S'pore ex leader dies in Canada

S'pore ex leader dies in Canada

SINGAPORE: A former president of Singapore, Devan Nair, has died in Canada at the age of 82, a television news station reported on Wednesday.

The report by Channel NewsAsia provided no further details regarding the death. The foreign affairs ministry did not immediately respond when contacted.

Nair, who was also a lawmaker and a leader of the trade union movement, served from 1981-1985 as Singapore's third president, a largely ceremonial post.

When he resigned, then-prime minister Lee Kuan Yew claimed in parliament that Nair had quit to get treatment for alcoholism.

Nair denied Lee's allegation, claiming that Nair's questioning of Lee's government had caused conflict between the two, and that he only stepped down when the prime minister threatened to seek a motion in parliament to oust him.

Nair moved to Ontario, Canada, in 1995. In 1999, Lee sued him and a Canadian newspaper over an article that Lee said suggested he had carried out a character assassination of Nair by labeling him an alcoholic. Nair counter-sued in 2001, and the suit was dropped.

Lee and Nair were founding members of the ruling People's Action Party, and in the past had been allies in fighting British colonial rule. -- AP