Steve Chia

Steve Chia Kiah Hong (simplified Chinese: 谢镜丰; traditional Chinese: 謝鏡豐; pinyin: Xiè Jìng Fēng; born 3 November 1970) is a Singaporean politician. He has been secretary-general of the Singapore People's Party (SPP) since 5 November 2019.[2]

Steve Chia
谢镜丰
Steve Chia at a Singapore Democratic Alliance election rally on 2 May 2006
3rd Secretary-General of the Singapore People's Party
Incumbent
Assumed office 5 November 2019[1]
Prime Minister	Lee Hsien Loong
Chairman	Jose Raymond (2019–2020)
Preceded by	Chiam See Tong
Non-constituency Member of Parliament
In office 5 November 2001 – 18 April 2006
Personal details
Born	Steve Chia Kiah Hong 3 November 1970 Singapore
Nationality	Singaporean
Political party	National Solidarity Party (1995–2017) Singapore People's Party (2017–)
Spouse(s)	Doreen Chee ​ ​ (m. 1996; div. 2017)​
Children	2 sons
Residence	Singapore
Education	Bachelor of Arts
Alma mater	National University of Singapore

He was the secretary-general of the National Solidarity Party (NSP) from 2001 to 2005. He served as the Non-constituency Member of Parliament (NCMP) from 5 November 2001 to 18 April 2006, during which time the NSP was part of the Singapore Democratic Alliance (SDA).[3]

Biography

In 1985, at the age of 15, Chia was sentenced to two years' probation by a juvenile court following an incident where he and group of other boys broke into a school and committed vandalism. In his book Called to Serve, Chia notes that the incident left him determined to turn his life around. He went on to graduate from Nanyang Junior College in 1988.

During his national service, Chia became an officer in the Singapore Armed Forces despite the discovery of an inborn heart defect late in his officer cadet training which resulted in him being put on light duties for the final two months of the course. His commanders were nevertheless impressed by his performance and wrote in to appeal for him to be commissioned as an officer. The appeal was approved, and he became the only person to have graduated from the Officer Cadet Course without taking the senior term Individual Physical Proficiency Test (IPPT) and Standard Obstacle Course.[4]

Chia then became a student at the National University of Singapore (NUS), where he read Psychology and Philosophy. He graduated with a Bachelor of Arts degree in 1994. He was active in student politics during his time at NUS, and was elected into the National University of Singapore Students' Union's (NUSSU) executive committee.[5]

Political career

Chia first took an interest in national politics during a by-election in the Marine Parade Group Representation Constituency in 1992, when he attended one of the National Solidarity Party's campaign rallies. (He had intended to attend a rally of the Singapore Democratic Party, for whom Chia's Psychology lecturer Chee Soon Juan was standing as a candidate, but he went to the wrong location and ended up at the NSP's rally instead.)

After graduating from NUS in 1995, Chia joined the NSP. At the 1997 general election, he was a member of the party's teams in the Hong Kah Group Representation Constituency, and was defeated by the team from the governing People's Action Party (PAP) by 36,920 votes (31%) to 82,182 (69%).

Prior to the 2001 general election, the National Solidarity Party joined the Singapore Democratic Alliance.

Chia stood as the SDA's candidate in the single-member constituency of Chua Chu Kang at the 2001 general election. During the election campaign, Prime Minister Goh Chok Tong unexpectedly praised Chia, noting that he appeared to be more professional than many of the other opposition candidates. (Goh later claimed that he did so because he was confident that the PAP candidate in Chua Chu Kang would win, but wanted to help Chia claim and a Non-constituency MP's seat. In his book Called to Serve, Chia speculates that Goh did this because he remembered Chia from discussions they had had in 1993 about the establishment of the NUS Students' Trust Fund.) Chia was defeated by the PAP's Low Seow Chay by 8,143 votes (34.66%) to 14,489 (65.34%). As this was the highest percentage of the vote garnered by any opposition losing candidate at the election, Chia therefore became a Non-constituency MP.[6]

At the 2006 general election, Chia improved his percentage of the vote in Chua Chu Kang, but still lost to the PAP's Gan Kim Yong by 9,292 votes (39.63%) to 14,156 (60.37%). This was not enough to enable him to hold on to his NCMP seat as the team from the Workers' Party in the Aljunied Group Representation Constituency surpassed him with 43.91% of the votes.[7] (The Workers' Party's Sylvia Lim became the next NCMP.)

