S. Rajaratnam

Sinnathamby Rajaratnam (சின்னத்தம்பி ராஜரத்னம்; 25 February 1915 – 22 February 2006), better known as S. Rajaratnam, was a Singaporean statesman, journalist and diplomat who served as the first Minister for Foreign Affairs between 1965 and 1980, and

Rajaratnam attended St. Paul's Institution, Victoria Institution in Kuala Lumpur, and Raffles Institution in Singapore before going on to King's College London in 1937 to pursue a law degree.

However, he was unable to receive funding from his family to continue his studies due to World War II; instead, he turned to journalism to earn a living.

He met his wife Piroska Feher, a Hungarian teacher, while in London.

In London, Rajaratnam also wrote a series of short stories which The Spectator's J.B. Trend reviewed positively.

Rajaratnam also gained the attention of George Orwell, who then worked in the Indian Section of the BBC's Eastern Service based in London and recruited Rajaratnam to contribute scripts for the network.

Rajaratnam returned to Singapore in 1948 when he joined the Malayan Tribune and stopped writing short stories.

In 1950, he joined Singapore Tiger Standard that was founded by Aw Boon Haw.

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.

In 1954, Rajaratnam co-founded the People's Action Party (PAP) together with Lee Kuan Yew, Toh Chin Chye, 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 multiracial Singapore and envisioned her to be a "global city".

He was also actively involved in organising major political campaigns against far-left political groups in Singapore.

Rajaratnam was one of the pioneering leaders who led the self-governance of Singapore from the British Empire in 1959 and the independence of Singapore from Malaysia in 1965.

He devoted much of his adult life to public service, and helped shape the mentality of Singaporeans on contemporary issues.

The S. Rajaratnam School of International Studies at the Nanyang Technological University and the S. Rajaratnam block of Raffles Institution are named after him.

The second child of Sabapathy Pillai Sinnathamby and his wife N. Annamah, both of Jaffna Tamil descent, Rajaratnam was born in Vaddukoddai, Jaffna, Sri Lanka.

His father had wanted him to be born there for auspicious reasons after the premature death of his older brother.

He was then brought back to Malaya and raised in Seremban and Selangor.

His younger brother, S. Seevaratnam, was born in Seremban and was a founding member of the Democratic Action Party (DAP).

Rajaratnam had served in the Cabinet as Minister for Culture in 1959, Minister for Foreign Affairs between 1965 and 1980, Minister for Labour between 1968 and 1971, Deputy Prime Minister between 1980 and 1985, and Senior Minister between 1985 and 1988.

He carried out the foreign policy of international self-assertion to 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.

Rajaratnam was Singapore's first Foreign Minister, following its abrupt independence in 1965.

Rajaratnam is remembered for authoring the Singapore National Pledge in 1966.

Rajaratnam was one of the five "founding fathers" of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) in 1967.

Sompong Sucharitkul, an aide of Thailand's then foreign minister Thanat Khoman, conveys Rajaratnam's stance on ASEAN membership for Sri Lanka in 1967:

"'I remember one was an economics minister. He waited there anxiously for a signal to join the discussion; but it never came. It was Rajaratnam of Singapore who opposed the inclusion of Sri Lanka. He argued the country's domestic situation was unstable and there would be trouble. Not good for a new organisation.'"

During his tenure as Minister for Labour, Rajaratnam implemented tough labour laws to attempt to restore stability in the Singapore's economy and attracted multinational corporations to invest in Singapore.

Throughout his political career, Rajaratnam had played a key role in the pragmatic and technocratic PAP government that radically improved Singapore's economic situation, alongside huge developments in social development on the island with massive expansion of healthcare programmes, pensions, public housing and maintaining an extremely low unemployment rate.

This is well underlined by his following statement:

During his tenure as Minister for Foreign Affairs, Rajaratnam helped Singapore gain entry into the United Nations and later the Non-Aligned Movement in 1970.

He built up the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and helped to establish diplomatic relations with other countries and secure international recognition of Singapore's sovereignty.

In this diplomatic arena together with the United Nations, he helped to draw international attention to the Vietnamese invasion of Cambodia in 1978.

2nd Deputy Prime Minister of Singapore between 1980 and 1985.

Rajaratnam is widely recognised as one of the founding fathers of Singapore.

He was also one of the founders of the People's Action Party (PAP), which has governed the country continuously since independence.

Rajaratnam's short stories and radio plays were later published by Epigram Books in The Short Stories & Radio Plays of S. Rajaratnam (2011).