1     The President has re-appointed Mr Timothy James de Souza as a member of the Presidential Council for Minority Rights for a term of three years with effect from 02 May 2025.

2     The PCMR scrutinises laws passed by Parliament to ensure that no provision in those laws is discriminatory towards any racial or religious community.

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Presidential Council for Minority Rights

c/o Parliament House

President’s Office

Media Strategy and Communications

ANNEX

FUNCTIONS AND COMPOSITION OF PRESIDENTIAL COUNCIL FOR MINORITY RIGHTS

1     The functions of the Presidential Council for Minority Rights are:

(a)   To draw attention to any Bill or subsidiary legislation that contains differentiating measures; and

(b)  To consider and report on matters affecting any racial or religious community that are referred to the Council by Parliament or the Government.

2     A “differentiating measure” is a measure that is disadvantageous to a racial or religious community and not equally disadvantageous to other such communities.

3     The Council makes a report on the Bills and matters considered to the Speaker of Parliament. 

4     From time to time, the Council also advises the President on the nominations of persons to the Presidential Council for Religious Harmony, and the Malay Community Committee and the Indian and Other Minority Communities for purposes of parliamentary elections.

5    The Council also nominates the Chairman of the Community Committee and the respective Chairmen and members of the Chinese Community Sub-Committee, Malay Community Sub-Committee, and the Indian and Other Minority Communities Sub-Committee, of the Community Committee for purposes of presidential elections.

6    The Chairman and Members of the Presidential Council for Minority Rights are appointed by the President on the advice of the Cabinet. Under the Constitution, the Council shall consist of a Chairman, and up to 20 Members, of which up to 10 may be permanent Members. Apart from permanent Members who are appointed for life, the Chairman and other Members are appointed for a period of 3 years.

7     With the re-appointment of Mr Timothy James de Souza to the Council taking effect from 2 May 2025, there will be a total of 18 Members, comprising the Chairman, 5 permanent Members and 12 other Members as follows:

Chairman

The Hon Chief Justice Sundaresh Menon  

Permanent Members

Mr Lee Hsien Loong, Senior Minister

Mr Goh Chok Tong, Emeritus Senior Minister

Mr K Shanmugam, Minister for Home Affairs and Minister for Law

Mr S Dhanabalan

Mr Abdullah Tarmugi

Other Members

Mr Lucien Wong, Attorney-General

Mr Othman Haron Eusofe

Mr Timothy James de Souza

Prof Chan Heng Chee

Mr Barry Desker

Justice Philip Jeyaretnam

His Eminence Cardinal William Goh

Mr Surjit Singh s/o Wazir Singh

Venerable Sik Kwang Sheng

Mr Syed Hassan bin Syed Mohamed Bin Salim Al-Attas

Dr Nazirudin bin Mohd Nasir

Mr Mohamed Sa’at Abdul Rahman