The first part of the threes is about the when, the how and the why?
And it is about his retirement from politics after serving 14 years as an MP, first, the education minister (where he coined “Every school is a good school) and the finance minister (where he raised the GST from 7% to 9% after exhausting all studied avenues to raise revenue).
When?
April 23, 2025. He made it clear he is out of politics. He does not intend to go back to public life unless he is ”absolutely needed”.
He had spent 45 years in public service, 14 years of which as an MP and Minister. It’s half, or more than half, of a human lifetime.
At 64, he is all geared up to hang up his parliamentarian garb for a civilian tee and berm I guess.
How?
“I have a very bad work habit, I work long hours. I don’t have much time for myself. I hope to spend time travelling to all my favourite places, to read my favourite books and listen to my music, so that I can slow down. Then I’ll decide what else might be meaningful for me to do.”
I guess being a principal private secretary to LKY, the education and finance minister, DPM and currently the chairman of PAP, and at 64, he still has a long runway to do a host of meaningful work on ad hoc or need-to basis.
And why?
When asked about why he intends to retire, he said that during his 45 years of public service, he had spent “very little time on his family and himself.”
Recalling his stroke in 2016 during a cabinet meeting, he said health will be a priority for him.
In fact, he explained why he stood down as leader of the 4G in 2021 after being slated to be the 4th PM of Singapore. “I decided it would be better for a younger person with a longer runway, better energy to carry through.”
In particular, three resposibilities as an PM would be daunting for him considering his health: making policies, engaging the community and a lot of travelling.
Alas, every man has to make his own bed, and sleeps on it with a clear conscience. HSK had made his, while knowing himself, his capacity and his time left on earth.
Now comes the 2nd part of the threes. It is bundled up in three lessons from HSK’s words.
First lesson is about learning.
He was asked whether he would have done anything differently during his term and he said no.
“I think it’s important for us to look back and see what are the things that we have learnt from each episode. And I will say that I’m reasonably satisfied that we have been able to make good decisions, even in the face of uncertainty about the long term.”
If you mark your life on a chart thus far, you will note the ups and downs. Who can avoid them? But it is the trajectory that matters. The full picture. Is your chart rising up progressively or sloping downwards perpetually?
I have learnt that every dip is a learning experience. And allowing it to shape me, instead of rebelling against it, makes me better for it.
I can’t learn without humility, and I will always struggle with humility if I don’t radically confront myself. For many reasons, an unexamined life is not worth living. But if there is one most prominent reason, it would be because it is a life that is lived never learning to be better for oneself and for others. Arrogance often immune oneself from improving.
One would then be no different from the Dead Sea, always taking and remaining bitterly salty.
The second lesson is what HSK said: “I’m glad I’ve done all right…I had never expected myself to enter politics, to be a minister and to be a DPM. At every stage, I just made the best of it and certainly in the process, I have found fulfillment in all that I’ve done.”
“I hope that I’ve made a little contribution to improve the lives of Singaporeans and to improve the chances of success of this little red dot.”
I can’t say that HSK didn’t live a charmed life as a civil servant and a politican – almost fabled. From securing a Police Force Scholarship to read economics to being a Private Secretary to LKY, and from MP for Tampines GRC in 2011 to the education/finance minister and then, DPM, and almost crowned the successor, he has made more than a mark in public life. It is quite an exceptional trajectory or chart.
As common folks, our lives may be less charming than his. But the lesson here is about doing your best and finding fulfillment in it. Your best may not lead to a targeted outcome, but it nevertheless shapes you to be better. And being better is a small step towards leading a more fulfilling life.
Lasting fulfilment is a process of learning from each episode and raising our life’s trajectory so that we grow and mature in the process. Such perspective embraces failures and successes as part and parcel of our path towards fulfillment. It is the making of a life worth living.
And the last lesson is on his reflection on gratitude. He was grateful for the medical staff who had saved his life during the stroke. He thus doesn’t take his health for granted.
And more importantly, he said: “It makes you realise that life has its limits and you should make the best use of it while you can to spend sometime to explore your interests.”
Indeed, we all have our limits, and the most sobering one is our limited lease of life on earth. Knowing thyself is to come to terms with the limits, whether in genes, skills and/or life. And knowing the boundaries unique to us and working to make the best use of them make for a wiser man or woman, if not also happier.
It is about accepting who we are and progressing from where we are, and not wishing we should have been somewhere, or be someone, and refusing to accept us for being us. Without such acceptance, we tend to live a life of constant disillusionment and discontentment.
Finally, the last three of the threes I have promised you earlier comes in three simple words – “All the best”.
Rest well then HSK, and thanks for the contribution, big or small, during those 45 years of quiet grinding.
Michael Han
