From Oxley Road dispute to PM Lee’s handover, ex-DPM S Jayakumar's new book offers behind-the-scenes look at governance

• Governing: A Singapore Perspective by former Deputy Prime Minister Professor S Jayakumar was launched on Friday
• The book covers contemporary political issues including the 38 Oxley Road saga, PM Lee Hsien Loong’s handover timeline, and the PAP’s future post-GE2020
• Also in the book are his interactions with the late Mr Lee Kuan Yew and other world leaders, and an inside look into the Government in his time
• Revealing how he nearly decided against entering politics, he wanted to write the book to encourage other potential leaders to step up

SINGAPORE — Stuck at home during the Covid-19 partial lockdown earlier this year, Professor S Jayakumar, 81, decided to use the downtime to complete a book that had been long in the making. Governing: A Singapore Perspective was launched on Friday (Nov 6).

The veteran statesman and diplomat served in the Cabinets of all three Singapore Prime Ministers from 1981 to 2011, helming ministerial portfolios in Foreign Affairs, Law and Home Affairs, as well as serving as Deputy Prime Minister from 2004 to 2009. He now serves as senior legal adviser to the Minister for Foreign Affairs.

Reflecting on recent and more distant political affairs, Prof Jayakumar tells all about his time in government in the book, offering his observations on tricky legal matters like Section 377A and the death penalty, and his personal thoughts on the fourth-generation People’s Action Party (PAP) leaders and the party’s future following the recent General Election (GE).

There are numerous revelations too, including how he questioned Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong on his “premature” announcement that he would step down following GE2020, his past interactions with world leaders such as Malaysia’s Dr Mahathir Mohamad, and a lengthy behind-the-scenes look at the Lee family feud over 38 Oxley Road.

Published by the Straits Times Press, the 191-page book was conceived in 2016 but required a long gestation period due to Prof Jayakumar’s other commitments. The circuit breaker period was a “blessing in disguise” that helped him finish the book.

Defence Minister Ng Eng Hen, who spoke at the book launch at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs (MFA), said: “This book does not shy away from provocative issues, as long as they are core to Singapore’s existence and well-being… (It) is not just tales of a raconteur but an exegesis of past events and present challenges that we must confront to chart the best way ahead.”

Prof Jayakumar, who was Senior Minister before retiring from politics, said his motivation to pen the book in the first place came from the late Mr Lee Kuan Yew, who told him to keep Singapore’s success story going. Mr Lee died on March 23, 2015, the year before Prof Jayakumar conceived the idea for the book.

“One of those attributes (of keeping Singapore’s success story going) will be getting good people, not just as ministers or prime ministers, but in all sectors in professions, public service and private sector,” Prof Jayakumar said in response to a question from TODAY in a group interview at MFA.

He recounted his guilt in rejecting a request to enter politics when he was first approached in 1974 as a law academic with zero political experience, only changing his mind in 1979 when then-Minister for Trade and Industry Goh Chok Tong asked him whether he would regret declining again if things went awry for Singapore.

“It was difficult in my time, but now with social media and a magnifying glass looking at every aspect of your past life, your family, and being scrutinised, there is a reluctance for people to come in.”

On those considering a political career, he said: “I thought I should just tell the story… I hope they will consider the same question that was put to me, and maybe they will change their minds.”

4G POLITICAL SUCCESSION

When PM Lee said in mid-2017 that GE2020 would be his last as Prime Minister and that he hoped to step down before he turned 70, which would be in February 2022, Prof Jayakumar had wondered if he had announced his intentions prematurely.

After all, many people had thought PM Lee was young and fit enough for “at least two, if not three more terms”, he wrote in the book, attributing these thoughts to friends and taxi drivers.

These people were also concerned that the 4G leaders — namely Mr Heng Swee Keat, Mr Chan Chun Sing, Mr Tan Chuan-Jin, Mr Ong Ye Kung and Mr Lawrence Wong — while capable and competent, may not have been ready or did not have sufficient experience.

Prof Jayakumar would remind these people that he, too, did not have political experience when he was appointed to political office.

Still, he decided to take these concerns to PM Lee during a lunch in 2017. In response, Mr Lee said he was aware of such feedback and noted that if he were to postpone the timeline, he and his successor would be much older.

With Covid-19 spurring Mr Lee to announce during GE2020 that he would stay on to see the crisis through, Prof Jayakumar wondered again what Mr Lee would do if Singapore were in dire straits in four to five years’ time — when the next GE is nearing.

