He is deliberate, unwavering and absolutely sure of his objectives. And there must be one. I don't want five. Not that Pillay saw it that way. We have done our sums.
Nobody doubts that.
Variously, they ran ministries, served as permanent secretaries, supervised industries and directed companies. The early days were shaky. The cream of the British-trained civil service had taken flight when the People's Action Party came to power in elections in 1959. Bureaucrats with a vision to match the government's were needed. Here was a man who said he believed in staying focused on one objective - and yet he was responsible for a glamorous airline and a bank that was seen as dull and overly dependent on the wholesale market.