Not Born in Singapore: Fifty Personalities who Shaped the Nation

By Ying Hui

Did you know that we owe the iconic Singapore Girl to a British-born adman? Or that the founder of the popular Mustafa Centre hails from India? This year as we celebrate our local heroes, it’s also time to put the spotlight on other unsung contributors who have shaped our nation. They may have come from other shores, but these 50 foreigners have left their mark in building Singapore into the nation we know it to be today.

The 50 remarkable individuals are:

ARTS
Ian Batey, K. P. Bhaskar, Santha Bhaskar, Della Butcher, Choo Hoey, John Herbert, Kuo Pao Kun, Goh Lay Kuan, J. M. Sali, Tan Swie Hian

ECONOMY
Mustaq Ahmad, Sir Laurence Hartnett, Dr Tsutomu Kanai, Pasquale Pistorio, Captain Muhammad Jalaluddin Sayeed, Tang I-Fang Ratan Tata, Kartar Singh Thakral, Tan Sri Frank Tsao Wen- King, Alain Vandenborre, Cyril Neville Watson, Albert Winsemius

EDUCATION
Dr Robert A. Brown, Brother Joseph McNally, Milenko Prvacki, Mary Turnbull, Professor Wang Gungwu, Professor Wu Teh Yao, Dr John Miksic, Ann Wee

SOCIETY
Professor T. H. Elliott, Christine Laimer, Lien Ying Chow, BG Yaakov ‘Jack’ Elazari, G. G. Thomson, Krystyn Olszewski, Bruno Wildermuth

SCIENCE AND MEDICINE
Sir Sabaratnam Arulkumaran, Dr Sydney Brenner, Professor Edward W. Holmes, Dr Edison Liu, Sir George Radda, Dr Shan Ratnam, Sir David Lane, Professor Jackie Y. Ying

SPORTS
Aleksandar Duric, Feng Tianwei, Jing Junhong, Ronald Susilo, Tao Li

• Language: English
• Publisher: Epigram Books
• Release date: Feb 18, 2019
• ISBN: 9789814655422

Book preview

Koh

PREFACE

It is a truism that the world does not owe Singapore a living. However, many foreigners have helped it, not only to make a living, but also to create the good life for its citizens. This book profiles 50 people who were not born in Singapore but who have contributed substantially to its progress from Third World to First.

This book aims to tell the stories of individuals who have made their mark in the fields of the economy, science and medicine, education and society, the arts, and sports. Their efforts have helped industries and businesses to grow; they have honed and polished the capabilities of Singaporeans in a common enterprise to place Singapore on the global map of success.

The choice of 50 individuals ties in with celebrations of Singapore’s Golden Jubilee. The list is by no means exhaustive. The selection of individuals was based on their meeting three broad criteria. First, they were not born in Singapore but came here for a brief sojourn or to plant roots for the long term. Second, the contributions for which they are recognised were made after Singapore had achieved independence. Third, their accomplishments helped Singapore’s star to shine, burnishing its reputation on the global stage or ensuring international recognition for a uniquely Singapore brand or character.

The 1960s were a time of economic and political uncertainty. Independence brought with it the challenge of providing jobs, housing and education to two million people. Countless individuals and groups played a role in laying the foundation of an economically robust nation with an efficient civil service, a capable workforce and the ability to protect its borders. Among them, G. G. Thomson educated civil servants on world affairs. Brigadier-General Yaakov Elazari helped train the army. The economist Albert Winsemius spent a few months in Singapore in 1960 to assess its economic potential but lived mostly in The Hague during the 23 years he served as an adviser to the Singapore government. The Chinese economist Tang I-Fang came as part of the United Nations Industrial Survey Mission in 1961 to assist with Singapore’s economic development; he became a citizen in 1972. Ian Batey created the iconic Singapore Girl, which till today embodies the personalised service that Singapore Airlines offers passengers. Nobel Prize winner Sydney Brenner was instrumental in the development of biomedical research in Singapore.

