Sinnathamby Rajaratnam (25 February 1915 – 22 February 2006), was a Deputy Prime Minister of Singapore from 1980 to 1985 and a long time Minister and member of the cabinet from 1959 to 1988. He is regarded as one of the founding fathers 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 in Singapore and helped shape the mentality of Singaporeans on contemporary issues.
Rajaratnam was born in Jaffna, Sri Lanka, the second child Sabapathu Pillai Sinnathamby. He was then brought back to Malaya and raised in Seremban and Selangor where he studied in Convent of the Holy Infant Jesus, St Paul's boys' school, Victoria Institution in Kuala Lumpur, and later in Raffles Institution in Singapore. He went to King's College, London to pursue a law degree in 1937 but due to World War II, he had to turn to journalism for a living. He met his wife Piroska Feher, a Hungarian teacher while in London. He joined the Malayan Tribune in 1948 and in 1954, he joined The Straits Times. He was bold in writing about the way Singapore was governed by the British colonial government. His column, "I write as I please", attracted so much attention that he was called for questioning by the government.
In 1959, Rajaratnam co-founded the People's Action Party (PAP) together with Lee Kuan Yew, Goh Keng Swee and others. He became popular among his supporters for being able to effectively follow the mood of the people. During his years in parliament, he served as Minister for Culture (1959), Minister for Foreign Affairs (1965-1980), Minister of Labour (1968-1971), and Second Deputy Prime Minister (1980-1985) and was later appointed as Senior Minister until his retirement in 1988. Rajaratnam is remembered for writing the Singapore pledge in 1966.
Rajaratnam was Singapore's first foreign minister, following its abrupt independence in 1965. During his tenure, he helped Singapore gain entry into the United Nations and later the Non-Aligned Movement in 1970. He built up the Foreign Service and helped to establish diplomatic links with other countries and secure international recognition of the new nation's sovereignty. He carried out the foreign policy of international self-assertion to establish Singapore's independence during the period when the country faced significant challenges including the Konfrontasi conflict in the 1960s and the withdrawal of British troops in the early 1970s. Rajaratnam was one of the five founding fathers of ASEAN in 1967 and helped to draw international attention to Vietnam's invasion of Cambodia in 1978.
During his term as Minister of Labour, he implemented tough labour laws to restore stability in the Singaporean economy and attract multinational corporations to invest in Singapore. Throughout his political career, he played a key role in the successive pragmatic and technocratic PAP government that radically improved Singapore's economic situation, alongside huge developments in social development on the island with massive expansion of healthcare programmes, pensions, state housing and extremely low unemployment.
Rajaratnam was a strong believer in multi-racialism in Singapore, and when drafting the Singapore National Pledge in 1966 just 2 years after the 1964 Race Riots, he wrote the words "One united people, regardless of race, language or religion." In the 1980s and 1990s, when the government began implementing several policies to promote the use of mother tongue languages and ethnic-based self-help groups such as Chinese Development Assistance Council (CDAC) and Mendaki, Rajaratnam expressed his opposition to these policies which, in his view, ran counter to the vision of establishing a common Singaporean identity where race, religion, language does not matter. He advocated for greater racial integration which he felt was still lacking in the country.
Rajaratnam also disagreed with then Prime Minister Lee Kuan Yew on the policy of given incentives to graduate mothers to have more children, as he felt that the policy was unfair. Despite their differences in opinion on certain issues, he was loyal to Lee and remained as a member of the core team of Lee's government that include Goh Keng Swee, Hon Sui Sen and Lim Kim San. Rajaratnam retired from political office in 1988 as part of the leadership transition. He then served at the Institute of South East Asian Studies till 1997.
Rajaratnam passed away on 22 February 2006 of heart failure, 3 days before his 91st birthday.
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