Chee Hong Tat

Chee Hong Tat (simplified Chinese: 徐芳达; traditional Chinese: 徐芳達; pinyin: Xú Fāngdá) is a Singaporean politician.[1] A member of the governing People's Action Party (PAP). He has been appointed as the Senior Minister of State for Ministry for Transport and Senior Minister of State for Ministry for Foreign Affairs by Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong. He was elected as the People's Action Party Central Executive Committee as Assistant Organising Secretary.

The Honourable Chee Hong Tat MP
徐芳达
Senior Minister of State, Ministry for Transport
Incumbent
Assumed office 27 July 2020 Serving with Amy Khor
Prime Minister	Lee Hsien Loong
Minister	Ong Ye Kung
Constituency	Bishan–Toa Payoh GRC
Senior Minister of State, Ministry for Foreign Affairs
Incumbent
Assumed office 27 July 2020
Prime Minister	Lee Hsien Loong
Minister	Vivian Balakrishnan
Constituency	Bishan–Toa Payoh GRC
Senior Minister of State, Ministry for Trade and Industry
In office 1 May 2018 – 26 July 2020
Prime Minister	Lee Hsien Loong
Minister	Chan Chun Sing
Constituency	Bishan–Toa Payoh GRC
Senior Minister of State, Ministry for Education
In office 1 May 2018 – 26 July 2020
Prime Minister	Lee Hsien Loong
Minister	Ong Ye Kung
Constituency	Bishan–Toa Payoh GRC
Senior Minister of State, Ministry for Communications and Information
In office 1 May 2017 – 30 April 2018
Prime Minister	Lee Hsien Loong
Minister	Yaacob Ibrahim
Constituency	Bishan–Toa Payoh GRC
Senior Minister of State, Ministry for Health
In office 1 May 2017 – 30 April 2018
Prime Minister	Lee Hsien Loong
Minister	Gan Kim Yong
Constituency	Bishan–Toa Payoh GRC
Minister of State, Ministry for Communications and Information
In office 1 October 2015 – 30 April 2017
Prime Minister	Lee Hsien Loong
Minister	Yaacob Ibrahim
Constituency	Bishan–Toa Payoh GRC
Minister of State, Ministry for Health
In office 1 October 2015 – 30 April 2017
Prime Minister	Lee Hsien Loong
Minister	Gan Kim Yong
Constituency	Bishan–Toa Payoh GRC
Member of the Singapore Parliament for Bishan–Toa Payoh GRC (Toa Payoh West-Thomson)
Incumbent
Assumed office 10 July 2020
Preceded by	Position established
Member of the Singapore Parliament for Bishan–Toa Payoh GRC (Toa Payoh West-Balestier)
In office 11 September 2015 – 23 June 2020
Preceded by	Position established
Succeeded by	Position abolished
Second Permanent Secretary, Ministry for Trade and Industry
In office 1 December 2014 – 11 August 2015
Prime Minister	Lee Hsien Loong
Minister	Lim Hng Kiang (Trade) S. Iswaran (Industry)
Constituency	Bishan–Toa Payoh GRC
Chief Executive of the Energy Market Authority
In office 9 May 2011 – 1 April 2015
Personal details
Born	1973 Singapore
Political party	People's Action Party
Alma mater	The Chinese High School Raffles Junior College University of California at Berkeley Adelaide University

He has served as Senior Minister of State in the Ministry for Transport and Ministry for Foreign Affairs since July 2020, Ministry for Trade and Industry and Ministry for Education from May 2018 to July 2020, Ministry for Communications and Information and Ministry for Health from May 2017 to April 2018 as well as Minister of State in the Ministry for Communications and Information and Ministry for Health from October 2015 to his relinquishments for promotions to Senior Minister of State in April 2017. He has been the Member of Parliament (MP) for Bishan–Toa Payoh GRC for Toa Payoh West-Thomson since July 2020 and for Toa Payoh West-Balestier from September 2015 to June 2020.

Education

Chee attended The Chinese High School and Raffles Junior College. He studied at the University of California, Berkeley on an Overseas Merit Scholarship, and graduated in 1996 with a Bachelor of Science (Highest Honours) in Electrical Engineering & Computer Sciences and a Bachelor of Arts (Highest Honours) in Economics.[2] He obtained a Masters of Business Administration from Adelaide University in 2006,[3] and was awarded the Newmont Australia Prize for Most Outstanding MBA Graduate.[4]

Civil Service career

Chee Hong Tat joined the Administrative Service in 1998. He worked in various ministries, including Home Affairs, Finance, Transport and Education.[5]

Chee was Principal Private Secretary (PPS) to the late Minister Mentor Lee Kuan Yew from 2008 to 2011. As Mr Lee's PPS, Chee was, for the large part, out of the public's eye. He however received attention following a letter he wrote to the Straits Times Forum on 7 March 2009 in response to a call by Nanyang Technological University's Division of Linguistics and Multilingual Studies for a return to dialects saying that "it would be stupid for any Singapore agency or NTU to advocate the learning of dialects, which must be at the expense of English and Mandarin".[6]

The NTU incident and the letter are however cited in Lee Kuan Yew's book My Lifelong Challenge: Singapore’s Bilingual Journey. “I thought it was a daft call. My then-principal private secretary Chee Hong Tat issued a reply on my behalf.”[7]

Chee was one of the eight pallbearers for the funeral of Mr Lee Kuan Yew.[8]

