Sinnathamby Rajaratnam

Sinnathamby Rajaratnam , better known as S. Rajaratnam , (born February 25, 1915 in Sri Lanka , † February 22, 2006 in Singapore) was Deputy Prime Minister of Singapore from 1980 to 1985 and for a long time Minister and Cabinet member from 1959 to 1988. He is one of the founding fathers of independent Singapore, after it achieved self-government in 1959 and independence in 1965, spending much of his adult life in politics where he had a major impact on the Singapore mentality. This influence continues to affect the view many Singaporeans take on a number of current issues. One of the schools at Nanyang Technological University , the S. Rajaratnam School of International Studies , is named in his honor, as is a seven-story block of the Raffles Institution .

youth

Sinnathamby Rajaratnam was born on February 25, 1915 in Vaddukoddai, near Jaffna , Sri Lanka as the second child of Sabapathy Pillai Sinnathamby and his wife, who both belonged to the Tamil population in Sri Lanka. After the apparently superstitious birth in Sri Lanka, Rajaratnam was brought back to Malaya and raised in Seremban and Selangor .

Rajaratnam was educated first at the St. Paul's Boys School of the Victoria Institution in Kuala Lumpur and later at the prestigious Raffles Institution in Singapore. In 1937 he began studying law at King's College London . After the outbreak of World War II and the occupation of Malaysia by the Japanese Empire , however, he had to abandon his studies due to lack of funds from his parents and instead turned to journalism to cover his living expenses. It was also in London that he met his future wife, Piroska Feher, a Hungarian teacher.

Rajaratnam returned to Singapore in 1948 after the end of the Japanese occupation and worked for the Malayan Tribune until he finally started working for The Straits Times in 1954 . As a journalist for the Straits Times, he stood out, among other things, for his courageous and determined criticism of the British government of Singapore. When the colonial government of Singapore expressed its disapproval of this behavior, Rajaratnam responded in the then much-noticed column "I write as I please" ( German: "I write as I want" ). This resulted in his being called up for questioning by the colonial authorities.

Political career

In 1954, Rajaratnam was a founding member of the People's Action Party (PAP) along with Lee Kuan Yew and Goh Keng Swee . In this role, he was respected within the party for his populist ability to strike a nerve with the people. From an early age he was one of the visionaries of a multi-ethnic Singapore in the form of a "global city". He was also involved in the organization of several political campaigns against left-wing extremist groups in Singapore. During his time as a parliamentarian, he served as Minister of Culture (1959), Minister of Foreign Affairs (1965–1980), Minister of Labor (1968–1971), Deputy Prime Minister (1980–1985) and later as 'Senior Minister' until he retired from public life Used in 1988. Rajaratnam is also known as the author of the Singapore National Pledge from 1966.

Following Singapore's abrupt independence in 1965, Rajaratnam became the Southeast Asian city-state's first foreign minister. During his tenure as Foreign Minister, Rajaratnam helped Singapore join the United Nations and later in 1970 the Non-Aligned Movement . He was also instrumental in establishing the Foreign Service and establishing important diplomatic ties and contacts with other countries, which enabled Singapore to secure international recognition for the sovereignty of the young state. In terms of foreign policy, Rajaratnam pursued a policy of self-governance in order to guarantee Singapore's independence, a policy which was particularly relevant in view of the potential for foreign policy conflict at the time. These conflict potentials included the danger of being drawn into the Konfrontasi conflict in the 1960s, as well as the withdrawal of the last British troops from Southeast Asia in the 1970s, which dramatically weakened Singapore's military ability to defend itself. Rajaratnam is remembered as one of the "five founding fathers" of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) in 1967. When Sri Lanka wanted to join ASEAN in the late 1960s, it was Rajaratnam who was skeptical of the endeavor because of Sri Lanka's internal problems and blocked the accession process. In the late 1970s Rajaratnam policy was marked at international level by his attempt international attention to the invasion of Cambodia by Vietnam to steer.

During his tenure as Labor Minister, Rajaratnam introduced strict labor law to restore Singapore's economic stability and make it attractive to multinational corporations and foreign direct investment. His appointment to this important post shows how much respect and trust the Singaporean government under Lee Kuan Yew had in Rajaratnam's ability to deal with Singapore's economic problems.

Throughout his entire political career, he played a key role in the first pragmatic, later increasingly technocratic governments of the People's Action Party, which fundamentally changed Singapore's economic situation, accompanied by huge government investments in social development, especially education, as well as a massive expansion of government programs the areas of health, pensions, government-subsidized housing and a very low unemployment rate that is now characteristic of Singapore. This attitude is evident in the following statement by Rajaratnam:

We believe in a democratic society with governments that are regularly and freely elected by the people ... We believe in the virtue of hard work and that those who work harder in society should be given greater wages ... We believe that the world doesn't owe us any maintenance and that we must earn our own keep.

