very strict because he was trying to hurry them over the backlog, but actually he was very nice, he was very kind to the staff," she said of her former boss.
She was referring to the reforms Mr Yong implemented to clear a backlog of 2,000 court cases when he took the helm at the judiciary in 1990.
Ms See was accompanied by three others who also worked as secretaries for Mr Yong at the Singapore International Merchant Bankers (Simbl) in the 1970s.
The others, who declined to be named, said he was a very caring boss. They used to call him "Papa", and he would tell them stories about his younger days as he sat with them for lunch.
He had high standards and made them work on Labour Day, but he would buy them a nice lunch and give them a day off later, they added.
President Halimah Yacob, Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong and Chief Justice Sundaresh Menon were among the steady stream of visitors who attended the wake.
CJ Menon, who was appointed to the Bench 10 days before Mr Yong retired in April 2006, also spoke of his kindness.
"He was extremely good to the judges and the staff. He had a wonderful heart for the people who worked with him, and he really looked after them and nurtured their careers," he told reporters.
"I think that is reflected in the sort of loyalty and support those who worked with him have been giving to the family. So, we really do miss him very much."
At the wake, Emeritus Senior Minister Goh Chok Tong recounted that he was managing director of Neptune Orient Lines when he first met Mr Yong.
Mr Yong, who came to see Mr Goh in his capacity as managing director of Simbl, was looking to see whether the bank could do some ship financing for NOL.
"We, being a government-owned company, did not need any help. Thereafter, I met him occasionally, socially," said Mr Goh.
He recalled Mr Yong was appointed chief justice a few months before he became prime minister.
"Mr Lee Kuan Yew consulted me as to his appointment, which I happily agreed to. He did a great job. I had, as prime minister, no problems whatsoever with the Bench, and he looked out for the judiciary very, very well."
"We have lost a great Singaporean," said Mr Goh.
Senior Minister Tharman Shanmugaratnam said: "He had an unusual combination of intellectual acuity, the ability to make decisions, but also a very personable style and remarkable memory for human detail, sometimes going back decades... about the individuals he knew and met.
"And he was quite a raconteur, a wonderful storyteller.
"Singapore owes a lot to Mr Yong," said Mr Tharman.
Similarly, many lawyers who worked for Mr Yong as Justices' Law Clerks (JLCs) spoke of his kindness, amazing memory and personal touch.
Speaking to The Straits Times, Senior Counsel Cavinder Bull, chief executive of Drew & Napier, said: "I remember when my son was born in New York a couple of years after I had left the courts, my wife and I received a handwritten letter from the Chief with the warmest words of congratulations.
"When I saw him after returning to Singapore, he immediately asked after my wife and son by name."
Another former JLC, Mr Chou Sean Yu, a partner at WongPartnership, said those who worked for Mr Yong had the privilege of experiencing his "warm, lovely human side".
"He made the effort to get to know all of us who worked for him and would remember very specific personal aspects.
"Even years after I had left the courts, each time he saw me, he would remember where I grew up in Malaysia and mention it," said Mr Chou.
Another former JLC, Member of Parliament and lawyer Christopher de Souza of Lee & Lee, expressed gratitude to Mr Yong.
He told reporters at the wake: "He was always sharing his wisdom and his insights, his experiences.
"He was completely honest about the difficulties that life would present and how to overcome them. He didn't sugar-coat things. And he took so many of us young officers under his wing."
In a Facebook post on the night of Mr Yong's death, Mr de Souza recounted how, with other young law students in England, he listened intently as Mr Yong told them to consider a career in the legal service.
Former senior minister S. Jayakumar, who was also a long-serving law minister, told reporters at the wake that every time Mr Yong went to the United Kingdom, he would make it a point to visit British universities to talk to outstanding law students there to interest them in a career in the legal service and the judicial service.
"I thought that was quite amazing and wonderful for him to have shown so much dedication in trying to bring talent back to our legal service," he said.
No staff, no chair: How Yong Pung How helped build GIC
This piece on Mr Yong Pung How's involvement with GIC is from the final chapter of Safeguarding The Future, a book by Freddy Orchard which charts the founding of the Singapore wealth fund. Mr Yong, who died last week at age 93, was a former chief justice whose career spanned the Government, law and finance.
The Sunday Times, 12 Jan 2020
The concept had to be turned into reality.
It was done pragmatically and expeditiously. There was no inauguration ceremony, no fanfare to mark the birth of the new company. The company's first managing director began his tenure with only a desk and an unusable telephone.
He had no staff, not so much as a secretary. Observers might have doubted if the new company, which did not even have a name then, was a serious concern.
Events would prove these doubts to be unfounded. How GIC became a going concern is a story of initiative, resourcefulness and sense of duty.
On March 9, 1981, Dr Goh Keng Swee released a press statement on the recent appointments he had made at the Monetary Authority of Singapore (MAS) and at the proposed government investment company.
One of the appointments was of Dr Teh Kok Peng, previously of the World Bank, as head of the economics department at MAS. Dr Teh would eventually hold senior positions at both MAS and GIC, including as president, GIC Special Investments, the private equity arm of GIC.
Dr Goh also announced the appointment of Mr Yong Pung How as managing director of the yet-to-be-named investment company. Mr Yong was to be released on no-pay leave from OCBC Bank, where he was vice-chairman.