He wrote in the book: “In my view, however capable the 4G leaders, we should not change horses in midstream.”

When asked about this in the media interview, Prof Jayakumar said his central point was that with the pandemic, this is not the time to talk about succession plans.

“So, I’m posing the question: What if this difficult scenario continues? Would he be prepared to revise that second aspect of the timeline and lead the General Election?” he told reporters.

ATTORNEY-GENERAL AND THE GOVERNMENT

One chapter of the book focuses on the independence of the Attorney-General’s Chambers (AGC) from the Government, a matter that has received renewed attention due to parliamentary questions from the opposition Workers’ Party, as well as the case involving ex-maid Parti Liyani.

The Attorney-General (AG) in Singapore plays four roles: As a public prosecutor independent from the Government, as the Government’s legal adviser, as a drafter of laws, and as Singapore’s international lawyer. The current AG is Mr Lucien Wong.

Prof Jayakumar, realising that many people did not know how the role worked, decided to pen his experiences in the book. While he did not serve as AG, Prof Jayakumar was Law Minister from 1988 until 2008.

He recalled how during his time in Cabinet, senior ministry officials would question why the AG was being difficult after the AGC flagged potential legal pitfalls that meant policies or decisions could not be implemented.

Prof Jayakumar explained that it is by design that the AGC’s job may constrain the Government from implementing certain policies.

“I should stress that in my experience, no PM had ever gone against the advice of the AG, even if he or his ministers might have disagreed with or been unhappy with the advice they received,” he wrote.

The same went for decisions to prosecute: No PM or minister had interfered with prosecutorial decisions by the AGC.

38 OXLEY ROAD

Prof Jayakumar gave a behind-the-scenes look at the Lee family feud over 38 Oxley Road — the residence of the late Mr Lee Kuan Yew.

When asked why he included this section in the book, he said he wanted to cover major contemporary issues and that no one could deny the feud was an issue that occupied the media and people’s minds at the time.

In the book, Prof Jayakumar recalled his astonishment over the events when they first emerged, as well as the contents of allegations made by two of Mr Lee’s children, Mr Lee Hsien Yang and Ms Lee Wei Ling.

Referring to families in general, he wrote: “We do not know the simmering feelings of rivalry and jealousy among the children and their spouses. When a dominant patriarch or matriarch is alive, such feelings are bottled up. When the parents pass away, these problems come to the fore.”

Besides offering his personal thoughts on the matter, he described how he and then-Emeritus Senior Minister Goh had discussed how to protect the Government from being dragged into the Oxley Road issue. Both were concerned about the collateral damage to the Government and Singaporeans.

Prof Jayakumar’s name was also floated by several people as possibly playing a mediation role, which he had been willing to take on if all three parties had agreed. The suggestion did not materialise.

“I was hugely relieved when it did not go further than that. But I thought if approached, I could not say no,” he told reporters.

LEE KUAN YEW

A significant portion of Prof Jayakumar’s book was devoted to his encounters and interactions with Mr Lee Kuan Yew, as well as the latter’s approach to governance and diplomacy.

Personal anecdotes in the book include:

• The way Mr Lee and Prof Jayakumar had a huge disagreement over how Singapore-Philippines relations were handled following the case of Flor Contemplacion, a Filipina domestic worker given the death penalty in 1995 for murder

• How Mr Lee was against the idea of chartering a Singapore Airlines plane for diplomatic travels

• An episode when Mr Lee’s confidence in Singapore’s legal arguments over the territorial dispute with Malaysia over Pedra Branca was nearly shaken by Malaysia’s foreign counsel

• How Prof Jayakumar had to read the National Day Message in Tamil, a language in which he was not proficient, at the urging of Mr Lee and his spouse, Madam Kwa Geok Choo

One anecdote described how Mr Lee once turned up at a Cabinet meeting with a plaster on his head.

When he asked what happened, Mr Lee said he had momentarily dozed off and hit his head on a lectern while reading to Mrs Lee some poems at night. Mrs Lee was suffering the effects of a second stroke then.

Wrote Prof Jayakumar, who also began reading books and interesting news articles to his spouse nightly: “I was very touched. That account has had a special impact on me personally, especially after my wife Lalitha developed disabilities as a result of Parkinson’s disease (in 2014).”

The book is dedicated to his wife Lalitha Rajahram. Proceeds from the book will go to MFA's adopted charity The Rainbow Centre, which helps children with special needs.