S. R. Nathan

Sellapan Ramanathan ( born July 3, 1924 in Singapore) was of 1 September 1999 to 31 August 2011, the sixth President of Singapore.

Life

Nathan is of Tamil descent and Hindu. When his mother returned from a pilgrimage from the Indian Rameswaram, they brought the boy to the world. He spent his childhood along with his three older sisters in the Malaysian Johor.

His father was an employee of a law firm that entertained rubber tree plantations. In the 1930s, the price of rubber fell and the family fell into debt. The young Nathan went back to Singapore and lived with his uncle. During the Second World War, Nathan worked as a translator for the Japanese army. After the war he studied at the University of Malaya (later the National University of Singapore) in Singapore and earned a degree in 1954.

In February 1966 Sellapan Ramanathan went to the State Department and worked first as an assistant and later as deputy minister before the Ministry of Home Affairs conducted from January 1971. In the Ministry of Defence MINDEF Nathan joined in August of the same year and took over the leadership of the Secret Service SID.

During the stop the Japanese Red Army on 31 January 1974, crude oil tanks of Shell's operations on the island of Pulau Bukom he belonged to a group of government members, which could be voluntarily take hostage to secure the release of the five civilian prisoners.

From 1983 to April 1988, Nathan Chairman of the " Hindu Endowments Board" and also a founding member of SINDA (Singapore Indian Development Association). As an ambassador for Singapore, he served in the United States from July 1990 to 1996. Upon his return, he worked for various institutions. As the only suitable candidate for the office of President, he was proclaimed as successor to Ong Teng Cheong as head of state in 1999. Also in the presidential election in 2005 Nathan was only approved candidate of the Presidential Elections Committee, which rejected the other three. This had to take place no choice and Nathan was proclaimed president.

In 2009 he received an honorary doctorate from Keio University.

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