Pillai was born on 30 October1967 in Singapore. His father, P.K. Pillai, was a unionist detained during Operation Coldstore in 1963. The elder Pillai died in 2007. Pillai married his educator wife, N. Gowri in 1996. The couple have twin sons and two daughters. For his early education, Pillai studied at Newton Boys School which merged into Monk's Hill Primary School, then Monk's Hill Secondary School and then Hwa Chong Junior College. For his tertiary education, he studied in the National University of Singapore 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. Pillai played hockey as a student and represented his school. He was also once the President of Raffles Hall in NUS.
Police and legal career
During his national service in Singapore, Pillai was a platoon commander in the 2nd Guards Battalion of the Singapore Armed Forces. In 1992, Pillai joined the Singapore Police Force as an Assistant Superintendent of Police, primarily involved in investigations into white-collar crimes. He completed his NS obligations in 2017 as Deputy Superintendent upon reaching age of 50. Pillai was called to the bar in 1996. He was the head of commercial litigation at Rajah & Tann Singapore LLP at the time of the by-election in 2016. He then stepped down from his post in an effort to better balance his work commitments and political responsibilities. He was appointed Senior Counsel in 2020. Pillai was notable as the lawyer for former MP of People's Action Party Choo Wee Khiang, who was acquitted of corruption charges in 2014.
Political career
A member of the People's Action Party since 2001, Pillai served from 2007 to 2011 as the branch secretary at PAP's Bukit Batok branch. Then, Pillai served as the branch chairman of PAP's Paya Lebar branch from May 2012 to 2016. He contested in the 2015 Singaporean general election in a team of five for the Aljunied Group Representation Constituency. Although the PAP team was ahead by around 300 votes in Pillai's ward of Paya Lebar within Aljunied, overall team scored 49.05% of the votes in Aljunied loss to the team from the Worker's Party, which scored 50.95%. On 12 March 2016, the PAP Member of Parliament for the Bukit Batok Single Member Constituency, David Ong, resigned citing a "personal indiscretion". When the PAP announced on 21 March 2016 that Pillai would be their representative for the 2016 Bukit Batok by-election, Pillai was appointed branch chairman of PAP's Bukit Batok branch. Pillai was formally nominated as a candidate on 27 April 2016, the only other nominated candidate being Chee Soon Juan of the Singapore Democratic Party.
2016 Election Campaign
During his campaign, Pillai chose the Mandarin nickname of 'Ah Mu'. He pledged that if he won, he would upgrade infrastructure around Blocks 140 to 149 of the SMC, which would cost $1.9 million. Pillai later clarified that this potential $1.9 million project is "part of" the $23.6 million masterplan announced by David Ong during the 2015 general election.
2016 Election Manifesto
Pillai's campaign manifesto for Bukit Batok focused on three domains: jobs, social mobility and the elderly. In the jobs domain, he proposed a program to help the unemployed find jobs faster, "leveraging on community contacts within the pool of community volunteers and Bukit Batok residents, and also own business contacts" to help residents secure jobs. For the social mobility domain, Pillai proposed a program where volunteers would "inspire children from low-income families to aim high to succeed in life", with the hope that this volunteer youth mentorship program would eventually be accessible to all residents and be introduced in schools. For the domain of the elderly, there were at least three programs proposed: firstly, a 'health cooperative' would be implemented to help "sandwiched families" by increasing medical literacy and subsidizing consumables for the elderly. Secondly, Pillai also proposed an "emergency button scheme" for "elderly living alone" to alert "neighbours or community volunteers" of a need for help. Thirdly, Pillai said setting up a new "eldercare centre will help provide more therapy services and daycare services".
2016 Election Result
On 7 May 2016, Pillai secured 61.21% of the votes to win the Bukit Batok by-election on Polling Day and was sworn into parliament on 9 May 2016.
