Q: At what point did you come to a decision that you will give in-principle approval to draw on the reserves?

President Nathan: I knew it was coming. I can't say specifically when I decided. I had to wait for the advice from the CPA before I could firmly say I would say aye or nay.

Q: Having gone through this process, are there any areas in process or procedures leading to unlocking the reserves that you needed to fine-tune?

President Nathan: I think the process, whether you take it for 11 days or one month, will be the same. Only it takes a longer time to deliberate, and whether it's necessary. If we had the luxury of time of course we'd have taken a longer time. But the circumstances were such, people's confidence had to be restored. We could have waited longer. It would have been much (more) difficult to fix anything at that stage.

Q: Was there any pressure from anyone within the CPA for you to act quicker?

President Nathan: No, nothing. Well, the target was the Budget. That was set. So whatever decision that had to be made had to be made in time.

Q: What did you discuss with the Minister for Finance?

President Nathan: That's between me and him. Because we would have asked all the relevant questions that we wanted to satisfy ourselves.

Q: Would you have hoped that this request had not come?

President Nathan: Given the circumstances, given what was happening, I think everybody was wondering how are we going to meet this. We were not sure how revenue would fall, what schemes (to) have to fix what thing. So it was vague at that time. Of course all the time I wished you don't have to draw on that (the past reserves).

Q: You said you're obliged to explain. But are you obliged to give a press conference?

President Nathan: No. I can give a one-line statement in Parliament.

Q: Under what circumstances would you have said no to unlocking the reserves?

President Nathan: If they came with scatterbrained proposals I would have said no.

Q: Would you prefer the guidelines to tapping the reserves be fixed or flexible?

President Nathan: I think it should be flexible because, you know, you cannot envisage every situation that will come for which you will have to decide. So each situation will merit its own attention.

This article was first published in The Straits Times.