Speech by DPM Heng Swee Keat at the Administrative Service Dinner 2025
TRANSCRIPT OF SPEECH BY DPM HENG SWEE KEAT AT THE ADMINISTRATIVE SERVICE DINNER 2025, 15 APRIL 2025
“6 LESSONS IN SG60”
Minister Chan Chun Sing,
Minister-in-Charge of the Public Service
Chairman Lee Tzu Yang, and Members of the Public Service Commission,
Head, Civil Service Leo Yip and Permanent Secretaries,
Ladies and Gentlemen,
Introduction
1. Good evening. First, my heartiest congratulations to the 13 officers who have been appointed to the Administrative Service, and the 60 Administrative Officers who have been promoted.
2. Five Permanent Secretaries have retired, or are retiring, from the Administrative Service. They are Mr Chan Yeng Kit, Mrs Ow Foong Pheng and Mrs Tan Ching Yee who has each served for 38 years. We were fellow Permanent Secretaries when I was in the Admin Service. All have made significant contributions, in various ministries. Ching Yee who worked most closely with me in MOE and in MOF, was a pillar of support. Two younger Perm Secs, Gabriel Lim and Jeffrey Siow, who have served 26 and 24 years respectively, are leaving to pursue new challenges. On behalf of my Cabinet colleagues, thank you, Ching Yee, Yeng Kit, Foong Pheng, Gabriel, and Jeffrey. We wish you the very best in your next pursuits.
SG60
3. This year Singapore celebrates SG60.
4. In these 6 decades, the world and Singapore have gone through significant changes, with many anxious moments – wars, financial and economic crises, recessions, pandemics.
5. We are on the brink of a new trade and technology war, set off by the strategic rivalry between the US and China. The world order of rules-based multi-lateral trade in which we have found a footing for Singapore, is being replaced by arbitrary and protectionist policies. History has not only not ended, but has opened a new, dangerous chapter. The security and economic consequences for Singapore can be severe.
6. Our ageing demographics and climate change are relentless pressures. Singapore, as a little red dot, has been and will forever be, buffeted by developments in Asia and around the world. At the same time, advances in Science, Technology and Innovation will create new industries, disrupt and reshape existing ones, and transform the jobs and skills landscape.
7. In all I have described, there are challenges, and also new opportunities, depending on our responses.
8. Despite the twists and turns in the last 60 years, we have done well – our economy has grown and ranks highly in competitiveness and innovation, our external and internal security are sound, and our social cohesion is strong. The quality of our housing, parks and greenery, and workspaces is high.
9. Singapore’s success has translated to a better life for Singaporeans – affordable and world-class education and healthcare, abundant opportunities in different education and career pathways, and one of the highest home ownership rates in the world – all within a City in Nature. We have beaten the odds and risen from Third World to First.
10. Almost 2 decades ago, I went to Omaha to meet Mr Warren Buffet and Mr Charlie Munger, to persuade them to set up in Singapore. Mr Buffet, with a twinkle in his eyes, asked if he could invest in an asset that is based directly on Singapore’s success as a country. Mr Buffet was most complimentary and confident about Singapore. While I appreciate this, we must remember that the survival and success of a ‘little red dot’, a small state, is perilous. Mr Lee Kuan Yew and his founding generation grappled with this at our independence. We continue to. It is a perennial issue, now and into the future.
11. So let me take this occasion of the Administrative Service dinner in this SG60 year, to share my reflections on six lessons, one for each decade, in our nation-building journey.
Lesson 1: Execution is policy, and execution happens at the frontline
12. When I started work in the Singapore Police Force, my first duty was to patrol the streets in a police car, responding to ‘999’ calls. That evening, there was a traffic light breakdown at a busy junction. When we arrived, there was chaos. My teammate attended to one section of the street, and I stood in the middle of the junction, the cross-roads, to direct traffic. Soon, traffic built up as I could not see the traffic situation well. I did such a bad job that cars on one side started horning me, followed by cars on the other side! It was complete chaos. My teammate, an experienced constable, took over, and immediately, traffic flowed in an orderly manner, the horning stopped!
13. Now, I was a Singapore Police Force scholar, holding the rank of Assistant Superintendent, just graduated from university, able to write essays about the global economy and monetary policy, but completely incompetent in directing traffic. In fact, I did not even have a driving licence nor passed the Highway Code test! It was my teammate, a police constable, many ranks below me who responded well to the situation. He had street sense.
