I did the best I could: President Nathan
tabla!
Friday, Aug 19, 2011
By Patrick Jonas
And once the interview began, he was his usual relaxed self. In his gentle, measured tone he outlined his plans after he steps down on Aug 31, spoke on the highpoints of his 12 long years as President, and finally passed on his message to the Indian community. Here are excerpts from the interview:
ON RETIREMENT
I formally retired in 1979 because under the terms of my civil service engagement, I had to retire at the age of 55. But since I retired, frankly I have not retired.
For 32 years I have continued working... Straits Times Press, High Commissioner to Malaysia, Ambassador to the US, Director of the Institute of Defence and Strategic Studies (IDSS) and then the Presidency. So, now is the first time I am going to say that I don't have a job to perform. Put it that way.
It never struck me that it (retirement) is anything. I continued to work as I did. At the time when I was going to retire in 1979, I often thought that after you leave, even after you are no more, the trees that are surrounding you will be there. The environment will be as it is. The sun will rise, the sun will set. The world will change but we will never know because we have closed our eyes. But after that I just continued working. And I took every challenge as it came. I hope I have accomplished something for Singapore.
I know now I must do something. I will need somebody to assist me with my engagements. So after I retire, I will probably find myself a place in one of the institutes because I have always been engaged working with them and their various missions... so I think I will do that.
I merely want a place to go to every day because I am so used to leaving the house. Maybe not spend too much time... if I get half a day or three-quarters of a day, it will be more than enough.
IDSS was one but since I am the founding director it won't be proper for me to find a place there, although they very much want me to come. I have had a long association with the Institute of Southeast Asian Studies from the time of its establishment and and I have always maintained an interest in it, in its publications, its research and in its conferences...
My memoirs will be published in September. It is now with the printers. After that I don't know what I am going to write about. I don't want the responsibility of having to write commentaries and so on. I am prepared to share my views like I did the other day with SINDA, young people and so on. It just never struck me that I have to think about what to do with my time. It is only now for the first time that I am seized with the question of what shall I do.
ON CAREER HIGHPOINTS
The fact that I was appointed to be ambassador to the US and before that to Malaysia are the highpoints because these
are two very critical countries to Singapore. And they (the Government) had the confidence to ask me to represent Singapore. Each had its own challenges. In the US, I had the challenge of Michael Fay. There was the need to deal with it in a society where opinions are very liberal and criticisms can be strong and people hold very strong views about what punishment is going to be meted out. And of course the interview with Larry King on CNN which went off very well although he tried to pin me down but didn't. We didn't subscribe to victimhood. We felt that if somebody had perpetrated such a crime, then the law should take its course. What his antecedents were and why he did it were not considerations. That was a high profile 'tour'.
ON MEMORABLE PRESIDENTIAL MOMENTS
Personally, it is the acceptance by the people of me and the affection they showed me in the many contexts I have made with them in different walks of life. Whether they were intellectuals or whether they were ordinary people, the fact that they embraced me, accepted me as I was, not withstanding the fact that I am from a minority community... that everybody endeared themselves to me gives me considerable satisfaction. They had nothing to gain from it but yet they showed deference to you, they showed kindness to you. That interaction is something I would never have got had I been in any other position.
ON UNACCOMPLISHED GOALS AS PRESIDENT
Nothing. I did not want the position to be imperial. I wanted it to be as near to the people as possible. I had a fair measure of it with no obstruction of any kind. Then there are of course you know certain obligations that you have to perform which are constrained by the limits imposed by the Constitution and you are not in a position to initiate any change for it because that has got to go through the process of parliamentary debate and so on. There is nothing very essential that I felt that I could not accomplish. I took the position as it was. I took the constraints of office as it was and I did the best I could in the circumstances for the good of Singapore.
