S. RAJARATNAM, THE AUTHORISED BIOGRAPHY, VOLUME TWO IBD

Sinopsis

S. Rajaratnam, one of SingaporeâÇÖs core founding fathers and its first Foreign Minister, was a man of ideas, ideals and action. In engaging prose, Irene Ng, bestselling author of the first volume of RajaratnamâÇÖs biography,áThe Singapore Lion, reveals-as never before-how Rajaratnam changed the course of his countryâÇÖs history, often by the sheer force of his ideas and will. The second volume,áThe LionâÇÖs Roar, begins with his struggles during SingaporeâÇÖs traumatic years in Malaysia from 1963 to 1965. Informed by decades of research, numerous interviews, and access to Mr. RajaratnamâÇÖs private and government papers, the book gives new insight into his personality and priorities as he was confronted with SingaporeâÇÖs sudden independence, which left the island exposed to all the calamities of a vulnerable state.The book relates in fine narrative and analytical detail the evolution of SingaporeâÇÖs foundational ideals and values as well as its foreign policy principles and strategies. Through its pages, we follow him as he transformed SingaporeâÇÖs relations with its neighbours, co-founded ASEAN, and rallied the regional grouping to oppose the Vietnamese invasion of Cambodia. We look over his shoulder as he drafted what would become SingaporeâÇÖs National Pledge. We witness his political skills as labour minister as he steered through the most far-reaching labour reform in the nationâÇÖs history and laid the foundation for SingaporeâÇÖs unique cooperative model of tripartism. And we experience RajaratnamâÇÖs final years, when he faced the end of his life with the same courage that he brought to every battle he ever fought. More than merely the definitive biography of Rajaratnam, the book is also a story about the human condition, about what individuals, given genius, courage and willpower, can achieve beyond what most thought is possible, and what people and nations will endure if they have inspirational and moral leadership.