Speech By Mr David Gerald, Founder, President & CEO Of SIAS At The Appreciation & Farewell Lunch For Chief Patron, Dr Tony Tan, Held On 2 July 2024

Date: July 2, 2024

Dr Tony Tan, Distinguished Members of SIAS, Mr JY Pillay & Mr Lim Chee Onn, Chairman of SIAS, Mr Daniel Teo, Distinguished Guests and Friends,

It is with no small measure of sadness that I am hosting this lunch to bid farewell to our Chief Patron Dr Tony Tan, who has decided to retire from public duties.

I use the word “sadness’’ but in reality, it is sadness tinged with a very large dose of gratitude and humility towards Dr Tan for readily lending his esteemed name to SIAS and for supporting SIAS for the past six years.

SIAS’ constitution provides for the appointment of a Chief Patron, I quote, “who shall be a distinguished person, outstanding in his contributions to the betterment of Singapore”. Whilst this provision has been there since 1999, Dr Tan’s appointment in 2017 was the first time that SIAS appointed a Chief Patron.

Indeed, Dr Tan’s track record as a cabinet minister and then as President, fits perfectly with the description of a person who has been outstanding in his contributions to the betterment of Singapore and its citizens.

He served Singapore with distinction from 1979 to 1991 as a cabinet minister in various ministries such as Education, Trade and Industry, Finance and Health.

After stepping down from the Cabinet in 1991 to return to the private sector, he was asked again to perform “national service’’ in 1995 as Deputy Prime Minister when the then-deputies were diagnosed with health problems.

This Dr Tan did, with distinction as Deputy Prime Minister and Minister for Defence. It was reported then that he even declined an offer of make-up pay, which compensate ministers for a loss in salary when they leave the private sector. It was also reported that the reason for this was that Dr Tan declared that in his words “the interests of Singapore must take precedence over my own personal considerations”. This clearly demonstrated his selflessness.

As Singapore’s 7th President, Dr Tan sought to promote a more active civil society, believing that Singapore needed to build up its “social reserves” to complement the substantial financial reserves the city state had accumulated over time. An example of this, he said, was the way that he had expanded Singapore’s President’s Challenge charity event to go beyond fund-raising to promote volunteerism and social entrepreneurship.

It was in late 1979, I was Deputy Director, Legal Aid Bureau when I received a call on my direct line. When I asked who was on the other line, the answer came “Tony Tan”. My response was “Are you a legal aid client? Which case is this, accident, tenancy or divorce?” The answer came promptly, “No, I am Dr Tony Tan, Minister for Education.” I got a shock and I stood up. His gentle voice, however, calmed me and he invited me to his office for a chat over tea. That’s when he asked me to serve as Vice Chairman of Sports Association of Sembawang Constituency to reorganise it. I agreed and the first thing I did was to organise a football team with the help of retired ex-nationals. He must have been happy with the way we worked hard in forming a football team, which unexpectedly won the Prime Minister’s Cup that year.

Since then, he has always been willing to help me whenever it was in the interest of the public. So when I approached him immediately after he stepped down as Singapore’s President to be SIAS’ Chief Patron, he agreed readily because he also believes in helping the individual citizens in any way he can.

During his 6 and a half years as our Chief Patron, Dr Tan was always willing to grace our annual event and his door was always open to me to approach him on any matter I felt appropriate to receive his advice. If anything I learned from Dr Tan from the time I knew him from late 1979, is humility when serving others. As Mahatma Gandhi once said, “The best way to find yourself is to lose yourself in the service of others”.

I would like everyone to take a moment to absorb and appreciate what I’ve just said. SIAS is a small organisation with around 20 staff whilst Dr Tan, who at the time had just stepped down from holding the highest office in the country, is a man of great stature and standing who could literally have his pick of any organisation to join, yet he was willing to support SIAS with his prestigious name.

I believe there can be no greater compliment for SIAS’s efforts than this gesture on Dr Tan’s part and for this, all of us at SIAS are immensely gratified and truly humbled. Having such an esteemed person as Dr Tan, who is a former President of Singapore and former Senior Cabinet Minister to be associated with SIAS, has added tremendous legitimacy to SIAS’s mission of advancing the interests of small investors and I would like to express my deepest thanks.

I would like to take this opportunity to wish Dr Tan the best and an enjoyable retirement. As one of Singapore’s most outstanding sons, he deserves it.

Dr Tan, as the Psalmist declared in Psalm 91, may the Lord cover you with His feathers and under His wings, you shall trust, his truth shall be your shield and buckler. With long life will He satisfy you and show you His salvation.

Thank you.