THE BACKGROUND

Muthammal Palanisamy's story unfolds across three generations on a rubber estate at Malaya. The plantation, called Sungai Wangi, is in a lesser-known district of Perak, peopled by men and women who are lost in history today. Muthammal's biography is peppered with female protagonists — daughters, wives, mothers who had willingly or unwillingly migrated from India in the wake of their menfolk, to find themselves in an unfamiliar and often hostile world. There is Saraswathy, born out of wedlock of a Scottish father and a Tamil mother. With her Caucasian good looks, it did not take long for Saraswathy to be noticed and one Mr Grant, a manager of a neighbouring estate, chose her for his wife. Much to her mother's delight, Saraswathy was whisked off to the manager's bungalow on an open cart drawn by the estate hands. She lived the life of a queen, except those few times when the British agents paid their customary visits — then she would be hastily hidden in the labour lines since a white manager was not allowed a “native” wife. Soon, war loomed large on the horizon and Mr Grant decided to leave Malaya. Saraswathi, with the children born to her in the meantime, was left behind on the estate. But Saraswathy and Mr Grant's tale did not end here — it was discovered a generation later, that the following year Mr Grant had returned to Malaya, this time with his Scottish wife and, unknown to Saraswathy, had settled to a new life of peaceful domesticity.

Again, there is Palaniammal, Muthammal's mother. She grew up on a farm in a remote village of India and was rushed into an unhappy marriage at the age of ten to protect the honour of the Gounder clan to which she belonged.

For me it all started with meeting three little old men at an Udipi restaurant on Serangoon Road, Singapore. Bala A. Chandran, Girish Kothari and Kishore Bhattacharya — all three in their eighties, with one of them having undergone an intestinal surgery in the recent past. I was chasing an article for a newspaper in Bombay for which I had already missed the deadline. As they filed in, refusing assistance from the young Tamil waitress and started speaking of their INA (Indian National Army) days, I noticed an unmistakable straightening of the shoulders and an Ancient Mariner like glitter in their eyes: it was that momentary transformation which sparked my interest in their story. Was it the easy camaraderie of old boys speaking of their alma mater? Around the same time I read another story of Laxmi Indira Panda of Orissa who had joined the Rani of Jhansi Regiment. After many frustrating trips down the corridors of power, she finally met the President of India when in her nineties. As she walked down the carpeted corridors of Rashtrapati Bhawan, she stopped to salute the pictures of national leaders. What was it about these men and women, I wondered, that made them less ordinary?

The 1940s was a decade of violence and trauma for Southeast Asian communities, as it was for the rest of the world. It began with the mass exodus of Burmese-Indian refugees in the face of Japanese invasion, witnessed the tragedy of Hiroshima and Nagasaki — the only nuclear holocausts the world has known and the ruthless massacre of the Chinese communities as they faced the fury of Japan's wartime atrocities. The war, when it finally ended, had systematically torn apart indigenous ecosystems of culture and tradition, of old habits and communal practices.

The INA, as a movement, placed a motley group of individuals against this bleak terrain. Remarkably, it was a group that transcended barriers of caste, religion or race. Even the small crosssection at Singapore that I had the opportunity to meet consisted of expatriate Indians from the far-flung states of Kerala, Gujarat and undivided Bengal.

Dozens of books, many recent, and scores of articles by scholarly researchers have been written about Subhas Chandra Bose and his role and exploits in the political struggle he waged towards gaining independence for India from the British Raj. His political and diplomatic efforts and military exploits in that struggle have been extensively researched in India and in Southeast Asia and published. With the passage of time, his sacrifices and determined efforts will become legendary to young Indians and eventually fade from their memory. What has not been distilled from his voluminous writings, speeches and exhortations about the social, economic and inter-racial and religious problems of India and Indian society, would be worth further researching.

