DISTINGUISHED ARTS AND SOCIAL SCIENCES ALUMNI AWARD 2022
AWARD RECIPIENTS
Mr Benny Lim
Mr Othman Haron Eusofe
Dr S. Vasoo
Mr T. Sasitharan
Mrs Elizabeth Sam
Mr Benny Lim (English Literature '81)
Mr Benny Lim graduated with a Bachelor of Arts (Honours) from the National University of Singapore in 1981. He won several academic awards as an undergraduate majoring in English, including the OCBC Gold Medal in 1978, the SEF Silver Medal, Tan Joo Liang Gold Medal and ACBC Gold Medal in 1980, and the NUSS Gold Medal in 1981. He subsequently went on to pursue postgraduate studies in Political Sociology at the London School of Economics and Political Science. He was awarded a Master of Science with Distinction in 1990.
Mr Lim started his career in the public service as a police officer. He was a Deputy Commissioner of Police when he left the Police Force to join the Administrative Service in 2001. Mr Lim has served as the Director, Internal Security Department and subsequently as Permanent Secretary of the Ministry of Home Affairs. He was the Permanent Secretary of the Ministry of National Development from Nov 2011-Apr 2016. Mr Lim also held concurrent appointments as Permanent Secretary in the Prime Minister’s Office and Permanent Secretary, National Security & Intelligence Coordination.
He is presently the Chairman of the National Parks Board and the Chairperson of the Housing & Development Board. Mr Lim is currently Special Advisor to the Centre for Liveable Cities as well as Special Advisor to the National Security Studies Programme, RSIS/NTU. He is also concurrently Chairman of Temasek Foundation CLG and Chairman of Temasek Lifesciences Laboratory IPC.
Mr Lim was awarded the Meritorious Service Medal in 2010 and the Distinguished Service Order in 2021.
Mr Othman Haron Eusofe (Economics and Political Science '64)
Mr Othman Haron Eusofe graduated with a Bachelor of Arts (Honours) from the then University of Singapore in 1964. He started his working career in the Administrative Service (1964-1980) and was posted to the following Ministries; Law (Land Office), Communications, Finance (Budget Division) and Trade and Industry (Trade Department). In June 1980, Mr. Othman was seconded to the National Trade Union Congress (NTUC), Administration and Research Unit.
Mr Othman was elected as Member of Parliament from December 1980 to May 2006 and was the Chairman of the Marine Parade Town Council. Mr Othman was an Advisor to several trade unions and was elected as a member of the NTUC Central Committee. In August 1993, he was appointed as NTUC’s Deputy Secretary General and was a key member of the NTUC team on the National Wages Council. Mr Othman served on the Boards of several Statutory Boards including Public Utilities Board, Civil Aviation Authority of Singapore, Singapore Polytechnic Board of Governors, National Productivity Board and the National University of Singapore Council. Mr Othman was appointed as a Director of the Comfort Group Limited and several of its subsidiaries.
Mr Othman was a member of the Majlis Ugama Islam (MUIS) from August 1977 to August 1980. He was a Founder Member of Yayasan Mendaki which was established in October 1982 to urgently introduce programmes to help Malay students to improve in their educational performance. He continues to serve on the Mendaki Council. He was the Chairman of Mendaki SENSE (Social Enterprise Network Singapore Private Limited) from June 2006 to June 2011.
Mr Othman was appointed as a Minister of State (Manpower) from 1997 to 2001. From November 2001 to August 2004, he was the Mayor of South-East Community Development Council. He was appointed as Minister of State (Prime Minister’s Office) from 13 August 2004 to June 2005 and was deployed to the NTUC. He continued to work in NTUC until December 2005. Thereafter, he went on to serve as the Chairman of NTUC Education and Training Fund Board of Trustees until May 2014 and a member of the NTUC Board of Trustees until 31 October 2017.
Mr Othman is currently a member of the Presidential Council for Minority Rights. He is also a Pro-Chancellor in Nanyang Technological University.
Dr S. Vasoo (Social Work '69)
Dr S. Vasoo graduated with a Diploma in Social Work from the then University of Singapore in 1969. He is now Emeritus Professor in the Department of Social Work, National University of Singapore. In his youth, Dr Vasoo lived in rural Nee Soon village now known as Yishun which was then a multi-racial neighbourhood comprising of Indians, Malays and Chinese. Such a setting provided him opportunities to learn and speak many dialects and languages such as Hokkien, Cantonese, Teochew, Hainanese, Malay, Tamil, and Mandarin.
After his secondary education he went for work to assist his family financially for six years. Thereafter, he took and passed the University entrance examination and enrolled as mature student for Social Studies in the then Singapore University. Dr Vasoo, obtained his Diploma in Social Studies with distinction. He pursued further studies and graduated from the University of Hong Kong with a Master in Social Work in 1974 and a Doctorate in 1985. He was awarded the Jean Robertson Book prize for his outstanding performance in Social Work Master course.