Mr Yong was multi-talented, a lawyer by training but also an accomplished banker, administrator and businessman. Malaysian-born, he had read law at Cambridge University and later attended Harvard Business School. He practised law for many years at his father's law firm, Shook Lin & Bok, in Malaysia, and was chairman of Malaysia-Singapore Airlines from 1964 to 1969.
Mr Yong's career in banking began in 1969 when, at the request of the Malaysian central bank, he was appointed vice-chairman of Malayan Banking to help in its reorganisation.
After a stint as chairman and managing director of the Singapore International Merchant Bankers and the Malaysian International Merchant Bankers, Mr Yong became vice-chairman of OCBC in 1976.
Mr Lee Kuan Yew later recalled that he and Dr Goh had looked for "someone who was, first, trustworthy and, second, careful" to helm GIC. Mr Lee chose Mr Yong because he knew him well, having been together with him at Cambridge University, and had found him over the years to be someone of impeccable integrity. Still, when Dr Goh approached him, Mr Yong was startled, for the proposal had come "out of the blue".
He initially "declined Dr Goh as politely as (he) could", citing his lack of experience in investments as the reason. Also, he was being groomed then to succeed Mr Tan Chin Tuan as the chairman of OCBC, one of the largest Singapore banks.
So, Mr Yong was loath to leave the bank just then, he explained to Dr Goh. Later that day, Mr Yong wrote a note to his chairman Mr Tan, explaining that he had met Dr Goh and had turned down his offer. But that was not to be the end of the matter.
The next evening, Mr Tan walked into Mr Yong's office to inform Mr Yong that he had lunched with Dr Goh that day and had had discussions with the other directors.
The upshot of these meetings was that OCBC was prepared "to lend" Mr Yong to the Government. So Mr Yong dutifully set off to see Dr Goh again the next day. Dr Goh told him little more than that he was expected to set up the new unit and "take it over the first hump". Mr Yong accepted the challenge, taking a pay cut in the process.
Mr Yong's task for his new appointment was stark in its objective, daunting in its scope. He was to turn a concept into reality, to develop the intended company from scratch. This meant he had to incorporate it, devise an appropriate corporate structure, staff the company and make it operational, virtually all by himself, as he had no one he could delegate the tasks to.
Mr Yong began his first day at his new job at the MAS offices in the old Singapore Airlines Building in Robinson Road. The investment corporation he was to head did not as yet exist; hence, it had no office of its own. Mr Yong was met by Mr Herman Hochstadt (then MAS deputy managing director), who could add little more than what Mr Yong knew.
Mr Hochstadt showed Mr Yong to a room formerly occupied by Dr Goh. Dr Goh had vacated it only recently to move to the Ministry of Education headquarters.
The room was bare save for a huge desk and an odd-looking contraption that turned out to be a telephone scrambler. Mr Hochstadt explained that the phone was connected directly to the Prime Minister's office and had been used by Dr Goh to call Mr Lee. A key that nobody seemed able to locate was needed to activate the phone.
There was no chair. So Mr Yong had to sit at his desk and lean over with a pencil to write his memorandums, before walking a few floors down to the pool of typists to get them typed up. Subsequently, Mr Yong found a chair in an unused room and dragged it to his office.
As if this was not enough of an inauspicious start, Mr Yong's ego was to take a further battering when Dr Goh introduced him to Mr Lim Kim San. Mr Lim had just been appointed managing director of MAS a few days earlier, on March 1, and had his office on the same floor as Mr Yong's.
It was a "terrible introduction", Mr Yong recalled. Mr Lim had brusquely asked Dr Goh why he had brought in "this young whippersnapper" who would only be interested in "empire building".
Mr Yong was mortified - and doubly so when he found out, upon checking the dictionary later, what "whippersnapper" meant:
Whippersnapper: noun, an unimportant but offensively presumptuous person, especially a young one.
To Mr Yong's credit, he did not let all this get to him. Soon, he would impress Mr Lim with his business-like ways and lapidary submissions. Mr Yong knew that the relationship had turned when one morning, Mr Lim offered to "belanja" or treat him to lunch. Later, Mr Lim would support the idea of Mr Yong taking over from him as managing director of MAS.
And when Mr Lee sought Mr Lim's opinion about Mr Yong's suitability to be a High Court judge and later chief justice, Mr Lim seconded the proposals, remarking that it would be a case "of fish returning to water".
But all that was in the future. In his first months at the company that had as yet no name, Mr Yong had to forage for staff. He asked Mr Hochstadt for advice and Mr Hochstadt pointed him in the direction of Mr Tan Teck Chwee, then chairman of the Public Services Commission (PSC).
The PSC was in charge of awarding government scholarships to deserving students and posting them to various government departments upon their graduation.
Mr Yong called on Mr Tan Teck Chwee, who told him that the PSC was short of scholars. Indeed, at the request of Dr Goh, it had only recently sent some of its best officers to MAS. Nevertheless, Mr Tan Teck Chwee did manage to secure one fresh graduate for Mr Yong.
