“I want to tell you all about what made this country. Hard work, persistence and a first generation that always sought hard seats – not the cushy seats we were sitting in for the dialogue session.” So said our Sixth President of Singapore, S R Nathan, a few months before his death in 2016 when he kindly addressed a small group of our alumni, mainly our younger members who we invited to meet and hear from the great man.

At his request, that session was an intimate, closed doors dialogue, limited to a dozen. Though already ill, Mr Nathan graciously spent two hours with us to share his thoughts on social mobility, leadership and the future of Singapore. With true candour, he also shared his concerns for the less fortunate in our Society, his worry about stress, mental illness and suicides amongst our younger Singaporeans and exhorted us as privileged members of Society (especially our millennials) to feel a duty to put back into the country and to not just be takers.

Inspired by Mr Nathan’s call to emulate the public service and sacrifice of Singapore’s first generation leadership, the Oxford and Cambridge Society of Singapore inaugurated the Annual “S R Nathan Hard Seats” Lecture Series with eminent leaders as an annual keynote event of The Oxford and Cambridge Society, in memory of our beloved former President of Singapore.

The aim of the “Hard Seats” Lecture Series is to provide a platform for us to learn from leaders and changemakers from varied walks of life who have overcome and tackled challenging circumstances to bring about impact and change in their various spheres.

Watch the introductory video here.

Minister Chan Chun Sing (an alumnus) gave the inaugural lecture on 11 January 2018, talking about the issues that irk our society and sharing his views on Singapore’s future, our challenges and how we help the less fortunate.

Dato Paul Supramaniam, President of the Oxford and Cambridge Society of Singapore, gave the opening speech at the lecture.

You may watch a video of it here.

Watch a slideshow featuring the highlights of the evening here.