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.

Revolutionary socialist organisation Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine (PFLP) had initially planned to launch an attack at an Esso oil refinery in Norway during the 1973 oil crisis. They were ready to strike against an oil refinery outside Tønsberg but were foiled after police raised a public terror alarm following the discovery of the plot.

The group retracted, only to set their eyes on another oil refinery complex — Pulau Bukom, just south of mainland Singapore. At the time, Singapore was the world’s third-largest refining centre, supplying oil to other countries in the region. Two PFLP members teamed up with two other members from fellow communist militant group Japanese Red Army to carry out a bombing.

Their goal? To disrupt the oil supply from Singapore to other countries, especially South Vietnam (the non-communist side), which was in the midst of the Vietnam War. It was apparently in retaliation against imperialism, and an act of solidarity with their comrades fighting in Vietnam.

The Bukom Bombers

Armed with submachine guns and explosives, the four men pretended to be fishing enthusiasts, hiring a boatman to take them to sea in the morning of Jan 31, 1974. When the boat reached the Bukom area, the hijackers attacked the boatman and took over the craft to get to the oil refinery complex.

In the first of many screw-ups, they sailed their boat aground on a coral reef, but managed to trick a passing boatman into towing them to Bukom Island.

It was a series of bungled-up executions by the terrorists when they reached the island. An attempt to hijack a vehicle to drive deeper into the refinery failed; explosives were planted at three oil tanks but the blasts only caused minimal damage; firemen extinguished the fires pretty quickly; remaining explosives failed to detonate.

By that time, marine police had received news of the bomb attack. But the four hijackers managed to board the Laju, a ferry operating between Bukom and the mainland. Five crew members onboard were taken hostage as they were forced to sail into international waters while the authorities chased them down. Soon enough, Laju stopped at the Eastern Anchorage as police and navy boats surrounded it.

Negotiations began. The four were dubbed the Bukom Bombers.

Days of intense negotiations followed, during which two hostages even escaped by jumping overboard at night. The hijackers eventually agreed to release the remaining hostages, but demanded a flight out to Kuwait as well as a group of guarantors to accompany them to ensure safe passage.

Nobody had experience in a hostage situation — this was Singapore’s first encounter with international terrorism, after all.

Assigned by the Prime Minister’s Office to take charge of the Laju incident, Nathan — then 49 — decided to lead a 13-men contingent as the guarantors.

“Mr Nathan was calm, cool and clear-headed throughout the crisis,” Tee Tua Ba, then officer-in-charge of the Marine Police, recently told The New Paper. “He understood the dynamics of the crisis as it unfolded, as well as the demands and pressures confronting me as commander on the ground.”

Escape from Singapore

It was on Feb 7 that the Bukom Bombers were taken to Paya Lebar Airport for their arranged flight. Nathan had assembled a team of eight government officials and four Singapore Armed Forces commandos. The terrorists surrendered their arms, released the hostages and boarded a specially arranged Japan Airlines aircraft. Two Japanese government officials and 12 Japan Airlines crew members were also on board the craft. They took flight the next afternoon.

Under the tutelage of Nathan, the flight safely arrived in Kuwait without much trouble. The matter was handed over to the Kuwait and Japanese governments, and Nathan even convinced the authorities to let the Singaporean contingent to disembark safely and board another plane home.

They returned as heroes. All members of the negotiating team received honours on National Day that year — the Meritorious Service Medal. No one was seriously injured or hurt during the crisis, and all Singaporeans involved managed to escape the first brush with international terrorism unscathed, all thanks to the leadership of Nathan. Years later, he would lead his countrymen on a much bigger scale as the sixth president of Singapore.