Mr Yong also enquired about getting a secretary for himself. Strangely, he was told that the Government had no provision for a secretary for his position. Mr Yong eventually brought over his secretary at OCBC. Together, they then "cleaned up the room, bought some furniture, arranged for a telephone, typewriters, shredding machine, copying machine and so on, and we got started".
In recruiting staff, Mr Yong sought fresh graduates with outstanding academic records from the best universities. He did not mind their inexperience in fund management but felt they would be an investment for the long term.
Mr Yong also invited serving MAS officers to apply. One of the first of these to be selected was Mr Aje Saigal, whose initial portfolio was Japanese equities. Mr Saigal would rise through the ranks to become GIC's director of the equities department, and subsequently director of investment policy and strategy.
Mr Yong also posted advertisements in the local and foreign press, and succeeded in attracting a handful of capable young people willing to chance what was then still the relatively unknown field of investment management.
There was another fundamental issue that had to be resolved urgently: the form the proposed company should take. Dr Goh had asked Mr Yong to consider the matter and make recommendations.
Mr Yong's knowledge of the law and his banking experience came in handy here. He suggested that the new entity be incorporated as a private limited company, wholly owned by the Government and which would manage, but not own, the foreign reserves under its charge. Mr Yong's reasoning for this arrangement was that it would leave the investment company free of various complications arising from the ownership of foreign assets, especially with regard to taxation.
The country's assets also "would be better protected that way" as it would still be owned by the Government. As Mr Yong put it, structuring the new company "as a management company was the simplest arrangement. It turned out to be the correct arrangement. Had GIC owned its assets, we would have been caught in all sorts of difficulties".
Dr Goh asked about the legal structure that would provide for the Government's ownership of the company. Mr Yong said the solution lay in a legal concept known as Corporation Sole. Corporation Sole allowed for the creation of a legal entity of a public office, which would be independent of the individual occupying that office. Thus the office of the minister for finance, for example, could be the Minister for Finance Incorporated, which would be the owner of the investment company. This entity would retain its legal power regardless of who the minister for finance was.
Mr Lee and Dr Goh accepted Mr Yong's recommendations.
Mr Yong also recommended that the new company begin with a small staff. The MAS had efficient administrative and corporate services divisions. The new company could "piggyback" on MAS for these services, including accounting, auditing and personnel management, rather than develop them on its own. It could also continue to operate out of the MAS premises.
Mr Yong then set out to incorporate the company. He asked the Attorney-General's Chambers to draft the memorandum and articles for the new company. A draft was delivered to him the same day, and he realised that it was essentially the standard form for the incorporation of companies. Deciding, however, that it was good enough for his purposes, he submitted the completed documents to the Registry of Companies.
In those days, before the civil service computerised its operations, it usually took about two weeks to incorporate a company. But the registry told Mr Yong that it could issue the certificate of incorporation the next day. It asked for the name of the proposed company.
The name of the company had been decided earlier, almost by default. Dr Goh had always referred to the proposed company as the "outfit" or "unit", while the press had called it the "government investment corporation".
Civil servants had adopted the latter, but added the words "Government of Singapore" as the term connoted "respectability". After all, international credit agencies had given Singapore an AAA credit rating, citing its large reserves and the Government's provident fiscal policies as the reasons.
Taking advantage of that brand, it was decided, more or less tacitly, to call the new "outfit" the "Government of Singapore Investment Corporation Pte Ltd". It was duly incorporated as such on May 22, 1981.
While external parties would and did use a variety of abbreviations for the company - one was GOSIC - the abbreviation used within the establishment from the beginning, and the version now accepted, was GIC.
GIC was established on the proposition that the country's reserves should be managed by an indigenous, national entity rather than by external fund managers. Mr Lee and Dr Goh would have it no other way. For them, leaving the management of the country's money to others meant a "good chance that they would enrich themselves instead of the country".
However both Mr Lee and Dr Goh knew that there was limited local expertise in fund management and that, willy-nilly, GIC would have to obtain a nucleus of experienced portfolio managers to jump-start the new company.
Mr Yong recognised that GIC would not be able to "find experienced professional managers in Singapore to satisfy its requirements", and suggested to Dr Goh that their search for talent be extended to London and New York. Dr Goh agreed, and executive search firms were hired to identify suitable candidates overseas. Dr Goh and Mr Yong then flew to London to interview the shortlisted candidates. London, however, proved fruitless.
The problem was not the quality of the candidates but their generous superannuation plans: They had to give as much as six months' notice to their current employers to avoid forfeiting those benefits.
Mr Yong was unwilling to wait that long to get GIC started.
The next stop was New York, to which Mr Yong went alone. Unexpectedly informing Mr Yong that he had to return to Singapore, Dr Goh asked him to do the New York interviews himself and have them taped. Mr Yong was then to submit a summary of his recommendations and the taped interviews to Dr Goh.
Mr Yong did find American fund managers prepared to work overseas at short notice, in some cases, within a week. Mr Yong informed his interviewees that if they were shortlisted, they would be required to fly to Singapore to be interviewed by Mr Lee himself.
This was a sine qua non: Mr Lee would personally interview all senior appointments to GIC. Mr Lee had also asked that the wives accompany the candidates to Singapore, reasoning that the fund managers would not stay long in Singapore if their wives were unhappy with living conditions in the country.
