Singaporeans on the passing of Ngiam Tong Dow: A civil servant who “spoke the truth”

With the passing of former top civil servant Ngiam Tong Dow, Singaporeans are mourning for his death on social media.

In the mainstream media’s comment section, people could be seen reminiscing the words from the late Mr Ngiam as a leader in developing policies in the country.

Facebook user Jeffrey Tan expressed that Singapore had lost a “good, capable” man who spoke the “truth” about the Singaporean government.

Alvin Ann pointed out how Mr Ngiam previously retracted his comment on the high minister salaries and that the younger generation ministers are “afraid” to speak out in the Cabinet.

Apart from expressing respect and gratitude towards the former top civil servant, many Singaporeans commented that he was fearless in speaking up against the ministers.

Denis Edward hoped that the current Singaporean civil servants could learn from him despite being highly paid. With the high salaries given to the ministers, Mr Denis believed that it would be difficult to change the current situation when they tend to “play it safe” to secure their pay.

Others like Basil Lim mentioned that it was a “pity” that Mr Ngiam was never a minister. He then went on to express that he was the person Singaporean needed, instead of the ones with no “followup actions”, and refusing to “admit mistakes”.

On Lianhe Wanbao’s comment section, Facebook user Richard How commented that the late Mr Ngiam was “a civil servant who is courageous to speak the truth”.

Woo Liah Meng, on the other hand, reminisced one of the former civil servant’s words.

“I admire one of his words: ‘Ministers must walk the talk’. Up until today, we could only see witness this scene during General Elections,” said Mr Woo.

Zen Zen commented: “These pioneer civil servants deserved our respect.”