I knew S. Rajaratnam in the early 1950s when he was a leader writer of the Singapore Tiger Standard, a sister paper of the Sin Chew Jit Poh. I was then the Chief Reporter of the Sin Chew Jit Poh and had just returned from London after completing my studies on journalism at the Regent Street Polytechnic and had joined the Tiger Standard as translator of editorials of Chinese newspapers called "Review of Views". I supplied Raja with the views of the Chinese newspapers so that he could write the editorials and other topics.

Later we both formed the Singapore Journalists Union. Raja became the President and myself the Vice-president. We worked to serve all journalists working for newspapers in Singapore. I remember the time when one Nanyang Siang Pau translator, Sia Yong, was detained by the Lim Yew Hock Government and Raja insisted that we should visit him in the Outram Prison. We fought for Sia Yong and he was finally released. Raja was always concerned with the well being of his fellow journalists when he was President.

When the People's Action Party won a landslide victory in 1959, Raja chose me as his Parliamentary Secretary when he became Minister of Culture. His main concern was to make the people of Singapore -Chinese, Malays and Indians -understand each other better through the appreciation of each other's culture. He started the Aneka Regam Rakyat (People's Concert) to enable the racial groups to introduce their cultural items to the people. The first concert was held in the Botanic Gardens and was officially opened by the then Prime Minster, Lee Kuan Yew. These concerts which were held in all parts of Singapore enabled each race to appreciate one another's culture. I had to implement his ideas and with my skeleton staff organised such concerts. Raja's ultimate aim was to fuse the various cultures into one Singapore culture. He wanted very much to instill a Singapore consciousness into all Singaporeans.

Raja also tried to foster cultural exchanges among Asian countries. He instructed me to organise a Southeast Asian Cultural Festival. I implemented his idea by visiting various Southeast Asian countries and organised the first and only Southeast Asian Cultural Festival which was held at the National Theatre on 8 August 1963. With help of civil organisations I helped raised funds to build the National Theatre and he chose the site. For the first time, Singaporeans had the opportunity to appreciate the rich variety of cultural events from Vietnam, Cambodia, Laos, Thailand, the Philippines, India, Pakistan, Borneo and Hong Kong. It was a breakthrough in cultural exchange, but the festival was not continued because of political changes in Southeast Asia.

When Raja became Minister for Foreign Affairs, he again chose me, this time as his Minister of State. This time, his task was to make friends with the international society. When Singapore was about to recognize Israel, he sent me to Cairo to mend ties with Nasser, the President of the United Arab Republic. He said: "Make sure that our embassy is not burnt when we recognise Israel." He was a realistic Minister and accepted my recommendation and advise. On the day when we recognised Israel, our embassy was not burnt, and I was hosting a dinner for the Minister of Justice.

Having completed my mission in Cairo, Raja instructed me to perform another difficult task and that was to make President Suharto invite Lee Kuan Yew to visit Indonesia. This was after Singapore had hanged two Indonesian marines and the two countries were at logger heads. At first, I refused because I was after all a politician and a diplomat. But he pacified me by organising a rally of my supporters and told them that he needed me to do a more important job. As he had confidence in me, I had to accept the challenge. It took me three years to cool the anger of the Indonesian leaders, in particular, the military leaders. It was through my understanding of Javanese mysticism that I made the breakthrough. I had suggested that Lee Kuan Yew should sprinkle some flowers on the graves of the two we had hanged when he went around putting flowers on the graves of the other national heroes at Kalibata.

Raja's mind was always tuned towards making friends with the international community. After my Jakarta mission, he asked me to organize a tour of the People's Republic of China with a view to making friends with China. I brought him to see Zhou Enlai in 1975and we laid the foundation for Singapore-China relations.

Raja has done a great deal for the cultural unity of Singapore's multi-cultural society. He has also done a great deal to win friends for Singapore. He was a man of ideas and ideals and have contributed a great deal to Singapore's development during the time of nation-building and, after we became independent, through the superb strategy he applied in international relations. I happened to be one of those who helped him implement his ideas and strategies.

Mr Lee Khoon Choy was Singapore's
Ambassador to Indonesia, the former
Yugoslavia, Lebanon, Pakistan, Ethiopia and
Egypt. Following that, he served as Senior
Minister of State for Foreign Affairs for ten
years before becoming Ambassador again,
this time to Japan and Korea

Back to main