The upshot of Mr Yong's New York expedition was the selection of three American fund managers.
They were Mr Douglas Salmond, Mr Leo Bailey and Mr Theodore Garhart. Each was a specialist in an investment field that the GIC board had wanted GIC to begin with. Mr Salmond was from the College Retirement Equities Fund, which, with its sister company, the Teachers Insurance and Annuity Association of America, was one of the largest institutional fund management companies in the United States. He was an expert on Japanese equities.
Mr Bailey, also from the College Retirement Equities Fund, was an authority on US equities. And Mr Garhart, from the Prudential Insurance Company of America, was a US real estate investment maven.
All three would arrive in Singapore by the last quarter of 1981, by which time GIC had established three investment units: Japanese equities, US equities and real estate, the last focusing on US property markets.
GIC achieved a great deal in the first year of its existence; in a manner that would exemplify the GIC culture that was to emerge. Mr Yong's unaffected but effective style of management would be the model for future GIC chief executive officers. That Mr Lee made it a point to interview all senior candidates signalled the attentiveness that would be given to the recruitment of high-calibre people.
And the willingness to seek expertise worldwide and to learn from others would become second nature to the company.
This piece on Mr Yong Pung How's involvement with GIC is from the final chapter of Safeguarding The Future, a book by Freddy Orchard which charts the founding of the Singapore wealth fund. Mr Yong, who died last week at age 93, was a former chief justice whose career spanned the Government, law and finance.
The Sunday Times, 12 Jan 2020
It was done pragmatically and expeditiously. There was no inauguration ceremony, no fanfare to mark the birth of the new company. The company's first managing director began his tenure with only a desk and an unusable telephone.
He had no staff, not so much as a secretary. Observers might have doubted if the new company, which did not even have a name then, was a serious concern.
Events would prove these doubts to be unfounded. How GIC became a going concern is a story of initiative, resourcefulness and sense of duty.
On March 9, 1981, Dr Goh Keng Swee released a press statement on the recent appointments he had made at the Monetary Authority of Singapore (MAS) and at the proposed government investment company.
One of the appointments was of Dr Teh Kok Peng, previously of the World Bank, as head of the economics department at MAS. Dr Teh would eventually hold senior positions at both MAS and GIC, including as president, GIC Special Investments, the private equity arm of GIC.
Dr Goh also announced the appointment of Mr Yong Pung How as managing director of the yet-to-be-named investment company. Mr Yong was to be released on no-pay leave from OCBC Bank, where he was vice-chairman.
Mr Yong was multi-talented, a lawyer by training but also an accomplished banker, administrator and businessman. Malaysian-born, he had read law at Cambridge University and later attended Harvard Business School. He practised law for many years at his father's law firm, Shook Lin & Bok, in Malaysia, and was chairman of Malaysia-Singapore Airlines from 1964 to 1969.
Mr Yong's career in banking began in 1969 when, at the request of the Malaysian central bank, he was appointed vice-chairman of Malayan Banking to help in its reorganisation.
After a stint as chairman and managing director of the Singapore International Merchant Bankers and the Malaysian International Merchant Bankers, Mr Yong became vice-chairman of OCBC in 1976.
Mr Lee Kuan Yew later recalled that he and Dr Goh had looked for "someone who was, first, trustworthy and, second, careful" to helm GIC. Mr Lee chose Mr Yong because he knew him well, having been together with him at Cambridge University, and had found him over the years to be someone of impeccable integrity. Still, when Dr Goh approached him, Mr Yong was startled, for the proposal had come "out of the blue".
He initially "declined Dr Goh as politely as (he) could", citing his lack of experience in investments as the reason. Also, he was being groomed then to succeed Mr Tan Chin Tuan as the chairman of OCBC, one of the largest Singapore banks.
So, Mr Yong was loath to leave the bank just then, he explained to Dr Goh. Later that day, Mr Yong wrote a note to his chairman Mr Tan, explaining that he had met Dr Goh and had turned down his offer. But that was not to be the end of the matter.
The next evening, Mr Tan walked into Mr Yong's office to inform Mr Yong that he had lunched with Dr Goh that day and had had discussions with the other directors.
The upshot of these meetings was that OCBC was prepared "to lend" Mr Yong to the Government. So Mr Yong dutifully set off to see Dr Goh again the next day. Dr Goh told him little more than that he was expected to set up the new unit and "take it over the first hump". Mr Yong accepted the challenge, taking a pay cut in the process.
Mr Yong's task for his new appointment was stark in its objective, daunting in its scope. He was to turn a concept into reality, to develop the intended company from scratch. This meant he had to incorporate it, devise an appropriate corporate structure, staff the company and make it operational, virtually all by himself, as he had no one he could delegate the tasks to.
Mr Yong began his first day at his new job at the MAS offices in the old Singapore Airlines Building in Robinson Road. The investment corporation he was to head did not as yet exist; hence, it had no office of its own. Mr Yong was met by Mr Herman Hochstadt (then MAS deputy managing director), who could add little more than what Mr Yong knew.
Mr Hochstadt showed Mr Yong to a room formerly occupied by Dr Goh. Dr Goh had vacated it only recently to move to the Ministry of Education headquarters.
