The strength and purpose we lend to each other’s lives: Speech by President Tharman Shanmugaratnam at The Straits Times Singaporean of the Year 2024 Award Ceremony on 24 February 2025 at the Istana

Mr Khaw Boon Wan, Chairman, SPH Media

Mr Chan Yeng Kit, CEO, SPH Media

Mr Jaime Ho, Editor of The Straits Times

Mr Edmund Koh, Chairman, UBS Asia Pacific

Distinguished Guests

Ladies and Gentlemen

1.     It is my pleasure to join you this evening as we recognise an inspiring group of Singaporeans, and celebrate ten years of The Straits Times Singaporean of the Year awards.

2.     The awards shine a light on Singaporeans who do extraordinary things. The volunteers who bring hope and the entrepreneur who creates opportunities for the disadvantaged. Or the athlete or artist who has put our small nation on the world stage.

3.     Several of you are with us this evening. And like this year’s finalists, none of you set out seeking material gain. Your reward is in bringing us closer together as Singaporeans and in lifting all our spirits.

4.     This year’s finalists include household heroes. Like Yip Pin Xiu, born with a disability that progressively weakens the muscles, who has now won seven golds and a silver across five editions of the Paralympic Games.  

5.     Or Max Maeder, who had the audacity as a teenager to think he could be a world champion, and has already become Singapore’s youngest Olympic medallist. And made us all familiar with the word ‘kite-foiling’, and the multiple skills the sport requires.

6.     Others are less well known, but are inspiring in their own, different ways.

7.     Dr Lim Hong Huay, who having struggled to find support while looking after her two children with autism, set up CaringSG, to help ease the burden on other caregivers. The non-profit now has 5000 members.

8.     Mdm Marlina Yased, or Kak Marlina as she is affectionately called by residents of Lengkok Bahru, who started a community fridge two years ago to ensure that her neighbours with financial difficulties don’t have to worry that their children will go hungry, like she did when she went through a rough patch. And has brought the neighbours closer together.

9.     Or Daniel Yap, who started the Fridge Restock Community, a 50-strong volunteer team who rescues 8000-9,000 kg of unsold food weekly, distributing it to more than 44 community fridges and collection points to help those in need.

10. Marine biologist Sam Shu Qin, who co-founded Our Singapore Reefs, a community initiative to save our coral reefs and preserve marine biodiversity. They have since, through more than a 1000 volunteer dives, removed some 12,000 pieces of rubbish weighing over 3,000kg from the sea.

11. Then there’s Koh Seng Choon, who was moved by the plight of the poor he saw in India, China and Britain. He set up Dignity Kitchen, a food court that trains and employs the disabled and disadvantaged – without paying himself a salary for its first four years. Today, Dignity Kitchen employs 189 people in Singapore and Hong Kong, 80 per cent of whom with disabilities, and half over the age of 50.

12. In the same vein, Joshua Tay and Narasimman Tivasiha Mani, who set up Impart to help juvenile offenders get back on track. They struggled for a few years to get the initiative off the ground, even tapping on their personal savings. Today, Impart employs 12 full-time staff and has over 300 volunteers who believe in its cause.

13. And like Pin Xiu and Max, we have Nathania Ong making it on the world stage, in her case literally. She’s had her ups and downs, like most others who eventually make it. Rejected by several British drama schools after her A-levels, she persevered, enrolling at Lasalle College of the Arts and then London’s Mountview Academy of Theatre Arts. And eventually clinched two of the most coveted roles on London’s West End – including Eponine, the tragic main character in Les Miserables.

14. Each of this year’s finalists, like those before them, has something unusual in them, that unusual strength and conviction. But they also motivate everyone else to add purpose to our lives. For that’s truly what our strength as a nation is about: the strength and purpose we lend to each other’s lives.

15.  I want therefore to congratulate The Straits Times too, for organising the award for ten years running, and thank UBS and others who have been supporting the cause.

16. Thank you.