Zainul Abidin bin Mohamed Rasheed (born 17 March 1948)[1] is a Singaporean politician and former Member of Parliament who last represented Aljunied GRC from 2001 to 2011.
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He attended the Jalan Daud Primary School, followed by Raffles Institution and then the National University of Singapore, where he read Economics. He was awarded the Gold Outstanding Young Singaporean Award in 1974.
Zainul Abidin worked for a long time in Singapore Press Holdings (Asia News Bulletin, Sunday Times,Straits Times, Berita Harian) before being seconded to the government sector, to Mendaki (1990 - 1993) and MUIS (1991-1996).
He has held various appointments, among them being:
He first stood for the Singapore General Election under the PAP in 1997, under the then newly formed Cheng San GRC, against the Workers' Party, whose notable candidates were Mr JB Jeyaratnam and Tang Liang Hong. The PAP won that constituency.
Zainul Abidin later moved to Aljunied GRC for the 2001 General Elections. In the 2006 General Elections, his party, the PAP, contested Aljunied GRC against the Workers' Party of Singapore. The PAP garnered 56.09% of the votes in this GRC.
He was appointed Senior Parliamentary Secretary for the Ministry of Foreign Affairs from 1998 - 2001. He also held the post of Mayor of the NorthEast Community Development Council from 2001 to 2008. He was then appointed Minister of State for the Ministry of Foreign Affairs in 2004 and given a Senior Minister of State role in 2006.
In the 2011 General Elections, Zainul Abidin was part of the 5-man PAP team which lost the hotly-contested Aljunied GRC constituency to the Workers' Party.
Zainul Abidin is married with 4 children.