GOVT AGENCIES HAVE BEEN MISSPELLING YUSOF ISHAK'S NAME SINCE THE 1970s

A rose by any other name would smell as sweet, but a former president spelled any other way will make Singaporeans pretty angry!

That’s what’s getting our goat now, over the recent embarrassing mistake involving SG50 commemorative notes, where Singapore’s first president YusofIshak’s name was misspelled not once, but TWICE in the packaging.

Ah, but “YusokIshak” has been around way longer in Singapore’s annals longer than you think.

And that’s because from the media to government agencies such as the Ministry of Education (horrors!), the National Library Board and even the army have gotten it wrong.

For instance, all the way back in 1977 when New Nation wasn’t some satirical website but an actual newspaper….

If you think that’s bad, the National Archives of Singapore still has Mr YusofIshak’s name spelled wrongly in several entries… till today!

Ok lah, give chance a bit since they’re not known to be the nation’s “decisive force”. But Singapore’s real decisive force went and decided not to copy-edit their publications properly, which resulted in this:

No prizes for guessing who was the Chief of Army at that time…

But enough of the Men in Green. Let’s get back to the misspellings, starting with the Ministry of Education, which is tasked with moulding the future of our nation.

And least but definitely not last, the National Library board’s gaffe!