S. R. Nathan

Sellapan Ramanathan (3 July 1924 – 22 August 2016), often known as S. R. Nathan, was a Singaporean politician and civil servant who served as the sixth president of Singapore between 1999 and 2011.

Nathan, who was of Tamil Indian descent, was born in Singapore on 3 July 1924.

He spent his childhood with his parents, V. Sellapan and Abirami, and two older brothers in Muar, Johor, in a house overlooking the sea.

Nathan would eventually be one of seven siblings; his three older brothers died in childhood.

His father had been posted to the Malayan town as a lawyer's clerk for a firm that serviced rubber plantations, but the Great Depression and rubber slump of the 1930s sent the family's fortunes crashing.

Nathan's father accrued debts and eventually committed suicide when Nathan was eight.

Returning to Singapore, Nathan received his primary education in Anglo-Chinese Primary School and Rangoon Road morning School, and his secondary education at Victoria School.

However, he was expelled from school twice and, after quarrelling with his mother, ran away from home at the age of 16.

During the Japanese occupation of Singapore, Nathan learned Japanese and worked for the Japanese civilian police as a translator.

After the war, whilst working, he completed his secondary education through a correspondence course with Wolsey Hall, Oxford, and entered the University of Malaya (then in Singapore), where he became the secretary of the University Socialist Club in his second year of university.

He graduated in 1954 with a Diploma in Social Studies (Distinction).

He earned a diploma from the University of Malaya in Singapore in 1954.

This was followed by a long career in the Singapore Civil Service, which he joined in 1955.

Nathan began his career in the Singapore Civil Service as a medical social worker in 1955.

He was appointed Seamen's Welfare Officer the following year.

Between 1962 and 1966 he was seconded to the National Trades Union Congress, and then worked in the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Ministry of Home Affairs.

In 1962, he was seconded to the Labour Research Unit of the National Trades Union Congress (NTUC), first as assistant director and later as director of the Labour Research Unit until January 1966.

Nathan negotiated Singapore's membership of the Afro-Asian People's Solidarity Organisation.

In February 1966, Nathan was transferred to the Ministry of Foreign Affairs.

He served as Assistant Secretary and rose to be Deputy Secretary before being appointed Deputy Secretary of the Ministry of Home Affairs in January 1971.

On 6 August of the same year, Nathan moved to the Ministry of Defence where he was Director of the Security and Intelligence Division (SID).

He was with the Security and Intelligence Division of the Defence Ministry when the Laju incident happened in 1974, and was among the government officers who agreed to accompany terrorists who had bombed petroleum tanks to Kuwait to secure the release of civilian hostages and ensure the terrorists' safe passage.

In the Laju incident on 31 January 1974, members of the terrorist Japanese Red Army and the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine bombed petroleum tanks on Pulau Bukom off the coast of Singapore; Nathan was among a group of government officers who volunteered to be held hostage by the JRA and flown to Kuwait to secure the release of civilian hostages and ensure the terrorists' safe passage.

For his bravery, in August 1974 he was awarded the Pingat Jasa Gemilang (Meritorious Service Medal).

He served as First Permanent Secretary of the Foreign Ministry from 1979 to 1982.

In February 1979, Nathan returned to the Foreign Ministry and became its First Permanent Secretary until February 1982, when he left to become the Executive Chairman of the newspaper company the Straits Times Press.

The appointment was viewed dimly by journalists who felt that the Government was trying to limit freedom of the press; they wore black armbands in protest.

Nathan left the Civil Service in 1982 to take up the executive chairmanship of the Straits Times Press; he also held directorships in other companies.

At various times between 1982 and 1988, Nathan also held directorships of several other companies, including the Singapore Mint, The Straits Times Press (London), Singapore Press Holdings and Marshall Cavendish.

He later served as a member of the NTUC's Board of Trustees from 1983 to April 1988.

Between 1988 and 1996 he served as Singapore's High Commissioner to Malaysia and Ambassador to the United States, before his 12-year term as President of the Republic from 1999 to 2011.

Following retirement, Nathan turned to writing and also became a Distinguished Senior Fellow at the School of Social Sciences of Singapore Management University (SMU), and at the Institute of Southeast Asian Studies.

Nathan won in both 1999 presidential election and 2005 presidential election in an uncontested walkover due to ineligible candidates.

He was the longest-serving president in Singapore's history.

In 2009, Nathan surpassed Benjamin Sheares to become Singapore's longest-serving president.

Nathan was reportedly considering for a re-election and decided not to run.

According to Nathan in a 2010 interview, " When they saw I was not doing what they expected me to do, they began to have confidence."

Nathan suffered a stroke on 31 July 2016 and was taken to Singapore General Hospital before he died in the hospital on 22 August 2016, at the age of 92.

He died in 2016 and was accorded a state funeral by the Government.

Among the awards and honours Nathan received were the renamed of Singapore University of Social Sciences (SUSS) School of Human Development and Social Services to S R Nathan School of Human Development (NSHD) in 2018, Bintang Bakti Masyarakat (Public Service Star) in 1964, the Pingat Pentadbiran Awam (Perak) (Public Administration Medal, Silver) in 1967, the Pingat Pentadbiran Awam (Meritorious Service Medal) in 1975, and the Darjah Utama Temasek (Order of Temasek) (First Class) in 2013; and honorary degrees from the National University of Singapore and SMU.