‘I am not the complete vehicle yet’

He was ‘really suaku’ when he left for the US at 19. After 24 years in the civil service and a year in politics, Acting Transport Minister Jeffrey Siow still sees himself as a work in progress.

- Sumiko Tan

The first time Jeffrey Siow stepped onto a plane, he was 19 and headed for Cornell University in New York on a Singapore government scholarship.

Before the trip, he and his mother went to a shop in their Potong Pasir neighbourhood to buy a suitcase. “We had never really bought a big suitcase before,” he recalls.

During a transit stop at Los Angeles International Airport, he heard an announcement calling his name. “When I went to the counter, they told me my suitcase had split in two. I lost half my clothes, including most of my underwear. It wasn’t a great start to school.”

With help from airline staff, he taped up the suitcase as best he could. “I was just hoping it would arrive in one piece.”

He is matter-of-fact in relating this undoubtedly mortifying experience. “The suitcase was okay, but maybe not fit for purpose for a long flight,” he says, dryly.

When he finally arrived at Cornell, it dawned on him that it was nowhere near bustling New York City as he had assumed when he applied for it.

“I didn’t realise there was a difference between upstate New York and New York City,” he says with a wry laugh. “Really suaku (country bumpkin).”

Over lunch, the 48-year-old Acting Minister for Transport is self-deprecating, self-aware and reflective. He comes across as comfortable in his own skin, but also struck by how, at various points in his life, he had found himself out of his depth but managed to make the most of things.

He has chosen to meet at Amber West, a fine-dining restaurant in ITE College West, where food is prepared by student chefs and served by students.

The campus is in Choa Chu Kang, where he is a Member of Parliament. There is another reason for the venue. Earlier in his civil service career at the Ministry of Education, he worked on the ITE sector.