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SINGAPORE : Former Deputy Prime Minister S. Rajaratnam, one of
Singapore's founding fathers, has died.
The man who penned the lines for the Singapore Pledge, Mr
Rajaratnam had retired from politics in 1988 after 29 years in
Cabinet - the last four as Senior Minister.
Mr Rajaratnam, who would have turned 91 years old on Saturday, died
of heart failure at 3.15pm on Wednesday.
A former journalist, Mr Rajaratnam had a long and illustrious
career as a Cabinet Minister.
But he will also be remembered for his keen intellect, his passion
for ideas and books, his humour and his wit.
In 1983, Mr Rajaratnam said: "Singapore run only by PhD's would be
my vision of a purgatory. Equally, a government run by road
sweepers can be no less a terrifying place to live in."
He once said: "Singapore is prosperous and people are leaving us
alone because we are strong and nobody disturbs...
"Even elephants do not disturb a hornet's nest. The hornets are
very small but if you go and disturb the hornets' nests, all the
hornets join together and can make life miserable - no animal ever
disturbs an hornet's nest though the nest is very small.
"So Singapore should be a hornet's nest, two-and-a- half million
people, everyone is a bee with a sting."
Born in Sri Lanka on 25 February 1915, Mr Rajaratnam was educated
at Victoria Institution in Kuala Lumpur and then Raffles
Institution in Singapore.
He became politically active during a stint in London.
And it was in London that he met his wife Piroska Feher, a
Hungarian teacher and his soul-mate in their 48 years of
marriage.
After the Second World War, Mr Rajaratnam first worked as a
reporter, and then Associate Editor of the Singapore Standard from
1950 to 1954.
Even then, he believed in nationalism and self-determination, and
that Singapore must be run by Singaporeans.
One of the founder members of the People's Action Party, he quit
journalism in 1959 to run in the Legislative Assembly Elections. He
served in the Kampong Glam constituency for 29 years.
Soon after being elected, Mr Rajaratnam was appointed Minister of
Culture and he made television history with the first speech to be
broadcast to Singaporeans.
On 26 August 1966, Mr Rajaratnam said: "Tonight Television
Singapore begins transmission with the mother's pilot service. And
tonight marked the start of a social and actual revolution in our
lives.
"If used intelligently and responsibly, television can far more
effectively than any other mass media broaden the intellectual
horizons of the ordinary man."
Mr Rajaratnam had more than a knack for simplifying and presenting
ideas to the man in the street.
President S.R. Nathan said: "He had a sobering effect in times of
crisis. He was a communicator of what they had intended to
do.
"He was an ideas' man. Sometimes maybe far-fetched but ideas
nevertheless drawn from history, drawn from experience, drawn from
his journalistic experience. And sometimes he probably would say
how this was to be conveyed.
"So even tough messages could be conveyed in language that the
average man can understand and relate to. This was necessary at
that time. People were looking for leadership and guidance from the
government and invariably they realise that this government would
find them the answer."
As Singapore's first foreign minister, Mr Rajaratnam worked from
scratch to set up the Foreign Service and formulated a foreign
policy to put then little-known Singapore on the map of
international politics.
Mr Lee Kuan Yew, Singapore's Prime Minister (1959-1990), said:
"Raja was a man of enormous charm, personal charm, integrity and
character and he had a difficult job because Singapore was a
difficult country to represent.
"I mean, we were small, we were not viable and people doubted
whether we would survive, but he had this enormous gift of being
self-possessed.
"He doesn't look diffident. He is not arrogant. He is friendly,
approachable, very personable and he gets on with people. He wins
the confidence of those who deal with him, and that was a great
advantage."
"So, of all my colleagues, I thought he was the one who would
represent us best abroad and he did."
He was the key person who gave Singapore a louder voice - one that
was out of proportion to the island-state's geopolitical
significance and size.
Professor Tommy Koh, Ambassador-at-Large, said: "He has always felt
that as the foreign minister of a very small country that he had to
punch hard in order to be noticed.
"I also learnt from him that one ought not to be intimidated by
one's small size. That if you have good ideas and you can persuade
other people to know you have good ideas, you will succeed in spite
of your small size. He was therefore responsible for this
pro-active streak in our foreign policy tradition."
In a speech to Parliament in December 1965, Mr Rajaratnam gave a
realistic appraisal of Singapore's position in Southeast Asia, and
outlined a foreign policy which aims to cultivate as many permanent
friends for the country as possible.
Professor Koh added: "He was a people person. People warmed up to
him. He likes people. He likes company, he was the wordsmith. The
government needed a friendly face to the world and he was the
friendly face to the world."
On 8 August 1967, the Association of Southeast Asian Nations
(ASEAN) was born and Mr Rajaratnam was one of the five
founder-members who signed this new agreement.
ASEAN went on to grow into the major 10-member regional
organisation it is today.
Back home, Mr Rajaratnam introduced the policy of multi-racialism,
insisting that the three main races be accorded equal importance
and significance.
And he worked hard at forging a common identity among
Singaporeans.
It was an unenviable task, considering the strong communal, racial
and religious differences among Singaporeans then.
On 25 February 1990, Mr Rajaratnam said: "Certainly all of us who
went into politics believed in it that we can create a Singapore
where race, religion, language does not matter.
"What matters is that we are one people and if you know there's a
song we have. It goes something like, I cannot remember - "We are
Singapore and these are my friends." - This is why I am here
tonight."
This sentiment was the very basis of the Singapore Pledge he had
penned:
"We the citizens of Singapore pledged ourselves as one united
people. Regardless of race, language, or religion..."
Mr Rajaratnam said: "This was a new generation but now that they
are all grown up, probably fathers and grandfathers but at that
time, this concept (of a nation) was not even part of the
imagination of adults, let alone children.
"So the best way to create a nation is to start from the schools.
Once this is embodied and thinking by pure repetition everyday,
that becomes part of the psyche of the people.
"So let me tell you if you are a Singaporean - two and a half
million - no place to run - no more. Whether you are a Singapore
Chinese, Singapore Malay and Singapore Indian, you cannot run away.
This is your last stand, last outpost. So how do you do it?
"If you think of yourself as Chinese, Malays, Indians and Sri
Lankans, then Singapore will collapse. You must think of Singapore
- this is my country. I fight and die for Singapore if
necessary."
One of the last of the Old Guard leaders to retire from politics,
Mr Rajaratnam stepped down as Senior Minister at the age of 73 but
he continued to work at the Institute of Southeast Asian Studies
till 1996.
After his wife Piroska died in 1989, Mr Rajaratnam was asked about
his thoughts on death and if he feared it.
He answered: "No, not death, but how one dies...one day, before the
curtain closes, I would like to know, did I do something
worthwhile?"
The answer must be a firm "yes". - CNA/de
