SINGAPORE, Aug 23 — As a former diplomat with a distinguished career abroad, former President SR Nathan left a mark on the international community, and tributes have begun to pour in from government officials and celebrities after news of his death last night.
Among the expressions of condolences was one from Malaysian Prime Minister Datuk Seri Najib Razak on Twitter this morning.
In Washington, US State Department spokesman Mark Toner spoke of Nathan during a press briefing.
“President Nathan was a lifelong civil servant whose career spanned all five decades of US-Singapore relationship, including six years as Singapore’s ambassador to the United States, and 12 as its president. We extend our deepest condolences to President Nathan’s family and the people of Singapore,” Toner said.
The US Deputy Assistant Secretary for South-east Asia W Patrick Murphy also tweeted his condolences to Singapore. “Our thought and prayers with #Singapore,” he wrote.
Former British High Commissioner to Singapore Antony Phillipson penned a tribute to Nathan on Twitter. “Privileged to present my credentials as HC to him in 2011,” Phillipson wrote.
The current British High Commissioner to Singapore Scott Wightman also expressed his sympathies to Nathan’s family and to Singapore on Twitter. “Former President SR Nathan served Singapore and its people selflessly,” he wrote.
This morning, New Zealand’s High Commissioner to Singapore and Maldives Jonathan Austin also paid tribute to Nathan. Nathan “was a true patriot who served Singapore with distinction”, Austin wrote.
Nathan has had a distinguished career in international relations after serving two stints at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and also holding several ambassadorial posts.
In 1966, Nathan was sent to the newly-created Ministry of Foreign Affairs to be its assistant secretary at the age of 41. As one who had no first-hand knowledge about the world of diplomacy, Nathan relied on books and press clippings to learn about how established foreign ministries operated. He would later accompany then- Prime Minister Lee Kuan Yew on a world tour to countries as far-flung as Zambia, Sri Lanka and Egypt.
In 1974, when Nathan was security and intelligence chief at the Defence Ministry, after a short stint in Home Affairs, the infamous Laju Hijacking incident occurred on Singapore soil. Four terrorists from the Japanese Red Army and the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine had bombed the Shell oil refinery complex on Pulau Bukom.
They took five crew members of the ferry Laju hostage, and he volunteered to accompany the hijackers to Kuwait as a guarantee of safe passage, in order to secure the civilian hostages’ release. When the Kuwaiti authorities refused to allow the terrorists’ plane to land, the skilled negotiator broke the impasse after a tense few hours.
Nathan and his team returned to a hero’s welcome, and he received a National Day Award, the Meritorious Medal, later that year.
Nathan returned to the Ministry of Foreign Affairs as first permanent secretary in 1978, before retiring from the Civil Service in 1982.
In 1988, Nathan was appointed Singapore’s High Commissioner to Malaysia. Two years later, he became Singapore’s Ambassador to the United States, serving until June 1996.
On his return, Nathan was made an Ambassador-at-Large, resigning in 1999 to become a candidate in the Singapore presidential election.
Other condolences from abroad also flowed in on social media. — TODAY