14. It was a humbling experience. But I learnt an important lesson: serving our citizens starts with the frontline officer. The frontline officer is the contact point, the interface, between our policies and programmes and their impact on citizens. Whatever our grand plans, execution happens at the frontline, at the interface with our citizens.
15. As Administrative Officers, you work on the design of policies. You do complex modelling and analysis. But if the policy intent is to translate to intended outcomes, you must understand the chain of transmission – how the policy is perceived by citizens, how it is transmitted, and how that changes the behaviour of the individual or the group. And the frontline officer, the interface between policy intent and outcome, is where the rubber hits the road, where execution happens. Execution is policy.
16. So do your best, respect and develop the frontline, and spend some time at the frontline. Perhaps Chairman PSC may set a new criterion that for any Admin Officer to be promoted, you must pass a directing traffic test!
Lesson 2: Leadership must have the guts and courage to experiment, to change
17. One of a leader’s most critical task is in setting strategic direction, and to be willing to change direction when the world changes, and the situation demands it.
18. I regard two Commissioners whom I served when I was in the Police as outstanding – Mr Goh Yong Hong and Mr Tee Tua Ba. Both were fighting secret societies and organised crime in the 1960s and early 70s.
19. When Mr Goh was Commissioner, he observed that the secret societies in the 1980s were more street gangs of listless youths, not the hardened, organised triads of old. He decided to start rock concerts in the middle of Orchard Rd, to let the youth have fun and to engage them. He started the Police Boys Club, to experiment having healthy outlets for their youthful energy.
20. Now, when Commissioner Goh first broached the idea, the senior officers who were at that meeting – including myself – expressed concerns about potential riots. Mr Goh chided us: if you cannot even handle disorderly behaviour by youths, how will you ever handle serious riots – where are your guts! Now the rock concerts went well, and we built a new relationship with young people.
21. The other gutsy Commissioner I served under was Mr Tee Tua Ba. Having tackled hardcore criminals in the 60s, he was exasperated that frontline officers did not dare make decisions. They were just following what was called PGO – the Police General Orders, that set out what should be done in various situations. And worse, often asking for instructions from the Ops Room Sergeant.
22. Mr Tee started an empowerment movement, to get officers at the frontline to exercise discretion and to make decisions. He promised that as long as you do not break the law, any mistake that you make would not be marked against you. An honest mistake for trying is far better than doing nothing. Building on this, we later moved to a problem-solving policing, to tackle the root causes of problems.
23. Now my stories are almost 40 years old, and I am glad that the Singapore Police Force, where both HCS Leo Yip and I served together for many years, is continuing to make changes. But it started with these two courageous leaders, who changed direction, from fighting secret societies and triads, to engaging street gangs to turn them around, to building rapport with citizens and enlisting them to be partners in maintaining law and order. What a paradigm change!
24. A lesson for all officers is that we should not be slaves to our past. Use the experiences of the past. When the situation changes, be prepared to be bold, to have the courage to experiment, to innovate, and to make a paradigm shift. And be prepared to empower your frontline. If they make an honest mistake, encourage them to try again. That way, officers learn.
Lesson 3: Turn Constraints into Opportunities, Small into Beautiful
25. Singapore faces significant constraints in many areas – limited size of land and population, a small domestic market, and almost no natural resources – we even have to import our water. But the Singapore Story is one of turning constraints into opportunities, and small into beautiful.
26. Founding Prime Minister Lee Kuan Yew spent many years grappling with the lack of land and water, and the lack of hinterland. Today, we have 4 taps for our water supply – desalination, NEWater, water catchment through our 17 reservoirs, and imported water. The technology for those now spawns new industries in membrane technology and water purification. Similarly, good urban planning and greening of Singapore has turned this little island into a City in Nature, and developed the skills that allowed us to plan and build integrated township in China and other countries.
27. Our constraint of a small domestic market forced us to look outwards all the time. By welcoming the best MNEs from the first world, Singapore leapfrogged the region, and moved from Third World to First. When the Asian region grew strongly, we embarked on regionalisation, with companies from Singapore and around the world using Singapore as a base to invest in the region.