ON THE FUTURE OF THE PRESIDENT'S CHALLENGE
I do not know. I have more or less, in several interviews, hinted that I hope that whoever is my successor will see it fit to give it his patronage and carry on, just as I had started from where Ong Teng Cheong left. It is an initiative that should be appealing to any person who comes in as President because you will be doing something concrete for people who are at a disadvantage. So, I have dropped hints here and there in interviews, expressing the hope that my successor will continue what I have done and I hope he does. [Nothing?]
The previous President's efforts were on a much lower scale. There were some concerts he sponsored, the President's Star Charity which he did, but I broadened it much more. I provided patronage for many causes. I supported many initiatives. I supported efforts in new areas of concern like dyslexia and autism. I also encouraged those interested (volunteers) and people who were sympathetic to see what they can do for those who are unable to cope with life, for those who are misled or misguided, especially the young. With our affluence there are new problems of social need. It is no longer the ones that in the past attracted the sympathy of people. Now there are problems which do not readily attract sympathy but yet they are serious enough to merit attention.
ON MISSING THE ISTANA
I won't miss much because I always return home every day. I will miss the opportunity of working with people like Mr Tan Eng Beng and Ms Lim Tin Ong (his staff, present during the interview). I have to learn to work with new people. There is no provision for the Government to provide ex-Presidents with personal staff. Once you return to (normal) life, you leave the pomp and splendour of the position.
ON TRAVEL PLANS
Once I step down, I would like to make short trips. I can't take long travel, neither can my wife. So we have to look at short visits here and there - sometimes follow our grandchildren, sometimes go on our own. One of my friends, N. Murali, who holds the leadership of The Music Academy in Chennai, has asked me if I could come and honour them at their next event in January. I have told him that if I am free I would come. He has invited me in the past, but I told him that as President I couldn't since it is a foreign country. But he said now that I have finished, what excuse do I have. So I am hoping to go in January if all goes well.
ON MUSIC
Carnatic classical music is hard to understand. Many songs in Tamil are meaningful, like the Kannadasan songs. The richness in the vocabulary and the message that they contain are very appealing. So I enjoy them. I don't like rap, often heard on local radio. There are two things that irritate me. One is the yapping conversation and the other is the speed at which they speak with each other. Before you can absorb one sentence they have moved on, especially late at night this conversation irritates me. The songs of the Sixties and Seventies are something I like to listen to.
ON HIS MORNING WALKS AT THE EAST COAST PARK
I hope to continue walking as long as health permits me. I am not sure whether I will be able to cover the same distance because I have to park my car somewhere and I have to come back to it. At the moment those who accompany me take the car to the point where I finish my walk and I join them there. So that is going to be a problem. I walk about three to four kilometres and do it at my own pace. I stop when I want. I talk when I want. I sit down when I want. I am not trying to prove anything. I meet a lot of people, a lot of Indian expatriates too. Some of them have become very close to me over the years. Two families that I meet often, I speak in Tamil to them. I have nobody to speak Tamil to except my barber so when I get a chance I talk. Some others that I meet, including expats from India, are more interested in a "hail fellow, well met" photo opportunity.
In my last interview I told you about the Indian who has a Caucasian wife, whose wife greets me and this fellow doesn't. He hasn't changed. Another couple after reading your report saw me and said "No, we are not that couple. We just didn't want to disturb you." They now greet me and talk to me. But the other couple is still the same.
ON STAYING CONNECTED TO COMMUNITY AFFAIRS
I don't want to play an active role. My interest is there. I want to see SINDA develop. I want to see the upliftment programmes succeed. I want to see them cover areas that have not been covered. I want to see young people through SINDA inspired by what they see. I have been speaking to many expat Indians, some who visit Singapore and some who are stationed here, and ask them if they would speak to this crowd of young people to show how they came up in life. Many of them (Indian expats) are in banking, finance and all kinds of new areas whereas our conservative society only thinks of medicine and law. So I want to encourage SINDA to invite such people to speak to audiences of young people and say what kind of new careers are available. Each one has got talent, only thing is that we have not discovered what that talent is.