Ms Nilanjana Sengupta has in her publication touched on some of the societal problems that concerned Bose and how he sought to address them from his early times, while he was engaged in leading the Municipal Corporation of Calcutta and while profiling himself actively as a budding freedom fighter. Ms Sengupta has drawn attention to his efforts to forge Hindu- Muslim unity; his interest in the emancipation of Indian women; and his attempts to prevent the exploitation of peasants and workers in India, among other issues. What comes to the fore from this research is his inexhaustible concern for the variety of social and economic problems that afflicted Indian society and cried out for redress.

Ms Sengupta has discovered in the course of her research how Bose took the opportunity, while establishing his Indian National Army and the Rani of Jhansi Regiment, to consider the possibility of translating some of his beliefs and ideas and trying them out, among the men and women in the two military organizations that he established in Southeast Asia.

This book by Ms Sengupta should help stir memories in India, if not in the state of West Bengal, to encourage further research and understanding from his writings and speeches, the views he expressed for addressing India's economic and societal problems, and consider which of them would be worthy of trying out in the context of today's India.

LABOUR LINES

In one of the books by an INA veteran, there is a description of a League meeting at a rubber plantation. The Indian Independence League's (IIL) message was conveyed to the plantations on the Malaya-Thailand border. It was a plantation like any other of this region. As the young representative of the League spoke, the Tamil workers gathered around him in silence. Their silence was emphasized by the rows and rows of tall, symmetrical rubber trees that surrounded them, effectively cutting them off from the world. The canopy of leaves over their heads was so dense that sunlight seemed never to have penetrated down below. The dampness of the forest floor seeped into their feet. In the distance stood the labour lines — attap huts with zinc roofs.

As he spoke of the nationalist struggle, a heavy shower broke out. Streaks of lightning could be seen far above their heads. And yet the labourers never spoke or moved away from the meeting place. After a quarter of an hour, droplets of rain trickled down — the thick foliage above did not permit any of the soaking downpour to find its way down. But once the tup-tup of the rain drops falling on the leafage began, it never seemed to stop. The speaker felt it would drive him frantic. And yet the workers stood around him in silence in the gloomy half-light — seemingly drinking in the words he spoke.

BOSE AND TRADE UNIONS

Subhas Chandra Bose's interactions with trade unions and worker movements began early, under the tutelage of his political guru, Chittaranjan Das. The All India Trade Union Congress (AITUC) became active during the economic recession which tailed the First World War boom. C. R. Das served as the President of AITUC in 1922, and it was around this time that Bose too started taking an active interest in mass mobilization of labour.

PRELUDE

On 9 February 1943 Subhas Chandra Bose embarked on an undisclosed journey on a submarine, as a guest of the German navy. As he set off on this eastward journey he was unaware that he would not survive the war or that he was swiftly moving towards what would turn out to be the final phase of his life. His sole companion was an aide, Abid Hasan, a young nationalist who had joined Bose in his military mission in Berlin and would continue to work closely with him in Southeast Asia. Like other young, educated men who had thrown in their lot with Bose and the Indian nationalist cause in Europe, Hasan, a Hyderabadi Muslim, was part of a small, politically inclined Indian diaspora. Their journey together would span the next three months, first in German and then Japanese submarines. Hasan writes that as he stepped aboard the German U-boat, the envisaged “romance” of travelling by a submarine fast dissipated: Bose was allotted a bunk in an unenclosed recess in the passage and the “stench of diesel” permeated the air. They travelled through the North Sea, the strait south of Iceland, navigated around the Cape of Good Hope and after a hazardous submarine-to-submarine transfer off the coast of Madagascar, finally landed at an isolated islet near Sumatra on 6 May 1943. The trajectory would take Bose half way across the globe and he would arrive at Southeast Asia to spearhead the Indian nationalist struggle and lead the community to a new age of political consciousness.

This was not Bose's first expedition to Southeast Asia. In 1925 he had been detained at Mandalay, as a political prisoner of the British Raj — one of the many terms of captivity he served as an integral part of his tumultuous political career. The Mandalay prison, where Bal Gangadhar Tilak had spent six long years of captivity, was notorious in its reputation. Bose, confined in this wooden prison for over two years, was not only exposed to the dust and storms of Burma but also caught a first-hand glimpse of the Burmese people.

