Sitoh Yih Pin, Patrick Daniel appointed non-resident envoys to Maldives, Sri Lanka

Singapore's Ministry of Foreign Affairs (MFA) announced on 21 July 2026 that former Member of Parliament Sitoh Yih Pin and retired newspaper editor Patrick Daniel have been appointed the country's next Non-Resident High Commissioners to the Maldives and Sri Lanka respectively.

Both men received their letters of credence from President Tharman Shanmugaratnam on 21 July 2026, the MFA said in its statement.

Sitoh, 62, replaces Soo Kok Leng, who had held the Maldives posting since 2020. Singapore has not maintained a resident embassy in the Maldives since establishing diplomatic relations in February 1975, with the relationship instead managed from Singapore.

A three-term MP for Potong Pasir Single Member Constituency until 2025, Sitoh has served on the Board of Management of the People's Association since 2021. He is also an independent and non-executive director of China Taiping Insurance (Singapore), a position he has held since 2019.

Sitoh was previously chairman of CLA Global TS Holdings from 1993 to 2024. He began his career at accountancy firm KPMG, progressing from audit assistant in Singapore to audit senior in Melbourne, before returning to Singapore as a manager.

He graduated with a Bachelor of Accountancy (Honours) from the National University of Singapore in 1987, and completed the Chartered Accountancy Program in Melbourne, Australia, in 1990. He is married to Wong Wei Leng, and they have two daughters.

Daniel will take up the Sri Lanka posting, based at the Singapore consulate in Colombo, which was previously led by S. Chandra Das from 2015 to 2025.

Daniel currently serves as non-executive chairman of AlphaInvest Holdings, formerly ShareInvestor.com Holdings, and as president of the Singapore Press Club. He also holds non-executive director positions at SBS Transit, SPH Media Trust, SPH Media Holdings, the Steward Leadership Institute, Goodhope Asia Holdings and Vibranium Capital.

He spent more than three decades with Singapore Press Holdings (SPH), joining The Straits Times as a senior writer in 1986. He went on to edit The Business Times from 1992 to 2002, before becoming managing editor of SPH's English, Malay and Tamil newspapers.

Daniel served as SPH's editor-in-chief from 2007 to 2016, and retired as the company's deputy chief executive officer in 2017. He has also served on the boards of Sembcorp Marine, the Singapore University of Technology and Design, and the National University Health System.

Before joining SPH, Daniel was a Singapore Government Administrative Service officer from 1980 to 1986. He graduated from University College, Oxford, in 1976 with a Bachelor of Arts (Honours) in Engineering Science and Economics, and later obtained a Master of Public Administration from Harvard University's Kennedy School of Government in 1984. He is married to Chen Huey Rosa, and they have a son and a daughter.

As non-resident envoys, neither Sitoh nor Daniel is expected to reside in the country to which he is accredited. Both will instead make regular representational visits to manage diplomatic relations on Singapore's behalf.