RSIS Distinguished Book Launch of “Remembering S R Nathan: A Mentor for All Seasons”
About the Book:
Remembering S R Nathan: A Mentor for All Seasons is a collection of essays commemorating the life of Singapore’s sixth President, the late Mr S R Nathan. The book aims to give greater insights into the wide-ranging roles he had in his various contributions to Singapore. It reviews his leadership and influence, his distinguished civil service career, and his commitment to social service. The organisation of the sections in the book reflects the extensive footprints Mr Nathan has left in many different sectors: foreign service; security and intelligence; community building and social welfare; labour and trade unions; media; and research and academia. This book also contains views on his remarkable career from foreign observers. Other contributors include public servants, policymakers, and scholars who have worked with him, learned from him, and who were inspired by his lifelong dedication to Singapore. Told through the voices of these people, Remembering S R Nathan: A Mentor for All Seasons gives an informative, and yet, personal account of Mr Nathan as a leader and mentor
About the Editors:
Mushahid Ali has been with RSIS since June 2010 as a Senior Fellow. Besides monitoring security in Southeast Asia, he is Supervisory Editor of RSIS Commentaries and other RSIS publications.
He was with the Institute of Defence and Strategic Studies from 2001 to 2004. Before that he served 31 years with the Singapore Ministry of Foreign Affairs; his foreign posting included being Charge d’Affaires in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia and Ambassador to Cambodia from 1995 to 2000. Post-retirement, he also served in MINDEF as Counsellor in Cairo from 2005 to 2010.
Born in Johor, Malaya in 1941 he was educated in Singapore and obtained his Bachelor of Arts (Hons) at University of Singapore in 1968. He worked as a Reporter with the Straits Times and later Radio and Television Singapore between 1959 and 1966.
Mr Ali was conferred the Public Administration Medal (Silver) by the President of Singapore and Commander, Royal Order of Sehemetrai by the King of Cambodia.
Kumar Ramakrishna is a tenured Associate Professor and Head Policy Studies, as well as Coordinator of the National Security Studies Programme, in the Office of the Executive Deputy Chairman, S. Rajaratnam School of International Studies (RSIS), in Nanyang Technological University, Singapore. He was previously the Head of the Centre of Excellence for National Security (CENS) at RSIS from 2006-2015.
A historian by background, Associate Professor Ramakrishna has been a frequent speaker on counter-terrorism before local and international audiences, a regular media commentator on counter-terrorism, and an established author in numerous internationally refereed journals. His first book, Emergency Propaganda: The Winning of Malayan Hearts and Minds 1948-1958 (2002) was described by the International History Review as “required reading for historians of Malaya, and for those whose task is to counter insurgents, guerrillas, and terrorists”. His second major book, Radical Pathways: Understanding Muslim Radicalisation in Indonesia (2009), was featured as one of the top 150 books on terrorism and counterterrorism in the respected journal Perspectives on Terrorism, which identified Associate Professor Ramakrishna as “one of Southeast Asia’s leading counterterrorism experts”. His most recent books are Islamist Terrorism and Militancy in Indonesia: The Power of the Manichean Mindset (2015), and Singapore Chronicles: Emergency (2016).