PM Lee Hsien Loong's Speech at Mr S R Nathan's 90th Birthday Celebrations

Mr S R Nathan

Mrs Nathan

President and Mrs Tony Tan

Distinguished guests, ladies and gentlemen

INTRODUCTION

First, may I wish a very Happy Birthday to Mr S R Nathan! I am very glad to celebrate this wonderful occasion with you and very honoured to have been asked to say a few words on the occasion. 

MR NATHAN’S LIFE

Mr Nathan has lived a long and full life. He experienced a tumultuous and difficult childhood. He grew up in pre-war Singapore and Malaya – a completely difficult world from today, harsh and difficult. He suffered personal tragedy as a child, and ran away from home. The war came; he survived the war and the Japanese Occupation. These formative experiences steeled his character, and shaped him for life. Just like for many others of his generation, who became the pioneer generation of Singaporeans.

After the War, S R resolved to make something of his life. He got a job as a clerk in the Johor civil service. He retired long ago from that job but as far as I know, he still draws a small pension today! While working, he pursued his studies. He took evening classes in typewriting and book-keeping and sat for the London Chamber of Commerce exams, which he passed with distinction. He woke up at 4am daily to study for his Cambridge School Certificate before heading to work. He started his social studies diploma at the University of Malaya which was in Singapore, at the ripe old age of 28. After graduating, he entered the Singapore public service. He started as a medical social worker, before heading to the unions to help seafarers, which reflected his natural desire to help others in a personality which Gopi (Gopinath Pillai) described just now. 

He was seconded to the Labour Research Unit - which he later headed in the union movement. But this was no academic study because in the Labour Research Unit, he worked closely with the Secretary-General Mr Devan Nair to prevent the Communists from taking over the union movement and together, they established the NTUC. Without people like Mr Nathan and Mr Devan Nair and their comrades on the ground countering the left-wing activists, showing how they could improve workers’ lives and winning over the workers, Singapore’s history would have taken a very different turn. 

In the NTUC, Mr Nathan had occasion to represent us at international meetings. He recounts in his memoirs one memorable meeting in Algiers of Asian and African political parties, labour unions and radical groups. He was representing the Singapore union movement. The initial reception was hostile because the left-wing group was also represented and working against him. But he took advice from a fellow delegate and found a good strategy to win friends – he bought the delegates drinks and shared jokes with them. I am not quite sure what jokes Mr Nathan shared, but he proved to be quite a natural, and the strategy worked brilliantly and won many friends for the good side. 

After Singapore gained independence, Mr Nathan was posted to the newly formed Ministry of Foreign Affairs (MFA) with Mr Rajaratnam who was then the minister. His combination of charm and toughness proved invaluable in building up our diplomatic networks. We were a small and newly independent country. There was no Singapore brand name, people thought Singapore was somewhere in China. We needed resourceful people to establish ourselves internationally, and to break out beyond our less than friendly neighbourhood. 

Later we needed to build up the Security and Intelligence Division (SID) which is in MINDEF and Mr Nathan was at the top of the shortlist because his savviness, judgement and moral courage were essential for the role. Naturally I cannot tell you very much about his time at SID. But one episode is public knowledge and that was the Laju hijacking which Gopi also alluded to. During the Laju hijacking, Mr Nathan risked his life to accompany the hijackers to fly to Kuwait, in exchange for the safe release of the Singaporean hostages. It was quintessential Mr Nathan: Always placing country before self

After SID, Mr Nathan returned to MFA as Permanent Secretary. Then he retired from the civil service, but he has had a very active “retirement”. He served as the Executive Chairman of The Straits Times for six years. Naturally the journalists were at first quite suspicious of him. But he earned their respect and trust because he helped them to appreciate the unique context of our young nation, and at the same time gave them the backing and space to run a high quality, reputable and successful newspaper.  

After SPH, he became our Ambassador to the USA and before that the High Commissioner to Malaysia. These are two of our most important foreign missions. As Ambassador, as Head of Mission, he has to make friends, but he also has to manage spiky issues especially in the USA where the Michael Fay incident happened on his watch. He had to appear on Larry King Live to defend our point of view and our stand. And he did so firmly and courteously, and showed the whole world small as Singapore was, neither we, nor our representatives, were pushovers.

After his stint as Ambassador, he retired again, but in 1999, he came out of retirement and was elected President. Singapore was very lucky to have him as President for two terms. He represented the nation with grace, dignity and distinction. He brought an informality and personal warmth to the office, and endeared himself to Singaporeans. People sensed his natural interest in them, and they warmed to him. He visibly enjoyed meeting people from all walks of life. Indefatigably, well into his 80s, night after night, he would attend functions, fulfil his duties and represent the nation. 

He started the President’s Challenge to help the less fortunate, which raised $135 million over 13 years. At the same time, he was more than capable of making tough decisions when these were called for. Thus during the Global Financial Crisis in 2008, the Government sought his permission to draw on the reserves in order to fund the $20 billion Resilience Package. I saw him. I explained to him what we wanted to do. He understood the gravity of the situation, studied the issue carefully, took advice from the CPA (Council of Presidential Advisors), arranged for the CPA to be briefed by the ministries and to quiz the ministers, and having satisfied himself, approved the request decisively. As a result we averted what might have been our worst economic downturn ever. We did so well that many Singaporeans did not even realise that they had gone through a grave crisis, and emerged, not only survived, but emerged unscathed.

Even after retiring as President, Mr Nathan has stayed active. He published his memoirs, which give a vivid account of his life, of Singapore’s development, and of the times he lived through and of the individual and collective efforts which made our progress possible. He continues to meet people, young people and regularly hosts fireside chats for young officers, sharing in a personal way with them the life lessons and that writings and lectures cannot adequately convey.

I have been privileged to have known S R for nearly 40 years, since I was a young officer in the SAF and he was Director SID. Later, I got to know him much better when I was in Government and he was in Kuala Lumpur and Washington, and then working with him as President. I greatly appreciated his friendship, his avuncular guidance, and his judgment and wisdom. I am grateful for the privilege of having work with and know him.

CONCLUSION

Mr Nathan played a significant part in Singapore’s nation building, but he did not do this alone. Mrs Nathan (Umi) was always by his side - a support and comfort for more than half a century. She made many sacrifices whenever Mr Nathan stepped forward to serve Singapore. As they say in the Army, you do as you are told and you go where you are sent, and the good wife also. Singapore owes Mrs Nathan a debt of gratitude too!

Mr Nathan took on many roles throughout his distinguished career – a clerk, a unionist, Ambassador, Permanent Secretary, Chairman of a newspaper and President. But to me, Mr Nathan’s most important role was as a tree planter. Wherever he went, he nurtured young seedlings into mature trees. He built up young sometimes nascent organisations into mature institutions - in the NTUC, in SID, in MFA, in the elected presidency. He mentored young promising officers and helped them to fulfil their potential and I count myself a beneficiary. He helped Singapore to build and to grow into a modern, prosperous and stable nation.

Mr Nathan also planted trees literally. When he was Ambassador in Washington, our embassy moved into a new chancery building. He went to a nursery in Connecticut and chose specially a beautiful antique tree, Littleleaf Japanese Maple, to plant in the embassy garden. When I visited Washington last week, I went to the embassy for the first time after all these years of being in Washington and I saw the tree. I took this picture of the tree to share with Mr Nathan and with all of you tonight. The picture is not very good but the tree is beautiful. I am sure Mr Nathan will be happy to see that it is lush and thriving as are the many other trees that he planted in the organisations he led and the people he touched. Happy birthday S R. May you have a long, healthy, and fulfilling life! Thank you.

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