Tamil-Origin Tharman Shanmugaratnam Sworn In As Singapore President

New Delhi: Tamil-origin economist Tharman Shanmugaratnam was sworn in as Singapore’s president on Thursday.

Tharman succeeds President Halimah Yacob, Singapore’s first female president, whose term ended on September 13.

Tharman has served as a senior minister Singapore between 2019 and 2023, as a coordinating minister for social policies between 2015 and 2023, and the Chairman of the Monetary Authority of Singapore between 2011 and 2023.

He also served as Singapore’s Deputy Prime Minister from May 2011 to May 2019.

Tharman co-chairs the Global Commission on the Economics of Water with Ngozi Owonjo-Iweala, Mariana Mazzucato and Johan Rockström. He is also a member of Board of Trustees of the World Economic Forum.

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Tharman is also a member of the United Nations Secretary-General’s High-Level Advisory Board on Effective Multilateralism. This panel is set to make recommendations on Effective Multilateralism for the UN Summit of the Future next year.

According to a report by news agency PTI, 66-year-old Tharman won 70.4 per cent of the total votes cast, while his Chinese-origin presidential contenders Ng Kok Song and Tan Kin Lian got 15.72 per cent and 13.88 per cent of the votes respectively. The elections were held on September 1.

As per reports, after the overseas votes were added up, which were counted on Tuesday, the total number of ballots cast, including the rejected votes, stood at 2,534,711.

It is to be noted that in the past, Singapore has had two Indian-origin presidents. Sellapan Ramanathan, popularly known as SR Nathan, a politician and civil servant of Tamil descent, served as the president of Singapore. In 2009, Nathan defeated Benjamin Sheares to become Singapore’s longest-serving president.

Chengara Veetil Devan Nair, popularly called Devan Nair, served as the third president of Singapore from 1981 till he resigned in 1985. Born in 1923 in Malacca, Malaysia, Devan Nair was the son of a rubber plantation clerk who originally hailed from Thalassery in Kerala.