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COMMENTARY: In memoriam: President SR Nathan, a friend of Indonesia
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Tributes have poured in for Singapore's former president SR Nathan, who died peacefully at the Singapore General Hospital at 9.48 p.m. on Aug. 22. (The Straits Times/File)
I
was late knowing about former Singapore president SR Nathan’s passing because I was in Australia attending the Australian Council for Security Cooperation in the Asia Pacific’s (CSCAP) annual general meeting.
President Nathan dealt with Indonesian affairs from the end of Indonesia’s Konfrontasi against Malaysia in 1965, the year when Singapore separated from its union with Malaysia. He was then a member of the security team that prepared the opening of Singapore-Indonesia diplomatic relations. On the Indonesian side, it was Benny Moerdani and Abdul Rachman Ramly of Ali Moertopo’s team who were his counterparts. That began his enduring interest in Indonesia, even when he was not in positions that directly related to the country, such as when he was ambassador to the US and high commissioner to Malaysia.
I fondly recall that when president Nathan was the head of Singapore Press Holdings, he and I occasionally took a morning walk along the beach near Mountbatten Road, and afterwards had some coffee or a little breakfast at a hotel nearby.
During those walks, Indonesia-Singapore relations were always the main topic of our discussions. During his tenure as president of the S. Rajaratnam School of International Studies (RSIS) he headed the Singapore CSCAP Committee and we cooperated very closely in expanding CSCAP’s program to become a wider forum on security issues in East Asia and the Pacific, an extension of the biannual General Conference. He was convinced that the Track Two activities on regional security were a very important endeavor since the Track One (governments) cooperation only started after the end of the Cold War and they needed more input and ideas from think tanks and other stakeholders like the media and political parties/parliaments. He was
very attentive to the young generations in Singapore and Indonesia and was always keen to prepare them for their future leadership role.
In that respect president Nathan particularly found in me a soul mate and he invited me to give a talk to his students at the Singapore Management University (SMU) on Indonesian experiences during the last years of the Sukarno era, the change of leadership and the beginning of the Soeharto administration. He always believed that every young generation had to know more about its own and its neighbor’s history. In addition, he graciously chaired the launching of my book Shades of Grey in 2012, also at SMU. I am eternally grateful to him for that honor and kindness.
As his health began to falter, our plan to continue the series of lectures was discontinued. But in memory of president Nathan I will make myself available to keep the plan alive, especially as an effort to strengthen Indonesia-Singapore relations. Our bilateral cooperation inside and outside of ASEAN is important to contribute to an East Asia that is stable, peaceful and developing well. Indonesia and Singapore complement each other in many aspects, which really contributes to that purpose. My experiences in building regional institutions within the context of the ASEAN Institute of Strategic and International Studies (ISIS) and other regional institutions convinced me of the critical importance of Indonesia-Singapore cooperation. So, talking about strengthening ASEAN and how to keep ASEAN’s centrality in the wider Asia-Pacific region, I think Indonesia-Singapore cooperation is a prerequisite. And I believe that somewhere there president Nathan would agree with me.
From president Nathan I found out that many Singaporean leaders were sympathetic to Indonesia, obviously because of Indonesia’s size and influence as a neighbor, but also as Singapore can learn from Indonesia’s diversity, self-confidence despite the challenges it has to face, and its foreign policy character, which Singapore can emulate as a young and small country proud of its independence among other big countries. Together Indonesia and Singapore can do more to create better neighborliness despite existing negative stereotypes about each other. That can be remedied by better understanding between the two countries. May president Nathan rest in peace and may Mrs. Urmila Nandi and the whole family be strengthened in their loss.
