NEW POLITICAL ERA FOR THE CITY-STATE

Saro Thiruppathy profiles the political, professional and personal life of Singapore’s new president who swept into power in September

Tharman Shanmugaratnam succeeded former president Halimah Yacob and was sworn in as the ninth President of Singapore on 14 September.

Shanmugaratnam made history when he secured a landslide victory with 70.4 percent of the popular vote. Widely known by the mononym ‘Tharman,’ he has held senior posts in the government of the ruling People’s Action Party (PAP). He resigned from all his portfolios after announcing his candidacy for the presidential election.

His opponents in the race to the top job included Ng Kok Song and Tan Kin Lian. Tan was backed by opposition heavyweights but garnered only 13.88 percent of the vote. Normally, about 30 percent of votes in general elections go to the opposition candidate. In this instance however, there was a serious shift in voting preferences.

Though he was popular even while in government, the PAP didn’t consider Tharman to be a potential successor to Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong. When explaining why he was not a suitable candidate in 2019, Deputy Prime Minister Heng Swee Keat said that older Singaporeans weren’t ready for a non-Chinese premier.

Nevertheless, surveys had shown that Singaporeans – especially the younger generation – were less concerned with race. And the 66-year-old Tharman’s resounding victory at the polls in the recent presidential election is probably laying the race card to rest since he was obviously backed by a large Chinese majority.

Analysts also feel that the PAP may not have considered him as the ideal choice for the post of prime minister because he’s seen as being more inde­pendent in thought than his peers. It was also felt that he was leaning more to the left.

Meanwhile, the PAP has chosen Finance Minister Lawrence Wong as Lee’s successor if the party wins the next general elections in 2025. Wong was appointed Singapore’s Deputy Prime Minister in June 2022 and is serving alongside Heng.

At a post-election interview, Shanmugaratnam noted that the decision to name Wong as Lee’s successor was one of the factors that helped him decide to contest the presidential election.

He explained: “It is actually a new era that we have entered. Singapore society is changing, Singapore politics is changing, and I think the relationship between the president and the new prime minister should be a constructive one. And I believe we can make that work.”

Tharman can hold office as president for two six-year terms and if the PAP wins the general elections in 2025, the Wong-Tharman team could take Singapore to new heights.

POLITICAL LIFE Before throwing his hat into the ring for the presidential election, Tharman was a member of the PAP and the MP representing the Taman Jurong division of Jurong GRC from 2001 to 2023.

He was the Deputy Prime Minister of Singapore between 2011 and 2019, Minister for Finance from 2007 to 2015 and Minister for Education from 2003 till 2008.

Tharman entered politics in the 2001 general elections and was re-elected four times to parliament – in 2006, 2011, 2015 and 2020.

In June this year, he announced his intention to contest the presidential election, and resigned from all his government posts and membership of the PAP on 7 July.

And on 2 September, following his landslide victory, Tharman was declared the winner and elected as the ninth president of Singapore. In addition to being the first non-Chinese candidate to win the contested election, he also received the highest number of popular votes in the history of the country’s presidential elections.

PROFESSIONAL LIFE Tharman is an economist by profession. In addition to his various posts in government, he chaired the Board of Trustees of the Group of Thirty and co-chaired the Global Commission on the Economics of Water.

He also co-chaired the G20 High Level Independent Panel on Global Financing for Pandemic Preparedness and Response since 2021. And earlier in 2017, he chaired the G20 Eminent Persons Group on Global Financial Governance.

Shanmugaratnam was on the Board of Trustees of the World Economic Forum and a member of the UN Secretary-General’s High Level Advisory Board on Effective Multilateralism. And he was also the first Asian chair of the International Monetary and Financial Committee (IMFC), which is the policy advisory committee of the IMF, from 2011 to 2014.

And between 2019 and 2022,  Tharman co-chaired the Advisory Board of the Human Development Report of the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP).

PERSONAL LIFE The new president’s ancestry includes Sri Lankan-Tamil and Indian heritage. His father Emeritus Prof. K. Shanmugaratnam was a medical scientist who was known as the ‘father of pathology in Singapore.’

Tharman has been married to Singaporean lawyer Jane Yumiko Ittogi for 33 years; and together, they have a daughter and three sons. He was actively engaged in sports in his youth.