Mr Sinnathamby Rajaratnam

Early Life/Background

Minister for Culture	3 June 1959 - 9 August 1965
Minister for Foreign Affairs	9 August 1965 - 1 June 1980
Minister for Labour	1968 - 1971
2nd Deputy Prime Minister	1980 - 1985
Senior Minister	1985 - 1988
Place of Birth	Sri Lanka
Wife	Piroska Feher

Victoria Institution

Mr S. Rajaratnam was borned in 1915 in Jaffna, Ceylon (now Sri Lanka). His father wanted him to be borned there for auspicious reasons after the premature death of his older brother. He was then brought back to Malaya and raised in Seremban, Malaysia, where his father rose from being a supervisor of rubber estates to a plantation owner. He attended the Convent of the Holy Infant Jesus for six months and was transferred to St Paul's, a boys' school. He continued his education in the prestigious Victoria Institution in Kuala Lumpur and then in Raffles Institution(picture down), Singapore

In 1937, he went to King's College, London, to pursue a law degree. There he received his political awakening, became a fashionably anti-imperial, anti-British, joined the socialist Left Book Club and became a Marxist.

<----King's College

However, during the Second World War, Mr Rajaratnam could no longer receive money from his father to continue his education.

He therefore turned to journalism to earn a living, never returning to university to complete his degree. He met his wife Piroska Feher, a Hungarian teacher while in London.

He returned to Singapore in 1948 when he joined the Malayan Tribune. In 1954, he joined The Straits Times as a journalist. He was bold in writing about the way Singapore was governed by the British. This incurred the displeasure of the colonial government. His column, "I write as I please", attracted so much attention that he was called for questioning by the government.

Political Career

Mr S. Rajaratnam met Mr Lee Kuan Yew by chance at the Chinese Swimming Club. Recognising that they were both dissatisfied with the prevailing political situation, they arranged to meet to discuss about it. In the same year, he cofounded the People's Action Party(PAP) together with Mr Lee Kuan Yew, Dr Goh Keng Swee and others.

He became popular among his supporters for being able to effectively follow the 'mood of the people'. He thought of a multi-racial Singapore and envisioned her to be a 'global city'. He was also actively involved in organising major political campaigns against Singaporean groups on the far left. During his years in parliament, he served as Minister for Culture (1959), Minister for Foreign Affairs (1965-1980), Minister for Labour (1968-1971), and Second Deputy Prime Minister (1980-1985) and was later appointed as Senior Minister until his retirement in 1988.

Key Achievements

He was Singapore's first foreign minister, following its abrupt independence in 1965. During his tenure as foreign minister, Mr Rajaratnam helped Singapore gain entry into the United Nations and later the Non-Aligned Movement in 1970. He built up the Foreign Service and helped to establish diplomatic links with other countries and secure international recognition of the new nation's sovereignty.

He carried out the foreign policy of international self-assertionto establish Singapore's independence during the period when the country faced significant challenges including the Konfrontasi conflict in the 1960s and the withdrawal of British troops in the early 1970s.

Being the Minister of Labour, he implemented tough labour laws to attempt to restore stability in the Singaporean economy and attracted multinational corporations to invest in Singapore. This important appointment emphasised the trust that the government had in him in overcoming the challenges Singapore faced.

Throughout his political career, he played a key role in the successive pragmatic and technocratic PAP governments that radically improved Singapore's economic situation, alongside huge developments in social development on the island with massive expansion of health care programmes, pensions, state housing and extremely low employment.

Mr Rajaratnam did not believe in the need for a strong opposition in parliament, which he considered "non-communist subversion"; he was unapologetic about the dominant party system in Singapore saying:

Given a one-party government, the capacity of such a government to act far more independently than if it were harassed by the opposition and by proxies, is obvious. In the game of competitive interference pawns which can behave like bishops, castles and knights can in certain circumstances be extremely inconvenient and very irritating.

Most importantly, he was a strong believer in multi-racialism in Singapore and the one who wrote the Singapore National Pledge in 1966. The pledge goes like this:

We, the citizens of Singapore,

pledge ourselves as one united people,

regardless of race, language or religion,

to build a democratic society

based on justice and equality

so as to achieve happiness, prosperity and

progress for our nation.

The pledge is very meaningful as it emphasizes on how a Singaporean should be like. We, students, recite the pledge every morning during assembly.

Later life

Unfortunately, he retired from political office in 1988 as part of the leadership transition. He then served at the Institute of South East Asian Studies as a Distinguished Senior Fellow from November 1, 1988 to October 31, 1997.

Death

In 1994, Mr Rajaratnam was diagnosed with dementia and was unable to move or talk by 2001. He was assisted by six maids including his long-time maid of 21 years, Cecelia Tandoc. Sadly, he passed away on 22 February 2006 of heart failure, 3 days shy of his 91st birthday. As a mark of respect, Mediacorp channel 5 and 8 observed the one-minute of silence of procedure that night. The State flag on all government buildings was flown at half-mast from 23 February to 25 February 2006.

The body of him rested at his home in 30 Chancery Lane from 22 to 23 February. Some of his former colleagues, Toh Chin Chye, S Dhanabalan, Othman Wok, Lee Hsien Loong, President S.R. Nathan and Tharman Shanmugaratnam paid their last repects at his home. His body was lay in state at the Parliament House from 9.30am to 9.00pm on February 24, 2006.

My thoughts of Mr Rajaratnam:

When I first looked at the history assignment, the only person I knew was Dr Goh Keng Swee as he had passed away recently. However, I had no idea who Mr Rajaratnam was even the fact that he was the composer of the Singapore National Pledge. I can tell that he is very educated.