28. By not adopting a narrow approach of protecting our local companies, it forced our companies to compete, to upgrade. Minister George Yeo initiated the negotiation of Free Trade Agreements. Today, we have 27 Free Trade Agreements, bilateral and regional, spanning ASEAN, China, Japan, Korea, Australia and New Zealand, the US and EU, and new ones with the Pacific Alliance and Mercusor in South America.
29. So while we are not spared the tariff measures by the US, thankfully, most of the world still believes in the benefits of free trade. In the coming years, I believe there will be significant reconfiguration of the global supply chain and the global technological chain. This trade war, and the experience of the Covid disruption, is causing companies from all over the world to consider not just efficiency, but resilience and reliability. Singapore as a major trade hub and logistics centre can make the best use of the on-going digital revolution, especially in AI, to re-position ourselves in this new configuration. We must deepen and widen trade and investment relations with the countries that we have Free Trade Agreements, and seek to emerge stronger out of this turbulence.
30. Having upgraded the relations with many of our partners to a Comprehensive Strategic Partnership, in this age of trade and tech-war, let us position Singapore as a Global-Asia Node of Technology, Innovation and Enterprise, trusted, relevant and useful to the world.
Lesson 4: Think Long-term and Embrace Contradictions
31. We have taken a long-term approach to governing, acting as stewards for our future, and embracing apparently contradictory goals.
32. In 2020, during the Covid pandemic, as Finance Minister, I had to see our Elected President Halimah Yaacob on five occasions, to brief her on each of the five Budgets, and to seek her approval to draw on past reserves, to support our workers and businesses. In total, we used some $40 billion of past reserves.
33. While all Finance Ministers around the world supported their economies and peoples during the pandemic, I am probably the only one who allocated such a big sum without having to borrow a cent. This means our future generations will not have to repay any single cent of debt. We have benefited from the legacy of long-term stewardship by our founding leaders. Going forward, our current and future generations of Singaporeans and our leaders must treasure and preserve this legacy.
34. In our policy making, we have been able to embrace apparent contradictions well.
a. During an immediate crisis, like the Covid pandemic, we responded swiftly. During good times, we saved to prepare for crisis.
b. Mr Philip Yeo promoted the A*STAR scholarships to develop a core of Singaporean scientific talent and brought in top names like Nobel laureate Sydney Brenner to nurture them. He called it a Pro-local, Pro-foreign strategy.
c. When I was in MAS, I found that we had a dual mandate – to develop our financial sector, and to supervise our financial sector to keep it safe and stable. This appears contradictory, but it forces us to better understand the risks and returns of what we do. And our development of our financial centre is no accident — it is because of this very careful balance.
35. Singapore must create our distinctive competitive advantage, and this ambidexterity in our regulatory agencies can be a source of strength, especially in sectors where trust and confidence is critical, such as in healthcare, food and drugs and finance. As F. Scott Fitzgerald once said, the test of a first-rate intelligence is the ability to hold two opposing ideas in mind at the same time and still retain the ability to function.
Lesson 5: Promoting Active Citizenry
36. Let me touch on the next lesson five on promoting Active Citizenry.
37. Since I entered politics, I have seen how citizens are better educated, better informed, and wanting to take part in decision-making, in making things happen. While there are a few with a narrow or self-serving agenda, the vast majority are seeking to contribute to a more vibrant and caring society, across different areas, including social welfare, business and the arts.
38. This is a strength for Singapore. We must harness the creativity and energy of our active citizens, and encourage active participation in policy-making and in nation-building. Otherwise, we risk having a divided or apathetic society. To sustain good politics, we must broaden the base of trust and participation to the whole-of-society, so that every Singaporean plays a part, and has a stake in our success.
39. My experience in launching Our Singapore Conversation, the Singapore Together movement, the Future Economy Council, and, during COVID, the Emerging Stronger Task Force have all been very fruitful. We learnt much about the concerns and aspirations of Singaporeans, received many good ideas and feedback, and we launched many useful initiatives together. Participants told me that they have found it very valuable, to learn how we can co-create solutions, and in the process, deepen trust and understanding.
40. More recently, PM Wong launched Forward Singapore to engage Singaporeans directly to hear their views, and co-create solutions with citizens, businesses, and the community on ways to strengthen our social compact.
