Tharman Shanmugaratnam began his career as an economist in 1982 at the Monetary Authority of Singapore (MAS), the country’s de facto central bank. From 1982 to 1992, he held various positions at MAS, including Senior Economist, Assistant Director and Deputy Director. In 1995, he was appointed Director of the Economics Department of MAS, a position he held for two years. He was appointed as Special Assistant to the President on September 1, 1997, and served until November 30, 1997. On 1 December 1997, he rejoined the Monetary Authority of Singapore as Deputy Chief Executive, Banking and Financial Supervision. On April 1, 2001, he was appointed Managing Director of MAS until October 22, 2001.
Ministry of Education
He worked at MAS for 13 years before moving to an administrative position in the Ministry of Education in April 1995. There he was appointed Undersecretary for Policy, a position he held until September 1997. On September 16, 1997, he became Senior Policy Minister. Deputy Secretary-General of the Ministry of Education, until November 30, 1997.
International organizations
International Monetary Fund
In 2011, Tharman Shanmugaratnam was appointed chairman of the International Monetary and Financial Committee (IMFC), a policy advisory committee of the International Monetary Fund (IMF), becoming the first Asian to serve as chairman of the committee. He held this position until 2014. He is also one of the candidates on the shortlist to be the next president of the International Monetary Fund in 2019.
Tharman Shanmugaratnam and Gita Gopinath at the International Monetary Fund
Group of Twenty (G20)
In April 2017, Tharman Shanmugaratnam was selected by the G20 to lead a task force called the G20 Eminent Persons Group (EPG) on Global Financial Governance. Then, in January 2021, Tharman Shanmugaratnam was once again selected by the G20, this time to co-lead another important group called the G20 High-level Independent Panel (HLIP) on financing global pandemic preparedness and response commons.
Tharman Shangaratnam’s activities at the G20 Summit
Group of Thirty (G30)
On January 1, 2017, Tharman Shanmugaratnam took over as chairman of the Group of Thirty, which is composed of important global economic and financial leaders. He leads the team until 2023.
Tharman Shanmugaratnam presides over G30 meeting
United Nations Development Program (UNDP)
On May 22, 2019, Tharman Shanmugaratnam was appointed by the United Nations Development Program (UNDP) as co-chairman of the 2019 Human Development Report (HDR) Advisory Committee. He was reappointed to the same position in the 2020 and 2021 Human Development Reports.
World Economic Forum (WEF)
In May 2019, Tharman Shanmugaratnam was appointed to the Board of Directors of the World Economic Forum (WEF).
.@shangman_S Says that the world we live in now is a “world built around shocks,” and that shocks are only exacerbated by pushing the boundaries of the planet.
Watch the meeting at #wef23：https://t.co/2US6pfOHyP pic.twitter.com/HHfGha1zh3
— World Economic Forum (@wef) January 19, 2023
United Nations (UN)
In March 2022, Tharman Shanmugaratnam was appointed as a member of the United Nations Secretary-General’s High-Level Advisory Committee on Effective Multilateralism. He also serves as co-chair of the Global Water Economy Commission. The committee’s initial recommendations played a role in shaping the outcome of the United Nations Water Conference in March 2023.
Tharman Shanmugaratnam (third from left) and co-chairman of the United Nations Global Water Commission
politics
Tharman Shanmugaratnam made his political debut in the 2001 general election as the People’s Action Party candidate from Jurong Garden subdivision in Jurong GRC, Singapore. He won with 79.75% of the vote and was appointed Senior Minister of State for Trade and Industry and Senior Minister of State for Education. In December 2002, he was elected as a member of the Central Executive Committee of the People’s Action Party. In 2003, Tharman Shanmugaratnam joined the cabinet as Minister of Education, a position he held until 2008. Tharman Shanmugaratnam successfully ran for the Jurong GRC seat in five consecutive elections in 2001, 2006, 2011, 2015 and 2020. He was also appointed Minister of Education as Second Minister of Finance and concurrently as Minister of Education. He became Minister of Finance on December 1, 2007.
Tharman Shangaratnam (top row, far left) won Jurong GRC with 75%
After the 2011 general election, Tharman Shanmugaratnam was appointed Deputy Prime Minister of Singapore while continuing to serve as Finance Minister. He also served as Manpower Minister from 2011 to 2012. In May 2011, he was appointed as the second assistant secretary-general of the People’s Action Party (PAP). After serving as Finance Minister for nine years, he resigned on September 30, 2015. After the 2015 general election, Tharman remained as Deputy Prime Minister and was further appointed as Coordinating Minister for Economic and Social Policy in October 2015.
Tharman Shangaratnam delivered a speech at the event as Deputy Prime Minister of Singapore
On April 23, 2019, as part of the cabinet reshuffle, Tharman announced that he would serve as a senior minister starting from May 1, 2019. He resigned as Deputy Prime Minister and concurrently served as Coordinating Minister for Social Policy, providing economic policy advice to the Prime Minister.
