Zainul Abidin (politician)


Zainul Abidin bin Mohamed Rasheed is a Singaporean diplomat, business executive and retired politician. He is currently Singapore's ambassador to the State of Kuwait and the Special Envoy of the Minister for Foreign Affairs to the Middle East. Zainul Abidin Rasheed is also a corporate advisor to Temasek International and holds a number of corporate board positions in Singapore and overseas.He lost his Member of Parliament seat in 2011 Singapore general election.
Prior to his retirement from politics, he served as a Member of Parliament in Aljunied Group Representation Constituency from 2001 to 2011. He also declined to not participate in 2011 Singaporean presidential election.

Education

Zainul Abidin Rasheed attended Jalan Daud Primary School, followed by Raffles Institution and then the National University of Singapore, where he read economics. He was awarded the Gold Outstanding Young Singaporean Award in 1974.

Career

Journalistic career

Zainul Abidin was a journalist with Singapore Press Holdings between 1976 and 1996, working as an editor for the Asia News Bulletin, Berita Harian and The Sunday Times, and then Associate Editor of The Straits Times, before being seconded to the government sector. He served in Mendaki and Majlis Ugama Islam Singapura .

Political career

He first stood for the 1997 Singapore general elections under the People's Action Party under Cheng San Group Representation Constituency, against the Workers' Party, whose notable candidates were J. B. Jeyaratnam and Tang Liang Hong. The PAP won that constituency.
Zainul Abidin later moved to Aljunied Group Representation Constituency for the 2001 general elections. In the 2006 general elections, the PAP contested Aljunied GRC against the WP. The PAP garnered 56.09% of the votes in this GRC.
He was appointed Senior Parliamentary Secretary for the Ministry of Foreign Affairs from 1998 - 2001. He also held the post of Mayor of the Northeast Community Development Council from 2001 to 2008. He was then appointed Minister of State for the Ministry of Foreign Affairs in 2004 and given a Senior Minister of State role in 2006.
In the 2011 general elections, Zainul Abidin was part of the PAP team which lost Aljunied GRC to the WP, thereby losing his parliament seat. In a post-election interview, he suggested that Lee Kuan Yew's remarks on Malays, Muslims and integration in his book, Hard Truths to Keep Singapore Going, may have had some influence over the Malay votes, and "many were hurt by those remarks and remain so.”

Corporate and public service appointments

He has held various appointments, among them being:
In September 2011, after the general elections, Zainul Abidin Rasheed was appointed as the chairman SPH UnionWorks, owned by the Singapore Press Holdings, which operates two Singapore radio stations 91.3FM and 100.3FM. He was also named as the consultant of the book publishing arm SPH's book publishing arm, Straits Times Press. He is also the non-resident Ambassador to Kuwait and a special envoy of the Minister for Foreign Affairs to the Middle East.
Zainul Abidin Rasheed also serves on the boards of various local and international companies including Chairman of Diamond Energy Corporation, deputy chairman, lead independent director of Australian-listed OM Holdings, Director of Mediacorp, Board Member of National Volunteer Philanthropy Centre and Director of Temasek Cares. He also serves as a corporate adviser to Temasek International.

Personal life

Zainul Abidin Rasheed is married with four children.