Presidents of Singapore •
Devan Nair (1923–2005), third
president of Singapore (1981–1985) and former head of the
National Trades Union Congress (NTUC), the umbrella body for trade unions in Singapore. Widely seen as the founder of the modern trades union movement in Singapore. During Singapore's brief membership of Malaysia, Nair was the only individual to win for the
People's Action Party (PAP) a national seat in the
Federal Parliament in Kuala Lumpur. •
S. R. Nathan (1924–2016), sixth president (1999–2011). As a civil servant, he served as
Permanent Secretary at the
Home Affairs and
Foreign Affairs Ministries. He was also Director of the
Security and Intelligence Division,
The Straits Times,
Singapore Press Holdings and the
Singapore Mint. From 1990 to 1996, he was Ambassador to the United States, and subsequently an
Ambassador-at-Large. •
Tharman Shanmugaratnam (born 1957), ninth and current president (since 2023). As a PAP politician, he served as the Minister for Social Policies (Senior),
Education, and
Finance and
Deputy Prime Minister.
Cabinet ministers •
Sinnathamby Rajaratnam (1915–2006) – Singapore's first Foreign Minister, Culture Minister and Senior Minister, as well as a former Labour Minister and Deputy Prime Minister. Widely regarded as one of the core members of the "old guard", or the founding fathers of Modern Singapore, he cofounded the
People's Action Party as well as
ASEAN. In the wake of the
1964 Race Riots in Singapore, he wrote the
Singapore National Pledge, which enshrines the ideals of the nation. He was from a Sri Lankan Tamil Hindu background and was married to a
Hungarian woman. Both were secular agnostics. • Mr
Suppiah Dhanabalan (1937) – Current Chairman of
DBS Bank and
Temasek Holdings. former Minister of Trade and Industry, National Development, Foreign Affairs, Culture and Community Development in the 1980s and 1990s. He was publicly mentioned by Singapore's first Prime Minister as one of the four men he considered as his successor, but he decided against Dhanabalan as he felt Singapore was 'not ready' for a non-Chinese Prime Minister. He is an Indian Tamil Baptist married to a Chinese Singaporean Baptist. • Prof
Shunmugam Jayakumar (1939– ) – Former Co-ordinating Minister for National Security. Former Minister of Law, Labour, Home Affairs and Foreign Affairs. Member of the
ASEAN Eminent Persons Group, tasked with drafting an
ASEAN Charter. Previously Dean of the Law School at the
National University of Singapore and Ambassador to the UN (1971–1974). He is an Indian Tamil Hindu married to an Indian Tamil Hindu. • Dr
Vivian Balakrishnan (1961– ) – Minister for Foreign Affairs. He is the son of a Tamil ethnic origin Indian Singaporean father and a
Foochowese origin Chinese Singaporean mother. His wife is Chinese Singaporean and they are Christians. • Mr
K Shanmugam (1959-) – Minister of Law and Minister for Home Affairs. Mr Shanmugam was a four-term
backbench member 8 of parliament was a lawyer in private practice. He had been one of the youngest persons to have been appointed a
Senior Counsel in Singapore, as was widely seen as one of the nation's top litigators. He is an Indian Tamil Hindu Singaporean. • Mr
S Iswaran (1962– ) – Minister of Communications and Information. He was formerly a Colombo Plan scholar and the CEO of
Singapore Indian Development Association, the Indian community self-help group as well as managing director of
Temasek Holdings. • Ms
Indranee Rajah (1963– ) – Born to an ethnically
Tamil father and a
Cantonese origin Chinese Singaporean mother, Ms Indranee is a lawyer by training. She entered politics in 2001 was appointed Minister in the Prime Minister's office in 2018. She follows her mother's Christian faith.
Junior Ministers • Dr
Balaji Sadasivan (1955–2010) – He was Senior Minister of State at the Ministries of Foreign Affairs and Information, Communications and the Arts. He was formerly a neurosurgeon at Gleneagles Hospital. He was a South Indian Hindu. • Dr
Janil Puthucheary (1972-) – Was a paediatric intensivist prior to entering politics. Currently serves as a Senior Minister of State for the Ministries of Transport and Communications and Information. • Mr
Dinesh Vasu Dash (1974 - ) - After serving SAF for 23 years, he led the COVID-19 in his capacity as the director of its crisis strategy and operations group from June 2020 to October 2023. He resigned in April 2025 to contest for the GE2025 and was appointed Minister of State, Ministry of Culture, Community and Youth & Ministry of Manpower, Mayor, South East District and Member of Parliament for East Coast GRC. He is leading the INEI Committee to refresh the plans for the Indian community. • Mr
Murali Pillai (1967 - ) Mr Murali Pillai was a lawyer before being elected. In 2025, after the elections, he was appointed the Senior Minister of State, Ministry of Law & Ministry of Transport. He is co-leading the INEI Committee with Mr Dinesh Vasu Dash.
