Vivian Balakrishnan

Vivian Balakrishnan விவியன் பாலகிருஷ்ணன்
Party Affiliation
Current Role	Minister for Foreign Affairs (from 2015)
Past Roles	• Minister-in-charge Smart Nation • MCYS Minister • Senior Minister of State for Trade and Industry • Minister of State for National Development
Others	• President's Scholar •
Background
Education	• NUS • Royal College of Surgeons of Edinburgh • National Junior College • Anglo-Chinese School
Personal Details
Age	64
Others	Father of 1 girl & 3 sons. Grandfather to 4? grandchildren (1 stillborn)

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• born 25 January 1961
• Anglo-Chinese School
• President's Scholarship in 1980 to study medicine at the Yong Loo Lin School of Medicine, NUS
  • fellow of the Royal College of Surgeons of Edinburgh (to check which source)

• Medical career
  • specialization in ophthalmology
  • Moorfields Eye Hospital in London between 1993 and 1995
  • commanding officer at Singapore Armed Forces (SAF), Second Combat Support Hospital
  • ophthalmologist at SNEC & NUH (to check which source)
  • medical director at Singapore National Eye Centre & CEO of Singapore General Hospital (SGH)

• entered politics 2001, Holland–Bukit Panjang GRC walkover
• Minister of State for National Development in 2002
• Senior Minister of State for Trade and Industry in 2004.
• acting Minister for Community Development, Youth and Sports 2004
• full cabinet minister 2005

Controversy

• YOG budget overrun as Minister for Community, Youth and Sports (MCYS) 2005 and 2011
  • 2010 Summer Youth Olympics
  • budget exceeded the initial estimates of S$104 million by over three times (check for figures)

• Second Minister for Information, Communications and the Arts MICA between 2006 and 2008,
• Second Minister for Trade and Industry MTI between 2005 and 2006
• Minister-in-charge of the Smart Nation Initiative between 2014 and 2017

• Ridout Road rentals
  • whether renting of 31 Ridout Park state-owned bungalows (Shanmugam rented 26 Ridout Park) constitute conflict of interest, abuse of power
  • RP's Kenneth Jeyaretnam questioned how the 2 ministers can pay market rate for these 2 GCB

• ‘illiterate’ comment as MP and Minister of Foreign Affairs (2015)
  • 14 Sep 2021 Tue - Parliament session,
    • after Leong Mun Wai had spoken, a voice could be heard saying "he's illiterate".
    • Later, after another exchange between Tan See Leng and Leong Mun Wai, someone heard saying, "Seriously, how did he get into RI?... Must have been a lousy school."
    • It was deduced that VB made these comments
    • Tan See Leng then replied, "I'm from Monk's Hill."
    • LMW confirmed received a call of apology from VB on Wed 15 Sep 2021, LMW said he had accepted apology when queried by mainstream media
    • LMW added, "I am also curious to know who are the other persons who were involved in the conversation and the reason why they held the institution that I attended in contempt."
    • 

• TraceTogether debacle
  • as Minister-in-charge of the Smart Nation Initiative
  • "Police can use TraceTogether data for criminal investigations" ~ Minister of State for Home Affairs Desmond Tan told the House on Monday Jan 4 2021
  • "I didn't think of Criminal Procedure Code when speaking earlier about TraceTogether" ~ VB
  • "Frankly, I had not thought of the CPC, when I spoke earlier," he said, a day after Minister of State for Home Affairs Desmond Tan affirmed that under this law, police have the power to obtain TraceTogether data for the purposes of a criminal investigation. ~ check for correct quote
  • Tuesday (Feb 2) said he took "full responsibility" for the Government's error in not stating that contact tracing data from TraceTogether is not exempt from the Criminal Procedure Code for criminal investigations

• "three meals in a hawker centre, food court or restaurant"
  • debate with Lily Neo in Parliament 9 March 2007 (to check source)