Murali Pillai
K. Muralidharan Pillai (born 30 October 1967), better known as Murali Pillai (Chinese: 穆仁理;Tamil: கே முரளிதரன் பிள்ளை), is a Singaporean lawyer and politician, as well as a former police officer.[1][2][3] Pillai worked in the Singapore Police Force before his admission to practice law in 1996. In his legal career, Pillai is currently the head for commercial litigation in Rajah & Tann Singapore LLP.
In his political career, he joined the People's Action Party (PAP) in 2001. Pillai was part of a team of five from the PAP who contested and lost to the Worker's Party in the Aljunied Group Representation Constituency of the 2015 Singaporean general election. Pillai is currently a PAP candidate in the 2016 Bukit Batok by-election for the Bukit Batok Single Member Constituency.
Personal life and education
K. Muralidharan Pillai was born on 30 October 1967 in Singapore.[1] His father, P.K. Pillai, was a unionist detained during Operation Coldstore in 1963. The elder Pillai died in 2007.[4] Pillai has been married to his educator wife, N. Gowri, for more than 20 years in 2016. The couple have twin sons and two daughters.[4]
For his early education, Pillai studied at Monk's Hill Primary School, then Monk's Hill Secondary School and then Hwa Chong Junior College.[1] For his tertiary education, he studied in the National University of Singapore (NUS) where he first attained a law degree with honours and then did his masters in law. He also holds a double masters in business administration in NUS and the University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA).[4] Pillai played hockey as a student and represented his school, while he was also once the President of Raffles Hall in NUS.[1]
Police and legal career
Presumably during his initial period of national service in Singapore as a Full Time National Serviceman, Pillai rose to the role of a platoon commander for the 2nd Guards Battalion of the Singapore Armed Forces (SAF) At some point in time, Murali joined the Singapore Police Force (SPF),[1] where he attained the position of Assistant Superintendent, and primarily conducted investigations into white-collar crimes.[2][4] As an Operationally-Ready National Serviceman, he still holds the rank of Deputy Superintendent (NS) in the SPF.[1]
After his work with the police, Pillai was called to the bar in 1996.[4] He is currently the head of commercial litigation at Rajah & Tann Singapore LLP.[2]
Political career
A member of the People's Action Party (PAP) since 2001, Pillai served from 2007 to 2011 as the branch secretary at PAP's Bukit Batok branch.[4]
Then, Pillai served as the branch chairman of PAP's Paya Lebar branch from May 2012 to (March or April) 2016.[5][6] He contested in the 2015 Singaporean general election in a team of five for the Aljunied Group Representation Constituency.[5] Although the PAP team was ahead by around 300 votes in Pillai's ward of Paya Lebar within Aljunied,[4] overall the PAP team scored 49.05% of the vote in Aljunied in a loss to the team from the Worker's Party (WP), which scored 50.95%.[5]
On 12 March 2016, the PAP Member of Parliament for the Bukit Batok Single Member Constituency, David Ong, resigned citing a "personal indiscretion".[7] When the PAP announced on 21 March that Pillai would be their representative for the 2016 Bukit Batok by-election, Pillai was appointed branch chairman of PAP's Bukit Batok branch.[5] Pillai was formally nominated as a candidate on 27 April, the only other nominated candidate being Chee Soon Juan of the Singapore Democratic Party (SDP). Polling Day will be held on 7 May 2016.[7]
References
- 1 2 3 4 5 6 "Murali Pillai" (PDF). People's Action Party. 21 March 2016. Retrieved 30 April 2016.
- 1 2 3 "K. Muralidharan Pillai". Rajah & Tann Singapore LLP. Retrieved 30 April 2016.
- ↑ "Murali Pillai". People's Action Party. Retrieved 30 April 2016.
- 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 "What you need to know about lawyer Murali Pillai, PAP's candidate for the Bukit Batok by-election". The Straits Times. Retrieved 30 April 2016.
- 1 2 3 4 Kotwani, Monica; Lim, Linette. "Murali Pillai named PAP candidate for Bukit Batok by-election". Channel News Asia. Retrieved 30 April 2016.
- ↑ "Murali takes on Chee on being a 'full-time MP' for Bukit Batok". Channel News Asia. Retrieved 30 April 2016.
- 1 2 Tham, Yuen-C. "Bukit Batok by-election: PAP's Murali Pillai and SDP's Chee Soon Juan confirmed in straight fight". The Straits Times. Retrieved 28 April 2016.