News

I refer to Deputy Prime Minister Lawrence Wong's speech mentioning American philanthropists Andrew Carnegie, John D. Rockefeller and Bill Gates, and saying that Singapore does not yet have that "same long and strong tradition of philanthropic giving" ( , Sept 30). Singapore, however, does have such a tradition. In the 19th century, many pioneers made immeasurably valuable donations to the foundations of early Singapore, setting the stage for a thriving community. These names can be found in primary and secondary school textbooks - Naraina Pillai, Gan Eng Seng, P. Govindasamy Pillai, Syed Omar Ali Aljunied and Tan Kah Kee, just to name a few. The current and future generations of Singaporeans need not look overseas for philanthropic role models. We merely need to look to and remember our pioneers.