K. Shanmugam

K. Shanmugam SC MP
காசிவிஸ்வநாதன் சண்முகம்
Minister for Home Affairs
Incumbent
Assumed office 1 October 2015
Prime Minister	Lee Hsien Loong
Preceded by	Teo Chee Hean
In office 1 November 2010 – 20 May 2011
Prime Minister	Lee Hsien Loong
Preceded by	Wong Kan Seng
Succeeded by	Teo Chee Hean
Minister for Law
Incumbent
Assumed office 1 May 2008
Prime Minister	Lee Hsien Loong
Preceded by	S. Jayakumar
Member of the Singapore Parliament for Nee Soon GRC (Chong Pang)
Incumbent
Assumed office 21 May 2011
Minister for Foreign Affairs
In office 21 May 2011 – 30 September 2015
Prime Minister	Lee Hsien Loong
Preceded by	George Yeo
Succeeded by	Vivian Balakrishnan
Member of the Singapore Parliament for Sembawang GRC (Chong Pang)
In office 3 September 1988 – 18 April 2011
Personal details
Born	Kasiviswanathan Shanmugam (1959-03-26) 26 March 1959 Singapore
Political party	People's Action Party
Spouse(s)	Seetha Subbiah (m. 2008) ; Jothie Rajah (div. 2008)
Children	2 (from prev. marriage)[1]
Alma mater	National University of Singapore

Kasiviswanathan Shanmugam SC, (Tamil: காசிவிஸ்வநாதன் சண்முகம்; born 26 March 1959), better known as K. Shanmugam, is a Singaporean politician and lawyer. A member of the governing People's Action Party (PAP), he has been the Minister for Law since May 2008 and the Minister for Home Affairs since October 2015, a post which he had briefly served from November 2010 to May 2011. He previously served as the Minister for Foreign Affairs from May 2011 to September 2015. He has been a Member of Parliament (MP) since 1988 representing the Sembawang Group Representation Constituency (1988-2011) and the Nee Soon Group Representation Constituency (since 2011), serving the Chong Pang ward in both constituencies.

Education

Shanmugam was educated in Raffles Institution from 1972 to 1977, before going on to study law at the National University of Singapore where he graduated at the top of his class with a First Class Honours degree in 1984.

Early career

After being admitted to the Singapore Bar as an advocate and solicitor in 1985, Shanmugam went into private practice and became a Senior Partner and Head of Litigation and Dispute Resolution at the Singapore law firm Allen & Gledhill.

Shanmugam had a successful practice and was consistently recognised in various international publications as one of the top litigation, arbitration and insolvency counsel in Asia. While he was in private practice, he regularly handled trial work in major corporate, commercial, insolvency disputes for private and public listed companies, major international and Singaporean banking and financial institutions, multinational corporations and professional practices.

In 1998, Shanmugam became one of the youngest lawyers to be appointed a Senior Counsel of the Supreme Court of Singapore at the age of 38.^[2]

Shanmugam became a Member of Parliament (MP) in 1988 when he was elected as a member for the Group Representation Constituency (GRC) of Sembawang.

Minister for Law (2008 - present)

Shanmugam served as an MP and continued to practise law until 2008, when he was brought into the Cabinet to replace S. Jayakumar as Minister for Law.^[3] He was concurrently made the Second Minister for Home Affairs in 2008, and succeeded Wong Kan Seng as Minister for Home Affairs in 2010.

Following the 2011 general election, Shanmugam relinquished his portfolio as Minister for Home Affairs and was made the Minister for Foreign Affairs, while continuing to serve as Minister for Law.^[4] As of 2015, Shanmugam remains as a Member of Parliament serving Chong Pang.^[5]

Following Shanmugam's remarks on changes to the qualifying criteria for Singapore's elected presidency, he was slammed by former presidential candidate Tan Cheng Bock for pre-empting the legislative process and the Presidential Elections Committee, which decides the eligibility of candidates for the Singapore presidential elections.^[6]

On 15 November 2017, Shanmugam wrote in his Facebook to defend Transport Minister Khaw Boon Wan, who faced increased calls for resignation over a litany of train disruptions and recent train collision at Joo Koon MRT station which injured over 30 passengers. He wrote, "People naturally ask why these problems are recurring. They are fed up, despite the overall improvement in transport... I am confident Minister Khaw will sort things out... Since then there have been significant improvements..." His remarks sparked widespread criticisms online, with some calling him out for being insensitive, clueless and shameless.^[7]

In February 2018, Shanmugam said that Singapore would change its criminal breach of trust (CBT) laws to address concerns that company directors and key officers of charities would face less harsh maximum punishments for CBT offences than their employees.^[8]

In March 2018 he asked Simon Milner, Vice President of Public Policy for Asia-Pacific, whether Facebook has been full, frank, and honest about the data breaches in the Cambridge Analytica case. The exchange took place at the 22 March hearing of the Select Committee on Deliberate Online Falsehoods. His precise questioning can be viewed here ^[9] and was viewed more than 82,000 times on Youtube (as of 27th March 2018).

Other appointments

Shanmugam served on the board of directors for several companies before his appointment to the Singapore Cabinet.

Personal life

A part of the Tamil diaspora, Shanmugam has been married to psychologist Dr Seetha Shanmugam since 2008. He was previously married to Dr Jothie Rajah, a legal academic and daughter of former Judicial Commissioner K. S. Rajah.

References

External links

• K. Shanmugam on Facebook
• Profile of K Shanmugam at Prime Minister's Office website

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