Individuals who made Singapore a more cultured and compassionate nation are also featured in this book. Ann Wee raised the public’s perception of social work and fought to introduce an honours year in the Social Work degree programme at the University of Singapore. Artistes like K. P. and Santha Bhaskar, and Kuo Pao Kun and his wife Goh Lay Kuan devoted their lives to the pursuit of their craft, inspiring Singaporeans to expand the aesthetic boundaries of the nation. The architect Krystyn Olszewski was imprisoned in Auschwitz before coming to Singapore to work on the first Concept Plan. Launched in 1971, it envisaged the development of Changi Airport, new public housing townships and a network of expressways. These are just a few of the individuals celebrated in the book.

The book does not include those born in Malaysia. Given the symbiotic ties of history and culture between the two nations, it is difficult to think of them as foreigners. The Malayan-born members of the first generation of Cabinet Ministers provide symbolic proof of this relationship. Other examples would be librarian Hedwig Anuar, author Catherine Lim, economist Lim Chong Yah, theatre practitioner Huzir Sulaiman, and mountaineer Khoo Swee Chiow. Also, in the interests of selectivity, the book leaves out foreign workers who have built the city and who continue to play a crucial role in the construction, service and healthcare sectors. Their absence from these pages is not intended to diminish their everyday contributions to keeping Singapore going.

The content for the 50 profile pieces has been drawn from Internet sources, media archives, material provided by the families of individuals, and interviews where possible. Sources are acknowledged at the end of each profile.

Lynn Lee & Asad Latif

Institute of Policy Studies

October 2015

ARTS

Ian Batey

United Kingdom

—

K. P. Bhaskar

India

—

Santha Bhaskar

India

—

Della Butcher

United Kingdom

—

Choo Hoey

Indonesia

—

Kuo Pao Kun

China

—

Goh Lay Kuan

Indonesia

—

John Herbert

United Kingdom

—

J.M. Sali

India

—

Tan Swie Hian

Indonesia

Ian Batey

Mister Singapore Girl

Singapore Airlines’ iconic Singapore Girl has come to personify in-flight service par excellence, one that even other airlines talk about. It was the brainchild of Ian Batey, a British advertising executive who moved to Singapore in 1969.

You have seen her in advertisements and on board Singapore Airlines flights, always decked out in a sarong kebaya . For more than 40 years, the Singapore Girl has stood by SIA as it soared through airline rankings. An adman, Ian Batey, created her as the carrier’s face to the world.

British-born Batey arrived in Singapore in 1969 to work with advertising firm Jackson Wain. He joined another firm, McCann-Erickson, on the Malaysia-Singapore Airlines account 14 months later. He quickly found himself without a project to work on when both countries chose to set up separate airlines in 1972.

The 36-year-old Batey then decided to pitch for the new Singapore Airlines account on his own. The management of SIA balked. They grilled him, Why should we entrust the advertising of our nation’s first airline to a person who has no experience in running a business? Batey responded, Just give me a 12-month contract and if I don’t perform to your satisfaction in that time, I’ll rebate you all the commission that I’ve earned from the airline. His confident attitude won the airline over. SIA chose Batey’s brand-new eponymous agency.

Batey Ads was located next to the then-smelly Singapore River at the corner of Hong Kong Street and New Bridge Road within Singapore’s Central Business District. Holed up in his office—a bomb shelter with only one window where you could check the weather outside—Batey and his team, Rick Scott Blackhall, Henry Lim and Peter Hutton, had a daunting task, which was to build an image for a national carrier. He anticipated that the types of planes an airline had would cease to be a competitive advantage since all airlines would essentially buy the same hardware. He felt that an airline needed to differentiate itself through in-flight service, and that the advertisements needed to promote that.

Using the flight stewardess as SIA’s icon was an idea Batey had from the very beginning. SIA took to the skies on October 1, 1972 carrying this new image. A year later, to give her a special identity, the Singapore Girl tagline was publicly introduced at the end of the advertisement jingle. It was, Singapore Girl, you’re a great way to fly.