41. As Administrative Service officers, you play an important role in engaging our citizens, whether as individuals or as organisations, and in leading the frontline officers whom you work with in their interactions with citizens.
42. I encourage you to widen your engagement, not just within your ministry, not just even Whole of Government, but to the whole of society. If you extend that even more broadly, to deepening partnerships with peoples and nations around the world.
Lesson 6: Deepen the trust between the Public Service and the political leadership
43. This, in my view, is the most important of the 6 lessons.
44. Our Administrative Service, and the broader PSL and officers in the public service, play critical complementary roles, working with the political leadership who are elected by our people, to govern Singapore, to take Singapore forward.
45. While the relationship between political office holders and the public service has evolved, one critical quality has not changed – the high trust and confidence that we enjoy, and our sense of common purpose of securing a better future for Singapore, for Singaporeans.
46. As an Admin Service Officer, I worked directly under our late founding Prime Minister Lee Kuan Yew, and later with George Yeo in MTI, and with SM Goh in MAS. I have deep respect for them, as they did not pursue narrow personal or political interest, but had the well-being of Singapore and Singaporeans at heart. All were visionary and creative. I stayed in the Public Service because I felt I was working with leaders whom I could look up to, whose commitment to Singaporeans’ well-being inspired me.
47. In my Admin Service days, I worked closely with so many of you. We had rigorous discussions at COPS, and in discussing how to develop our younger officers. We were all committed to securing the long-term interests of Singapore and Singaporeans, and in developing our successors.
48. The political leadership and public service each has different roles, but in pursuit of a common purpose. I have spent 45 years in public service – the first 15 in the Singapore Police Force, the next 15 in the Administrative Service, and the past 15 in political leadership so far. So I have experienced the transition first hand, from the Administrative Service to becoming a Cabinet Minister.
49. When I was PS MTI, supporting Minister George Yeo, it was George who set the strategic direction of pursuing FTAs, and building relations with and persuading fellow Ministers in our partner countries on the value of FTAs for each other. I supervised the details of each of our negotiations.
50. Then when I became Education Minister, I had the strong support of first Ching Yee and later Lai Fung as my PSes. They built strong rapport with our excellent team of educators at HQ and in our schools, and we had open and rigorous policy debates. Till today, I am very heartened that our educators and admin service officers would tell me honestly if my idea was flawed. They had the courage to speak truth to power. I am also very cheered that when I was Education Minister, I spent many hours visiting our schools and our teachers, getting firsthand feedback. They too had the courage to tell me what exactly was happening in our schools, and that was valuable for me in making policy at MOE.
51. Similarly, at NRF, first Lai Fung and now Chorh Chuan would have rigorous debates with me on how we could achieve impact with our investments in R&D.
52. In the coming years, political contestation in Singapore will become more intense. I find it alarming to hear some political parties claiming that, with a first-class public service, the public need not fear a change of government.
53. I am convinced that no Minister can make effective policies for the long-term interests of Singapore by focusing on political engagements or politicking alone, and leaving it to the public service to design and implement policies. If the political leaders I had served in my Admin Service days had done that, and had no policy instincts on what makes Singapore tick, I would have left the public service long ago. And so would many of my fellow permanent secretaries. We stayed in service because the political leaders we worked with share the same mission of creating a better future for Singapore, for Singaporeans, and with clear strategic minds.
Closing
54. So let me conclude. As we celebrate SG60, let us continue to reflect on the reasons for Singapore’s success, and importantly, how we can use the principles we have learnt, to continue to forge a better future. The future will be a turbulent one, but if we learn our lessons well, we can continue to be successful.
55. I have mentioned 6 lessons, one for each decade of our independence.
a. Lesson 1: Execution is policy, and execution happens at the Frontline
b. Lesson 2: Leadership must have the guts and courage to experiment, to change
c. Lesson 3: Turn Constraints into Opportunities, Small into Beautiful
d. Lesson 4: Think Long-term and Embrace Contradictions
e. Lesson 5: Promote Active Citizenry
f. Lesson 6: Deepen the trust between the public service and the political leadership.
56. The administrative service must be stewards of this legacy – and champions of Singapore’s future. So lead with integrity, serve with heart, think big and bold. And always put Singapore and Singaporeans at the heart of all that we do.
57. Thank you.