Suppiah Dhanabalan, born 8 August 1937), also known as S. Dhanabalan, is a former Singaporean politician. He was a high-profile political leader in Singapore in the 1980s and held several cabinet positions in the 1980s and early 1990s under prime ministers Lee Kuan Yew and Goh Chok Tong.
Early life and education
Dhanabalan was born in 1937 to a Singaporean Indian family of Tamil descent. He was raised as a Hindu by his father, Arumugam Suppiah, a clerk at a naval base. But later in his life he became a devout Christian. His mother is Gunaretnam Suppiah. He went to Victoria School; and later to University of Malaya where he earned his B.A. degree in Economics, earning a Second Class Honours. He was the third child and the eldest son in a Tamil family of three girls and three boys.
Early career
He joined as an Administrative Officer from 1960–68. During his tenure, he helped to form the Economic Development Board and DBS Bank. He subsequently left the Civil Service and joined DBS as a Vice-President from 1968–1970. He was promoted to the position of Executive Vice-President and continue to serve from 1970–1978.
Political career
In the 1976 Singapore general election, Dhanabalan was elected as Member of Parliament for Kallang SMC, as a People's Action Party candidate. He was promoted to a Cabinet Minister and served in various portfolios, including Foreign Affairs, Culture, Community Development, National Development and Trade and Industry. When Lee Kuan Yew was preparing for his successor, he identified a handful of ministers he considered suitable for the job, including Tony Tan, Ong Teng Cheong, Goh Chok Tong and Dhanabalan. In his public account of why he chose them and what he felt were their strengths and weaknesses, Lee said his preferred successor was Tony Tan, who went on to become the 7th President of the Republic of Singapore. He felt that while the other three were all of prime ministerial calibre, each had a particular weakness: Goh was too stiff, lacking eloquence in public speaking, and Ong was too closely aligned with the Chinese-speaking masses, lacking appeal to other communities. In the case of Dhanabalan, Lee felt the 76% ethnic Chinese electorate was not yet ready for a prime minister of Indian ethnicity. Lee left the ultimate decision to the second generation ministers themselves, who went on to choose Goh.
Dhanabalan is a devout Christian and attends a small church in Bukit Panjang – Bukit Panjang Gospel Chapel. He is married to Christine Tan Khoon Hiap, a Chinese Singaporean of Hokkien ancestry and they have one son, Ramesh Dhanabalan, and one daughter, Shandini Dhanabalan.