The Singapore Girl had to possess physical and character attributes—natural warmth, femininity, grace and gentleness—to encapsulate the airline’s unique service. She was, and still is today, clad in a sarong kebaya uniform designed by French fashion designer Pierre Balmain, to accentuate the physical qualities of an attractive young woman. And she would also be used as a distinctive graphic prop for the brand.

At a time when it was common for airline commercials to explain safety issues, SIA’s first print ad featured a stewardess with her lips slightly apart. The copy cooed, The girl’s in love with you. In other advertisements, the Singapore Girl was featured taking a taxi to the airport and on her way, passing bustling destinations like Collyer Quay, Boat Quay and Orchard Road. The landscape may have been slightly chaotic but the Singapore Girl was ever graceful and poised.

The image of SIA being synonymous with premium service stuck. Other Asian airlines later adopted the same strategy, but they did not have the Singapore Girl, said Batey. The Singapore Girl, portrayed by real-life SIA flight attendants, continued to front a series of memorable advertising campaigns through the 1970s and 1980s. She sauntered dreamily through charming locales around the world, signalling that travelling with the airline would be a delightful, comfortable and pleasing experience. The 1986 advertisement jingle captured this sentiment and made the Singapore Girl come alive with lyrical copy: You’re always there across the world, I see you smile, I see you care…you’ve that touch of magic as you carry me to places that I have never seen…Singapore Girl you are a great way to fly.

In 1993, the Singapore Girl took her place among world leaders in Madame Tussauds London—a breakthrough, considering the wax museum previously held a strict policy against displaying commercial icons. Batey proposed installing the Singapore Girl at the museum to celebrate her 21st birthday. Juliet Simkins, head of press and publicity at Madame Tussauds, explained that the Singapore Girl was accepted because she had been seen at many exotic locations by many viewers, and had become a global icon.

Batey made creative decisions based on gut judgment. In an interview, he said he had little respect for market research. At the initial stages of branding the airline, J.Y. Pillay, then-SIA chairman said to Batey he could not quite understand the concept. Batey replied, Have faith. This exchange was also recorded in Batey’s autobiography, Asian Branding: A Great Way To Fly.

Batey Ads rebranded the Singapore Tourism Board to resolve the dilemma between showcasing Singapore as a smart, clean and contemporary holiday destination and promoting the rustic charm that Japanese and Western tourists were naturally drawn to. In 1978, the agency rolled out its tagline: Singapore, the most surprising tropical island on earth. Other accounts that Batey Ads worked on included United Overseas Bank, which had the slogan Stand United Bank United; Tiger Balm, which had Works Where it Hurts and Carrier air-conditioning, whose slogan was The Carrier Man Can.

Batey has spent more than 50 years in the advertising business. Today, he lives in the United States and mentors students at an English-speaking Mexican high school and occasionally advises the board of the school.

Batey was awarded the Lifetime Achievement Award in 1998 by the Singapore Advertising Hall of Fame. In 1990, he was nominated by The Wall Street Journal as one of the leading advertising personalities in Asia. Explaining his love for advertising, he said, It tickles the toes rather than the head and reaches into your heart rather than your head.

References

Ian Batey, Asian Branding: A Great Way to Fly (United States: Prentice Hall, 2002).

Michael Richardson, The Singapore Girl, The New York Times, June 8, 1993,

http://nytimes.com/1993/06/08style/08iht-wax.html

Interview with Ian Batey via email in May 2015.

Ian Batey

United Kingdom, b.1935

K. P. and Santha Bhaskar

Leading Lights of Indian Dance

Fifteen-year-old dancer Santha arrived in Singapore from Kerala in 1955 to join her husband, K. P. Bhaskar, who ran a small dance school. Today, Santha teaches at the Bhaskar’s Arts Academy’s teaching wing, Nrityalaya Aesthetics Society, which grooms over 800 students in mostly Bharatanatyam dance and Carnatic music.

Petite and poised, with nary a streak of white in her lustrous black hair, Santha Bhaskar has been a poster girl for the arts community. In 1968, she was featured in a series of postage stamps showcasing the traditional performing arts of the different ethnic groups in Singapore. Santha had arrived in 1955 to help run the dance academy her husband—Krishna Pillay or K. P. Bhaskar in short—set up. K. P. Bhaskar, who was born in Kerala, came to Singapore in 1952, teaching dance in his Joo Chiat flat to about 40 students.

