Halimah Yacob

Halimah Yacob (born 23 August 1954) is a Singaporean politician and lawyer who served as the eighth president of Singapore from 2017 to 2023.

Halimah was born on 23 August 1954 at her family home on Queen Street in Singapore, to an Indian father and Malay mother.

Her father was a watchman who died due to a heart attack when she was eight years old, leaving her and four siblings to be brought up by her mother.

Her family was in poverty at the time of her father's death, and she helped her mother to sell nasi padang outside the former Singapore Polytechnic (now Bestway Building) along Prince Edward Road.

She attended Singapore Chinese Girls' School and Tanjong Katong Girls' School before graduating from the University of Singapore (now National University of Singapore) in 1978 with a Bachelor of Laws degree and was called to the Singapore Bar in 1981.

Halimah began her career working as a legal officer at the National Trades Union Congress (NTUC), before becoming the director of its legal services department in 1992.

In 1993, Halimah was one of the six assentors appointed in that year's presidential election to eventual president-elect Ong Teng Cheong.

In 1999, she was later appointed as a director of the Singapore Institute of Labour Studies (now Ong Teng Cheong Labour Leadership Institute).

The Singapore University of Social Sciences (SUSS) announced the appointment of former president Halimah Yacob as its new chancellor from 1 October 2023.

Halimah was elected as the Workers' Vice-chairperson of the Standards Committee of the International Labour Conference (ILC) in Geneva from 2000 to 2002 and in 2005.

A former member of the governing People's Action Party (PAP), Halimah was the Member of Parliament (MP) representing the Bukit Batok East division of Jurong GRC between 2001 and 2015, and the Marsiling division of Marsiling–Yew Tee GRC between 2015 and 2017.

She subsequently went on to complete a Master of Laws degree at the National University of Singapore in 2001.

Halimah made her political debut in the 2001 general election as part of a five-member PAP team contesting in Jurong GRC, which was led by then-minister Lim Boon Heng, and a would-be minister who would go on to be her presidential successor Tharman Shanmugaratnam who also made his debut.

Between 2003 and 2004, she was the Workers' Spokesperson for the ILC Committee on Human Resources Development and Training.

Following a Cabinet reshuffle in November 2012, she was appointed Minister of State for Social and Family Development.

She had also served as Chairperson of the Jurong Town Council.

Halimah served as Speaker of Parliament from 2013 to 2017.

She is the first female speaker in Singapore's history.

On 8 January 2013, Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong nominated Halimah to succeed Michael Palmer as Speaker of Parliament following Palmer's resignation after he was revealed to have had an extramarital affair.

Halimah was elected Speaker on 14 January 2013, the first woman to hold the post in Singapore's history.

Halimah served at the National Trades Union Congress (NTUC) as Deputy Secretary-General, Director of the Legal Services Department and Director of the Women's Development Secretariat.

She had also served as Executive Secretary of the United Workers of Electronics and Electrical Industries.

She served as the member of parliament for Bukit Batok East until 2015 where she was elected at the newly-formed Marsiling–Yew Tee GRC.

In her first term, Halimah was appointed Minister of State for Community Development, Youth and Sports.

In January 2015, Halimah was co-opted into the PAP's Central Executive Committee (CEC), the party's highest decision-making body.

As Member of Parliament, Halimah has spoken out actively against Islamic extremism, in particular condemning and disassociating from the Islamic State of Iraq and Levant.

Halimah won in the 2017 presidential election in an uncontested walkover due to ineligible candidates.

She is the first female president in Singapore's history.

After a constitutional amendment made in 2017, the 2017 presidential election was specifically reserved for candidates from the Malay community.

Halimah resigned from the PAP and became an independent—one of the qualifications needed to run for the presidency—and ran for the 2017 presidential election which she won in an uncontested election, after the other presidential hopefuls except for her did not meet the qualifications.

During her presidency, Halimah exercised presidential discretionary powers to approve emergency funding for Singapore's response to the COVID-19 pandemic.

She also spoke in support of women's rights.

She did not seek for a re-election in the 2023 presidential election.

Her term ended on 13 September 2023 and was succeeded by Tharman Shanmugaratnam on the following day.

Halimah became the chancellor of Singapore University of Social Sciences from 1 October 2023.

While speaking during the debate on the Presidential Elections Amendment Bill on 6 February 2017, Minister in the Prime Minister's Office Chan Chun Sing addressed Halimah as "Madam President" twice instead of "Madam Speaker", drawing laughter from the PAP MPs and leading to widespread speculation that Halimah would be the party's preferred candidate for the reserved presidential elections.

On 6 August 2017, Halimah announced that she would be stepping down as Speaker of Parliament and MP of Marsiling–Yew Tee the next day to run for the presidency in the 2017 presidential election, which was reserved for members of the Malay community.

She was widely viewed as the PAP's candidate for the election, and was endorsed by Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong.

In an interview published on 11 August 2017, Halimah gave her views on the reserved presidential election.

She said that it "shows we don't only talk about multiracialism, but we talk about it in the context of meritocracy or opportunities for everyone, and we actually practise it".