Deputy Prime Minister Tharman Shanmugaratnam, who is easily the coolest man in Singapore, has admitted that he used to be "a dissident, a government critic".

He made this comment at the Pre-University Seminar on May 30, 2016, in response to questions from students about freedom of speech in Singapore, media censorship and on remarks against Islam made by teenage blogger Amos Yee.

As reported by Today, a student from River Valley High School had asked the DPM if the authorities’ response to Yee had given him more support and attention internationally than he would otherwise have received.

Besides saying that there is more freedom now compared to a decade ago, “let alone when I was your age”, Tharman said:

“I was a dissident, a government critic. It was completely different then, compared to where it is now. We have evolved into a society that has more freedoms, but it has some restrictions and they serve a purpose.”

Even though Tharman did not comment on Yee's court case as it is ongoing, he said some restrictions are necessary all over the world.

For example, Western democracies restrict hate speech by law and enforcement is carried out. The onus is on individuals to be responsible.

Moreover, media censorship is not a measure of how progressive and liberal a society is, as there is much less freedom to walk safely on the streets and to advance oneself regardless of ethnicity or religion in countries with a freer media.

Who is this Tharman The Critic And Dissident?

Nonetheless, The Legend of Tharman The Critic And Dissident must be known to all Singaporeans, as it is a story of hope.

For the record, as a student in UK, Tharman used to have longish hair -- in fact, a lot of hair -- and he even wrote poetry.

That was a hallmark of an anti-establishment character because long hair was a sign in the 1970s you were either high, a rebel, or transgendered and poetry is soft and woolly, especially at a time when Singapore was all about hard figures, foreign direct investment, economic development and society above self, communitarian values under the leadership of Lee Kuan Yew then.

The 59-year-old also once admitted he did not like to study, did not have much ambition and actually enjoyed doing all kinds of sports.

Worse, said the man who did not like to study but who became Education Minister:

“I actually enjoy politics, both as a Member of Parliament and as a minister. Part of the reason is because I was always interested in politics from my student days. I spent a lot of time on student activism when I was in the UK.”

However, he proceeded to do well enough in his A levels at Anglo-Chinese School (ACS) to earn a place in the London School of Economics and graduated with a BA in Economics.

He went on to Cambridge University to do his Master’s in the same discipline.

He spent most of his early professional life at the Monetary Authority of Singapore (MAS), where he was its managing director and worked under civil servants J.Y. Pillay and Lim Siong Guan.

Subsequently, even though the hair might have left him, the spirit did not.

In 1993, while serving as Economic Director of the Monetary Authority of Singapore (MAS), Tharman was charged under the Official Secrets Act (OSA).

The case involved the release of Singapore's 1992 second-quarter flash projections to several non-government individuals and an economist, including Patrick Daniel of the Business Times.

The OSA case stretched over more than a year. Tharman contested the case and was eventually acquitted of the charge of communicating the GDP growth flash projections.

Senior District Judge Richard Magnus then introduced a lesser charge of negligence, because the prosecution's case was that the figures were seen on a document that he had with him at a meeting with the private economists, which he had attended with one of his colleagues.

Tharman contested this lesser charge too, and took to the witness stand for a few days.

The court, nevertheless, convicted him together with all the others in the case, including the editor of BT which published the figures.

Tharman was fined S$1,500, and the others S$2,000.

The case did not pose any hurdle to his subsequent appointment as the Chief Executive of the MAS as there was no finding that he knowingly communicated any classified information.

After securing 79.28 percent of votes for Jurong GRC in the latest General Election 2015, which was the best result for the incumbent PAP party, while other people at a community event were watering trees, Tharman took to watering children.

Beast mode.

Related articles:

DPM Tharman Shanmugaratnam pretty much admitted he hated studying, had no ambition as a kid

Watch how DPM Tharman single-handedly turns a boring tree planting event into an immensely fun one

Tharman Shanmugaratnam the poet is something almost nobody knows about

BBC’s Stephen Sackur gets sucker punched by DPM Tharman at St Gallen Symposium

12 ways DPM Tharman is proof that talent is unevenly distributed in the PAP

Tharman Shanmugaratnam’s Jurong GRC team outdid Lee Hsien Loong’s Ang Mo Kio GRC team for best result

Top photo via KC Chew, MCI

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