SINGAPORE: A recent social media post about Singapore’s first and longest-serving Minister of Law has received some attention, as it underlined the fact that Edmund William Barker had been the first minister to have signed the Separation Agreement with Malaysia in 1965.
Together with him was Goh Keng Swee, the country’s first Minister for Finance who later served as Deputy Prime Minister.
The Sep 2 (Wednesday) Facebook post from the local content creator Alvin Huang featured an illustration of Mr Barker, who had been an important part of Singapore’s “Old Guard” of political leaders.
More importantly, he pointed out in his post something Mr Barker’s had done that clearly showed what kind of man he had been.
“In the early hours of August 7, 1965, E.W. Barker was the first Singapore minister to sign the Separation Agreement. He left space at the top of the page for his senior colleagues. So when the document was complete, his name appeared fourth out of ten.
He signed first.
He placed himself below 3 others.
That detail tells you more about Edmund William Barker than 24 years as Law Minister ever could,” Mr Huang wrote, also noting that Mr Barker, together with the Attorney-General’s Chambers, had been given 10 days to prepare the legal framework for Singapore’s independence.
Mr Barker, more commonly known as “E.W.” as an adult, or “Eddie” as a young child, was born on Jansen Road in the Upper Serangoon Road area.
In keeping with Singapore’s multicultural history and society, this particular first-generation Singaporean had an astonishing ancestry of Portuguese, German, Indonesian, Japanese, Scottish, and Irish forebears.
As Mr Huang noted, “6 bloodlines in one person.”
Young “Eddie” was educated at Raffles Institution, where he met Singapore’s founding Prime Minister Lee Kuan Yew, as well as his future wife, Kwa Geok Choo.
Mr Barker and Mr Lee were both part of RI’s Literary and Debating Society, and he and Ms Kwa were in the same Queen’s Scholarship class.
In his schooldays, the future Law Minister had been a scholar and a sportsman. At RI, he was head prefect, champion athlete and football team captain; and in Raffles College, he received a scholarship two years in a row and represented the school in cricket, football, rugby and athletics matches, and eventually helmed the rugby team.
Incidentally, he met and became friends with Abdul Razak Hussein, who would later on become Prime Minister of Malaysia, at this time.
After obtaining his law degree from Cambridge, he practised law, but in 1963, he was elected Member of Parliament for Tanglin and, shortly afterwards, became Speaker of the Legislative Assembly.
The following year, he became Law Minister, a position he held for 24 years, though he also served at the ministries of National Development, Home Affairs, Environment, Science and Technology, and Labour.
Among his contributions to Singapore were in the area of sports, and under his purview, the National Stadium was built. In 1985, Mr Barker was the first Singaporean to receive the Olympic Order award from the International Olympic Committee. /TISG
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