REPRESENTATIVE TENETS OF THE INA

The INA — Mercenaries or Patriots?

One of Krishna Bose's books, Charana Rekha Taba [In Your Footsteps] — which is a travelogue that doubles up as a historical narrative as the author traces Subhas Chandra Bose's footsteps across East Asia — recounts a rather memorable incident. The event occurred at Formosa (Taiwan). Bose was travelling to Tokyo, en route to possibly the Soviet Union on 17 August 1945. The Japanese Air Force bomber halted at the Taipei airport for refuelling. The engine of the aircraft had been giving trouble and soon after the plane was airborne again, there was a loud explosion and it tilted to the left and eventually crashed not far from the runway. The front of the plane caught fire and Bose and his sole Indian companion, Colonel Habibur Rahman, were badly burned. They pushed their way through the fire in the front because the way out towards the rear was already blocked. As the two men struggled out of the aircraft and lay down on the grass — exhausted and in intense pain, Bose turned towards his long-time friend and compatriot and asked in Hindustani, “Aap ko zyada to nahin lagi?” [Hope you are not too badly hurt?] Incidents such as these, when Bose expressed genuine concern for his colleagues are many; but this one, played out under a foreign sky, hours before he was to breathe his last, is perhaps the most poignant.

Another incident is narrated by Colonel Prem Kumar Sahgal, Military Secretary of the INA who, in the course of events, was tried for treason at the Red Fort. It was towards the end of battle in Burma, when the defeat of the Japanese and the INA loomed large on the horizon. The actual withdrawal from the war-front began on 9 April 1945. Units of No. 4 Guerilla Regiment were the first to withdraw. But on the morning of the 11th, British forces occupied Kyak-Padauo and the INA's direct line of retreat was cut off.

THE YEAR 1985 WAS AN UNSETTLING YEAR for the NTI pioneers. In April, they graduated right in the midst of Singapore's worst recession in 26 years. Ng Chyou Lin recalled, “One moment I was revelling in the warmth of getting my academic scroll and the morning after, I was feeling the chill of a quiet job market in which many companies retrenched staff let alone hired new ones.” The tale from other NTI pioneers was similar. There were few if any responses from employers to the slew of resumes sent. The fortunate exceptions were the scholars with the civil service or private companies and some of those who were hired by the companies where they spent their six-month industrial attachment.

The recession was triggered by a drop in demand for goods from Singapore's trading partners. The factories that were supposed to hire the MPE and EEE graduates had cut their production. That led to a headcount freeze, and subsequent retrenchments deepened the gloom. CSE graduates were not spared either. The construction sector, which had been growing rapidly, stagnated towards the end of 1984. There were few remaining public projects and the private commercial and residential property markets were saturated. The demand for civil engineers plummeted and CSE graduates faced an uphill task in their job search for the next three years.

The sudden and swift recession was a shock for Singapore which had been used to consistent high economic growth. Since separation from Malaysia in 1965, economic growth averaged 9.7 per cent. The only serious decline came during the 1974 –75 oil crisis. The recession crushed the rosy expectations of the NTI pioneers. It suddenly dawned on them that life was not so straightforward. Teh Keng Liang said, “A university degree did not guarantee a job. We thought that there would be jobs waiting for us given our professional degree. We were very mistaken.” Among the foreign students, some “went home”. Others remained in Singapore as they were bonded for three years due to the subsidised education. They hung on until the jobs resurfaced, thankfully, towards the end of the year.

ACTIVITIES SUCH AS USING your computer, charging your iPhone and cooking food are possible thanks in part to some NTI pioneers. They have enabled a smooth supply of electricity and gas to millions of homes in Singapore over the past 25 years.

As a combustion engineer with the Public Utilities Board (PUB), Tan Chin Huat transferred fuel oil to the boiler for combustion at Senoko Power Station. Now, he heads the operations department at Tuas power station, the third largest electricity generator in Singapore.