The room was bare save for a huge desk and an odd-looking contraption that turned out to be a telephone scrambler. Mr Hochstadt explained that the phone was connected directly to the Prime Minister's office and had been used by Dr Goh to call Mr Lee. A key that nobody seemed able to locate was needed to activate the phone.
There was no chair. So Mr Yong had to sit at his desk and lean over with a pencil to write his memorandums, before walking a few floors down to the pool of typists to get them typed up. Subsequently, Mr Yong found a chair in an unused room and dragged it to his office.
As if this was not enough of an inauspicious start, Mr Yong's ego was to take a further battering when Dr Goh introduced him to Mr Lim Kim San. Mr Lim had just been appointed managing director of MAS a few days earlier, on March 1, and had his office on the same floor as Mr Yong's.
It was a "terrible introduction", Mr Yong recalled. Mr Lim had brusquely asked Dr Goh why he had brought in "this young whippersnapper" who would only be interested in "empire building".
Mr Yong was mortified - and doubly so when he found out, upon checking the dictionary later, what "whippersnapper" meant:
Whippersnapper: noun, an unimportant but offensively presumptuous person, especially a young one.
To Mr Yong's credit, he did not let all this get to him. Soon, he would impress Mr Lim with his business-like ways and lapidary submissions. Mr Yong knew that the relationship had turned when one morning, Mr Lim offered to "belanja" or treat him to lunch. Later, Mr Lim would support the idea of Mr Yong taking over from him as managing director of MAS.
And when Mr Lee sought Mr Lim's opinion about Mr Yong's suitability to be a High Court judge and later chief justice, Mr Lim seconded the proposals, remarking that it would be a case "of fish returning to water".
But all that was in the future. In his first months at the company that had as yet no name, Mr Yong had to forage for staff. He asked Mr Hochstadt for advice and Mr Hochstadt pointed him in the direction of Mr Tan Teck Chwee, then chairman of the Public Services Commission (PSC).
The PSC was in charge of awarding government scholarships to deserving students and posting them to various government departments upon their graduation.
Mr Yong called on Mr Tan Teck Chwee, who told him that the PSC was short of scholars. Indeed, at the request of Dr Goh, it had only recently sent some of its best officers to MAS. Nevertheless, Mr Tan Teck Chwee did manage to secure one fresh graduate for Mr Yong.
Mr Yong also enquired about getting a secretary for himself. Strangely, he was told that the Government had no provision for a secretary for his position. Mr Yong eventually brought over his secretary at OCBC. Together, they then "cleaned up the room, bought some furniture, arranged for a telephone, typewriters, shredding machine, copying machine and so on, and we got started".
In recruiting staff, Mr Yong sought fresh graduates with outstanding academic records from the best universities. He did not mind their inexperience in fund management but felt they would be an investment for the long term.
Mr Yong also invited serving MAS officers to apply. One of the first of these to be selected was Mr Aje Saigal, whose initial portfolio was Japanese equities. Mr Saigal would rise through the ranks to become GIC's director of the equities department, and subsequently director of investment policy and strategy.
Mr Yong also posted advertisements in the local and foreign press, and succeeded in attracting a handful of capable young people willing to chance what was then still the relatively unknown field of investment management.
There was another fundamental issue that had to be resolved urgently: the form the proposed company should take. Dr Goh had asked Mr Yong to consider the matter and make recommendations.
Mr Yong's knowledge of the law and his banking experience came in handy here. He suggested that the new entity be incorporated as a private limited company, wholly owned by the Government and which would manage, but not own, the foreign reserves under its charge. Mr Yong's reasoning for this arrangement was that it would leave the investment company free of various complications arising from the ownership of foreign assets, especially with regard to taxation.
The country's assets also "would be better protected that way" as it would still be owned by the Government. As Mr Yong put it, structuring the new company "as a management company was the simplest arrangement. It turned out to be the correct arrangement. Had GIC owned its assets, we would have been caught in all sorts of difficulties".
Dr Goh asked about the legal structure that would provide for the Government's ownership of the company. Mr Yong said the solution lay in a legal concept known as Corporation Sole. Corporation Sole allowed for the creation of a legal entity of a public office, which would be independent of the individual occupying that office. Thus the office of the minister for finance, for example, could be the Minister for Finance Incorporated, which would be the owner of the investment company. This entity would retain its legal power regardless of who the minister for finance was.
Mr Lee and Dr Goh accepted Mr Yong's recommendations.
Mr Yong also recommended that the new company begin with a small staff. The MAS had efficient administrative and corporate services divisions. The new company could "piggyback" on MAS for these services, including accounting, auditing and personnel management, rather than develop them on its own. It could also continue to operate out of the MAS premises.
Mr Yong then set out to incorporate the company. He asked the Attorney-General's Chambers to draft the memorandum and articles for the new company. A draft was delivered to him the same day, and he realised that it was essentially the standard form for the incorporation of companies. Deciding, however, that it was good enough for his purposes, he submitted the completed documents to the Registry of Companies.
In those days, before the civil service computerised its operations, it usually took about two weeks to incorporate a company. But the registry told Mr Yong that it could issue the certificate of incorporation the next day. It asked for the name of the proposed company.
The name of the company had been decided earlier, almost by default. Dr Goh had always referred to the proposed company as the "outfit" or "unit", while the press had called it the "government investment corporation".
