J

an. 1, Online

It is the largest gift the National University of Singapore (NUS) has received from an international alumnus, but Indonesian tycoon Tahir is reluctant to talk about the $30 million he has just pledged.

The 59-year-old chairman and chief executive of Indonesian conglomerate Mayapada Group and one of the country’s wealthiest men, prefers to talk about his philosophy of philanthropy.

“There are lots of people richer than me,” he said with a wave of his hand. “It’s not about how many cars you have or how rich you are. That’s disgusting.”

Your comments:

I think Tahir deserves to be congratulated for such a generous donation. The donation is for facilitating medical research and as such the results can potentially benefit people in all countries and is not a Singaporean monopoly.

Bill Gates is spending most of his foundation’s funds in countries other than the US and isn’t criticized for doing so. He targets the best researchers and institutions, regardless of nationality, and the benefits will flow to all.

For example, Gates is funding a major research project on containing dengue fever. The research is being conducted in Australia, but the results will benefit many countries, including Indonesia.

Facing reality, Singapore is a center of research excellence – especially medical research. Better still, Tahir’s donation attracts matching contributions from the Singapore Government. That is smart for both the NUS and for the donor.

I would suggest that Tahir has set a fine example of a successful businessman giving some of the wealth he has accumulated back to society. We have other very wealthy businessmen in RI, but not too many give generously, let alone for medical research.

Let’s challenge the wealthy and see if they can match Tahir and donate major sums to research in RI.
Nairdah