Sinnathamby Rajaratnam, one of the founding fathers of the Republic of Singapore, has passed away on February 22, 2006. He is also one of the five founding fathers of the Association of South East Asian Nations (ASEAN) in 1967, along with Adam Malik of Indonesia, Narciso R. Ramos of the Philippines, Tun Abdul Razak of Malaysia, and Thanat Khoman of Thailand.

For those who are still scratching your head as to who this man is, S. Rajaratnam wrote the pledge of Singapore. He served as as Minister for Culture (1959), Minister for Foreign Affairs (1965), Minister of Labour (1968-71), and Second Deputy Prime Minister (1980-85) . He was later appointed as Senior Minister until his retirement in 1988. (So there was actually another Senior Minister before Lao Lee and Lao Goh.)

He implemented tough labour laws to attempt to restore stability in the Singaporean economy and attracted multinational corporations to invest in Singapore during his tenure as the Minister of Labour.

Even my dad who complains incessantly about the gover-min, respects this man. For us who enjoyed the fruit of his labour, let us all mourn his passing.