- The title "Senior Minister" was also a title used in Canada, before "Deputy Prime Minister" was introduced in 1977.
Senior Minister (abbreviation: SM) is a political office in the Cabinet of Singapore. The holder of this office is typically a former Prime Minister or former Deputy Prime Minister.
S. Rajaratnam was one of the co-founders of the People’s Action Party. Upon Independence in 1965, he served as the country’s first Minister for Foreign Affairs before being appointed Deputy Prime Minister in 1980. He then took on the newly created role of Senior Minister in 1985, before his retirement in 1988.[1]
Lee Kuan Yew was the country’s first Prime Minister. Upon his handover to Goh Chok Tong in 1990, he was appointed Senior Minister by his successor. He was ranked second in the order of precedence, superseding the country’s sitting Deputy PMs.[2]
Goh Chok Tong was appointed Senior Minister in 2004, upon his handover to the country’s third Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong. As SM, he was ranked second in the order of precedence, while Lee Kuan Yew, appointed Minister Mentor, was third in the order of precedence.[3]
S. Jayakumar relinquished his Deputy Prime Minister role in 2009 and was appointed Senior Minister, and retired from politics before the 2011 General Elections.[4] After the election, both former prime ministers Goh Chok Tong and Lee (who was then Minister Mentor) left the cabinet in 2011, but they remained as backbench MPs; Goh was confered the title of 'Emeritus Senior Minister' (ESM in short), while Lee continued to serve as MP for nearly four years until his death on 23 March 2015.[5]
Between 21 May 2011 and 1 May 2019, no ministers held the role of Senior Minister until the titular post returned after a eight-year absence, where previous Deputy Prime Ministers Teo Chee Hean and Tharman Shanmugaratnam relinquishes their portfolios to Minister of Finance Heng Swee Keat in order to take up the Senior Minister post.[6]
List of Senior Ministers of Singapore[]
| No. | Name | Start of term | End of term | |||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | S. Rajaratnam | 2 January 1985 | 3 September 1988 | |||
| Office not in use (1988–1990) | ||||||
| 2 | Lee Kuan Yew | 28 November 1990 | 12 August 2004 | |||
| 3 | Goh Chok Tong | 12 August 2004 | 21 May 2011 | |||
| 4 | S. Jayakumar | 1 April 2009 | 21 May 2011 | |||
| Office not in use (2011–2019) | ||||||
| 5 | Teo Chee Hean | 1 May 2019 | Incumbent | |||
| Tharman Shanmugaratnam | 1 May 2019 | Incumbent | ||||
See also[]
- Prime Minister of Singapore
- People's Action Party
- Minister Mentor
- Minister without portfolio