Maruzen Toyo was an oil firm that was jointly
established by two leading Japanese companies of
the 1960s: Maruzen Oil and Toyo Menka Trading
Co. Maruzen Oil’s management wanted to start the
company’s first oil refinery outside Japan, and they
chose to build it in Singapore.
Mr. Ling Thim Poh was one of the pioneers of BP
Singapore. Born in 1938 just before the start of
the Second World War, Ling Thim Poh has a rare
claim of having worked in the start-up years of
Singapore’s oil refining industry. Maruzen paid the
22-year-old a generous salary of S$650 per month
and appointed him to supervise a team of older
workers, some twice his age.
In 1961, the Japanese firm launched a nationwide
campaign to hire young men to fill more than
200 technical and support positions for its
proposed oil refinery on Pasir Panjang Road. It
advertised the positions in the English Language
newspapers and held direct recruitment exercises
in selected schools, mainly those with English as
the main medium of instruction. The Japanese
managers avoided dealing with the Chinese
educated and did not attempt at all to hire from
Chinese language schools. With the Second
World War still fresh in their memories, there
were well-founded fears that many Singaporeans
who lived through and suffered during the
Japanese invasion of 1942 to 1945 would harbour
resentment against their new employer.
In the 1960s, the official unemployment rate
in Singapore was well over 12%, poverty was
widespread in post-colonial Singapore, Jurong
was still a largely forested area, and Ling realised
his good fortune to have secured a senior position
in a well-known Japanese firm as his first full-time
job.
Contrary to expectations, the Japanese bosses were
not strict and hardly disciplined anyone. Despite
the lac