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DOING JUST FINE: 'Up to now, I've been mildly heretical here and there, but I haven't ben politically incorrect,' said Mr Shanmugam, when asked if his new job means he would have to tone down his say-it-like-it-is approach. -- ST PHOTO: LIM SIN THAI
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HE INSISTS on putting on a carefully chosen tie ('a dark one, no stripes') and a jacket for the photo shoot, grimacing at Singapore Cabinet ministers' casual habit of wearing windbreakers over their shirts in Parliament.
'If I'm forced to, I'll wear a blazer,' Mr K. Shanmugam says with a laugh.
Change of clothing and pay cut aside - he declines to specify the amount - there will be other adjustments for the man who will segue from top-earning litigator to Law Minister on May 1.
'It may well become more hectic. You'll just have to adjust less time for yourself,' he said in an interview with The Straits Times.
The 49-year-old is the first backbencher in 23 years to move directly from being a Member of Parliament to be a full minister.
On whether his new job means he would have to tone down his say-it-like-it-is approach, he says: 'Up to now I've been mildly heretical here and there, but I haven't been politically incorrect.
'I think within a framework where I don't embarrass anyone or myself, it's best to be yourself.'
As part of the Cabinet, Mr Shanmugam will be one of only three ministers who have spent their careers in the private sector.
The others are Education Minister Ng Eng Hen, who was a breast cancer surgeon, and Transport Minister Raymond Lim, a former economist.
What will he bring to the Cabinet as a private-sector professional? Mr Shanmugam replies with a laugh: 'That is a question that invites a highly immodest answer.
'As a Cabinet, you take collective responsibility for actions. And therefore as a minister, it's your duty to look at all issues, whether it's in your ministry or other ministries, and give your viewpoint with your feel of the ground and your application of your mind to policy issues.
'Whether you're effective or not is a separate question.'
So will he be effective?
Modestly, he says: 'I don't know. Time will tell.'
He notes that although he had spent his entire career in the legal sector, his experience is not entirely 'narrow'.
'I deal with legal cases which relate to a wide variety of commercial issues, and in different fields.'
Switching from law to politics is not the only change this year for Mr Shanmugam.
He married a 37-year-old clinical psychologist early this year. It was his second marriage. He has two children from his first marriage.
With two weeks to go before he transits from the private to the public sector, he has been kept busy handing over his cases at his firm, Allen and Gledhill.
When asked if he was preparing for his new job by, say, re-reading his law texts, he said with a laugh: 'No, no need to re-read. If I have to re-read my law textbooks, I wouldn't be practising as a lawyer!'
xueying@sph.com.sg
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