NUss Distinguished & outstanding Member Awards
NUss Distinguished & outstanding Member Awards
NUss Distinguished & outstanding Member Awards
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Club news<br />
luminary members honoured at nuss Appreciation Dinner<br />
Mr gopinath Pillai<br />
NuSS <strong>Distinguished</strong> <strong>Member</strong><br />
NUSS from my time has grown to be<br />
a very large Society and it has done well. However,<br />
it could do more, in the sense that it could bring<br />
together more graduates because many of the<br />
graduates, once they leave the university, majority<br />
of them do not keep a link with the university.”<br />
16 THE GRADUATE Jul-Sep 2011<br />
Mr Gopinath pillai cuts an imposing<br />
figure as he spoke to The Graduate<br />
prior to receiving his award.<br />
Best known during his term as Chairman<br />
of NTuC Fairprice Co-operative limited,<br />
Mr pillai graduated with a Bachelor<br />
of Arts from the then university of Malaya<br />
in 1961.<br />
At the university, he was a noted activist<br />
with the Socialist Club.<br />
This had caused the Singapore government<br />
to take notice of him as a rebel of<br />
some sort, something Mr pillai had readily<br />
acknowledged during his acceptance<br />
speech after receiving his award.<br />
His revolutionary spirit, however,<br />
proved useful as he went on to establish<br />
an illustrious career in the private sector<br />
where he held senior positions in firms<br />
such as Intraco limited and Inno pacific<br />
Holdings ltd.<br />
He then went on to forge a career as a<br />
diplomat where he served as Singapore’s<br />
High Commissioner to pakistan and Singapore’s<br />
Non-Resident Ambassador (NRA)<br />
to Iran.<br />
Mr pillai is currently an Ambassadorat-large<br />
as well as the Chairman of the<br />
Institute of South Asian Studies (ISAS) at<br />
the National university of Singapore (NuS).<br />
Despite his many contributions to<br />
NuSS, Mr pillai feels more can be done.<br />
“NuSS from my time has grown to be<br />
a very large Society and it has done well.<br />
However, it could do more, in the sense<br />
that it could bring together more graduates<br />
because many of the graduates, once<br />
they leave the university, majority of them<br />
do not keep a link with the university. I<br />
think NuSS must find a way to forge that<br />
link. I think that must be the mission,” says<br />
Mr pillai.<br />
He also would like to see NuSS as a<br />
think centre.<br />
“The body of graduate should also<br />
look at national issues not as a political<br />
gimmick but as an objective educated<br />
body,” says Mr pillai.<br />
In closing, Mr pillai hoped more fresh<br />
blood would come onboard to help the<br />
Society grow further.<br />
“Join NuSS and make it stronger.”
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