K. Shanmugam

Kasiviswanathan Shanmugam SC (born 26 March 1959), better known as K. Shanmugam, is a Singaporean politician and former lawyer. A member of the governing People's Action Party (PAP) , he was appointed as the Minister for Law and the Minister for Home Affairs by Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong. He was elected as the People's Action Party Central Executive Committee Treasurer.

In this Indian name, the name Kasiviswanathan is a patronymic, and the person should be referred to by the given name, Shanmugam.
The Honourable

K. Shanmugam

SC, MP
காசிவிஸ்வநாதன் சண்முகம்
Shanmugam in 2013
Minister for Home Affairs
Assumed office
1 October 2015
Prime MinisterLee Hsien Loong
Preceded byTeo Chee Hean
ConstituencyNee Soon GRC
In office
1 November 2010 – 20 May 2011
Prime MinisterLee Hsien Loong
Preceded byWong Kan Seng
Succeeded byTeo Chee Hean
Minister for Law
Assumed office
1 May 2008
Prime MinisterLee Hsien Loong
Preceded byS. Jayakumar
ConstituencyNee Soon GRC
Member of the Singapore Parliament
for Nee Soon GRC
(Chong Pang)
Assumed office
21 May 2011
Minister for Foreign Affairs
In office
21 May 2011 – 30 September 2015
Prime MinisterLee Hsien Loong
Preceded byGeorge Yeo
Succeeded byVivian 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 partyPeople's Action Party
Spouse(s)
Seetha Subbiah
​
(m. 2008)​
; Jothie Rajah (divorced)
Children2 (from prev. marriage)[1]
Alma materNational University of Singapore

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 he went on to read law at the National University of Singapore's Faculty of Law, where he graduated at the top of his class with a LL.B. (first class honours) 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 Singaporean 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 at the age of 38.[2]

At the age of 29, 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 (since 2008)

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 criticized 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]

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.[7]

Shanmugam was a member of the Select Committee on Deliberate Online Falsehoods, where he questioned Simon Milner, Facebook's Vice President of Public Policy for Asia-Pacific, about the misuse of online data by Cambridge Analytica.[8]

Other appointments

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

Directorships
  • Non-Executive Director of Sembcorp Industries (July 1998 to April 2008)[9]
  • Director of Asia Food & Properties (July 1997- 2001)[10]
  • Director of Golden Agri-Resources (May 1999 - 2001)[10]

Personal life

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

References
  1. "Free". April 2, 2008. Archived from the original on April 2, 2008.
  2. "Tempering the law with compassion". The Straits Times. 4 November 2012. Archived from the original on 21 January 2016. Retrieved 12 November 2016 – via AsiaOne.
  3. Law Minister Jayakumar says K Shanmugam will be asset to cabinet Archived 2008-09-28 at the Wayback Machine, channelnewsasia.com, 29 March 2008
  4. PM Lee announces sweeping changes to Cabinet Archived 2011-05-28 at the Wayback Machine, channelnewsasia.com, 18 May 2011
  5. Shanmugam, K. "Member's Profile". GOVERNMENT OF SINGAPORE. Archived from the original on 28 September 2015. Retrieved 2 December 2015.
  6. Lim, Yan Liang (18 September 2016). "Changes to elected presidency seek to improve system, not bar certain individuals: Shanmugam". The Straits Times. Archived from the original on 12 August 2017. Retrieved 12 August 2017.
  7. "Shanmugam: Gap in CBT law to be plugged soon". The Straits Times. February 6, 2018. Archived from the original on January 2, 2020. Retrieved February 25, 2020.
  8. "Minister Shanmugam grills Facebook representative for 3 hours at parliamentary hearing". Mothership.sg. Archived from the original on 2020-02-25. Retrieved 2020-02-25.
  9. "Sembcorp Industries Annual Report 2008 - Delivering Essential Solutions". www.sembcorp.com. Archived from the original on 2017-09-11. Retrieved 2017-09-11.
  10. Lim, Leonard (2013-06-25). "MFA seeks answers from Jakarta to conflicting views on whether Singapore firms caused haze". The Straits Times. Archived from the original on 2017-09-10. Retrieved 2017-09-11.



Political offices
Preceded by
S. Jayakumar		 Minister for Law
2008 – present		 Incumbent
Preceded by
Wong Kan Seng		 Minister for Home Affairs
2010 – 2011		 Succeeded by
Teo Chee Hean
Preceded by
George Yeo		 Minister for Foreign Affairs
2011 – 2015		 Succeeded by
Vivian Balakrishnan
Preceded by
Teo Chee Hean		 Minister for Home Affairs
2015 – present		 Incumbent
Parliament of Singapore
New constituency Member of Parliament for
Sembawang GRC (Chong Pang)
1988 – 2011		 Constituency redrawn
New constituency Member of Parliament for
Nee Soon GRC (Chong Pang)
2011 – present		 Incumbent
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