Civil servants had adopted the latter, but added the words "Government of Singapore" as the term connoted "respectability". After all, international credit agencies had given Singapore an AAA credit rating, citing its large reserves and the Government's provident fiscal policies as the reasons.
Taking advantage of that brand, it was decided, more or less tacitly, to call the new "outfit" the "Government of Singapore Investment Corporation Pte Ltd". It was duly incorporated as such on May 22, 1981.
While external parties would and did use a variety of abbreviations for the company - one was GOSIC - the abbreviation used within the establishment from the beginning, and the version now accepted, was GIC.
GIC was established on the proposition that the country's reserves should be managed by an indigenous, national entity rather than by external fund managers. Mr Lee and Dr Goh would have it no other way. For them, leaving the management of the country's money to others meant a "good chance that they would enrich themselves instead of the country".
However both Mr Lee and Dr Goh knew that there was limited local expertise in fund management and that, willy-nilly, GIC would have to obtain a nucleus of experienced portfolio managers to jump-start the new company.
Mr Yong recognised that GIC would not be able to "find experienced professional managers in Singapore to satisfy its requirements", and suggested to Dr Goh that their search for talent be extended to London and New York. Dr Goh agreed, and executive search firms were hired to identify suitable candidates overseas. Dr Goh and Mr Yong then flew to London to interview the shortlisted candidates. London, however, proved fruitless.
The problem was not the quality of the candidates but their generous superannuation plans: They had to give as much as six months' notice to their current employers to avoid forfeiting those benefits.
Mr Yong was unwilling to wait that long to get GIC started.
The next stop was New York, to which Mr Yong went alone. Unexpectedly informing Mr Yong that he had to return to Singapore, Dr Goh asked him to do the New York interviews himself and have them taped. Mr Yong was then to submit a summary of his recommendations and the taped interviews to Dr Goh.
Mr Yong did find American fund managers prepared to work overseas at short notice, in some cases, within a week. Mr Yong informed his interviewees that if they were shortlisted, they would be required to fly to Singapore to be interviewed by Mr Lee himself.
This was a sine qua non: Mr Lee would personally interview all senior appointments to GIC. Mr Lee had also asked that the wives accompany the candidates to Singapore, reasoning that the fund managers would not stay long in Singapore if their wives were unhappy with living conditions in the country.
The upshot of Mr Yong's New York expedition was the selection of three American fund managers.
They were Mr Douglas Salmond, Mr Leo Bailey and Mr Theodore Garhart. Each was a specialist in an investment field that the GIC board had wanted GIC to begin with. Mr Salmond was from the College Retirement Equities Fund, which, with its sister company, the Teachers Insurance and Annuity Association of America, was one of the largest institutional fund management companies in the United States. He was an expert on Japanese equities.
Mr Bailey, also from the College Retirement Equities Fund, was an authority on US equities. And Mr Garhart, from the Prudential Insurance Company of America, was a US real estate investment maven.
All three would arrive in Singapore by the last quarter of 1981, by which time GIC had established three investment units: Japanese equities, US equities and real estate, the last focusing on US property markets.
GIC achieved a great deal in the first year of its existence; in a manner that would exemplify the GIC culture that was to emerge. Mr Yong's unaffected but effective style of management would be the model for future GIC chief executive officers. That Mr Lee made it a point to interview all senior candidates signalled the attentiveness that would be given to the recruitment of high-calibre people.
And the willingness to seek expertise worldwide and to learn from others would become second nature to the company.
* SMU to rename law school after Singapore’s second chief justice Yong Pung How
By Ng Wei Kai, The Straits Times, 10 Mar 2021
The Singapore Management University's (SMU) law school will be renamed the Yong Pung How School of Law from April 11 this year, the day on which Singapore's second chief justice and SMU's third chancellor would have turned 95.
Dr Yong was 93 when he died in January last year.
SMU said yesterday that the school remained indebted to Dr Yong's vision and guidance, and that he played a critical role in the development of the School of Law and its curriculum.
"SMU has been privileged to have a long and deep association with Dr Yong Pung How," said SMU's chairman Ho Kwon Ping. "Dr Yong was a force of wisdom and his legacy will continue to positively shape the growth of our university and the School of Law. We are humbled and privileged to honour Dr Yong by naming our School of Law after him."
Aside from his role as chancellor, Dr Yong also served as the university's pro-chancellor, was the founding chairman of the law school's advisory board, and was distinguished fellow of the school of law from 2006 to 2020.
Over his 16-year tenure as Singapore's chief judge, Dr Yong implemented sweeping changes to harness technology to revamp the efficiency of the court system.
Many people, including a number of political luminaries, paid tribute to him after he died last year. Emeritus Senior Minister and former prime minister Goh Chok Tong said: "We have lost a great Singaporean... He was appointed a few months before I became Prime Minister. Mr Lee Kuan Yew consulted me as to his appointment, which I happily agreed to. He did a great job."
Speaking on SMU's decision to rename the law school in honour of her father, Dr Yong's daughter, Ms Yong Ying-I, said: "My family is deeply honoured and touched by the recognition that SMU and the Singapore Government have given my father. He was greatly committed to the education of the next generation and this honour will enable his legacy to be remembered and built upon."