ON INDIAN LEADERS
I won't be fair to them because the occasions I meet them are very few. I just meet and then they are gone. Former Indian president Abdul Kalam was somebody who impressed me immensely and with whom I have had a good relationship. He is highly intellectual and has got broad areas of interests. He is very Tamil in his own ways. He will break into Tamil and he will speak about Hinduism and caste.
It was a very enlightening experience dealing with him. Others I have had good interaction with include Mr L.K. Advani, Mr Atal Behari Vajpayee before he fell ill but only on occasions when they came here. I also found the former chief minister of Bengal (MrBuddhadeb Bhattacharjee) very interesting. He was planning to build a township. It was contrary to all that you know about Marxist priorities and I thought he really wanted to break away from the mould. He had gone to Indonesia and, having seen urban Indonesia being so different from Kolkata, said: "Why should we be behind them?" It hit him. After visiting Jakarta he said: "I couldn't believe it."
ON HIS MESSAGE TO THE INDIAN COMMUNITY
My only message to the Indian community is to strive for upliftment of those who are not able to benefit from the opportunities that lie around them in this place through education. Stop grumbling about others. Find out what is your own fault and remedy that first. And then of course there is a social side of our community which needs addressing. There is alcoholism, there are dysfunctional families. All these are beyond us to help. The individuals themselves will have to help. I think SINDA, through the family service centre, is trying its best but only copes with those that come before it.
Ambassador R. Jayachandran (Singapore's high commissioner to Mauritius) together with Prof Kalyani Mehta are looking at this and making a study and are at the moment seized with what is it that we can do. I hope that if they embark on anything, the community will help them achieve what we want to do. What was opium to the Chinese is alcohol to the Indians. Everybody consumes alcohol but they don't consume until they are absolutely drunk. Then there are dysfunctional families, abuse of families, abuse of children. We musn't be ashamed of it, we should address it and we should shame those who indulge in it and not find an excuse. I hope the community will rise to this challenge. The expatriates who are here have an important role to play. They are better educated, they come from better circumstances, they have better experiences. They must not look at our shortcomings with just sympathy. They have as much a role to play in trying to uplift those who are down by showing them the way. I hope it can happen because you see many outstanding voluntary efforts in India. I hope when ambassador Jayachandran and Prof Mehta's efforts to study the problem comes out, they can rope in some people from the Indian expat community to come in and help.
tabla!
Friday, Aug 19, 2011
By Patrick Jonas
And once the interview began, he was his usual relaxed self. In his gentle, measured tone he outlined his plans after he steps down on Aug 31, spoke on the highpoints of his 12 long years as President, and finally passed on his message to the Indian community. Here are excerpts from the interview:
ON RETIREMENT
I formally retired in 1979 because under the terms of my civil service engagement, I had to retire at the age of 55. But since I retired, frankly I have not retired.
For 32 years I have continued working... Straits Times Press, High Commissioner to Malaysia, Ambassador to the US, Director of the Institute of Defence and Strategic Studies (IDSS) and then the Presidency. So, now is the first time I am going to say that I don't have a job to perform. Put it that way.
It never struck me that it (retirement) is anything. I continued to work as I did. At the time when I was going to retire in 1979, I often thought that after you leave, even after you are no more, the trees that are surrounding you will be there. The environment will be as it is. The sun will rise, the sun will set. The world will change but we will never know because we have closed our eyes. But after that I just continued working. And I took every challenge as it came. I hope I have accomplished something for Singapore.
I know now I must do something. I will need somebody to assist me with my engagements. So after I retire, I will probably find myself a place in one of the institutes because I have always been engaged working with them and their various missions... so I think I will do that.
I merely want a place to go to every day because I am so used to leaving the house. Maybe not spend too much time... if I get half a day or three-quarters of a day, it will be more than enough.
IDSS was one but since I am the founding director it won't be proper for me to find a place there, although they very much want me to come. I have had a long association with the Institute of Southeast Asian Studies from the time of its establishment and and I have always maintained an interest in it, in its publications, its research and in its conferences...
