Speeches
Opening Remarks by Minister Josephine Teo at Launch of The Albatross File Book and Exhibition on 7 Dec 2025
7 December 2025
Former President Halimah Yacob
Senior Minister Lee Hsien Loong
Mr Goh Chok Tong
My Cabinet and Parliamentary colleagues
Distinguished guests and friends
Thank you all for making time to join us for the launch of the book and exhibition on the Albatross File.
This is the capstone event of SG60. Jointly organised by MDDI and NLB, it is our second major gift to Singapore to commemorate SG60.
It comes after our Flagship Event, the Heart & Soul Experience at Orchard Library, which has welcomed more than 1 million visitors.
Feel History Like Never Before
At the heart of this new exhibition is The Albatross File, a remarkable set of documents, compiled by one of our founding leaders, former Deputy Prime Minister Dr Goh Keng Swee.
They document the events and meetings that led to Singapore’s Separation from Malaysia in 1965.
For over 30 years, Dr Goh did not publicly disclose the existence of the file. Did he ever plan to? And if not, what changed his mind?
We may never know the answer to these questions. By now, not many people can even say, they knew Dr Goh enough to hazard a guess.
In my case, I learnt more about Dr Goh only after I joined the labour movement in the mid-2000s. I read that at the 1969 Modernisation Seminar, Dr Goh told union leaders that they were “now at the crossroads”. I quote him:
The labour movement “can take a new direction, [...] and thereby grow from strength to strength. Or it can [...] sulk away in resentment and despondency, and then be cast into the limbo of history”.
Knowing what is in the Albatross File, did Dr Goh speak those words with the belief about Singapore when we were in the Federation?
Dr Goh passed away on 14 May 2010. At the memorial held at the Singapore Conference Hall, I remember hearing Mr Lee Kuan Yew say, and I quote:
“Of all my Cabinet colleagues, it was Goh Keng Swee who made the biggest difference to the outcome for Singapore.”
Besides Dr Goh’s immeasurable contributions to our defence and economy, was Mr Lee also referring to Dr Goh’s role in our independence?
With each passing year, there are fewer and fewer people with first-hand experience of Singapore’s struggles before independence, or have first-person interactions with people who do.
And yet it is from their lenses that we must understand the choices Singapore made, that got us here today, and still anchor our future.
The Albatross File has been kept by the National Archives since 1996. This exhibition presents documents from the file for the first time.
We have strived to do so in ways that make the story almost touchable, allowing visitors to delve deeper into their significance.
Through the stitching together of oral history interviews, you will hear the story of our Separation told first hand from persons including Dr Goh, Mr and Mrs Lee Kuan Yew.
You will also hear from Mr Ong Pang Boon, who, along with Mr Ng Kah Ting, was an MP from our first Parliament after independence in 1965. We are so grateful you are both able to join us today.
Most visitors to this exhibition will not know our separation story deeply, much less know the leaders involved.
Our hope is that they will Feel History as the key personalities felt
The dynamics of the times
The tensions of the negotiations
The weight on their shoulders in those months before August 1965
The exhibition opens to the public from tomorrow. Already more than 10,000 people have booked tickets. The visitors can experience our founding leaders’ anxiety and anguish, and also their clarity of purpose and conviction.
This was the aim of the exhibition, to set it apart from the others that have come before.
Collecting Well to Tell Our Story Better
Finally, let me thank my colleagues and partners who worked on this.
MDDI Senior Advisor Janadas Devan coordinated this major project with the help of the Albatross Exhibition Team, many of whom also helmed the Heart and Soul Experience.
Without your steadfast pursuits, faithful collection and preservation of photographs and newspapers, oral histories and government documents, we will not be able to hold an exhibition like this.
The National Library and the National Archives are our key memory institutions, custodians of our past.
The MDDI family considers it a great honour and privilege to present the Albatross Exhibition, so that future generations may understand, reflect and draw strength from the truths of our journey towards independence.
Thank you.