Ong-Ang Ai Boon has been heading the Association of Banks in Singapore for the last 40 years.

At 77, she is still its director, leading the association to represent the interests of over 150 local and foreign banks in the financial industry, as well as working with regulators to establish a sound banking structure for Singapore.

Her recently launched book, titled “It’s Not Me”, chronicles how the hand of God has guided her through the ups and downs of her professional and personal life.

Here’s an excerpt on how God led her when she encountered a particularly difficult work partner.

In the late 80s, a senior official from the Monetary Authority of Singapore (MAS) commissioned the Association of Banks in Singapore (ABS) to produce a publication on the topic of “Singapore: An International Financial Centre”.

The plan was for its managing director to present it to his international counterparts in a meeting that he would be attending in Basel, Switzerland, in five months’ time.

I sought out and engaged the advertising agency Batey Ads, an established firm that had created the iconic Singapore Girl for Singapore Airlines.

A Singapore Airlines advertisement featuring their ubiquitous Singapore Girls. Photo credit: Singapore Airlines

The company assigned a service manager to work with me on the project and I gave him the brief for the publication.

The first draft of the publication came with a cover picture of a seated gypsy woman gazing into a crystal ball — symbolism for her looking into Singapore’s future. I promptly rejected the illustration. He was visibly taken aback by my objection to it and asked why.

I told him that I am a Christian and consulting soothsayers (a person supposed to be able to foresee the future) was unacceptable. He understood and replaced it.

During the course of working together on the project, I noticed that he was often slow and lethargic in picking up calls, responding to revisions and meeting deadlines.

I was very frustrated with him for lagging behind in the work because I had to provide regular progress reports on the book to the senior MAS officer. Yet I also realised that I had told him I am a Christian, so that restrained me and I knew I had to “behave myself” in managing him.

Taking the blame

I could only complain bitterly to the Lord by journaling all of it down in my prayer diary daily. As I sought the Lord, he spoke to me through Isaiah 58:7 “… when you see the naked, to clothe them, and not to turn away from your own flesh and blood?”

I understood God’s instruction on the matter: I could not reveal or criticise his shortcomings publicly as it would shame and discredit him, leaving him as if he were “naked”. Instead, I ought to cover and protect him from being found out.

It was a painful process and a tall order from God because whenever I met the senior MAS officer to give an update on the progress of the work, I had to come up with excuses, such as the delay being due to my inexperience and oversight, thus taking the blame.

While God knew I would obey in reverence to Him, He also knew it would be a really difficult experience for me. Thus, He motivated me to persevere with His instructions by giving me His promises that followed in Isaiah 58:8–9:

“Then your light will break forth like the dawn, and your healing will quickly appear; then your righteousness will go before you, and the glory of the Lord will be your rear guard. Then you will call, and the Lord will answer; you will cry for help, and He will say: Here am I.”

These promises were precious to me. They would come to pass in subsequent years in my times of need, especially when my husband became critically ill and had to undergo a heart surgery.

Nevertheless, this assignment was very trying and my old self still wanted to see vindication and justice. I was in much despair and cried a lot. Whenever I had to go for the meetings where I received the ire of the senior MAS officer, my deputy Lucy comforted me.

I thought of how Jesus must have felt taking on the sins of the world when he was completely innocent. Here I was, only asked to “carry” the sin of one person and it was so painful.

Two conflicting orders

Halfway through the project, the senior MAS officer came to the realisation that the service manager was not pulling his weight and stalling the project. He instructed me to take the project off him.

I dutifully made an appointment with the manager, went to his office and waited for him in the Batey Ads boardroom. Suddenly, I heard a loud audible voice declaring a simple statement: “His soul is more important than ABS.”

Startled and in awe of the voice, I did not dare to take the project from him. When he arrived, I continued discussing matters of the publication with him and left.

Ai Boon (extreme right) with the lean ABS team at the office in the MAS building in the late 1980s.

I was in a daze that whole afternoon. I had obeyed God, but I was also troubled as I did not do as instructed by the senior MAS officer.

Fearful and anxious about my disobedience to the official, I called one of his assistants to relate to him what had happened, and asked him what he would have done if he had been in my shoes.

The assistant replied: “What boss tells us to do, we do.”

That comment left me feeling insecure. I wondered whether I was being too emotional as a woman and questioned my own management capability.

