http://www.thinkcentre.org/article.php?id=1088
Riddle of the Pyramid
Goh Chok Tong, Singapore's Prime Minister, wanted to throw a special kind of party. The task at hand was to pay tribute to a group of politicians who had served the ruling People's Action Party (PAP) in Parliament but were required to stand aside to allow the introduction of fresh faces. The evening was meant to be memorable and required a venue to match.
Mr Goh chose the Pyramid, an elegant colonial-era mansion a short distance from the city-state's main shopping district along Orchard Road. The 140-strong audience enjoyed prawn and salmon salad starters, followed by abalone and shark's fin soup that night in May 1997, the local paper reported.
The snippet is one of just a handful of mentions in recent years of one of the more important but least-familiar parts of Singapore's formidably successful establishment. The Pyramid is the after-hours home for more than 300 of the country's top movers and shakers, and anyone who is anyone is said to be a member.
In its well-tended grounds and tranquil rooms, leading civil servants, politicians, businessmen and senior military officers meet to exchange news, develop friendships and, in effect, bind the country's decision-makers more closely together. 'It's where the real action in Singapore takes place,' one non-member suggests.
Although the Pyramid's membership list might read like a Who's Who of Singapore, the institution goes out of its way not to attract attention. There is no listing in the phone book and no existence in cyberspace beyond a few mentions by outside contractors who have worked at the site.
Requests for information typically run into a wall of genuine ignorance. 'I have never heard of it,' says an executive of a marketing firm with nearly a decade's experience in promoting the memberships of other less-exclusive clubs across the region.
When a search turns up contact numbers from a government department, the instinctive question from the man at the Pyramid who answers is not 'What do you want?' but, tellingly, 'How did you get hold of us?' The club's honorary secretary, Rear-Admiral Richard Lim Cherng Yih, a senior civil servant at the Ministry of Defence, declined to answer written questions.
This preference for secrecy provides fertile territory for rumours to gain ground. One well-placed Singaporean talks of the Pyramid in terms that most people would associate with a cult. He speculates on understandings forged within a cosy fraternity and designed to keep the country on its stable trajectory. The reality is perhaps less sensational but might help in understanding formation and execution of Singapore's public policy.
The Pyramid was founded in early 1963, during what was the most intense period of Singapore's modern political history. Shortly after its registration, then-prime minister Lee Kuan Yew put his signature to the Malaysia Agreement, detailing formation of the new Malaysian federation.
The club's aims, as listed in its last annual return at the Registry of Societies, are so loosely worded as to be almost meaningless: 'To provide opportunities and amenities for members [to engage in a] regular exchange of ideas and information on matters of public interest.' More illuminating are the motto - 'A pyramid of public service' - and the identity of the 10-strong management committee.
George Yeo Yong-Boon, the Minister for Trade and Industry and one of the Government's most promising front-benchers, is the Pyramid's president, assisted by vice-president Mah Bow Tan, who is the Minister for National Development. Michael Lim Choo San, the chairman of the National Healthcare Group, which manages half of the island's hospitals and clinics, is listed as honorary treasurer.
Of the six additional ordinary committee members, two stand out. Quek Poh Huat is the president of Temasek, one of the Government's main investment arms. Temasek holds many of the state's extensive commercial interests, including its stakes in DBS Group, the country's largest bank, and Singapore Telecommunications. Joining Mr Quek is another pillar of the establishment, Stephen Lee Ching Yen, the chairman of the influential Trade Development Board and the president of the Singapore National Employers' Federation.
These heavy-hitters carry the mantle for the Pyramid's founding executive team, which was also drawn from the top ranks of the new country's leadership. The first club president was Goh Keng Swee - a key ally of then-prime minister Lee - who then held the finance-ministry portfolio. He was supported by Pyramid vice-president, Jek Yeun Thong, then the political secretary in the prime minister's office.
These days, the group claims 246 ordinary voting members selected from the ranks of those who have 'a notable record of public service'. To maintain the necessarily special atmosphere, their numbers are capped at 300. They are joined by 72 senior members - aged over 65 - together with a further 40 associate members. Associate members, whose number may not exceed 150, are not Singapore nationals but 'any person residing in Singapore as the committee of management may decide'.
When the current venue was chosen, its backers opted for a location in the heart of one of Singapore's most exclusive districts. The upmarket Goodwill Hill not only lies close to other top-notch clubs, such the Tanglin Club and the American Club, but is also within easy distance of a swathe of embassies and high-class residences.
As members decline to talk, the regime of non-disclosure falters only when the premises are used for talks to which non-members are invited, as coverage can feature in the local media. The PAP's function hosted by Prime Minister Goh four-and-a-half years ago was just such an event.
More recently Abdullah Tarmugi, the Minister for Community Development and Sports, used it for what he termed a dialogue session with young members of Singapore's Malay community. The status, development and relative standing of the country's second-largest ethnic group - after the majority Chinese but ahead of the Indians - is a topic of extreme sensitivity. In all likelihood, the Pyramid was thought to be an ideal choice, because of its comfortable surroundings and its well-deserved reputation for confidentiality.
Last year, it was the turn of veteran Japanese diplomat Takakazu Kuriyama, a former ambassador to the United States and to Malaysia, to give an address on security issues in East Asia, including Tokyo's initial support for Washington's controversial drive to develop a theatre-missile-defence system.
The only other public sign of the Pyramid's existence can be seen by those who take the trouble to visit the building. Beneath the trees at the foot of the driveway, a small sign confirms that you have found No. 2 Goodwood Park. Bolted on top, no bigger than a paperback book, is a stylised pyramid logo. It is as close as you are likely to get to one of Singapore's best-kept secrets.
by Jake Lloyd-Smith, SCMP, Aug 31 2001
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