Lim Khoon Huat was a turbine maintenance engineer at Senoko and Pulau Seraya power station. He was involved in restructuring the gas industry in 2003. Today, he helps to regulate it at the Energy Market Authority. Robin Tan Meng Heng heads the Security and Emergency Planning Department there. The agency was formed in 2001 to promote competition in the energy sector and ensure uninterrupted energy supply.

When these NTI pioneers graduated in 1985, electricity, water and gas were provided solely by PUB, a statutory board that took in many pioneers. They worked as combustion engineers, turbine maintenance engineers and maintenance managers.

There was a shake-up in 1995 when the electricity and gas businesses of PUB were privatised under Singapore Power, a new entity. PUB became the regulator. Then Deputy Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong said that privatisation promoted competition, improved efficiencies and created the push to get more business.

The upheaval was unsettling. “Most PUB employees were worried about job security,” recalled Wong Moh Seng who was there. He surveyed the landscape and decided that the private sector was the place to be. He is now the Deputy General Manager with Gas Supply, a natural gas trading company. “I worked hard to understand the evolving utilities market and regulatory changes,” said Moh Seng. “I learned to be sensitive to market changes and balance between profit and risks.”

William Teh was involved in producing and distributing town gas with PUB. The restructuring saw him retain his job but with different companies. Now, he is with City Gas.

THE 2011 NUCLEAR CRISIS IN JAPAN brought back memories of a similar disaster for Tay Guan Mong. After graduation, he joined a company which posted him to Sweden in 1986, the year of the deadly Chernobyl nuclear disaster. The explosions released a plume of radioactive fallout that drifted over large parts of the former Soviet Union and Europe where he was. Between 1986 and 2000, some 350,000 people had been evacuated from the most severely contaminated areas in Belarus, Russia, and Ukraine. “I went through it in Stockholm and lived to tell the tale,” said Guan Mong.

In fact, Guan Mong did more than that. He went on to start a business that specialises in business strategy and implementation. His firm BAllianz has serviced some 100 clients from government and private sectors. Earlier, he was with an American firm that offered the same services.

Guan Mong is one of 15 NTI Electrical and Electronic Engineering pioneers who started their own businesses. Eugene Tan Eng Khian's job with Singapore Technologies Ventures as a technology investment analyst was a springboard towards his entrepreneurial dream. “As an analyst, my role was to use technical knowledge to evaluate investments,” said Eugene, who was involved in investments in Chartered Semiconductor and Creative Technology. His company sent him to the Silicon Valley in the United States for training. The six years at the high-tech nirvana was an eye-opener.

“When I came back to Singapore, the entrepreneur bug bit me time and again,” said Eugene. His first start-up was from Creative Technology during the dot-com boom. It was sold after four years. His second company was from the NUS incubator programme. It was sold within a year. Now, Eugene is managing his third company, XentiQ which offers product design services.

The firm has done hundreds of product design and development projects with MNCs, SMEs and high-tech start-ups. XentiQ's track record for quality and creativity is well known. They have their fair share of accolades through the years. They won the President's Design Award in 2007. They also bagged the prestigious international Red Dot design award in 2006 and twice in 2004.

KOH BOON HWEE'S mechanical engineering background is a prized asset in his illustrious career spanning diverse industries. “My engineering education honed my analytical power and enables me to see the relevance of engineering excellence to a company's operations,” he said. “It adds value to my management of companies such as Singapore Airlines (SIA), SingTel and Yeo Hiap Seng.”

Boon Hwee was the Chairman of SIA from 2001 to 2005. “SIA seems to be in the consumer business because it deals with passengers but at the heart of it, a good airline has to operate on a solid engineering basis,” he said. “The timeliness of your take-offs and landings or punctuality is important to customers, but it ultimately depends on the reliability of your engines and airframe; in short, your engineering integrity. Some carriers seem tardy in terms of timeliness performance and have more mechanical problems during flights. It can be because many of them outsource their engineering. When you do that, you are no longer in control of the quality of engineering that is being performed. SIA is one of those companies that did not outsource their engineering. It is retained in-house. Therefore, it is possible to exact high performance standards for engineering.”

