The First Fools: B-Sides of Lee Kuan Yew’s A-Team
$32.11
ISBN: 978-981-17770-7-3 (Paperback)
Page Count: 237
Year Published: 2025
Publisher: The Nutgraf Books
Dimensions: 227 × 150 × 1.6 cm
Format: Softcover
Writers:
Samantha Boh
Sue-Ann Chia
Pearl Lee
Aaron Low
Jaime Niam
Peh Shing Huei
Puah Rui Xian
Toh Wen Li
Derek Wong
Singapore’s founding fathers are the stuff of legend. Much has been written about the indomitable Lee Kuan Yew who transformed a nation from mudflats into metropolis, as well as his fellow Old Guard who left their stamp on almost every aspect of Singapore’s DNA, from the economy to diplomacy to housing. But that is not the whole story.
See, the 10 larger-than-life personalities who signed the Separation Agreement in 1965 were the nation’s founding fathers. But they were also men — men who fell in love, who kept secrets, who wrote ghost stories, who played sports (not just golf). They were businessmen, bitter men, and some of the best men Singapore has ever seen. Their names are:
- Lee Kuan Yew
- Yong Nyuk Lin
- E. W. Barker
- Goh Keng Swee
- Jek Yeun Thong
- Lim Kim San
- Ong Pang Boon
- Othman Wok
- S. Rajaratnam
- Toh Chin Chye
From the authors of The Last Fools: The Eight Immortals of Lee Kuan Yew comes The First Fools: B-Sides of Lee Kuan Yew’s A-Team. Each chapter in this anthology offers readers a different slice of the same story, one that, in the case of many of the Old Guard, has largely been forgotten. Instead of Lee Kuan Yew, the leader, comes Lee Kuan Yew, the lover; instead of S. Rajaratnam, the diplomat, comes S. Rajaratnam, the fiction writer. Many of these stories are relatively unknown to the public, and yet they are gems in history that capture a softer, more intimate side of Singapore’s first-generation leaders. It is a timely read as the nation they helped build commemorates its 60th year of independence.
Peh is a Singapore Literature Prize-winning author and journalist. He is the author of numerous bestsellers, including Neither Civil Nor Servant, The Last Fools, and The First Fools. He also wrote a pair of authorised biographies on former Singapore Prime Minister Goh Chok Tong: Tall Order and Standing Tall. His maiden solo title When The Party Ends won the SIngapore Literature Prize for its gripping on-the-ground reportage of ethnic riots, natural disasters, and political upheavals. In addition, he has four picture books, including Panjang which was shortlisted for the Hedwig Anuar Children’s Book Award and Ready, Kueh Set, Go! which won the Singapore Book Awards in 2026. His books are repeated winners of the Popular Readers’ Choice Awards. He is a regular commentator on Singapore and China affairs, and was The Straits Times’ news editor and China bureau chief. He is a political science graduate of the National University of Singapore and Columbia University in New York.
“The Nutgraf has done it again! It has produced another lively slice of the Singapore story. The First Fools is a revealing look at the nation’s founders — what were they really like? Written in its inimitable style, the book is a timely contribution as Singapore celebrates its 60th anniversary.”
Cheong Yip Seng
Former Editor-in-Chief, English & Malay Newspapers Division, Singapore Press Holdings and author of OB Markers: My Straits Times Story
“Othman Wok and S. Rajaratnam began not just as journalists but also, perhaps more consequentially, as literary adventurers. The paths they took through language and the imagination would become inextricable from the keen minds that helped to shape a new political entity. In today’s compartmentalised world, The First Fools speaks of urgent self-cultivation: to have a different inner resource, another way of thinking and feeling, to meet the greater truths of our destinies.”
Gwee Li Sui
Poet and literary critic
“This book is about the founding leaders of Singapore, but told not in the usual fashion. It is a series of compelling sketches of the B-Sides of this A-Team’s lives, lesser-known stories of the 10 men who built Singapore. While each of them was a giant in their own right, this book reminds us that they were, in many ways, men who had hobbies, passions, loves, and even idiosyncrasies that marked them as simply human.”
Lim Siong Guan
Former Head of Singapore Civil Service and author of The Leader, The Teacher & You – Leadership Through the Third Generation
“The First Fools is a fresh, humane look at the lighter side of the 10 PAP leaders who signed Singapore into existence in 1965. Peh Shing Huei and his team of excellent writers offer us a series of humanising vignettes of these remarkable men who, over the last 60 years, have become almost mythical, heroic figures. A most compelling and captivating read, full of ‘I didn’t know that’ moments.”
Kevin Tan
Law professor at the National University of Singapore and co-editor of Lee’s Lieutenants
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