ESM Goh Chok Tong leaves behind a ‘kind-hearted’ Marine Parade, residents say

• As MP, ESM Goh started various social programmes for the less fortunate
• He once initiated a fundraiser for a children's home outside his constituency
• Residents and colleagues best remember Mr Goh for his affable demeanour
• One resident suggests renaming the Marine Terrace MRT station after Mr Goh

SINGAPORE — Ms Judy Liew was distraught when she separated from her husband three years ago. Left to care for three young children on her own, she fell into depression.

“I couldn’t endure it at that time. How could I, when I’m alone?” said Ms Liew, 46, a part-time cashier who had already gone through a failed marriage once.

It was the counselling and support she received through WeCare@MarineParade, a project that links vulnerable residents with volunteers and social services, that got her through the difficult period, she said.

Through another social project called EduGrow, two of Ms Liew’s children — now aged 10 and 11 — receive tuition and mentorship from Marine Parade volunteers.

These are among many social programmes started by Emeritus Senior Minister Goh Chok Tong in Marine Parade during his 44-year tenure as its Member of Parliament (MP).

The former prime minister of 14 years wrote to current PM Lee Hsien Loong on Wednesday (June 24) to announce his decision to retire as MP.

“It’s a pity that Mr Goh is retiring,” said Ms Liew, who currently lives with her three children in a two-room rental flat she secured with the MP’s help.

Residents say these programmes have nurtured a tight-knit community and will remain part of his legacy in Marine Parade.

At age 35, Mr Goh was elected MP for what was then a new single-member constituency after winning 78.26 per cent of the vote in the 1976 General Election.

In a letter to Mr Goh on Thursday, Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong noted that Marine Parade was a “large but blank canvas” when Mr Goh was first elected.

“Marine Parade has become a vibrant waterfront town filled with warmth, which people of all ages are proud to call home,” Mr Lee added. “The story of Marine Parade is the story of Singapore — out of nothing, we created something special. You made that happen.”

A 'MODEL' TOWN

In Mr Goh’s years as MP, he introduced many initiatives in the residential estate situated at the southeastern coast of the island.

One year into his political career, in 1977, he set up residents’ committees (RCs) in the constituency to promote community participation among residents and serve as a channel for the Government to disseminate official policies and receive feedback from the people.

The RC project succeeded and was replicated in more than 800 RCs and neighbourhood committees islandwide.

“Mr Goh’s biggest contribution was developing Marine Parade to be the model town for modern Singapore,” shopkeeper Toh Boon Khiang, 60, said. Mr Toh moved into Marine Parade in 1974, a year after the first housing blocks were built in the newly reclaimed area.

In the later years of Mr Goh’s career after he stepped down from the Cabinet, he started several social programmes that would similarly see nationwide adoption.

He started WeCare@MarineParade in 2014 and the project inspired the national SG Cares Community Network launched four years later.

In 2016, Mr Goh also started the EduGrow programme to provide mentorship for young children from low-income families in Marine Parade. That would go on to influence the Uplift programme the Education Ministry is now rolling out in Singapore.

That same year, he founded the TODAY Enable Fund, now renamed after parent company Mediacorp, for persons with disabilities in Singapore.

He also created the Marine Parade Leadership Foundation to train future community leaders that later influenced the creation of the Youth Corps Singapore programme.

As Marine Parade and its residents aged, Mr Goh began to focus his efforts on supporting caregivers tending to young children and the elderly.

In 2013, while paying a visit to two children from Marine Parade who had just been taken in by Canossaville Children’s Home, Mr Goh was struck by the poor conditions of the home, grassroots volunteer Ng Li Peng said.

Mr Goh then asked Ms Ng to spearhead a fundraising programme which eventually raised S$800,000 for the home.

"He bothered to go down to this home and take steps to improve it,” said Ms Ng, 43, who now serves as the Marine Parade PAP branch treasurer.

Mr Goh had also tasked former IHH Healthcare chief executive Tan See Leng to set up a Caregiver Support Network in Marine Parade, which will be launched soon.

Dr Tan, 55, will be taking over as chairman for the Marine Parade PAP branch. He has been Mr Goh’s understudy for nearly two years and is the oldest among the slate of new prospective candidates announced by the PAP this week.

AT THE POLLS

Marine Parade had historically been a PAP stronghold. In all but the last two general elections in the constituency, the party won with a vote share of more than 70 per cent.

In the 1991 General Election, then-Workers’ Party chief J B Jeyaretnam had complained that it was called to keep him out of the fray, as he was not qualified to stand for the polls.

In 1992, Mr Goh resigned from his seat in Parliament, as sitting prime minister, to allow Mr Jeyaretnam to contest in a by-election for the Marine Parade Group Representation Constituency (GRC).

Mr Goh said then that if he loses his seat in the by-election, he would resign as prime minister.

Mr Goh’s team won with 72.94 per cent of the vote.

The 2011 General Election was Mr Goh’s worst showing at the polls.

His team won with a vote share of 56.64 per cent against a team from the National Solidarity Party that included Ms Nicole Seah, who was on Thursday unveiled as a candidate running under the Workers’ Party (WP) banner for the July 10 election.

The PAP’s Marine Parade team bounced back in 2015, winning 64.07 per cent of the vote against the WP.

The WP said on Thursday it will again contest in Marine Parade GRC.

Although Mr Goh has retired as MP, he remains chairman emeritus of the Marine Parade PAP branch and adviser emeritus to Marine Parade People’s Association grassroots organisations.

GOH CHOK TONG MRT STATION?

Mr Goh was famously once ridiculed by the late Lee Kuan Yew as being “wooden” in his communication skills.

His residents and colleagues have a different view. Mr Goh’s “affable demeanour” and “genuine desire to make personal connections” are what they know him for.

“It’s the way he treats his staff and assistants around him that has always struck me as a leader who is considerate and kind,” outgoing Speaker of Parliament Tan Chuan-Jin told TODAY in an email.

Grassroots leader Caroline Chen, treasurer at Marine Terrace Haven RC, said Mr Goh treats everyone as equals.

“People around here like him a lot. He’s very approachable,” said Ms Chen, 52, who has been a Marine Parade resident for 42 years and helps run a traditional Chinese medicine shop in the area.

Long-time resident M Sazali Kamil, 54, who is currently unemployed, said the humble Mr Goh helped build a kind-hearted town. “I have no complaints,” he said.

Mr Toh, the shopkeeper, recalled how he once met Mr Goh during one of his walkabouts, and the MP’s bodyguard “tried to stop me from getting too close to Mr Goh”.

Mr Toh said: “Mr Goh shot the bodyguard a glare and he immediately backed down. And then he came up close to me and asked: ‘Do you want to take a photo?’”

That incident, Mr Toh said, showed how sincere Mr Goh was in getting to know the residents.

“I’d like you to do me a favour,” Mr Toh told this reporter. “Could you write that some of us residents would like to suggest the upcoming (Marine Terrace) MRT station be named after Mr Goh?”