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Signal honour for ethnic Indian

T. Shanmugaratnam who has been elevated as Singapore’s new Finance Minister

SINGAPORE: Singapore Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong has elevated Second Finance Minister Tharman Shanmugaratnam to the pivotal position of Finance Minister with effect from Saturday.

Mr. Lee will, in the process, relinquish his additional portfolio as Finance Minister.

A statement from the Prime Minister’s Office here said Mr. Shanmugaratnam will continue to hold his portfolio of Education until after the budget debate next year.

His ascendance has not come as a surprise, given that he was being groomed for his new post. Mr. Lee had asked Tharman, as he is popularly called here, to deliver this year’s Budget Statement in Parliament. He had earlier served in the higher echelons of the Monetary Authority of Singapore.

Diplomatic observers see Mr. Shanmugaratnam’s new position as a signal honour, considering its importance to Singapore’s status as a leading financial centre in the world.

As he is a high-profile ethnic Indian in the multi-racial City-State, his new appointment has attracted additional attention in the context of the protest in neighbouring Malaysia over the alleged “marginalisation” of the ethnic Indians there.

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