My memoirs will be published in September. It is now with the printers. After that I don't know what I am going to write about. I don't want the responsibility of having to write commentaries and so on. I am prepared to share my views like I did the other day with SINDA, young people and so on. It just never struck me that I have to think about what to do with my time. It is only now for the first time that I am seized with the question of what shall I do.
ON CAREER HIGHPOINTS
The fact that I was appointed to be ambassador to the US and before that to Malaysia are the highpoints because these
ON MEMORABLE PRESIDENTIAL MOMENTS
Personally, it is the acceptance by the people of me and the affection they showed me in the many contexts I have made with them in different walks of life. Whether they were intellectuals or whether they were ordinary people, the fact that they embraced me, accepted me as I was, not withstanding the fact that I am from a minority community... that everybody endeared themselves to me gives me considerable satisfaction. They had nothing to gain from it but yet they showed deference to you, they showed kindness to you. That interaction is something I would never have got had I been in any other position.
ON UNACCOMPLISHED GOALS AS PRESIDENT
Nothing. I did not want the position to be imperial. I wanted it to be as near to the people as possible. I had a fair measure of it with no obstruction of any kind. Then there are of course you know certain obligations that you have to perform which are constrained by the limits imposed by the Constitution and you are not in a position to initiate any change for it because that has got to go through the process of parliamentary debate and so on. There is nothing very essential that I felt that I could not accomplish. I took the position as it was. I took the constraints of office as it was and I did the best I could in the circumstances for the good of Singapore.
ON THE FUTURE OF THE PRESIDENT'S CHALLENGE
I do not know. I have more or less, in several interviews, hinted that I hope that whoever is my successor will see it fit to give it his patronage and carry on, just as I had started from where Ong Teng Cheong left. It is an initiative that should be appealing to any person who comes in as President because you will be doing something concrete for people who are at a disadvantage. So, I have dropped hints here and there in interviews, expressing the hope that my successor will continue what I have done and I hope he does. [Nothing?]
The previous President's efforts were on a much lower scale. There were some concerts he sponsored, the President's Star Charity which he did, but I broadened it much more. I provided patronage for many causes. I supported many initiatives. I supported efforts in new areas of concern like dyslexia and autism. I also encouraged those interested (volunteers) and people who were sympathetic to see what they can do for those who are unable to cope with life, for those who are misled or misguided, especially the young. With our affluence there are new problems of social need. It is no longer the ones that in the past attracted the sympathy of people. Now there are problems which do not readily attract sympathy but yet they are serious enough to merit attention.
ON MISSING THE ISTANA
I won't miss much because I always return home every day. I will miss the opportunity of working with people like Mr Tan Eng Beng and Ms Lim Tin Ong (his staff, present during the interview). I have to learn to work with new people. There is no provision for the Government to provide ex-Presidents with personal staff. Once you return to (normal) life, you leave the pomp and splendour of the position.
ON TRAVEL PLANS
Once I step down, I would like to make short trips. I can't take long travel, neither can my wife. So we have to look at short visits here and there - sometimes follow our grandchildren, sometimes go on our own. One of my friends, N. Murali, who holds the leadership of The Music Academy in Chennai, has asked me if I could come and honour them at their next event in January. I have told him that if I am free I would come. He has invited me in the past, but I told him that as President I couldn't since it is a foreign country. But he said now that I have finished, what excuse do I have. So I am hoping to go in January if all goes well.
ON MUSIC
Carnatic classical music is hard to understand. Many songs in Tamil are meaningful, like the Kannadasan songs. The richness in the vocabulary and the message that they contain are very appealing. So I enjoy them. I don't like rap, often heard on local radio. There are two things that irritate me. One is the yapping conversation and the other is the speed at which they speak with each other. Before you can absorb one sentence they have moved on, especially late at night this conversation irritates me. The songs of the Sixties and Seventies are something I like to listen to.
