S. Rajaratnam
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S. Rajaratnam DUT (First Class) |
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|---|---|
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| Deputy Prime Minister of Singapore | |
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In office 1980–1985 Serving with Goh Keng Swee |
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| Prime Minister | Lee Kuan Yew |
| Preceded by | Goh Keng Swee |
| Succeeded by | Ong Teng Cheong |
| Senior Minister | |
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In office 1985–1988 |
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| Prime Minister | Lee Kuan Yew |
| Preceded by | Office created |
| Succeeded by | Lee Kuan Yew |
| Minister for Labour | |
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In office 1968–1971 |
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| Prime Minister | Lee Kuan Yew |
| Minister for Foreign Affairs | |
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In office 9 August 1965 – 1 June 1980 |
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| Prime Minister | Lee Kuan Yew |
| Preceded by | Office created |
| Succeeded by | Suppiah Dhanabalan |
| Minister for Culture | |
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In office 3 June 1959 – 9 August 1965 |
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| Prime Minister | Lee Kuan Yew |
| Preceded by | Office created |
| Succeeded by | Othman Wok |
| Personal details | |
| Born |
Sinnathamby Rajaratnam 25 February 1915 Jaffna, British Ceylon |
| Died | 22 February 2006 (aged 90) Singapore |
| Nationality | Singaporean |
| Political party | People's Action Party |
| Spouse(s) | Piroska Feher |
| Relations | S. Seeveratnam (brother), T. Vijayaletchumy (sister in law), S. Vijayaratnam & S. Jothiratnam (nephews & sole descendants) |
| Children | none |
| Alma mater | King's College London |
Sinnathamby Rajaratnam, DUT (First Class) (25 February 1915 – 22 February 2006), was a Deputy Prime Minister of Singapore from 1980–85, a long-serving Minister and member of the Cabinet from 1959–88 and a short story writer. He was one of the pioneer leaders of independent Singapore as it achieved self-government in 1959 and later independence in 1965. He devoted much of his adult life to public service, and helped shape the mentality of Singaporeans on contemporary issues. One of the schools of Nanyang Technological University, is named the S. Rajaratnam School of International Studies in honour of him, as is the S. Rajaratnam block of his alma mater, Raffles Institution.
The second child of Sabapathy Pillai Sinnathamby and his wife N. Annamah, both of Tamil descent, Rajaratnam was born in Vaddukoddai (Tholpuram), Yazhpanam, 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.
Rajaratnam studied in, St Paul's boys' school, Victoria Institution in Kuala Lumpur, and later in Raffles Institution in Singapore. In 1937, he went to King's College London to pursue a law degree. However, due to World War II, he was unable to receive funding from his family to continue his studies; 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's short stories and radio plays were later published by Epigram Books in The Short Stories & Radio Plays of S. Rajaratnam (2011).
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