A review by hweezbooks
Tall Order: The Goh Chok Tong Story by Shing Huei Peh
4.0
Goh Chok Tong knew early, and very clearly, that he was no Lee Kuan Yew. As to how such an unassuming (quite the opposite type) man filled Lee’s shoes — this book tells us successfully through a sharp, easygoing prose and huge chunks of verbatim interviews with Goh himself.
But you’d be very much mistaken if you bought into the idea that Goh was ever a “seat warmer” or as he himself called it, a “Goh-between”. For those curious, this book reveals conversations between Goh and Lee unlike any other. While Lee disapproved and told Goh that he “cannot be listening to murmurs all the time”, Goh proved to have a genuine and honest intent to loosen the noose on the LKY era and build a more consultative, “second-chance society”. And for the first time in 30 years, Goh gives his most extensive comments on the dark day in August 1988 when Lee told the whole nation at the National Day Rally that Goh was not his first choice as successor. Initially taken aback and angered, in true Goh Chok Tong style, he embraced it in good humour.
As author Peh Shing Huei astutely notes, “that episode freed him from the demands and desire, from within and without, to be like Lee.” This book will become a necessary resource for anyone delving into Singapore’s political history and leadership transition, this I am sure. As much as Goh initially did not want a book written about him, this needed to be done.
But you’d be very much mistaken if you bought into the idea that Goh was ever a “seat warmer” or as he himself called it, a “Goh-between”. For those curious, this book reveals conversations between Goh and Lee unlike any other. While Lee disapproved and told Goh that he “cannot be listening to murmurs all the time”, Goh proved to have a genuine and honest intent to loosen the noose on the LKY era and build a more consultative, “second-chance society”. And for the first time in 30 years, Goh gives his most extensive comments on the dark day in August 1988 when Lee told the whole nation at the National Day Rally that Goh was not his first choice as successor. Initially taken aback and angered, in true Goh Chok Tong style, he embraced it in good humour.
As author Peh Shing Huei astutely notes, “that episode freed him from the demands and desire, from within and without, to be like Lee.” This book will become a necessary resource for anyone delving into Singapore’s political history and leadership transition, this I am sure. As much as Goh initially did not want a book written about him, this needed to be done.