Nonetheless, Rajaratnam did not believe in the need for strong opposition in parliament, which he viewed as "non-communist subversion"; uncompromisingly against the party system in Singapore, which is dominated by the PAP, he said:

Given a one-party government, the ability of such a government to act far more independently than when hampered by opposition and mandates is evident. In the game of competitive influence, pawns who act like bishops and rooks and knights can, under certain circumstances, be extremely annoying and very irritating.

Rajaratnam's political stance was shaped by his strong belief in a multi-ethnic Singapore. This belief also led him to use the words "one people united regardless of race, language or religion" when drafting the Singapore National Pledge just two years after the devastating race riots of 1964. In the 1980s and 1990s, Rajaratnam spoke out against government policies at a time when the government was introducing various measures to encourage the use of "mother tongues" and ethnic support groups such as the Chinese Development Assistance Council (CDAC) and Mendaki . He justified his criticism by saying that, in his view, these measures would be counterproductive for the creation of a common Singaporean identity, for which "race, religion and language have no meaning". Instead, he advocated increased ethnic integration, which, according to him, Singapore still lacked.

Rajaratnam also disagreed with Prime Minister Lee Kuan Yew's policy of incentivizing women with many children and a university degree, as he considered the policy to be unfair. Despite their disagreements on certain political issues, Rajaratnam was loyal to Lee and remained a member of the "core group" of Lee's government, which in addition to Rajaratnam also included Goh Keng Swee , Hon Sui Sen and Lim Kim San . This group dominated the political landscape of Singapore for nearly 30 years from 1959 to the mid-1980s.

Next life

Rajaratnam retired from public office in 1988 as part of a leadership change in favor of the younger generations. He then worked as a Distinguished Senior Fellow from November 1, 1988 to October 31, 1997 for the Institute of Southeast Asian Studies.

In 1994 Rajaratnam was diagnosed with dementia , which ultimately resulted in his being incapable of speech and advanced independent movement from 2001 onwards. During this time he was forced to rely increasingly on the support of six domestic helpers , including Cecelia Tandoc , a domestic help who was in his service for 21 years.

death

Rajaratnam died of heart failure on February 22, 2006, three days before his 91st birthday. As a token of respect, Mediacorp television channels 5 and 8 observed a one-minute nationwide minute of silence on the night of February 22, 2006. From February 23 to 25, 2006, all state flags on Singaporean government buildings were hoisted at half-mast.

The late Rajaratnam's body was kept at his home at 30 Chancery Lane from February 22-23. There, some of his former colleagues, including Toh Chin Chye , S. Dhanabalan , Othman Wok , Lee Hsien Loong , President SR Nathan, and Tharman Shanmugaratnam, paid him their final respects. His body was later taken to the Parliament building on February 24 and laid out in public from 9:30 a.m. to 9:00 p.m.

In recognition of his contribution as one of Singapore's founding fathers, Rajaratnam received a state funeral at the Esplanade - Theaters on the Bay building on February 25, 2006. The coffin was brought from the parliament building to the esplanade on a ceremonial carriage at 1:30 p.m., with the train passing through the Civic District. During the funeral, Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong, Minister Mentor Lee Kuan Yew, Ambassador Tommy Koh, and mourner VK Pillay, an orthopedic surgeon, gave eulogies to the deceased. Minister Mentor Lee burst into tears during his eulogy; According to the Eulogies, the coffin was covered with the national flag of Singapore and the Order of Temasek was attached to the coffin by President SR Nathan. In honor of Rajaratnam, the Singapore National Pledge, which he wrote, was then recited by the mourners, envisioning Rajaratnam's vision of a united Singapore without discrimination on the basis of race, language or religion.

The state funeral was broadcast live on Channel NewsAsia . The program, called "Farewell to S. Rajaratnam", aired from 1:30 pm to 3:15 pm (SST) on February 25, 2006. In the course of the afternoon, Rajaratnam's body was finally cremated in the Mandai Crematorium .

Many organizations Rajaratnam had worked for and with throughout his life wrote obituaries in his honor in The Straits Times ; these included the Institute of Southeast Asian Studies, Ceylon Sports Club, Singapore Ceylon Tamils' Association, Singapore Indian Fine Arts Society, Nanyang Technological University, Old Rafflesians' Association, Raffles Institution, Raffles Junior College and Raffles Girls' School. The Institute of Southeast Asian Studies wrote:

In the words he chose himself: "We are sorry that he left earth." We are far richer with his presence. We remember fondly and appreciate his humility, warmth, erudition, vision and deep and infinite love for Singapore and all Singaporeans. Yes, we are sorry he left earth.

heritage

The Institute for Defense and Strategic Studies (IDSS) at Nanyang Technological University has been renamed the S. Rajaratnam School of International Studies to commemorate his accomplishments for Singapore as Foreign Minister.

Also in memory of S. Rajaratnam, a previously unnamed seven-story building belonging to the Raffles Institution, his alma mater, was christened the S. Rajaratnam Block .

bibliography

• Irene Ng: The Singapore lion: A biography of S. Rajaratnam. Institute of Southeast Asian Studies, Singapore 2010, ISBN 978-981-427950-5 .

Web links

• S Rajaratnam on Singapore: From Ideas to Reality
• Biography about Rajaratnam