Elaborating on the importance of engineering excellence, Boon Hwee added, “Once every few years, there is a major check-up of the aircraft. SIA Engineering Company holds the world record for the time taken to complete the check. It is a testimony of the high level of engineering.” Analytical skills are also useful in day to day operations. On SIA flights, classified advertisements are taken out of The Straits Times because it is heavy. Every kilogram in extra weight translates into $42,000 of extra fuel per year. Boon Hwee said, “Few people go through the advertisements. It is not missed. This is the detail of the analysis that goes into the operations.”

His engineering background was also a boon to SingTel which he chaired from 1986 to 2001.

MEDIACORP SUPERSTAR ZOE TAY owes her success in part to NTI. The link is MediaCorp Deputy Group CEO Chang Long Jong, a CSE pioneer. The government scholar recalled, “When I graduated in 1985, the Public Service Commission could not get me a job related to my training. They offered me an administrative post with Singapore Broadcasting Corporation –– now known as MediaCorp –– and I accepted it.” Two years later, Long Jong joined the drama production unit which organised the first Star Search contest in 1988. Zoe won the inaugural competition and the rest is history. She went on to reign as the Queen of Caldecott Hill.

Zoe is not the only MediaCorp royal to benefit from Long Jong's work. Fourteen years later, the spotlight fell on Joanne Peh, one of MediaCorp's seven princesses. In the 2002 Miss Singapore Universe pageant, Joanne won the ‘Miss Elegant’ and ‘Miss Personality’ titles. MediaCorp Studios, which came under Long Jong, saw her potential and took her under its wing as an artiste. It was an astute move. Joanne went on to win accolades including the 2009 Best Actress Award for her role in the hit drama ‘The Little Nyonya’.

Long Jong's engineering background proved to be a great help to his career. About 70 per cent of his work involves managing people; setting goals for the teams under his portfolio, and helping them achieve these targets. His initial training in management came during his industrial attachment with an engineering and construction firm which was then building the Treasury Building in Shenton Way. He said, “That stint taught me to deploy and supervise manpower. I learned to solve problems, an invaluable skill in my job.” He oversees, among other things, Channels 5, 8 and MediaCorp Studios.

Joining Long Jong in the entertainment industry are Lee Yat Cheong, and Dennis Sng Cheng Hong. They are with the Media Development Authority. Yat Cheong oversees the infrastructure and land development for Singapore's media sector. Dennis is tasked to grow Singapore into a vibrant global media capital. The Media Development Authority is a promotional and regulatory body, formed in 2003 by the merger of the Singapore Broadcasting Authority, the Films and Publications Department and the Singapore Film Commission.

EEE PIONEER LIM PENG HUN may not be an F1 racer but his job as a Singapore Polytechnic lecturer saw him race through 1,000 kilometers of the Australian desert in 1999. The Deputy Principal led a team to the 5th World Solar Challenge in Australia. He said, “We travelled 3,000 kilometers in a solar-powered car from Darwin to Adelaide through the desert highway. Unfortunately, it rained and the car sputtered to a screeching halt.” That was not his only eye-catching desert foray. Earlier in 1993, he had led a team to install solar panels in the Mongolian desert. They were there to build an automation laboratory at the Mongolian Technical University.

Peng Hun's experiences give a glimpse of the significant contributions NTI pioneers made to Singapore's engineering education. Engineering has long been the backbone of the economy. The country's speedy rise from third-world port to global city is due in part to the efforts of its engineers. Hence, the role of engineering educators — including many NTI pioneers — is important as they are at the frontline training future engineers for Singapore's economy.

Many NTI pioneers went into teaching with a wealth of experience. Heng Guan Teck was a project engineer with the Republic of Singapore Air Force. His background was an asset when he joined Institute of Technical Education (ITE) to oversee the curriculum. Currently the Deputy CEO, he enjoys formulating policies and the satisfaction of seeing the positive impact of ITE on students.