Tharman Shanmugaratnam and Singapore Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong
On July 6, 2023, Tharman Tharman resigned from all official and political positions he held in the government to contest the 2023 Singapore presidential election.
Shangaranan during the election campaign
Tharman Shanmugaratnam and two other candidates, Ng Kok Sung and Tan Kin Lian, are eligible to run for president. Tharman Shanmugaratnam won the election with 70.4% of the vote.
dispute
Official Secrets Act Cases
In 1992, Tharman Shanmugaratnam, then director of the Economic Department of the Monetary Authority of Singapore (the central bank of Singapore), was accused of violating the Official Secrets Act for announcing Singapore’s GDP growth forecast for the second quarter of 1992 at the central bank of Singapore. Business Times newspaper. Tharman denied the accusation and was eventually acquitted. However, prosecutors raised a lesser charge of negligence, claiming that Tharman obtained the data from a document he had with him during a meeting with a private-sector economist. Tharman defended himself but was still convicted and fined S$1,500.
Awards, Honors, Achievements
- 2010 Honorary Fellow of the Singapore Economic Association
- Euromoney Finance Minister of the Year 2013
- Won the National Trade Union Congress (NTUC) Medal of Honor in 2017
Tharman Shanmugaratnam receives the Medal of Honor from the National Trade Union Congress
- Institute of International Finance’s Inaugural Outstanding Leadership and Service Awards 2019
salary
As the President of Singapore, Tharman Shanmugaratnam’s monthly salary is S$1,28,333 and his annual income is S$1.54 million.
Favorites
- Food: Chai Tow Kway, Ikan Tenggiri Tapang Fish
Facts/Trivia
- A student activist while studying in the UK in the 1970s, Tharman initially held socialist beliefs, but his views on economics evolved throughout his working life.
- He is fluent in four languages: English, Tamil, Malay and Chinese.
- As early as 1978, Tharman Shanmugaratnam wrote a collection of poems “But We Have No Legend” with his classmates Zhou Jingquan and Yang Nanqiang. He contributed four poems to this collection. At the time, the trio was associated with the National Library’s Young Writers’ Circle. In a 2015 interview, Tharman recalled those days and revealed that he never considered himself a poet.
- He chose pineapple as his campaign symbol for the 2023 Singapore presidential election on the grounds that pineapple is considered a symbol of prosperity in China and India and contains vitamin C and thiamine, which promote the production of happy hormones. His campaign slogan was “Respect for All.”
Tharman Shanmugaratnam campaigns ahead of presidential election
- He follows a non-vegetarian diet.
- In 2010, he became the fourth person to be awarded the title of Honorary Fellow of the Singapore Economic Society.
- An active sportsman in his youth, Tharman emphasized the role of sports in his life. In an interview, he talked about sports as a form of education and said:
Children learn the value of a team. They learn the discipline of repetitive practice and how to develop expertise in no other way. Also, the ability to fall or fail in competition and humbly get back up. “
- Tharman Shanmugaratnam began practicing Chinese calligraphy in 2002.
- Tharman Shanmugaratnam leads the National SkillsFuture programme. It provides every Singaporean with opportunities to develop themselves or discover new interests at every stage of life.
- Tharman Shanmugaratnam is the chairman of the Ong Teng Cheong Labor Leadership Institute. He also serves as Chairman of the Board of Directors of SINDA (Singapore Indian Development Association), an association dedicated to improving the educational performance and aspirations of the Indian community in Singapore.
Tharman Shanmugaratnam (middle) presents awards to artists at the SINDA Awards Ceremony
- The 2023 presidential election is the first contested presidential election since 2011. Prior to this, Singapore’s current president and first female president, Halimah Yacob, was elected without any elections because no other candidates were eligible to run.
- In 2016, Yahoo News conducted a poll asking people to vote for then-Prime Minister Lee Myung-bak’s successor.
Tharman won with nearly 70% of voters, but he himself has previously said that he does not consider himself prime minister. Talking about this issue in an interview, he said,
I’m good at policymaking, I’m good at advising younger colleagues and I’m good at supporting the Prime Minister – not being the Prime Minister. not me. ” ((YouTube – The Straits Times)
- Tharman Shanmugaratnam received Singapore’s national honor Pingat Bakti Masyarakat, a public service medal. Recipients of this award may use the suffix letters PBM after their names.
- Tharman Shanmugaratnam is Singapore’s first non-Chinese president to win a controversial election in a Chinese-dominated society.
- He is the third Indian-origin president to serve as the President of India after Sellapan Ramanathan and Chengara Veetil Devan Nair.
Categories: Biography
Source: HIS Education