So, what did change?

Associate Professor Bilveer Singh from NUS political science department says, "Temasek is a strategically important company and for a foreigner to manage it can be seen as humiliating". Although the truth may truly be that "there (is) nobody inside Temasek equal to the job", the appointment of Charles Goodyear as the CEO of Temasek Holdings is most certainly a negative development.

Mr. Dhanabalan rightly remarked in 2002 that sensitive job of Temasek's CEO is not for foreigners. Even while being led by a Singaporean, larger and larger proportion of assets were invested in the financial sector by Temasek Holdings; supposedly spurred by foreign advise. Besides worrying if our CPF funds have disappeared with GIC's and Temasek's recent losses, one cannot help but also wonder "what now since not just the advisors are foreign but the lead person himself is a foreigner?

Senior Minister of State for Finance Lim Hwee Hua in addressing this recently in parliament, remarked, "Temasek today is completely different from the Temasek at the time of Mr Dhanabalan's". What she failed to address was, "So, what did change?"