The list continues. Ah Kat had worked in shipbuilding and electronic manufacturing industries; Choong Yang was a product engineer with Chartered Electronic Industries; Benjamin Wong Liang Juee owned a firm providing cable harnessing to clients in the electronics industry. When the clients moved operations to China and Thailand, he sold his shares. In 2003, he went to teach at Temasek Polytechnic. Albert Wong Yuen Choe brought his wealth of computer-aided design and manufacturing experiences to Nanyang Polytechnic.

Passion drives these NTI pioneers. Their mission in Guan Teck's words is to “equip graduates with relevant knowledge and skills to be globally competitive”. They are continuing the fine tradition of a practice-oriented training where they impart practical skills honed from years of industry experience.

NANYANG TECHNOLOGICALUNIVERSITY (NTU) might never have existed if not for the intervention of former Prime Minister Lee Kuan Yew. NTU's predecessor Nanyang Technological Institute (NTI) was supposed to have a different name and be built on a plot of land in the eastern part of the island. It was PM Lee who stepped in to enable the construction of NTI on the sprawling Jurong campus that Singaporeans know of today.

The story of NTI began with the former Nanyang University (NU) and its departure from the campus on which NTU now stands. In 1953, the Chinese Chamber of Commerce in Singapore proposed the setting up of a Chinese-language university that would attract students from the region. The project received support from a wide spectrum of the Chinese community, from wealthy merchants to trishaw riders and hawkers in Singapore, Malaya and the Borneo territories. NU, which opened to much fanfare in 1956, became the symbol of Chinese language, culture and education.

However, those who entered NU in the 1970s with high expectations found reality different upon graduation. Being educated in Chinese, they found it hard to get jobs in an economy where English is the working language. Prime Minister Lee Kuan Yew could not accept the prospect of several hundred students wasting their future each year. In 1975, he tasked Education Minister Dr Lee Chiaw Meng to convert NU into an English-language university. It was not successful. In 1978, PM Lee tried another method. He persuaded the NU Council and senate members to move the whole university into the campus of the University of Singapore at Bukit Timah. In 1980, the two universities merged to become the National University of Singapore (NUS).

At that time, there was a pressing need to increase the number of engineers to cope with the shift of Singapore's economy to one that focused more on high-technology, high value-add activities. In July 1980, the Council of Professional and Technical Education indicated that the number of engineering students should increase from 300 to 1,200 a year. There were three possibilities.

THE STENCH WAS OVERPOWERING and Martinn Ho Yuen Liung felt like vomiting. Fresh out of NTI, he had just started work at the Ulu Pandan refuse incineration plant. There was a mechanical failure and the giant travelling crane could not clear the garbage. His mechanical engineering training came to the rescue. “My knowledge of automation technology came in handy,” said Martinn. The fault was a worn-out limit switch. He solved the problem and enabled the refuse trucks to unload the refuse speedily.

Joining Martinn at the Ministry of Environment were Beck Choon Hueei, Lee Kheng Seng, Ong Chin Soon, Pang Fook Chong and Tan Kong Seng. They cut their teeth as shift engineers at the Ulu Pandan plant. With a team of technical personnel under them, they were responsible for the operation and maintenance of the entire incineration cum power generation plant. Under their care were auxiliary equipment such as instrumentation equipment, water treatment plants, pollution control equipment, air conditioning plants, conveyor systems and elevators. Their work required them to innovate to solve engineering problems. Martinn said, “NTI taught us thermodynamics and fluid mechanics. That enabled us to understand the way boilers and turbines work.”

Due to land shortage, incineration is the most viable form of waste disposal in Singapore. The process produces superheated steam to generate electricity, which in turn is used to operate the plant. Excess electricity is sold to the public utility network to generate income.

The NTI pioneers know all the waste disposal facilities in Singapore well. When the Tuas Incineration Plant opened in 1986, it used modern equipment and automation. Ong Chin Soon and Pang Fook Chong worked there. Tan Kong Seng is currently the General Manager at the plant. In 1992, the Senoko Incineration Plant was commissioned. Chin Soon helped to set it up. The latest plant is the Tuas South Incineration Plant which began operations in 2000. Fook Chong is the Senior Manager there. After the first incineration plant at Ulu Pandan was shut down in 2009 and the government divested Senoko plant in a sale to Keppel Group, Chin Soon moved to the Tuas Marine Transfer Station as Senior Manager. This station is the collection point for ash from waste-to-energy plants and non-incinerable waste.