ON HIS MORNING WALKS AT THE EAST COAST PARK
I hope to continue walking as long as health permits me. I am not sure whether I will be able to cover the same distance because I have to park my car somewhere and I have to come back to it. At the moment those who accompany me take the car to the point where I finish my walk and I join them there. So that is going to be a problem. I walk about three to four kilometres and do it at my own pace. I stop when I want. I talk when I want. I sit down when I want. I am not trying to prove anything. I meet a lot of people, a lot of Indian expatriates too. Some of them have become very close to me over the years. Two families that I meet often, I speak in Tamil to them. I have nobody to speak Tamil to except my barber so when I get a chance I talk. Some others that I meet, including expats from India, are more interested in a "hail fellow, well met" photo opportunity.
In my last interview I told you about the Indian who has a Caucasian wife, whose wife greets me and this fellow doesn't. He hasn't changed. Another couple after reading your report saw me and said "No, we are not that couple. We just didn't want to disturb you." They now greet me and talk to me. But the other couple is still the same.
ON STAYING CONNECTED TO COMMUNITY AFFAIRS
I don't want to play an active role. My interest is there. I want to see SINDA develop. I want to see the upliftment programmes succeed. I want to see them cover areas that have not been covered. I want to see young people through SINDA inspired by what they see. I have been speaking to many expat Indians, some who visit Singapore and some who are stationed here, and ask them if they would speak to this crowd of young people to show how they came up in life. Many of them (Indian expats) are in banking, finance and all kinds of new areas whereas our conservative society only thinks of medicine and law. So I want to encourage SINDA to invite such people to speak to audiences of young people and say what kind of new careers are available. Each one has got talent, only thing is that we have not discovered what that talent is.
ON INDIAN LEADERS
I won't be fair to them because the occasions I meet them are very few. I just meet and then they are gone. Former Indian president Abdul Kalam was somebody who impressed me immensely and with whom I have had a good relationship. He is highly intellectual and has got broad areas of interests. He is very Tamil in his own ways. He will break into Tamil and he will speak about Hinduism and caste.
It was a very enlightening experience dealing with him. Others I have had good interaction with include Mr L.K. Advani, Mr Atal Behari Vajpayee before he fell ill but only on occasions when they came here. I also found the former chief minister of Bengal (MrBuddhadeb Bhattacharjee) very interesting. He was planning to build a township. It was contrary to all that you know about Marxist priorities and I thought he really wanted to break away from the mould. He had gone to Indonesia and, having seen urban Indonesia being so different from Kolkata, said: "Why should we be behind them?" It hit him. After visiting Jakarta he said: "I couldn't believe it."
ON HIS MESSAGE TO THE INDIAN COMMUNITY
My only message to the Indian community is to strive for upliftment of those who are not able to benefit from the opportunities that lie around them in this place through education. Stop grumbling about others. Find out what is your own fault and remedy that first. And then of course there is a social side of our community which needs addressing. There is alcoholism, there are dysfunctional families. All these are beyond us to help. The individuals themselves will have to help. I think SINDA, through the family service centre, is trying its best but only copes with those that come before it.
Ambassador R. Jayachandran (Singapore's high commissioner to Mauritius) together with Prof Kalyani Mehta are looking at this and making a study and are at the moment seized with what is it that we can do. I hope that if they embark on anything, the community will help them achieve what we want to do. What was opium to the Chinese is alcohol to the Indians. Everybody consumes alcohol but they don't consume until they are absolutely drunk. Then there are dysfunctional families, abuse of families, abuse of children. We musn't be ashamed of it, we should address it and we should shame those who indulge in it and not find an excuse. I hope the community will rise to this challenge. The expatriates who are here have an important role to play. They are better educated, they come from better circumstances, they have better experiences. They must not look at our shortcomings with just sympathy. They have as much a role to play in trying to uplift those who are down by showing them the way. I hope it can happen because you see many outstanding voluntary efforts in India. I hope when ambassador Jayachandran and Prof Mehta's efforts to study the problem comes out, they can rope in some people from the Indian expat community to come in and help.
When Prata man sees an Ah neh from India, love will develop very fast...
