Now that the Year 2006 Singapore General Elections is over the next step will be for the Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong to choose and announce his line-up of ministers. This reminded me of the fact that there is a stamp issue associated with Singapore’s first General Elections which were held in 1959. The stamp issue is titled, “The Singapore Story” and came out in 1998. The pictures of the ministers on the stamp below are not sharp but they are recognisable.

The names of the ministers and their portfolios are listed here (from left to right):
1. Yong Nyuk Lin (Education)
2. Ong Eng Guan (National Development)
3. S. Rajaratnam (Culture)
4. Ahmad bin Ibrahim (Health)
5. Ong Pang Boon (Home Affairs)
6. Goh Keng Swee (Finance)
7. Toh Chin Chye (Deputy PM)
8. K.M. Byrne (Law and Labour)
9. Lee Kuan Yew (Prime Minister)

In case you are wondering about the person above the ministerial line-up in the stamp, he was our first local Head of State, Mr Yusof bin Ishak. Every time you take out your money, you see a picture of him. More about this great man when I write again.

Notice that there was no Ministry of Defence and Ministry of Foreign Affairs in the line-up. (In 1959, these matters were still in the hands of the British Government.)
It is interesting to note that Mr Lee Kuan Yew served as Prime Minister in 1959 and is still serving Singapore in 2006 as Minister Mentor. No wonder, then, that he is often referred to as the Father of Modern Singapore.

A clearer image of the ministers is shown in the stamp sheet below:

Kindly click to view full size image