WHETHER YOU ARE GAMING online or downloading new software to your computer, you are using a hard disk drive that is likely to have been made in Singapore, a major producer of high-end hard disk drives in the world. In fact, the engineer who ensures the smooth production of this vital component in a server or computer can well be an NTI pioneer such as Lloyd Ong Kar Lock. For 13 years, he was with Seagate, the top global manufacturer of hard drives and storage solutions. The company has been in Singapore for more than two decades. It has plants in Ang Mo Kio, Science Park and Woodlands. Singapore is home to Seagate's only hard drive design centre and first volume manufacturing site outside the United States, and the first recording media operations facilities outside North America.

Through the years, many NTI pioneers contributed to Seagate's success. Lloyd was in the Motor Division; Tan Lam Seng is in the Logistics and Supply Chain department; Ong Hock Lam was in process engineering; Chan Whye Quine, William Teh and Wong Ser Yian were in the Supplier Quality Department. As an engineer in that department, Ser Yian liaised with suppliers of motor components, machining and casting services.

The disk drive industry contributes significantly to electronics output and employment. In 2005, it accounted for 20 per cent or $14 billion of output and hired some 20,000 people. Over the years, Singapore has developed strong capabilities for hard disk drive components ranging from media to motors and base plates. This enables the manufacture of high value-added hard disk drives and key components. The presence of big names such as Seagate, Maxtor, Western Digital, IBM and Hitachi confirms Singapore's dominance in this sector. In 2005, Singapore accounted for over 25 per cent of the world's hard disk media output.

When Maxtor opened its doors in the 1980s, NTI pioneers John Lim Chi Chen, Daniel Chien Tiaw Huat and Teo Lye Hock joined it. John enjoyed the work. “There was high engineering content, cutting-edge equipment and active technology transfer from the United States,” he said. Daniel discovered his strengths and gained a lot of industry knowledge at Maxtor.

THE FORTUNES OF EEE PIONEER Winston Choo York Meng's company read like a recent history of Singapore's telecommunications industry. In 1995, the bulk of his company's business came from building equipment for SingTel telex department. Telex is a switched network of teleprinters similar to a telephone network. It sends out text based messages. In those days, every major company and banks had a telex machine and a dedicated telex operator. However, the facsimile machine and e-mail eroded the usefulness of the high-cost telex. Less and less business rolled in and SingTel discontinued the service in 2009.

Due to the decline in telex jobs, Winston's company found new contracts in the paging sector dominated by SingTel, Hutchinson and Easy call. In the heyday between 1994 and 2002, there were more than two million pagers in use. With the end of SingTel's monopoly in 1995, the number of mobile phone users shot up at the expense of pagers. In 2005, the number of people using pagers dropped to half a million. The writing was on the wall. Easy call closed their paging service in 2004 and SingTel in 2008.

In 1997, Winston got onto the mobile phone bandwagon with business from Motorola and Ericsson which supplied cellular equipment to SingTel and M1. Unfortunately, it was not a smooth ride. By 2005, China's telecommunication equipment builder Huawei was competing with Motorola and Ericsson. Now, the local telecommunication companies use Huawei's products. That reduced Winston's business drastically. His involvement with this sector is now limited to a short messaging system gateway service targeting industrial users. Winston has since diversified into the military equipment and railway equipment business. His efforts made a modest contribution to the development of Singapore's telecommunication infrastructure, one of the most advanced in the world. Singapore is recognised globally as a leader in the development and use of Information and Communications Technology.

In contrast to Winston's experience, fellow pioneer Leong Peng Ham rode on the wave of change in the telecommunication industry to greater heights. Peng Ham was in the thick of action at the Telecommunication Authority of Singapore (TAS). The agency gave him a scholarship to study at NTI and a job upon graduation.