The SMU School of Law took in its first cohort of 116 students in 2007. It offers various degrees from a full-time bachelor of laws programme, double degree programmes with other disciplines like accountancy as well as continuing legal education.
SMU officially renames its law school Yong Pung How School of Law
Achievements of the late Yong Pung How still talked about globally today: CJ Menon
By Selina Lum, Law Correspondent, The Straits Times, 9 Apr 2021
Former chief justice Yong Pung How had such a profound and immense impact on the legal profession that, more than three decades after he set out to transform Singapore's justice system, his achievement is still talked about around the world today.
Chief Justice Sundaresh Menon said this yesterday at a ceremony to mark the renaming of the Singapore Management University (SMU) law school after Mr Yong, who was Singapore's second chief justice and SMU's third chancellor.
The new name - Yong Pung How School of Law - takes effect on Sunday, the day on which Mr Yong would have turned 95.
He was 93 when he died in January last year.
More than 200 guests - including Mr Yong's widow, Mrs Yong Wei Woo, 91, and their daughter, Ms Yong Ying-I, 57 - attended the event, either in person at the SMU Hall or virtually.
In the audience were Education Minister Lawrence Wong, Second Minister for Law Edwin Tong, SMU honorary patron Tony Tan Keng Yam, SMU senior management, as well as faculty, students and alumni of the law school.
CJ Menon said: "Many in this audience lived through the years when (Chief Justice Yong) led tirelessly from the front and, with incredible determination, fundamentally transformed and modernised the administration of justice in Singapore."
In his speech, he told of how, when he was in Jamaica recently to deliver a keynote speech to judges there, Mr Yong's work "was the subject of much attention".
When Mr Yong took over as Singapore's top judge in 1990, he revamped court processes and implemented measures that cleared a backlog of over 2,000 cases.
CJ Menon also spoke of Mr Yong's "strong nurturing instinct" which led him to take a particular interest in the training and education of young lawyers and students.
Mr Yong started the Justices' Law Clerk scheme to enlist talented young officers into the legal service. "More than two decades later, several of them were among his most regular visitors in hospital during his last illness," said CJ Menon.
Ms Yong said her father was happy to make gifts to establish the Yong Pung How Chair Professorship, two research centres in law, and the Yong Pung How Bursaries to benefit students with financial needs.
In his speech, Professor Goh Yihan, current dean of the law school, said: "We want to fashion the Yong Pung How School of Law as an institution that prepares our graduates not only for the practice of law but also the future."
At the ceremony, SMU president Lily Kong presented to Mr Yong's family a specially produced pictorial book highlighting his key achievements.
Former chief justice Yong Pung How sought to give back to Singapore, says daughter
By Selina Lum, Law Correspondent, The Straits Times, 9 Apr 2021
His daughter's education was one of the main reasons that former chief justice Yong Pung How migrated to Singapore from Malaysia with his family in the early 1970s.
This was revealed by his only child, Ms Yong Ying-I, in a rare public speech on Thursday (April 8) at a ceremony to mark the renaming of the Singapore Management University (SMU) law school after her father.
Ms Yong, 57, said that when she was due to enter Primary 1, schools in Malaysia were switching to teach in Malay, which her parents did not want for her.
She also shared why her father, then a banker, had accepted the request by founding Prime Minister Lee Kuan Yew in 1989 to lead the judiciary.
"My family was appreciative of becoming Singaporean. My father wanted to give back where he could to the country that had accepted us and gave us opportunities to contribute to something bigger than ourselves," she said.
Mr Yong was born in Kuala Lumpur in 1926. After World War II, he read law in Cambridge University. There, he struck up a lifelong friendship with Mr Lee.
After moving here, he went into merchant banking and helped form Singapore's sovereign wealth fund GIC. He also led the Monetary Authority of Singapore before returning to OCBC Bank as chairman.
Ms Yong, a Permanent Secretary at the Ministry of Communication and Information, said: "We were happy to take up Singaporean citizenship, which came with the GIC role."
She said her father believed in education and talent development.
"It wasn't just my education; he pushed for more undergraduate, post-graduate and in-service masters and diplomas for the legal service."
Mr Yong was proudest of his Justices' Law Clerks scheme to attract the best and brightest to the legal service, she said. His alumni now includes Supreme Court judges, a deputy attorney-general and a Cabinet minister.
Ms Yong said her father also believed in service to others.
"Wealth is valuable - it gives you creature comforts, options, provides a safety net. But you can't take it with you. Your achievements can give the world new services and give you societal recognition and standing.
"But your legacy, after you have gone, is what you have done for others, how you have done your part to make the world a better place. Whether it's bursaries, research centres, stronger institutions or the next generation of leaders, these are what continue to have an impact after you go."
** Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong launches memoir on Yong Pung How at SMU on 11 April 2024
Late chief justice Yong Pung How remembered by mentees for his kindness in new biography
By Jean Iau, Correspondent, The Straits Times, 12 Apr 2024
As a young lawyer, Associate Professor Dorcas Quek Anderson was taken aback by how personable her first boss was, given his courtroom reputation as a strict and steely judge.
The 44-year-old recalled how former chief justice Yong Pung How played an instrumental role in her foray into academia by taking the time to read the first article she wrote for submission to a law journal.
