S'pore journalist and columnist dies at 77
PETALING JAYA Veteran Singaporean journalist and former The Star columnist, Seah Chiang Nee, died yesterday morning at the Singapore General Hospital.
His wife, Madam Patricia Wong, said he had been hospitalised since July last year.
He was 77.
Madam Wong told The Star: "He was taken to the hospital for shingles and diarrhoea, and he had remained there since."
They have a 38-year-old son.
Seah was the first South-east Asian to undergo a heart transplant at Sydney's St Vincent's Hospital in 1985 and was one of the world's longest-surviving heart transplant patients.
He began his career as a Singapore-based Reuters correspondent in 1960. During his 10 years with the international news agency, he was posted to (the then south) Vietnam for 40 months to cover the war.
In 1970, he assumed the position of Malaysia bureau chief and later news editor of the Singapore Herald before it was closed down. He worked for The Asian from 1972 to 1973, covering Thailand and Indochina from Bangkok.
Seah then joined Hong Kong Standard as news editor before returning to Singapore in 1974 as foreign editor with The Straits Times.
He started writing for The Star in 1986 and his column ran until 2014.
Through his column, Insight Down South, he enlightened readers with a weekly analysis of news events in Singapore.
Seah's wake will be held tomorrow and Wednesday at Singapore Casket at 131, Lavender Street. The funeral will be held on Thursday. - THE STAR
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