Singapore’s newly minted President was coming for an eye operation and Dr Vivian Balakrishnan was feeling the stress.
But Mr S R Nathan’s unassuming manner was disarming.
He did not ask for special treatment, recalled Dr Balakrishnan, an ophthalmologist who is now the Foreign Minister.
“I told him I wished he had come to me a few months before he had become president,” he added of his most memorable meeting with Mr Nathan, who became President in September 1999.
Dr Balakrishnan’s father and uncle were childhood friends with Mr Nathan.
“They always spoke about him in admiring tones, describing him as a very loyal and devoted friend.
“No matter how high he rose – and he rose to the highest office in the land – he never forgot his friends,” he said.
Dr Balakrishnan was among several politicians who paid their respects yesterday to Singapore’s sixth and longest-serving president, who died on Monday at age 92.
It was the second day of the private wake held at Mr Nathan’s Ceylon Road home, and they spoke of the qualities they admired most in him, and swopped stories of their personal encounters and relationships with him.
Long-time friend S. Chandra Das, a former MP and Singapore’s non-resident High Commissioner to Sri Lanka, helped to organise Mr Nathan’s 80th, 85th and 90th birthday celebrations.
“There was no protocol, although people such as Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong, as well as former prime ministers Lee Kuan Yew and Goh Chok Tong, were at the celebrations,” Mr Chandra Das recalled.
“To him, it was an opportunity to meet up with old friends.”
He added: “I promised him I would organise a party for his 95th. Unfortunately, that’s not going to happen.” He also said Mr Nathan’s wife Urmila was doing better yesterday and was holding up well.
President Tony Tan Keng Yam and his wife, Mrs Mary Tan, as well as Old Guard minister Othman Wok, 91, visited the home to pay their respects too.
Other ministers included Defence Minister Ng Eng Hen, Social and Family Development Minister Tan Chuan-Jin, Environment and Water Resources Minister Masagos Zulkifli, and Acting Minister for Education (Schools) Ng Chee Meng.
tabla!, The Straits Times, The New Paper, Berita Harian
The Straits Times, The New Paper
The Straits Times, Zawiyah Salleh, New Nation, Wee Kim Wee, The Business Times, The New Paper, The Ong family, Lianhe Zaobao
This article was first published on Aug 25, 2016.
Get a copy of The Straits Times or go to straitstimes.com for more stories.