I felt foolish. As I thought about my foolishness, I remembered the verse that says: “The foolishness of God is wiser than human wisdom.”

I went to my Bible to look it up. As I flipped the pages of my Bible, another verse from the next chapter, 1 Corinthians 2:5, jumped out at me as if God were speaking directly to me, so that my “faith might not rest on human wisdom, but on God’s power”.

God wanted me to trust Him.

Those verses comforted me tremendously and removed my fear. I became surprisingly calm and had the confidence to face the senior MAS officer the next morning to tell him that I did not take the project from the manager as he had instructed.

When I related what had happened at the Batey Ads boardroom, he listened and simply said: “I will hold you responsible for the publication to be completed in time.”

When I walked out of his office, I looked up to God and said: “I am calling on Your letter of credit for the publication.” I had obeyed Him and trusted that God Himself would be responsible for the project, not I.

As I continued to work on the publication with the manager, he persisted in his recalcitrant ways.

But one day, during one of the meetings, he remarked: “You are one of the nicest clients I have ever worked with.”

I could not help but blurt out: “Well, I had to complain to God and write to Him about you in my diary, that’s why you don’t get it from me.”

A private revealing

He was surprised and asked if he could read my diary. Immediately, I said: “No, it’s between me and God!”

I knew all the nasty things I had said about him to God in the diary. It was private. But he reasoned with me that “it may be good” for him to do so. I then told him that I would pray about it.

I later agreed to let him read my diary and he invited me to lunch, reminding me on the day itself to bring my diary along.

At the lunch, I instructed him to read only the parts in the diary that had his name in it. Those were the portions where I would rant to God about him, complete with expletives, as I had been really upset with him.

I had written all of it down and sent it all to God — and to the Cross. As I poured out all my strong and intense emotions to Him, it was a release and I felt unburdened after doing so. It had allowed me to remain cool and collected when dealing with the manager.

As he read the diary, I could see the expression on his face change. I felt embarrassed by all the nasty things I had written about him and his work.

When he finished reading the journal entries, he said to me: “You have a unique relationship with God. Thank you for not taking the project away from me. I truly see the grace of God in this.”

I was surprised. He continued: “I am a Christian from the Church of England but have backslidden and not been back to church for a long time. When I return home, I will return to church.”

I learnt that he was leaving the company and returning to the United Kingdom. He would be handing the project over to another colleague.

I told him that when the publication was out, I would send him the first copy. I eventually did.

Trusting God for the rest

In the meantime, the publication still had some way to go in order to be completed on time. A new designer was appointed to work on the book and it was submitted to the printer when it was done.

An elderly Chinese man from the printing company cautioned that they might not have enough time to have it typeset, colour separated and printed. I told him in simple Mandarin to do his best. We would trust in God for the rest.

He smiled and said: “Since you put it that way, okay.”

Though the responsibility to complete the job on time was taken off him, the elderly Chinese man worked on the printing job over the weekends and was even late for his family dinner during the Mid-Autumn Festival. Grateful for his commitment, I gifted him with two boxes of mooncakes.

In the end, the publication was printed in such a timely manner that it was delivered to MAS just a few hours before its managing director was due to fly to Basel.

I was well pleased with the outcome of the project and its blessed ending. I then asked God how I should tell others about this testimony. He quoted from Jeremiah 1:12: “Tell them that I watch over My Word to perform it.”

From this episode, something broke in me. I learnt to obey and fear God rather than Man as God is faithful when He speaks. I began to depend more on the leading of the Lord, and learnt that I need not be too quick to protect, explain or vindicate myself in self-defence, especially if it could be of help to someone else’s well-being.

For instance, if an issue with an employee or work partner were to crop up, I would go directly to the person to talk and offer guidance instead of exposing the weaknesses or errors of my subordinates or bosses, unless it is an illegal act.

The newly launched book “It’s Not Me” that chronicles tales of faith in the workplace and beyond.

This excerpt is taken from It’s Not Me, a book written by Ong-Ang Ai Boon and Salt&Light’s senior writer Janice Tai. Proceeds of the book will go to Salt&Light and other Christian ministries. You may purchase a copy of the book at SKS Books at Tan Boon Liat Building or online on World Scientific or Amazon. 

Gatekeepers Singapore is holding a book launch event on July 24 at Orchard Rendezvous Hotel. For more details, click here. 

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