Of all the positions of power that the late S R Nathan held in his long years of civil service, his stint as the Director of the Security and Intelligence Division proved to be his most badass.
It was in January of 1974. Singapore was still struggling as a new nation — what with the post-independence racial riots, koro pandemic, an oil crisis and severe blackouts that blanketed 90 percent of the island earlier that year. But the biggest challenge arrived on Jan 31 — an international incident that propelled Nathan to step up to the plate and later sealed his name as a hero.