Devan Nair a/l Chengara Veetil, also known as
C. V. Devan Nair (
Malayalam: <big>ദേവന് നായര്</big>) (August 5, 1923–December 6, 2005), was the third
President of Singapore and was elected by Parliament on October 23, 1981. He served as President until his resignation on March 28, 1985.
Youth
Nair was born in
Malacca,
Malaysia, the son of an Indian immigrant I.V.K. Nair, from
Thalassery,
Kerala. He and his family migrated to
Singapore when he was 10 years old. When he was young, he received his education first at Rangoon Road Primary School and then at
Victoria School where he passed his
Senior Cambridge examination in 1940.
Career
Initially, a member of the Communist Anti-British League, he joined
Lee Kuan Yew's
People's Action Party in 1954. He was the only PAP member to win in the
Malaysian general election, 1964, winning the
Bangsar constituency, near
Kuala Lumpur. He stayed in Malaysia after the
Separation, forming the
Democratic Action Party, but returned to Singapore to lead the labor union movement and founded the
National Trades Union Congress. He entered
Parliament in 1979 by winning the Anson seat in a by-election and retained the seat in the
1980 general election, but resigned the seat in 1981 to accept the largely ceremonial office of President. This resulted in a by-election of the Anson seat which was then won by opposition leader
J.B. Jeyaretnam, the first time in Singapore since 1972 when an opposition party...
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