Veteran Singaporean journalist and former columnist of The Star, Seah Chiang Nee, has passed away yesterday (15 Jan) at the Singapore General Hospital (SGH) at age 77.
Mr Seah’s wife, Patricia Wong (69), said he had been hospitalised at SGH since July 2016, "He was sent to the hospital for shingles and diarrhoea, and had remained there since," she said. He has only one son, Seah Pei Kwang (38).
The Star wrote that Seah began his career in 1960 as a Singapore-based Reuters correspondent.
During his 10 years with the international news agency, he had been posted to (the then south) Vietnam for 40 months where he had covered the war.
In 1970, he had taken the position of Malaysia bureau chief and afterward, news editor, of the Singapore Herald before it was closed down after a run-in with the Singaporean government.
From 1972 to 1973 Mr Seah worked for The Asian, reporting news from Thailand and Indochina from Bangkok.
Thereafter he joined Hong Kong Standard as news editor before returning to Singapore in 1974, joining The Straits Times as foreign editor.
Mr Seah began writing for The Star in 1986 and his column, Insight Down South, ran until 2014. By this column he has enlightened readers with a weekly analysis of news events in Singapore.
Mr Seah was one of the world's longest-surviving heart transplant patients; he had undergone a heart transplant at Sydney's St Vincent's Hospital back in 1985 as the first South-East Asian person.
Seah's wake will be held at Singapore Casket at 131 Lavender St, on Tuesday and Wednesday. The funeral will be held on Thursday.