Said the former district judge, who now teaches at Singapore Management University: “He was very encouraging and gave me the courage to submit it for publication. That publication, as well as my early years being a justices’ law clerk, helped me discover my passion for research and writing in the area of law.”
In a new biography on the late Mr Yong, she and 63 other former justices’ law clerks paint the “Chief”– as many affectionately called him – as a kind and warm figure who enjoyed chats over lunches and always made time for them.
Their tributes make up one chapter in the book, titled Pioneer, Polymath And Mentor: The Life And Legacy Of Yong Pung How. It was launched on April 11, which would have been Mr Yong’s 98th birthday.
Prof Quek Anderson added: “We benefited immensely just by learning from him and seeing the compassion he had for us even though we were young and inexperienced.”
The book, which details Mr Yong’s career milestones, was written, compiled and edited by Senior Judge Andrew Phang, who retired as justice of the Court of Appeal in 2022.
Mr Yong died on Jan 9, 2020, at the age of 93. He served as chief justice from 1990 to 2006, implementing rigorous reforms and leveraging technology to streamline the Singapore court system during his tenure.
Officiating the book launch, which was attended by more than 400 guests, Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong recalled his childhood encounters with Mr Yong, who was close friends with his father, founding prime minister Lee Kuan Yew. The pair studied law at Cambridge University together.
PM Lee said that shortly before he became prime minister, he received a message that Mr Yong wanted to personally administer the affirmation for his swearing-in ceremony, and not just stand beside him as PM Lee read out the affirmation himself.
“I was very honoured, and of course agreed immediately. That was how we did it. Mine is just one of the many stories of Mr Yong touching the lives of others, and leaving a lasting imprint,” he said.
Mr Yong’s daughter, Ms Yong Ying-I, who chairs the Central Provident Fund Board, said during the launch that her father was not keen to write his autobiography after he retired as he wondered if it would be seen as showing off.
Noting how the word polymath was used to describe her father in the book’s title, Ms Yong said her father was not an expert in most of the roles he took on, but pulled off the roles because of his commitment to accept responsibility, his hard work and his belief in continuous learning.
She recalled how he arranged lectures on Saturday mornings for judges, on topics ranging from developments in biomedical sciences to innovations in e-commerce, because he believed that judges cannot remain effective if they do not understand innovations.
Ms Yong announced that she would donate $10 million to the National University Health System (NUHS) in her mother’s name for a programme carrying Mr Yong’s name. Mr Yong’s wife, Madam Cheang Wei-Woo, died a few weeks ago.
NUHS chief executive Yeoh Khay Guan said the donation would strengthen NUHS’ care, research and education, and he looked forward to sharing more details on the initiatives it will make possible.
PM Lee added that it was Mr Yong’s impeccable integrity that led Mr Lee Kuan Yew to choose him in 1980 to build the Government of Singapore Investment Corporation (GIC) from scratch as its first managing director.
Mr Yong’s strong sense of duty and service to Singapore led him to answer the elder Mr Lee’s subsequent call to serve as chief justice in 1989, even though this entailed a drastic pay cut as he was then chairman and chief executive of OCBC Bank, PM Lee added.
PM Lee recalled being surprised with this choice as it had been a while since Mr Yong practised law and he had known him more as a respected banker, but Mr Lee was convinced he was the right choice.
“He was confident not only of Mr Yong’s capability in the law, but also confident that because of his life experiences, Mr Yong understood instinctively what Singapore needed to succeed, and how the courts had to play their role to make our legal system work,” said PM Lee.
Over his tenure, Mr Yong tightened case management, modernised court processes and championed using technology to improve efficiency.
He set up specialist courts, raised judges’ salaries to attract legal talent, and initiated the Justices’ Law Clerk scheme to recruit top law graduates to the legal service.
In his first speech as chief justice, he abolished the traditional wigs worn by judges and lawyers, and salutations such as “My Lord” or “Your Lordship” for Supreme Court judges.
PM Lee said Mr Yong’s labours transformed Singapore’s judicial system and brought it into the 21st century. Within a decade of his becoming chief justice, the legal system was rated the best in Asia and recognised as being among the top in the world.
PM Lee said: “Everyone remembers Mr Lee Kuan Yew as the founder of modern Singapore. But Mr Lee had close colleagues and collaborators in his team who made many crucial contributions to Singapore, some of whom have not been adequately recognised. I am glad that books are now being written about them.”
He listed former deputy prime ministers S. Rajaratnam and Goh Keng Swee, and now Mr Yong as examples, and called Mr Yong “one of these titans”.
In another tribute in the biography, Senior Counsel Harpreet Singh recalled how Mr Yong offered to introduce him to bankers he knew, should funding from his then law firm Drew & Napier not arrive to help him pay for his master’s degree at Harvard.
Mr Singh noted that he did not have to take up Mr Yong’s offer, but was deeply touched by the gesture.
Speaking to The Straits Times, Mr Singh said: “It’s important to us who worked closely with former chief justice Yong to give a full portrayal of the many different aspects of the man.
“The public gets a certain view, but it’s not a complete view. Human beings have many facets to them... For those of us who worked very closely with him, we were very privileged to see that side of him.”
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