The Late SG President - Mr Ong Teng Cheong's Query of GIC/TH

Rednano SG

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ong_Teng_Cheong

Ong's political career spanned 21 years. He was a Member of Parliament, Cabinet Minister and Deputy Prime Minister, before he resigned to become the first elected President of Singapore in 1993.

Ong began his political career through his involvement in grassroots activities in Seletar. He was then introduced to the then-Prime Minister Lee Kuan Yew.

The People's Action Party (PAP) soon fielded him as a candidate in Kim Keat in the 1972 General Election. His first political appointment came just three years later when he was made Senior Minister of State for Communications. At that time, Ong pushed for the development of the Mass Rapid Transit System (MRT), the largest construction project in Singapore's history. His next challenge came on the labour front, when he became the Secretary-General of the National Trades Union Congress (NTUC) in 1983. Ong was diagnosed with cancer of the lymphatic system in 1992. He became Singapore's first elected President a year later, and it was a presidency marked by many charitable projects, which touched the lives of many Singaporeans. Ong stepped down as President at the age of 63.^[2]

In January 1986, Ong sanctioned a strike in the shipping industry, the first for about a decade in Singapore, without telling the cabinet. He said that he did not inform the cabinet or the government because they would probably stop him from going ahead with the strike. There was a major corporate and cabinet backlash against his decision; however, the strike lasted only two days, and a deal was struck.^[5]

During his tenure as the Minister of National Development, Ong was a proponent and advocate of the Mass Rapid Transit system. He later became the 2nd Deputy Prime Minister in 1985.

Ong ran for the presidency in 1993 under the PAP's endorsement. He ran against a reluctant Chua Kim Yeow, a former accountant general, for the post. A total of 1,756,517 votes were polled. Ong received 952,513 votes while Chua had 670,358 votes, despite the former having a higher public exposure and a much more active campaign than Chua.

However, soon after his election to the presidency in 1993, Ong was tangled in a dispute over the access of information regarding Singapore's financial reserves. The government said it would take 56 man-years to produce a dollar-and-cents value of the immovable assets. Ong discussed this with the accountant general and the auditor general and eventually conceded that the government only had to declare all of its properties, a list which took a few months to produce. Even then, the list was not complete; it took the government a total of three years to produce the information that Ong requested.^[6]

In an interview with Asiaweek six months after stepping down from presidency,^[7] Ong indicated that he had asked for this audit based on the principle that as an elected president, he was bound to protect the national reserves, and the only way of doing so would be to know what reserves (both liquid cash and assets) the government owned.

In the last year of his presidency (1998) Ong found out through the newspapers that the government aimed to submit a bill to Parliament to sell the Post Office Savings Bank (POSB) to The Development Bank of Singapore. The POSB was, at that time, a government statutory board whose reserves were under the president's protection, this move was procedurally inappropriate and did not regard Ong's significance as the guardian of the reserves; he had to call and inform the government of this oversight. In spite of this, the sale proceeded and the Development Bank Of Singapore owns POSBank and its name to this present day.^[7]

Ong received an Honorary Appointment of The Order of St Michael and St George from Queen Elizabeth II in 1998.^[8]

Ong decided not to run for a second term as president in 1999 partially due to health reasons.

Ong's wife, Ling Siew May, died in August 1999 after a cancer relapse. Ong died later on February 8, 2002, at the age of 66, from lymphoma in his home at about 8:14 pm SST after he had been discharged from hospital a few days earlier.

Among the five former presidents who have died, Ong is the first president who did not receive a state funeral. He received a state-assisted funeral instead.^[9]

cawca SG

Seems to me that Mr Ong was a man truely for the people. As such, he turned from being a PAP man into an 'opposition' realising in his later years what is needed to ensure the future of Singapore.

Vote PAP OUT to Save SG SG

Ong Teng Cheong was a hokkien that had popularity with the public, this triggered the inferiority complex of Lee Kuan Yew who is a hakka peranakan.

So Lee Kuan Yew withdrew his support of Ong Teng Cheong. He became wary and jealous of Ong Teng Cheong.

In the history of Singapore, we can say that no one really supported Lee Kuan Yew.

That is why Lee Kuan Yew can only resort to threats and intimidation to rule.

He cannot play the populist card. No one would support him.

Vote PAP OUT to Save SG SG

Around this time you were discussing the succession to PM Lee?

Lee Kuan Yew had been discussing this since about 1983. At that time, the second echelon was Tony Tan, S. Dhanabalan, Goh Chok Tong and myself.

Were you a candidate for the top job?

I was considered as a member of the group. At that time, we did not know who would be the successor to Lee. We finally made the decision to pick Goh Chok Tong. He agreed on condition that I agreed to be his number two. So I was the second DPM; he was the first DPM. In 1988, Lee asked Goh to take over, but he was not ready. He said: two more years. So two years later, he took the job.

Lee did not agree with your decision to pick Goh.

No, he did not disagree. He said he would leave it to us. His own first choice was Tony Tan. Goh Chok Tong was his second choice. I was his third choice because he said my English was not good enough. He said Dhanabalan was not right because Singapore was not ready for an Indian prime minister. That upset the Indian community. There was quite a bit of adverse reaction to what he said. But he speaks his mind. He is the only one who can get away with it.

http://www.singapore-window.org/sw00/000310a4.htm

His own first choice was Tony Tan.

Goh Chok Tong was his second choice.

I was his third choice because he said my English was not good enough.

my English was not good enough.

I was his third choice because he said my English was not good enough.

Endangered species?

For goodness sake, Lee Kuan Yew practically filled the entire cabinet with inbred Peranakans.

For the last few decades in Singapore, the top positions in civil service, statutory boards, armed forces, GLCs have all along been going disproportionately to the Peranakans.

That is one reason why Singapore has been run to the ground.

Lee Kuan Yew worked with the Japanese Kempeitai and later the British colonizers to suppress the non-Peranakan Chinese.

That's why he has always been wary of non-Peranakan Chinese and could only entrust power to his own family members and his other Peranakan cronies.

http://tomorrow.sg/archives/2009/02/17/peranakans__going_the_way_of_the.html

That's why he has always been wary of non-Peranakan Chinese and could only entrust power to his own family members and his other Peranakan cronies.

he has always been wary of non-Peranakan Chinese and could only entrust power to his own family members and his other Peranakan cronies.

he said my English was not good enough.

His own first choice was Tony Tan.

Despite these economic misfortunes, the Peranakan community’s investment in English education and their empathy with the British were, once again, rewarded amply.

They continued to play a leading role in the public life of post-war Singapore. Their prominent representatives included Tan Chin Tuan, T W Ong, C C Tan , Sir Han Hoe Lim, Thio Chan Bee and Lim Yew Hock, the one-time Chief Minister of Singapore.

Even after Singapore attained its independence in 1965, those with Peranakan roots carried on their long and distinguished record of public service into the present time.

Among the eminent personages are Dr Wee Kim Wee, Dr Goh Keng Swee, Dr Tony Tan and the late Dr Ee Peng Liang.