Today, the academy is known as Bhaskar’s Arts Academy and it is the go-to place for Indian dance lessons and performances. The Academy’s teaching wing, Nrityalaya Aesthetics Society, at Stamford Arts Centre, has more than 800 students. They mostly learn Bharatanatyam, a classical Indian dance which originated from the temples of Tamil Nadu and is known for its graceful and sculpturesque poses. Bhaskar died in 2013 but Santha continues teaching the art form that brought her and her husband together.

Santha was only 15 years old when her mother told her that she was going to marry a man 14 years her senior. I was scared of him because of our age difference and so at the beginning I would obey whatever he said, Santha said of her early days with her husband. But Bhaskar’s tenderness, companionship and the way he complemented her personality played a role in her falling in love with him.

In Kerala, Santha had begun learning dance at the behest of her parents. She disliked it. Bhaskar was the opposite: he had loved dance since young. At 14, he ran away from home to study dance from a Kathakali master. His parents were farmers and thought that dance was not a respectable career. Kathakali, which originated in Kerala, is a dance-drama based on Indian epics. Dancers perform in ornate costumes and paint their faces in bold colours. Bhaskar received free lessons, so out of goodwill he secretly took rice from his parents’ home to pay his teacher.

Bhaskar introduced the Kathakali dance to Singapore in 1954. He formed a small dance group with members of the Malayalee community who were familiar with the dance. When he returned to Singapore with his new bride in 1955, the couple became dance partners on stage although Santha originally lacked confidence in performing.

Santha remembers Singapore in the 1950s as a sleepy colonial outpost. Singapore was small, nice and cosy, she recalled. There were no crowds and everybody knew everybody. They lived in Joo Chiat with a close friend of Bhaskar’s before the couple bought their own flat. Despite her young age and speaking neither English nor Malay, Santha said she adapted easily to these new conditions because of the hospitality. A friend of Bhaskar’s taught Santha how to buy provisions and how to pleat a sari as she had mostly worn pattu pavadai, a traditional skirt and blouse outfit, in India. The couple sought out friends from other ethnic communities and learnt dance from them.

They also travelled frequently to Malaysia to perform. At that time, it was difficult to get entertainment licences for arts organisations in Singapore. Translations of songs and their meanings had to be submitted to the authorities. To supplement their income, Bhaskar learned meditation in Switzerland, transformed their home into a meditation centre, and taught meditation. Santha picked up meditation in the 1970s as well and said she became more positive about life. Her initial discomfort with performing on stage eased and she realised that her destiny was to teach dance and meet people. The Bhaskars’ were, by then, Singapore citizens.

Bhaskar’s death capped a lifetime of contributions to Singapore’s arts scene. He wrote books on Indian dance, scripts for television including a 13-part series on Bharathanatyam and a 26-part series titled Aspects of Indian Dance and was the pioneering chairman of the Dance Advisory Committee overseen by the then-Ministry of Culture. He was awarded the Meritorious Service Medal in 1963. Santha has continued her husband’s passion for the arts, teaching at the National University of Singapore (NUS) Centre of the Arts in addition to grooming students at the academy. He always said everything is possible, she recalled. When I say something is difficult, he would say, ‘Don’t think negative things. Think positively.’ Today, their elder son, Ananda Mohan, is the academy’s chief executive officer. The younger son, Ananda Ram, is a civil servant and daughter Meenakshy runs a branch of the academy in Sacramento, California, where she lives with her husband and two children. Meenakshy still choreographs and performs in the school’s productions from time to time. Santha was awarded the Cultural Medallion in 1990 for her contributions to the development of Indian classical dance in Singapore. She continues to believe in the value of bringing traditional arts to the community. In an interview with the National Arts Council A-List website, she said, "I am not worried that traditional arts will die. If there is a need, they will survive. As artists, we learn to not expect everybody