You said commission. It was set up as a public limited company, wholly owned by the government of Singapore. Temasek Holdings is the company that runs all the government assets. So Temasek owned $5 million worth of shares in the zoo. That was the grant they gave us. The zoo… Read More
And when he told the chief water engineer that that’s where the zoo would be, the guy was aghast. Read More
But since he was his boss, he had no choice ’cause he said, “Kong, do you want a job?” And Kong said, the water engineer said, “Yep.” He said, “Well, let’s have the zoo here.” So how can we prevent the water being polluted?… Read More
What was the administrative structure of the zoo?… Read More
Was it governmental?… Read More
And that’s where big orangutan exhibit was. But there was an African section, there was a reptile area, there was children’s zoo. And I would say it was a pretty, pretty mixed with Australian, Asian elephants and African, very little South American. Read More
Was it strong point always the botanic ’cause of where it was?… Read More
It had a strong botanical leaning. I mean, the chairman had an emphasis on trees and plants. He wanted everything labeled. And he was a gardener anyway, so he was very interested in the horticultural aspects and pushed for the creation of horticultural exhibits. We had a thing called Heliconia… Read More
What were you seeing when you first walked in as you started moving up?… Read More
Okay. No, it was actually a mixed collection. As I said, Lyn de Alwis put it together. The first thing you saw when you came into the zoo, to the entrance gate. No, once you got into the zoo itself was the small-clawed otters, underwater viewing as well, and then… Read More
I think it’s a, “Haha, let’s see how long this guy lasts.” So tell me about the zoo when you started. Read More
Was it primarily Asian animals?… Read More
Was there a theme to it?… Read More
I really quite got involved in the selling of the zoo. What was happening at that point was that we were not getting enough tourists. We didn’t get any tourists at all. Singapore had a lot of tourists, millions of tourists every year, but we were not getting any. And… Read More
Was the staff jealous of you, this moving up so quickly?… Read More
Some of them. There was a horticultural officer called Herbert Wee and he was 20, 25 years older than me. And he resented the fact that I was young and moving up ’cause we were colleagues, and then suddenly I’m now his boss. I just met with a colleague yesterday… Read More
Did you think you were ready?… Read More
Yeah, I did. I felt I was okay. They asked me whether I wanted it, firstly knowing the history of the demise of the predecessors. And I said, “Yeah, yeah, I’m ready for it, I think so.” I said, “I certainly can do it. I don’t have a problem. I’m… Read More
Then they looked at me and they said, “Well, we’ll promote you to director.” This is in 1980?… Read More
Yeah, 1980, yeah, yeah. And so I said, okay. And for some reason, and I think it was because of my youth, because I think I was 27, 28, yeah. And because I had actually worked with Dr. Ong, the chairman for six years in various positions, I could get… Read More