Singapore's Public Service Commission (PSC) was set up in 1951 to advise the British governor on the recruitment, employment, promotion and terms of service of colonial civil servants. Its functions were extended later to cover the dismissal and disciplinary control of civil servants. In its early years, it did its work against the backdrop of demands for self-government in Malaya. These demands included moves towards the Malayanization, or localization, of the Civil Service, in which the PSC “was called to walk a fine line in balancing the need to find and promote more local men of talent and ability while also ensuring that the hallmarks of integrity and independence were maintained”.

This goal was codified in Government Command Paper 65 of 1956 called “Statement of Policy — Malayanisation”, which declared:

The Malayanization process was pushed ahead by the agitation of the Council of Joint Action which, led by top civil servants Goh Keng Swee and K.M. Byrne, protested against expatriate officers enjoying bigger allowances than their local counterparts. The opposition to these allowances symbolized “a general dissatisfaction with the status quo”.

Lim Kim San declined to get involved in active politics in 1959 because of his business preoccupations, but he told Goh, Toh Chin Chye and probably Byrne, that if the PAP won and there was anything that he could do for them, he would not mind doing so. The party won, and he was appointed to the PSC that very year, and served as member or deputy chairman till 1963, when he took part in elections.