Bilahari Kausikan
Personal details
Born
Bilahari Kim Hee Papanasam Setlur Kausikan[1]

1954 (1954) (age 70)
Colony of Singapore
Alma materColumbia University
University of Singapore

Bilahari Kim Hee Papanasam Setlur Kausikan[1] is a Singaporean retired academic, diplomat and civil servant who served as Singapore's Permanent Representative to the United Nations between 1995 and 1998.

Early life and education

Kausikan's father, P.S. Raman, was an Indian who moved to Singapore after the Partition of India. He married Lim Eng Neo, a Peranakan, and they had three children.[2]

P.S. Raman named his son Bilahari Kim Hee Papanasam Setlur Kausikan: Bilahari is the name of a raga; Kausikan is a form of the Vedic surname Kaushik; Setlur is a Brahmin sub-caste; and Papanasam is the name of P.S. Raman's home village in Tamil Nadu. Kim Hee (金喜; Jīn Xǐ; 'golden joy')[3] is the Chinese name that Kausikan's mother gave him.[1]

Kausikan graduated from the University of Singapore (now the National University of Singapore), majoring in political science. He subsequently received a scholarship from the Public Service Commission (PSC) to pursue a PhD in international relations at Columbia University, with the aim of becoming an academic.[4]

During this time, he would secretly submit articles to The Straits Times under the pseudonym "Bee Kim Hee".[5][6] Half way into his dissertation, he decided to drop out from the course and return to Singapore, where he joined the Ministry of Foreign Affairs (MFA).[4] He ultimately graduated with a Master of Arts degree from Columbia University.[7]

Career

Kausikan joined the civil service in 1981 as a foreign service officer, and was assigned to the Administrative Service in 1983.[7]

Kausikan's father, P.S. Raman, gained Prime Minister Lee Kuan Yew's attention after he advised against editing out the video of Lee tearing while announcing Singapore's expulsion from the Malaysian Federation in 1965. Thereafter, he was appointed to various diplomatic positions, including Singapore's Ambassador to Indonesia during Konfrontasi, and subsequently as Singapore's High Commissioner to Australia and Ambassador to the Soviet Union.

After recovering from a heart attack during his tenure in Jakarta, P.S. Raman was reassigned as Singapore's High Commissioner to Australia and served in that capacity for a year and a half.[1][8]

Kausikan was appointed as Singapore's Ambassador to Russia in 1994, with concurrent accreditation as Ambassador to Finland. Kausikan served as Singapore's Permanent Representative to the United Nations between 1995 and 1998, with concurrent accreditation as Singapore's High Commissioner to Canada and Ambassador to Mexico.[9]

In 1998, Kausikan was appointed as Deputy Secretary (Foreign Affairs) at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs. He was appointed as Second Permanent Secretary in 2001, and was promoted to Permanent Secretary on 1 September 2010.[7]

He is currently serving as Chairman of the Middle East Institute at the National University of Singapore and is a Senior Fellow at the SMU School of Social Sciences.[10][11]

Honours

Works

  • "Singapore: Israel in Southeast Asia?" in Beating the Odds Together: 50 Years of Singapore-Israel Ties. Ed. Mattia Tomba. Singapore: World Scientific Book, 2019 . ISBN 978-981-121-468-4 OCLC 1122747159

References

  1. 1 2 3 4 Rajendran, Jawharilal; Kumar, V.K. Santosh (3 December 2018). "Like father, like son: Bilahari Kausikan is known to speak his mind, like father P. S. Raman". The Straits Times. Retrieved 18 July 2019.
  2. ↑ Goh, Chin Lian (13 May 2013). "Veteran diplomat to retire after 31 years". www.asiaone.com. Retrieved 23 April 2018.
  3. ↑ "China's Ambassador to ASEAN Yang Xiuping meets Bilahari Kausikan, Singapore's Foreign Affairs Permanent Secretary and ASEAN high official". Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the People's Republic of China (in Chinese). 19 March 2013. Retrieved 18 July 2019.
  4. 1 2 ""I Say What I Think" | Challenge Online". www.challenge.gov.sg. Retrieved 25 April 2018.
  5. ↑ Rajendran, Jawharilal; Santosh Kumar, V.K. (3 December 2018). "Like father, like son: Bilahari Kausikan is known to speak his mind, like father P. S. Raman". The Straits Times. Retrieved 25 November 2020. He used to write for The Straits Times under a variant of his name - Bee Kim Hee. "I was on a scholarship and not supposed to work. But ST paid me well. I wrote about the United Nations. I made enough in three months to live the rest of the year comfortably.
  6. ↑ "Bilahari Kausikan never finished his PhD, reads mystery novels and explains why he shares lots of FB posts". Mothership.sg. Retrieved 22 April 2018.
  7. 1 2 3 "Appointment of Head of Civil Service and Permanent Secretaries" (PDF). Public Service Division, Government of the Republic of Singapore. 12 August 2010. Archived from the original (PDF) on 4 March 2016. Retrieved 30 April 2018.
  8. ↑ "The body of Ambassador P S Raman, ..." National Archives of Singapore. Retrieved 17 July 2019.
  9. ↑ Azimi, Nassrine (22 December 1997). Humanitarian Action and Peace Keeping Operations: Debriefing and Lessons. Kluwer Law International. pp. xvi. ISBN 904110724X.
  10. ↑ "Board of Directors". Middle East Institute. Retrieved 30 August 2018.
  11. ↑ "Bilahari Kausikan". Singapore Management University - School of Social Sciences. 2 July 2018. Retrieved 5 September 2018.
  12. 1 2 3 "2ND S R NATHAN FELLOW - BILAHARI KAUSIKAN". lkyspp.nus.edu.sg. Retrieved 26 October 2022.
  13. ↑ "Press Release - Foreign Affairs Permanent Secretary Bilahari Kausikan retires". Public Service Division, Government of the Republic of Singapore. 2 May 2013. Archived from the original on 22 August 2020. Retrieved 30 April 2018.
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