Talk:S. R. Nathan

A news item involving S. R. Nathan was featured on Wikipedia's Main Page in the In the news section on 23 August 2016.

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Make sure about "S.R. Nathan" and "SR Nathan" since most government documents and web sites refer to him as "SR Nathan." - Fuzheado 02:34, 3 Aug 2003 (UTC)

CIA World Factbook has him as "S. R. (Sellapan Rama) NATHAN". "SR Nathan" is probably just a Singapore thing. - Efghij 05:33, 3 Aug 2003 (UTC)

http://www.istana.gov.sg/president.html says he was born in Singapore, not Tamil Nadu as is currently listed in the entry.

Can someone confirm the birthplace as Singapore and then correct the entry, or note the discrepancy between the article and the official website? -- Jim Fung, July 8, 2005

The article currently contains the text:

Mr Nathan received his early education in several Anglo-Chinese Schools like, Rangoon Road Afternoon School and Victoria School.

This information could be better formatted and cleaned up. Can someone who knows his education history please do so? 129.78.64.100 10:16, 12 July 2005 (UTC)[reply]

--4.248.233.140 05:20, 8 August 2006 (UTC)== S R Nathan ==[reply]

The name of the President is exactly "S R Nathan" and this is clear from the Istana website or any government website. I have no clue why this page is called "Sellapan Rama Nathan", but we got to get this right. If there is no further comment, this page will be moved to the correct page title. (I think the same problem applies to

But I would prefer the full name actually. It seems like they like to shortern Indian names as thou people wont be able to pronounce or remember them?--Huaiwei 08:20, 20 July 2005 (UTC)[reply]

What I mean is that the sources indicate that the full name is "S R Nathan", without any full-stop, with a space between the 'S' and 'R' as seen in here. This use is very consistent throughout gov.sg websites. I don't have any official document with me, but there is an official transcript of a speech here, and the name "S R Nathan" was used. I'm afraid this is the full name, not an abbreviation. Dunno how the long version arised. -- Vsion 08:57, 20 July 2005 (UTC)[reply]

Yes, but it is a fact that Indian names have often appeared as abbreviation even in "full name" fields in official docs. They have a practise of using abbreviations, and somehow, the govt here accepts it. I doubt this is his name printed on his NRIC thou, and that should be the name we reflect here.--Huaiwei 09:36, 20 July 2005 (UTC)[reply]

Wah, like that how to verify that the "S R" refers to "Sellapan Rama"? I've done google search, but have not found any source of "Sellapan Rama" that is reliable, and they seems to cross reference each other including this wikipedia article. In fact, I cannot find "Sellapan Rama" in gov.sg sites at all. Problem now also is someone even suggested "Sellapan Ramanathan"! And you see Vivian Balakrishnan does not have this problem, so such persistent abbreviation does not seem to be a standard practice. Btw, I have got an email-reply from Istana, which simply says The President's name is "S R Nathan". Should I ask the officer to elaborate further? I'm afraid it might sound silly: "Is the name printed on the President's NRIC "Sellapan Rama Nathan"?. The officer might think I'm up to some mischief and inform ISD. :P --Vsion 10:13, 20 July 2005 (UTC)[reply]

Haha...seriously I have no idea how this name came about...i didnt try verifying it. :D Amazing that you actyally sent them an email (and got a reply). Why not just ask them specifically if we may know what "S R" stands for? No need to talk about his NRIC lah. :D--Huaiwei 10:34, 20 July 2005 (UTC)[reply]

Yeah, I think I will try your suggestion and send another email later today. I hope it won't put the lady officer into any difficulty though. --Vsion 20:40, 20 July 2005 (UTC)[reply]

Got the reply, guess what? Turns out that the anon is right, the name is "Sellapan Ramanathan". You are also right about the abbreviation. :-) . So now there are 2 correct versions:

• "Sellapan Ramanathan", the full name,
• "S R Nathan", the official name, also the common and well-known name (note: there's no period, and there is a space between 'S' and 'R')

All other variations are strictly incorrect. Shall we move the page to "Sellapan Ramanathan"? What about the categories, should we change to index 'R' or stay with index 'N'? --Vsion 08:50, 21 July 2005 (UTC)[reply]

Wah....thanks for the efforts, but now we have another problem....index him as R or N?? :D This will probably sound stupid, but can we use his full name, but index him under N? :D--Huaiwei 13:00, 21 July 2005 (UTC)[reply]

Thanks to the civil service too, I'm getting more impressed by their responsiveness. I would prefer to stay with 'N', to follow the official and more familiar name. - Vsion 17:27, 21 July 2005 (UTC)[reply]

Someone may want to make this correction. When Nathan was in MINDEF, he was Director of Security and Intelligence Division (SID) with the rank of Permanent Secretary. The ISD is part of the Ministry of Home Affairs.

Many thanks. It was correct before; the wrong information seeped in during December 2005 [1] and nobody noticed. --Vsion 05:37, 8 August 2006 (UTC)[reply]

Categorising it under N while leaving it at its current title simply looks wrong and causes confusion for the 99.9% of people who are not from Singapore. Haddiscoe 10:24, 23 December 2006 (UTC)[reply]

The picture in the infobox should be an official portrait of Mr. Nathan. I can't find it on Commons. Does anyone know how? Bonchygeez (talk) 17:29, 11 February 2008 (UTC)[reply]

Official photos of US people are copyright-free. This does not apply to works of the Singapore Government. ĞavinŤing 18:50, 23 March 2008 (UTC)[reply]

Is there any better picture of this guy? The current one looks horrendous. 18.138.1.34 (talk) 13:49, 22 April 2010 (UTC)[reply]

It's clearly stated he was elected unopposed and that applicants had been rejected as ineligible. How many more times do you want to write it in? 202.156.13.10 (talk) 23:53, 9 August 2011 (UTC)[reply]

Your new edit changes the language to make it seem he actually participated in an actual election. elle _{vécut heureuse} ^{à jamais} (be free) 00:31, 10 August 2011 (UTC)[reply]

He did participate in an 'actual election', as you put it. An election without polling is still an election. And one is not 'proclaimed' president; one is elected, or declared to be elected. With regard to the separate issue of "certificate of eligibility", this is covered later in the article, and it is out of place in the intro. And even so, this issue may not be appropriate for a BLP. Virtuaoski (talk) 14:20, 10 August 2011 (UTC)[reply]

Perhaps we should seek an RFC for general consensus on appropriate terminology when a candidate enjoys an effective walkover. I do believe it's quite misleading to say he was "elected" when all his opponents had been disqualified by a special committee. elle _{vécut heureuse} ^{à jamais} (be free) 16:41, 10 August 2011 (UTC)[reply]

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