# K. Shanmugam

Kasiviswanathan Shanmugam SC (Tamil: காசிவிஸ்வநாதன் சண்முகம், romanized: Kācivisvanātaṉ Caṇmukam; born 26 March 1959), better known as K. Shanmugam, is a Singaporean politician and lawyer who has been serving as Minister for Law since 2008 and Minister for Home Affairs since 2015. A member of the governing People's Action Party (PAP), he has been the Member of Parliament (MP) representing the Chong Pang division of Nee Soon GRC since 2011.
A lawyer by profession, Shanmugam made a name for himself in litigation, arbitration and insolvency cases before he entered politics. In 1998, at the age of 38, he was one of the youngest lawyers in Singapore to be appointed Senior Counsel. Along with Davinder Singh, he was known as one of the "twin titans of litigation" and a prominent figure in Singapore's legal circles. Shanmugam has acted for former prime ministers in civil lawsuits.

## Education

Shanmugam was educated at Raffles Institution from 1972 to 1977. He went on to read law at the National University of Singapore's Faculty of Law and graduated in 1984.
During his time in law school, Shanmugam earned several awards, book prizes and scholarships for being the top student from his first to third years and for academic merit (1982–1983). He also won the Montrose Memorial Prize for Jurisprudence (1984).
Shanmugam was awarded the Adrian Clarke Memorial Medal, the Leow Chia Heng Prize and the External Examiner's Prize (1984) for being the top law student of his graduating class and top student in the final-year examinations. He also represented Singapore in the Philip C. Jessup International Law Moot Court Competition in 1984, in which his team won Runner-Up in the International Division.

## Legal 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 Allen & Gledhill.
In 1998, Shanmugam became one of the youngest lawyers to be appointed Senior Counsel of the Supreme Court at the age of 38.
Shanmugam has acted for Singapore's Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong and his predecessors (Lee Kuan Yew and Goh Chok Tong) in lawsuits. In 1995, the International Herald Tribune selected Shanmugam to represent them after the Lees and Goh initiated a civil libel lawsuit against the newspaper. Lee Kuan Yew later stated that the Tribune's decision to choose Shanmugam to represent them even though he was a People's Action Party member and was close to the Lees and Goh, was the highest form of praise to the Senior Counsel's integrity and to the integrity of the Singapore Government as a whole.

## Political career

At the age of 29, Shanmugam entered politics when he joined the People's Action Party (PAP) team contesting in Sembawang GRC in the 1988 general election. The PAP team won and Shanmugam was elected the Member of Parliament representing the Chong Pang division of Sembawang GRC.
Shanmugam served as a Member of Parliament and continued to practise law until 2008 when he joined the Cabinet to replace S. Jayakumar as Minister for Law. He was concurrently appointed 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 appointed Minister for Foreign Affairs, while continuing to serve concurrently as Minister for Law. As of 2015, Shanmugam remains as a Member of Parliament representing Chong Pang ward, which had become part of Nee Soon GRC.
Following Shanmugam's remarks on changes to the qualifying criteria for Singapore's elected presidency, he was criticised 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 presidential election.
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 lower maximum penalties for CBT offences compared to their employees.
Shanmugam was a member of the Select Committee on Deliberate Online Falsehoods formed in 2018. During the public hearings, he questioned Simon Milner, Facebook's Vice President of Public Policy for Asia-Pacific, about the misuse of online data by Cambridge Analytica., and crossed swords with historian Thum Ping Tjin over a paper about Operation Coldstore written by Thum in 2013.
After being re-elected by the people of Nee Soon GRC in the general elections of 2015 and 2020, Shanmugam was named to the corresponding new Cabinets as the Minister of Law and the Minister of Home Affairs.
Shanmugam has long served on the Central Executive Committee of the PAP, which is the party's highest decision-making body.
In 2021, after the passing of the Foreign Interference (Countermeasures) Act 2021, activist Thum Ping Tjin claimed that the bill was a "coup" attempt by Shanmugam as Minister for Home Affairs, making him "the most powerful man in Singapore". Shanmugam has refuted the claim.
In 2023, Shanmugam and Vivian Balakrishnan were investigated by the Corrupt Practices Investigation Bureau for their rentals of state-owned bungalows at Ridout Road. The CPIB subsequently found that neither Shanmugam nor Balakrishnan had committed any wrongdoing.
In September 2024, Singapore Democratic Party leader Chee Soon Juan, in an open letter, expressed concern over the lack of transparency and media coverage of Shanmugam's sale of his Good Class Bungalow at Astrid Hill. Despite the apparent conflict of interest, Shanmugam has refrained from commenting about the sale to the Singapore media.
A voter sentiment survey conducted in June 2024 found that Shanmugam was the most polarising politician in Singapore. The gap in Shanmugam's likeability between PAP supporters and opposition supporters was found to be the highest.
On 16 December 2024, Shanmugam announced that he was initiating legal action against various media outlets, including Bloomberg, in respect of an article about good class bungalow transactions in Singapore mentioning property transactions involving Shanmugam and Tan See Leng. Shanmugam and Tan both alleged that the article was libellous.

### As Minister for Law

During Shanmugam's tenure as Minister for Law, some changes to the criminal and family justice system were effected. These include:
* Overhaul of the existing Penal Code, to modernise Singapore's criminal laws and enhance protection for the vulnerable in society, such as women and children.
* Enactment of the Protection from Harassment Act, to provide remedies and recourse for victims of harassment, online bullying and stalking. Subsequent amendments fortified the Act by establishing a stand-alone Protection from Harassment Court to allow protection to be obtained expediently by victims, including that of intimate partner violence.
* Enhancing access to justice through government funding for legal representation of accused persons.
* Major changes to the family justice system, in which the child's welfare and best interests are placed at the centre of the system. Changes also include helping families navigate the court system with less costs and delays by handling family disputes in less rancorous ways.
* Introduction of community-based sentences to tap on community resources in the rehabilitation of offenders.
* Review of the mandatory death penalty to give judges discretion to replace the death penalty with life imprisonment in cases involving unintentional homicide and drug trafficking by couriers, if the stipulated conditions for such are met.
* Amendments to the Misuse of Drugs Act to fortify Singapore's drug rehabilitation regime through a more calibrated approach.

## 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 (July 1998 – April 2008)
* Director of Asia Food & Properties (July 1997 – 2001)
* Director of Golden Agri-Resources (May 1999 – 2001)

### Board

* Advisory Board of the Faculty of Law
* Raffles Institution Board of Governors
* Media Development Authority
* Sembawang Corporation Industries Ltd
Shanmugam served as the President of the Singapore Indian Development Association (SINDA) from March 2002 to March 2009. Since October 2023, he has been the Chairman of the SINDA Board of Trustees.

## Personal life

Shanmugam has been married to clinical psychologist Dr. Seetha Subbiah since 2008. From 1993 to 2008, he was married to legal academic Jothie Rajah. They divorced due to "mutual incompatibility".
Shanmugam is a practising Hindu. He is also often involved in various religious activities organised by communities of various faiths. He has met Pope Francis in the Vatican City and has referred to the Pontiff as exemplifying the "essence of religion" and a "strong advocate of interfaith dialogue and understanding".
Shanmugam also participates regularly in the Taoist Nine Emperor God's festival in his Constituency since he became an MP for the area.