In the
1976 general election, Goh, then 35, was elected as
Member of Parliament for
Marine Parade SMC as a
People's Action Party (PAP) candidate. He was appointed as a
Senior Minister of State. In 1981, he was promoted to
Minister for Trade and Industry and later served in other appointments including
Minister for Health and
Minister for Defence. Goh was tasked to organise the 1981 Anson SMC by-election which was a pivotal event in shaping his political sensibilities. Despite having been passed over as first assistant secretary-general by Tony Tan, Goh was asked to his surprise by Lee Kuan Yew to lead and organise the by-election, ostensibly because of Goh's previous successful campaigns in organising the 1979 by-election at Anson SMC and the 1980 General Elections. Early on in the campaigning for the 1981 Anson SMC by-election, a chasm of leadership emerged as volunteers and older activists for the previous MP
Devan Nair departed along with the MP. The new PAP candidate was
Pang Kim Hin, who had difficulties connecting to the electorate as he had a reputation of being a "rich man's son", as the nephew of Old Guard minister Lim Kan San. Despite being a three-cornered fight, it was apparent that the main opposition candidate was
J. B. Jeyaretnam, who was a veteran opposition at the time, having previously came close in winning the seat at
Telok Blangah Constituency, which is of close proximity to Anson. The rising costs of housing and upcoming public bus fares was a source of unhappiness among voters. PAP lost the Anson seat with a 37-point swing in just 10 months since the last general election, marking the first time since Independence that PAP had lost a seat. This watershed event prompted rumours within the PAP of the end of Goh's political career.
Prime minister On 28 November 1990, Goh succeeded
Lee Kuan Yew and became the second prime minister of Singapore. During the first year of Goh's premiership, Lee remained as secretary-general of the PAP. Goh's administration introduced several major policies and policy institutions, including: •
Medisave •
Non-Constituency Members of Parliament • Government Parliamentary Committees •
Group Representation Constituency •
Nominated Members of Parliament •
Vehicle Quota Scheme •
Elected President • Singapore 21 ,
Nursultan Nazarbayev (right) in 1996. During the period under Goh's administration, Singapore has experienced several crises, such as the
aircraft hijack of Singapore Airlines Flight 117 in 1991, the
Asian financial crisis in 1997 and 1998, threats of terrorism in 2001 including Singaporean victims of the
9/11 attacks in
New York City by
Al-Qaeda and the
Singapore embassies attack plot by
Jemaah Islamiyah, the 2001–2003 economic recession,
2003 SARS outbreak, and other events. Goh's access to Bill Clinton's White House was blocked because of the
Michael Fay incident; it did not deter Goh from reaching out to the US President to pitch his idea for a free trade agreement (FTA) between Singapore and the US, as he did not believe Clinton to be aware of the diplomatic freeze. With the help of American businessman Joe Ford, Goh managed to reached out to President Clinton during the 1997 APEC summit, where he played golf with Clinton, ending the diplomatic freeze. In September 1998, Goh had a meeting with Clinton in the White House and agreed to contribute to the
Korean Peninsula Energy Development Organization which helped build strong ties between the two Koreas. The considerable improvement in this bilateral relationship had great impact on Singapore's economic recovery from the Asian Financial Crisis as several trade negotiations, part of "The Millennium Round", failed during the 1999 Seattle WTO protests and Doha Round. As international trade was three times Singapore's GDP at that time, securing trade treaties was paramount to Singapore's economic survival, with the US as its most desired trading partner. By riding on the improved relations with the Clinton administration, Goh personally reached out to President Clinton during the annual summit at Brunei in November 2000, near the end of Clinton's second term of his presidency. After a midnight golf session with Clinton after the banquet, Goh successfully convinced Clinton on a Singapore-USA FTA, with Clinton suggesting an FTA similar to the US-Jordan FTA. The FTA with the USA was eventually signed in 2003, and it was the USA's first FTA with an Asian country, with Goh exalting this FTA as the "crown jewel" of Singapore's international trade.
Senior minister during the 2006 general election. The banner behind him shows the campaign manifesto of the
People's Action Party, "Staying Together, Moving Ahead". In October 2003, Goh announced that he would step down when the economy recovered from a downturn that was caused by the SARS. Eventually on 12 August 2004, Goh stepped down as prime minister and held a new position as
Senior Minister in the
Cabinet of his successor,
Lee Hsien Loong. On 20 August 2004, Goh assumed the position of Chairman of the
Monetary Authority of Singapore. After a number of threats of terrorism in Singapore, Goh met local Islamic religious leaders in 2004 and made a visit to Iran, where he met Iranian president
Mohammad Khatami and visited local mosques. Goh subsequently visited other Middle Eastern countries as Senior Minister, with a view to improving diplomatic relationships and thus gaining wider opportunities for Singaporean businesses, especially in the United Arab Emirates, Qatar and Kuwait. On 1 February 2005, Goh was appointed an honorary Companion of the
Order of Australia, Australia's highest civilian honour, "for eminent service to Australia-Singapore relations". On 19 May 2005, Goh signed a Double Taxation Avoidance Agreement with Israel's Finance Minister
Benjamin Netanyahu on a visit to Israel, superseding the agreement signed in 1971. Improvements in the agreement include enhancements to the withholding tax rate on interest income, which was reduced from 15% to 7%. This would benefit Singaporean businessmen with investments in Israel and vice versa, by ensuring they are not taxed twice. Goh is a founding patron for the
Institute of Policy Studies, a government
think tank. In the
2006 general election, Goh was tasked to help the PAP win back the two opposition wards of
Hougang and
Potong Pasir. However, he was unsuccessful in this task, as
Low Thia Khiang and
Chiam See Tong retained their respective wards. In 2006, Goh was briefly considered for the job of
United Nations Secretary-General but he lost out and the job eventually went to
Ban Ki-moon. On 18 May 2011, Lee Hsien Loong announced that Goh was to be appointed a senior adviser to the
Monetary Authority of Singapore, and would be given the honorary title of "Emeritus Senior Minister". On 24 June 2011, Goh was awarded the Grand Cordon of the
Order of the Rising Sun by the Japanese government. On 4 May 2012, Goh was appointed as Patron for Advancement of the
Singapore University of Technology and Design. In the
2015 general election, Goh ran for re-election in Marine Parade GRC led by
Tan Chuan-Jin and was reelected with 64.07% of the vote against Workers' Party team led by ex-NCMP
Yee Jenn Jong. In 2018, Goh's first volume authorised biography book titled
Tall Order: The Goh Chok Tong Story was published. It details Goh's life from his childhood to until he took office as Singapore's second prime minister in 1990. In an interview in 2019, Goh stated that he believed a 75% to 80% majority in Parliament, in the future, would constitute a 'strong mandate' for the Singapore government. In the same interview, he noted that he does not believe the electoral system needed any further tweaking. On 4 August 2019, Goh made a
Facebook post stating that he felt saddened by how his long-time friend, former PAP politician
Tan Cheng Bock, had "lost his way" by forming a new political party,
Progress Singapore Party (PSP), to contest in the next general election. On 25 June 2020, Goh made a Facebook post announcing his retirement as a Member of Parliament for Marine Parade GRC after 44 years of service and will therefore retire from politics and was replaced by newcomer
Tan See Leng. A second volume of his biography titled
Standing Tall: The Goh Chok Tong Years was released in April 2021 to mark his 80th birthday. The sequel consists of the 14 years which Goh was the Prime Minister of Singapore. ==Honours==