Chia contested a fourth time in the 2011 general election in the newly carved out single-member constituency of Pioneer against the PAP's Cedric Foo, who was already the MP for the district when it was part of the West Coast Group Representation Constituency. However Chia fell short again, winning 39.27% of the votes.[8]

Ahead of the 2015 general election, the NSP announced that it planned field Chia as a candidate in the single-member constituency of MacPherson. This was a controversial decision as the Workers' Party had already announced that it planned to field a candidate against the PAP in the constituency. The NSP's acting secretary-general, Hazel Poa, resigned from the party following the announcement stating that she disagreed with the decision of the party's Central Executive Committee to contest the constituency. On 22 August 2015, Chia released a statement on Facebook announcing that he had decided not to be the NSP's candidate in MacPherson and would not be standing in the general election. He stated that "the Trolls have won" because negative online posts had been a key factor in his decision to withdraw.[9] (The NSP subsequently decided to field Cheo Chai Chen in MacPherson.)

Chia subsequently resigned from the NSP and joined the Singapore People's Party in 2018, becoming its Organising Secretary. On 16 October 2019, Chia was re-elected into the SPP CEC and on 5 November 2019, was made secretary-general of the SPP. The difference with his stint as secretary-general in NSP was that the NSP President was the top post, whereas for SPP, he succeeded Chiam See Tong as the leader of the party.

Controversies

In 2003, while Chia was an NCMP, he was involved in a scandal when topless photos of a maid who worked in his home were discovered by his wife Doreen Chee in his computer's "recycle bin". His wife lodged a police report. Chia insisted that his maid had agreed to pose for the photos and that he did not force her to do so. He noted that he had an interest in nude photography, and even showed the press nude photos that he had taken of himself (with his back to the camera) to prove this.[10][11][12] Police investigations found no evidence that an offence had been committed.[13]

In 2006, Chia was fined following an incident when he drove a car through a red light, causing a crash with a bus.[14]

References

1. "SPP elects Steve Chia, Jose Raymond to top posts". CNA. 5 November 2019. Archived from the original on 6 November 2019. Retrieved 6 November 2019.
2. "SPP elects Steve Chia, Jose Raymond to top posts". CNA. 5 November 2019. Archived from the original on 6 November 2019. Retrieved 6 November 2019.
3. NSP Quits, Chiam takes it in stride, Kwek, Ken, The Straits Times, pg H4, 20 Jan 2007
4. Foreword to NSP website Archived 2007-03-11 at the Wayback Machine, 27 April 2006, accessed 19 Sep 2006.
5. Chiam, Augustin (24 August 2012). "Union Forum 2012: Rethinking the Role of the Union – NUSSU The Ridge Magazine". Retrieved 2021-01-04.
6. The NSP CEC - National Solidarity Party, URL accessed on 7 March 2006
7. http://www.asiaone.com/specials/ge2006/results.html Archived 2011-01-04 at the Wayback Machine www.asiaone.com : Singapore General Election 2006 Results
8. http://www.elections.gov.sg/elections_results2011.html Archived 2011-05-13 at the Wayback Machine Singapore Elections Department : 2011 PARLIAMENTARY GENERAL ELECTION RESULTS
9. NSP's Steve Chia withdraws from MacPherson SMC contest, citing online abuse Archived 2015-08-26 at the Wayback Machine. The Straits Times, 23 August 2015.
10. "MP exposed after taking topless photos of Indonesian maid". Agence France Presse. 22 December 2003. Archived from the original on 28 February 2005. Retrieved 26 January 2006.
11. "Naked MP quits leadership posts, but remains in parliament". Agence France Presse. 23 December 2003. Archived from the original on 28 February 2005. Retrieved 26 January 2006.
12. "The Steve Chia case: an ordinary bloke". Yawning Bread. January 2004. Archived from the original on 2008-11-20.
13. "MP and maid in nude shots - Asean Plus | The Star Online". www.thestar.com.my. Archived from the original on 2018-12-04. Retrieved 2018-12-04.
14. With Charges Reduced, Chia has GE chance after all, Today, pg4, 17 Mar 2006

External links

• Page at NSP website
• Called to Serve - A compilation of Parliamentary Speeches & Questions (10th Singapore Parliament, 2002-2006) by NCMP Steve Chia Autobiography about himself and 10th Singapore Parliament.
• Steve Chia's campaign website for Pioneer SMC