Opposition leaders •
Joshua Benjamin Jeyaretnam (1926–2008) – the first opposition politician to break the PAP monopoly on parliament when he won a by election in 1984. In the 1980s, he was the leader of the Workers' Party and was seen as the de facto leader of the Singapore opposition. He served several terms in Parliament as an MP before he was bankrupted by government lawsuits and disqualified from being an MP. He was a former magistrate and is currently a lawyer in private practice. He was from a Sri Lankan Tamil Christian background, and he married an Englishwoman. • Dr
Vincent Wijeysingha – prominent opposition politician. • Dr
James Gomez (1965– ) – is a prominent opposition politician and academic. He contested in Singapore's 2006 General Elections at Ajlunied GRC polling 44% as part of the
Workers' Party, Singapore team. Prior to entering politics, he founded in 1999
Think Centre a non-government organisation dedicated to promoting human rights, democracy and more open political discourse in Singapore. He is an Indian Catholic Singaporean of Goan descent. He is presently Lecturer at Monash University, Australia. •
Pritam Singh (1976– ) – Current Secretary-General of the Workers' Party, the largest opposition party in Singapore. He entered politics in 2006, and was elected into Parliament in 2011.
Members of parliament •
S Ramaswamy – Legislative Assembly & 1st – 2nd Parliament •
S V Lingam – Legislative Assembly & 1st Parliament •
Avadai Dhanam Lakshimi – 1st Parliament •
S Rajoo – 1st Parliament •
S T Bani – 1st Parliament •
P Coomaraswamy – 1st – 2nd Parliament •
Perumal Govindaswamy – 1st – 4th Parliament •
P Selvadurai – 1st – 5th Parliament •
N Govindasamy – 2nd – 4th Parliament •
S Chandra Das – (manager) 5th – 8th Parliament • Dr
S Vasoo – (academic) 6th – 9th Parliament •
Davinder Singh – (lawyer) 7th – 10th Parliament •
R Sinnakaruppan – 8th – 9th Parliament •
Ravindran s/o Ramasamy – 9th – 10th Parliament •
Inderjit Singh – (entrepreneur) 9th – 12th Parliament •
Hri Kumar Nair – (lawyer) 11th-12th Parliament •
Vikram Nair – (lawyer) 12th Parliament-present •
Darryl David (media personality/educator) 13th Parliament- present. Mixed parentage of an Indian father and a Chinese mother. •
SV Lingam - Member of Parliament, 1959–1968 •
PV Sharma - former Member of Parliament and communist leader • Dr
Hamid Razak - (doctor) - Member of Parliament, 2025 -
Nominated MPs • Dr
Kanwaljit Soin – Neurosurgeon & activist (8th Parliament); First female NMP in Singapore •
Braema Mathi – Journalist & activist (9th Parliament) •
Chandra Mohan K Nair – Lawyer (9th Parliament) •
Thomas Thomas – Unionist (9th Parliament) •
Shriniwas Rai – Lawyer (9th Parliament) •
A Nithiah Nandan – Unionist (10th Parliament) • Prof
Kalyani Mehta – Academic (11th Parliament) •
Gautam Banerjee Chairman, PricewaterhouseCoopers (11th Parliament) •
Viswa Sadasivan – CEO, Strategic Moves (11th Parliament) •
R Dhinakaran – Managing director, Jay Gee Melwani Group (12th Parliament) •
Karthikeyan s/o R. Krishnamurthy – Unionist (12th Parliament) •
Ganesh Rajaram – Executive vice-president, FremantleMedia International Asia branch (13th Parliament) •
Mahdev Mohan – Lawyer/Legal Academic (13th Parliament) •
K Thanaletchmi – Unionist (13th Parliament) •
Arasu Duraisamy – Unionist (13th Parliament) •
Abbas Ali Mohamed Irshad – President, Roses for Peace NGO (13th Parliament) • Sanjeev Kumar Tiwari – Unionist (15th Parliament) • Dr Haresh Singaraju - Family Physician (15th Parliament) ==Arts and culture==