Sellapan Ramanathan

Trivia

• Nathan returned unopposed on nomination day, August 17, 2005. He was sworn in for a second term of office on September 1, 2005.
• He submitted an eligibility application to the Presidential Elections Committee; by August 6, 2005, three more people had also submitted forms, but on August 13, 2005, the Committee announced that the other three applicants had been rejected as ineligible.
• On July 12, 2005, Nathan announced that he was seeking re-election as President.
• He succeeded the fifth President of Singapore, Ong Teng Cheong, and was sworn in on September 1, 1999.
• His nomination was strongly supported by Senior Minister Lee Kuan Yew.
• Although a Straits Times survey showed that nearly 80 per cent of Singaporeans hoped for a contest, Nathan nonetheless took up office unopposed as President on August 18, 1999.
• He was a founding member of SINDA–the Singapore Indian Development Association–and its Term Trustee until August 1999.
• From 1983 to April 1988, Nathan was Chairman of the Hindu Endowments Board.
• In February 1979, he returned to the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and became its First Permanent Secretary until February 1982 when he left to become the Executive Chairman of the Straits Times Press (1975) Ltd, the Singapore newspaper company.
• Nathan served as Assistant Secretary and rose to be Deputy Secretary before being appointed Acting Permanent Secretary of the Ministry of Home Affairs in January 1971.

Quotes

• "You are slowly developing some multinationals of your own. We certainly hope that some of them will look in this direction when they look for opportunities because the progress of Southeast Asia is important to China, just as China's progress is important to us."
• "You are a large country, you have many resources, and you have people who are highly capable."
• "Well, you have a defence attache here, that's a step forward. Your Defence Minister has been here, our defence people have exchanges with you. So friendly relations at the military level are already in existence."
• "Well, the important message that we've always carried to China is that we look forward to your progress and prosperity, we look forward to you playing a role in the progress and prosperity of this region and we look forward to stability in your relations with others."
• "Well, as you've said, we cannot expect the people of China not to want to progress, so if you have an opportunity to progress, to develop your economy to a world class economy, it's an aspiration that is natural and that, I welcome."
• "We hope that through these trade arrangements, through collaboration in training, in manpower development, and what have you, ASEAN in, say, ten years' time, will be a very different ASEAN."
• "We are each other's seventh largest trading partner, we are the fifth largest investor there and likewise, we have a lot of exchanges between political leaders, businessmen, tourists and school children too."
• "The question of peace, progress and prosperity, it's a motherhood statement, all of us like it."
• "My own perception is that there are two tiers of countries, one, the original ASEAN, and then the new members. The new members are in various stages of development."
• "In the United Nations, when China entered, we voted on the same position, and since then we have maintained the same position, that position has not changed."