S Rajaratnam
IHF-SG Excellence Award For Political Achievement (Post-Independence)
S Rajaratnam had the distinction of being the PAP government’s first Indian office-bearer holding many important ministerial portfolios. He was Singapore’s first Culture Minister, Foreign Minister, and also held the Labour portfolio. He was also the first Indian Deputy Prime Minister and Senior Minister. As one of the founding fathers of the ruling People’s Action Party, he was a renowned and revered party stalwart. He worked tirelessly to keep Singapore a multicultural and multi-religious society, bearing in mind the importance of maintaining Singapore’s racial harmony as the cornerstone of his policy.
Rajaratnam was a master of words. Former president SR Nathan once called him a wordsmith. True to form and his literary prowess, he was well known for this thought-provoking and elegantly written letters to Singapore’s Straits Times Forum Page in the 1980s.
The man who crafted the National Pledge is also credited with navigating the nation through its tenuous times after independence in 1965, at many international forays. He was one of the PAP old guard and founding fathers of Singapore who, together with Lee Kuan Yew, Toh Chin Chye, Dr Goh Keng Swee, Devan Nair, Lim Chin Siong, Ong Eng Guan and others, chartered a new destiny for Singapore. LKYconsidered Rajaratnam one of his most trusted inner circle core members.
When he was offered an editorial staff position at The Straits Times, he accepted it and worked there from 1954 to 1959.
At the Straits Times he wrote on the current political situation of Singapore and Malaya and his anti-colonial and communist stance drew the admiration of like-minded political aspirants. Lee Kuan Yew, Toh Chin Chye, Dr Goh Keng Swee and others met Rajaratnam to further their common interests. He thus became a founding member and one of the important ‘underground’ members of the early ‘Action Party’ who frequently used to meet at the basement of LKY’s residence at Oxley Road for the preparation of a formal political party. He was one of those responsible for renaming the Action Party into People’s Action Party.
After the establishment of the PAP and its foray into political arena, some of the founding members including LKY and Lim Chin Siong were fielded in the first general elections in 1955 and were elected to the first legislative assembly. Rajaratnam was being groomed for something big and when the time came he was asked to contest the all-important self-government General Elections of Singapore held in May 1959. He contested in the Kampong Glam constituency, returned triumphantly and continued to do so until he retired from politics in 1988.
Upon his election as a Legislative assemblyman, he was appointed as Singapore’s first Minister for Culture. One of his difficult tasks as the Culture minister was to get the people of different cultures and religious beliefs to understand and respect one another for a tolerant society.
When Singapore gained independence in 1965, Rajaratnam was appointed as Singapore’s first Foreign Minister. It was the most important ministry for a young nation which had just been kicked out of a merger with Malaysia and was trying to find a foothold on its own. It was a Herculean task but Rajaratnam did a marvelous job establishing relations with countries the world over, which was essential for business and other exchanges. Slowly Singapore was gaining recognition which in helped with trade and cultural relations with other countries. Rajaratnam did the groundwork and got the help of Malaysia to sponsor Singapore’s admission into the world body — the United Nations (UN). Singapore was formally admitted to the UN as its 117th member on 21 September 1965. Today, the United Nations has 193 state members. 76 more states joined the world body after Singapore.
Rajaratnam crafted The National Pledge in 1966 with emphasis on a united and multiracial society:
“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.”
Rajaratnam has the distinction of being one of the early foreign ministers of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations responsible for the Bangkok Declaration in 1967 which was convened to establish the ASEAN. For his immense contributions, Rajaratnam and other founding foreign ministers of ASEAN were honoured with The ASEAN Heads of Government Citation Award in December 1997.
After his retirement in 1988, he didn’t sit idle when the government introduced new measures to promote mother tongue languages and ethnic-based self-help groups. He opposed these policies as he felt they ran counter to the vision of a Singaporean identity where race, religion and language does not matter. He strongly felt that the government’s earlier stance of one united people had not been achieved and the new measures would certainly curtail these efforts. He urged the government to continue with the earlier well thought out policies to integrate the society and to abandon the new measures.
After suffering dementia for a while, Rajaratnam died of heart failure on 22 February 2006 at his home in Chancery Lane. A state funeral was declared by the government and at the eulogy ceremony LKY couldn’t hold back his tears as he paid tribute to Rajaratnam’s legacy. The only prior occasion when LKY shed tears in public was when he announced the independence of Singapore after it had been asked to leave Malaysia. One could understand the reverence he had for Rajaratnam for his magnificent contributions to Singapore.