He taught as lecturer in University of Singapore, Department of Social Studies and worked as a social worker and later as social work administrator from 1970s to early 1980s. He was elected as Member of Parliament in the Government of Singapore from 1984 to 2001. He also served as Chairman of Government Parliamentary Committee for Community Development.
Dr Vasoo has authored several monographs on social issues and has published various such articles both internationally and locally. He recently co-edited a book, “Singapore Ageing: Issues and Challenges Ahead”. He was awarded the Honorary Life Member of the Singapore Association of Social Workers for his outstanding contributions to social work in Singapore.
He now volunteers as advisor to various committees of community organisations including the Singapore Central Community Development Council. He was appointed Justice of Peace, Singapore in 2005 and now retired. He was conferred the Distinguished Alumni Award (2007) of the Faculty of Social Sciences, University of Hong Kong.
Mr T. Sasitharan (Philosophy '87)
Mr T. Sasitharan graduated with a Masters in Philosophy from the National University of Singapore in 1987. He is the Co-founder and Director of Intercultural Theatre Institute (ITI), T. Sasitharan has been engaged with the arts and cultural scene in Singapore through his many roles as arts educator, actor, cultural critic and arts advocate. Better known as Sasi, he is widely acknowledged as a leader in the arts community and one of its foremost thinkers.
Theatre has been a part of Mr Sasitharan’s life since he took to the stage in a school play in 1972 and discovered the power of the stage. Later, as he continued to perform in university and after, he came to be regarded as one of Singapore’s finest actors. His participation in seminal productions in the 1980s put him at the forefront of an emerging theatre scene that was beginning to reflect the Singaporean identity, linguistically and culturally, via homegrown works and practice.
Between 1996 and 2000, Mr Sasitharan was Artistic Director of The Substation, succeeding Kuo Pao Kun, who founded the multi-disciplinary arts space. During his tenure, he built on Substation’s mission to foster experimentation, diversity and inclusion, laying the foundations for contemporary arts practice in Singapore. In 2000, Mr Sasitharan and Kuo jointly conceived, created and established the Theatre Training & Research Programme (TTRP), which today is called the Intercultural Theatre Institute (ITI). He continued as Director of ITI after Kuo’s death in 2002.
A former Philosophy teacher and arts journalist, Mr Sasitharan is a respected voice in discourses on arts and culture. His essays, commentaries and reviews, on the place of the arts in society, the value of culture, actor training, arts education, theatre criticism, aesthetics and creativity, have been published internationally while his speaking engagements have been at universities, conferences and arts forums around the world. These include: 2010 World Arts Summit in Johannesburg, South Africa; 2010 Harvard Project for Asia and International Relations Asia Conference in Singapore; 2011, Lectures at Paris University III: Sorbonne Nouvelle, presented by the theatre company Pas de Dieux; 2011, Asia Intangible Cultural Heritage Performing Arts Forum in Hong Kong; 2013 International Research Centre “Interweaving Cultures in Performance” symposium in Berlin; 2014 ConversAsians conference in Singapore and the 2014 Singapore Biennale Conference.
In 2012, Mr Sasitharan was the recipient of the Cultural Medallion, Singapore’s highest award for artists, and in Mar 2022 he was made the Third Harvard Fellow of the Harvard Club of Singapore.
Mrs Elizabeth Sam (Economics '62)
Mrs Elizabeth Sam graduated with a Bachelor of Arts (Honours) from the then University of Singapore in 1962. She is one of Singapore’s best-known female bankers. She became the first female board member of a big four bank when she was appointed to the main Board of the OCBC in October 1996.
Her career spanned over 40 years, with the first half of it in the public sector where she played a key role in the growth of Singapore as a global financial centre. She obtained a Bachelor of Arts in Economics (Honours) from the University of Singapore and joined the Ministry of Finance in 1962 as an administrative officer. Followed by various positions in the Ministry including Deputy Secretary in the Economics Development Division, Deputy Controller of Foreign Exchange and Director of Overseas Investment. Then joining the MAS when it was established. By 1976, she was promoted to Chief Manager, and left in 1981.
During her tenure at the Ministry of Finance and the MAS, she was responsible for the development of financial markets in Singapore – in particular the development of the Asian Dollar market and the foreign exchange market. She later played an important role in the development of the futures market, and was Chairman of the Singapore International Monetary Exchange for two terms. As the Chairman, she was part of the team that successfully pioneered the Mutual Offset System in 1984, which made the Eurodollar fungible with the contract traded on the then-Chicago Mercantile Exchange.
From 1981 to 1987, Mrs Sam was a main Board Director of Mercantile House Holdings PLC. She joined OCBC Bank in January 1988 as Executive Vice President. In October 1996, she became the first woman to be appointed to the main board of a big four bank. In 1996, Mrs Sam was awarded the Public Service Star (BBM), Republic of Singapore, for her contributions to the nation’s development as a global financial centre. And the following year, she was recognised as one of the top 50 outstanding women globally in finance by Euromoney.
When she retired, Mrs Sam took up ballroom dancing and regularly participates in ballroom dance competitions.