Zainul Abidin bin Mohamed Rasheed (born 17 March 1948)[2] is a Singaporean diplomat, former politician and journalist.
[3] He previously served as Senior Minister of State for Foreign Affairs between 2006 and 2011 and the Mayor of North East District from 2001 to 2009.
[4] Zainul attended Jalan Daud Primary School and Raffles Institution before graduating from the National University of Singapore where he majored in economics.
In the 2011 general elections, Zainul Abidin was part of the PAP team which lost Aljunied GRC to the WP consists of Low Thia Kiang, Pritam Singh, Sylvia Lim, Muhamad Faisal Manap and Chen Show Mao.
"[6] Prior to the 2011 presidential election, Zainul declined to announce a candidacy on 29 May, but did not categorically rule out a run, declaring that he wished to take a break before making any decisions.
[12] On 27 October 2011, Zainul Abidin was appointed non-resident Ambassador to Kuwait[5][13] and a special envoy of the Minister for Foreign Affairs to the Middle East.