After Lee left the Cabinet in 2011, Chee served as Chief Executive of the Energy Market Authority from 9 May 2011[9] to 1 April 2015.[10] On 1 December 2014, he was appointed Second Permanent Secretary at Ministry of Trade and Industry.[11]

Political career

On 11 August 2015, Mr Chee resigned from the Administrative Service to stand for the General Election.[12] Two years prior to GE2015, he had been spotted at grassroots events in Bishan–Toa Payoh[13] and Marine Parade GRCs.[14]

On Nomination Day, Mr Chee's fist clenching and chest thumping action, in response to hecklers,[1] shocked a few observers, whilst amusing others. Asked about the incident, Chee said, “I’m new to this, so there’s much for me to learn. I’ll certainly try to improve.”[1]

Chee was part of the team of five led by Minister for Defence Ng Eng Hen that won 73.59 percent of the votes in the Bishan–Toa Payoh GRC.[15]

On 1 October 2015, Mr Chee was appointed Minister of State for Health and Communications and Information.

In 2016, Mr Chee appeared in television drama dialect series Eat Already? in Episode 7, promoting healthy eating diets.[16]

On 1 May 2017, Mr Chee was promoted to Senior Minister of State for both Ministries.[3] On 9 November 2017, Chee took to Facebook alleging NCMP Leon Perera had made false accusations on Mediacorp of making partisan edits on the video of Parliamentary debate on Presidential Elections (Amendment) Bill in February.[17] In response, Leon rejected his claim and stated that his questions were about the ownership of the copyright to Parliamentary video footage and why Parliamentary video live feed cannot be made available as it is in many other countries. Leon Perera later apologised in Parliament.[18]

On 10 March 2018, Mr Chee was one of a number of PAP members who responded to Sylvia Lim over her remark that the government had intended to raise GST in the current term but backtracked due to negative public reaction. He chided the Workers' Party for using this issue to discredit the PAP government, saying that it was an attack on its integrity and not responding as strongly as they did would imply that the government is dishonest.[19] Lim acknowledged that she "may have been wrong".[20]

On 24 March 2018, it was announced that Mr Chee will move to Senior Minister of State for Ministry of Trade and Industry (Singapore) and Ministry of Education (Singapore).[21]

Chee and team remained representatives for Bishan–Toa Payoh GRC in the 2020 Singaporean general election, garnering 67.26% of the valid votes.[22]

Chee was an elected member to the Bishan-Toa Payoh Town Council and an advisor of the Bishan-Toa Payoh grassroots organisations.

Personal life

Chee Hong Tat is married with four children.[23]

References

1. Yong, Charissa (3 September 2015). "Stepping out of comfort zone to serve". The Straits Times. Retrieved 4 May 2018.
2. "Mr Chee Hong Tat". www.mti.gov.sg. Retrieved 1 August 2020.
3. "SMS Chee Hong Tat" (PDF). Parliament of Singapore.
4. Tan, Martino (7 June 2015). "6 potential PAP candidates who are so senior they won't be MPs if they entered parliament". mothership.sg. Retrieved 1 August 2020.
5. "Second Perm Sec for Trade and Industry Chee Hong Tat leaves civil service". Channel NewsAsia. Retrieved 16 August 2015.
6. "Archived copy". Archived from the original on 4 October 2018. Retrieved 17 May 2018.CS1 maint: archived copy as title (link)
7. Lee, Kuan Yew (2012). My Lifelong Challenge: Singapore's Bilingual Journey. Straits Times Press.
8. "Pallbearers". www.remembering.sg.
9. "Lawrence Wong steps down as Chief Executive of Energy Market Authority, may enter politics". 29 March 2011.
10. "New Chief Executive For Energy Market Authority". Ministry of Trade and Industry.
11. "Second Permanent Secretary". Ministry of Trade and Industry. Archived from the original on 11 June 2015. Retrieved 5 July 2017.
12. Yong, Charissa (4 August 2015). "Senior civil servant Chee Hong Tat, 41, resigns from the civil service". The Straits Times.
13. hermes (30 July 2015). "Three potential candidates spotted with PAP MPs". The Straits Times. Retrieved 4 May 2018.
14. "New PAP candidates: This 'small brother' wants to pay it back". The New Paper. 13 August 2015. Retrieved 4 May 2018.
15. "GE2015: PAP wins Bishan–Toa Payoh GRC with 73.59% of votes". Business Times. 12 September 2015. Retrieved 8 December 2016.
16. govsingapore (20 October 2016), 《吃饱没?》(Eat Already?) Episode 7, retrieved 19 November 2018
17. "Leon Perera made 'serious accusation' that Mediacorp 'edited' parliamentary video: Chee Hong Tat". CNA.
18. "WP's Leon Perera apologises for claiming Mediacorp edited Parliament video". CNA.
19. "Important for Govt to remove any doubt about timing of GST hike to protect its integrity: Chee Hong Tat". The Straits Times. 10 March 2018.
20. "Sylvia Lim says her suspicions 'may have been wrong'". The Straits Times. 9 March 2018.
21. "Cabinet reshuffle: 4 backbenchers promoted, lawyer Edwin Tong to be Senior Minister of State for Law and Health". The Straits Times. 24 April 2018.
22. "GE2020 official results: PAP wins Bishan-Toa Payoh GRC in 3rd successive challenge by SPP". The Straits Times. 11 July 2020. Retrieved 15 July 2020.
23. "Chee Hong Tat" (PDF). Pap.org.sg. Archived from the original (PDF) on 4 March 2016. Retrieved 16 August 2015.

External links

• Chee Hong Tat on Parliament of Singapore