Rahayu binte Mahzam ( Jawi: رحايو مهزم; born 21 July 1980) is a Singaporean politician. A member of the governing

People's Action Party The People's Action Party (PAP) is a major Conservatism, conservative political party in Singapore and is the governing contemporary political party represented in the Parliament of Singapore, followed by the opposition Workers' Party of Singap ...

(PAP), she has been serving as Minister of State for Health and Minister of State for Communications and Information concurrently since 2024. She has been the Member of Parliament (MP) representing the

Bukit Batok East Bukit Batok ( ), often abbreviated as Bt Batok, is a planning area and matured residential town located along the eastern boundary of the West Region of Singapore. Bukit Batok statistically ranks in as the 25th largest, the 10th most populo ...

division of Jurong East–Bukit Batok GRC since 2025, and previously the Bukit Batok East division of

Jurong GRC The Jurong Group Representation Constituency was a five-member Group Representation Constituency (GRC) located in the western area of Singapore. The GRC consisted of a large section of Jurong, sections of Bukit Batok and areas near Upper Buk ...

from 2015 to 2025. A lawyer by profession, Rahayu specialises in civil litigation and family law. She made her political debut in the 2015 general election as part of a five-member PAP team contesting in

and won 79.3% of the vote.

Education

Rahayu studied at Raffles Girls' School and

Raffles Junior College The Raffles Junior College (RJC) was a junior college in Singapore offering pre-university education. The college was founded in 1982, following a separation from the pre-university section of Raffles Institution (RI). Raffles Junior College ...

before she went to the

National University of Singapore The National University of Singapore (NUS) is a national university, national Public university, public research university in Singapore. It was officially established in 1980 by the merging of the University of Singapore and Nanyang University ...

Faculty of Law A faculty is a division within a university or college comprising one subject area or a group of related subject areas, possibly also delimited by level (e.g. undergraduate). In North America, academic divisions are sometimes titled colleges, sc ...

, where she completed a

Bachelor of Laws A Bachelor of Laws (; LLB) is an undergraduate law degree offered in most common law countries as the primary law degree and serves as the first professional qualification for legal practitioners. This degree requires the study of core legal subje ...

in 2003 and was called to the Bar in 2004.

Career

Rahayu joined Heng, Leong & Srinivasan LLC as a partner in January 2008, specialising in civil litigation and family law. In 2013, she left practice and served as Deputy Registrar at the Syariah Court of Singapore before returning to practice in August 2015. She is also an Associate Mediator accredited by the Singapore Mediation Centre.

Political career

In 2011, Rahayu was asked to stand for elections under the PAP. After discussing this with her then husband-to-be, she declined the offer, as she was planning to start a family. In 2015, after being asked to stand for elections again, she raised the offer with her husband again. According to Rahayu, she accepted the offer on the understanding he agreed to her standing for office, but it subsequently emerged that "it was a misunderstanding on my part... I had thought that we already had that conversation. But actually, when it did happen, eventually I realised that he was not so comfortable with it". Rahayu was announced as a PAP candidate on 20 August 2015 to join the five-member PAP team contesting in Jurong GRC during the 2015 general election. After the PAP team won with 79.29% of the vote against SingFirst, Rahayu became a Member of Parliament representing the

ward of Jurong GRC. In 2017, she was part of the taskforce set up to implement tighter regulations on formula milk manufacturers. During 2020 general election, Rahayu joined the five-member PAP team contesting in Jurong GRC again and they won with 74.62% of the vote against Red Dot United. Rahayu thus retained her parliamentary seat in Bukit Batok East and was appointed Parliamentary Secretary on 1 September 2020 at the Ministry of Health. On 15 May 2021, she received an additional appointment as Parliamentary Secretary at the

Ministry of Communications and Information The Ministry of Digital Development and Information (MDDI; ; zh, 数码发展及新闻部; ) is a ministry of the Government of Singapore responsible for overseeing the development of the infocomm technology, media and design sectors, as well ...

. Rahayu was promoted to Senior Parliamentary Secretary at the Ministry of Health on 13 June 2022 with the Ministry of Law added to her portfolio. At the same time, she relinquished her Communications and Information portfolio. In the May 2024 Cabinet Reshuffle prior to Prime Minister-Designate

Lawrence Wong Lawrence Wong Shyun Tsai. In this Chinese name, the Chinese surname, family name is Huang (surname), Wong. In accordance with custom, the Western-style name is Lawrence Wong and the Chinese-style name is Wong Shyun Tsai. (born 18 December 197 ...

being sworn in as Singapore's 4th Prime Minister, Rahayu was promoted to Minister of State in the Ministry of Health as well as the

, while relinquishing her appointment in the Ministry of Law. Rahayu was sworn into her new portfolios on 15 May 2024.

Personal life

Rahayu is the eldest of three children and her parents were a security officer and a civil servant. Rahayu has been married to a civil servant since 2011. In 2015, it was reported that Rahayu and her husband had been trying for a child for a few years, and were undergoing IVF treatments to assist with this. On 7 April 2017, she gave birth to a son named Muhamad Ayden. It was subsequently reported that Ayden had Down Syndrome.

References

External links

Rahayu Mahzam
on

Parliament of Singapore The Parliament of Singapore is the unicameralism, unicameral legislature of the Singapore, Republic of Singapore, which governs the country alongside the President of Singapore. Largely based upon the Westminster system, the Parliament is made ...

{{DEFAULTSORT:Rahayu Mahzam 1980 births Living people Members of the Parliament of Singapore National University of Singapore alumni People's Action Party politicians Singaporean politicians of Malay descent Singaporean women in politics Singaporean Muslims Raffles Junior College alumni Raffles Girls' Secondary School alumni