Tan Cheng Bock

Tan Cheng Bock (2011)

Adrian Tan Cheng Bock (Chinese: 陈清 木; pinyin: Chén Qīngmù; Pe̍h-ōe-jī: Tân Chheng-bo̍k; born April 26, 1940 ) is a Singaporean politician and doctor who was the founder and first general secretary of the Progress Singapore Party (PSP). He also stood for the 2011 presidential election and won the second highest number of votes with 34.85% of all four candidates, with a slight 0.35% loss to winner Tony Tan.

He was previously a member of the People's Action Party (PAP) and from December 1980 to May 2006 PAP MP for Ayer Rajah SMC .

history

Tan was born into a Hokkien-speaking family and educated at Radin Mas Primary School and the Raffles Institution before studying at the University of Singapore, where he completed his Bachelor of Medicine and Surgery in 1968. From 1980 to 2006 he was a member of the Singapore Parliament as a member of the People's Action Party. In early May 2011, he resigned from the PAP to run for the 2011 presidential election.

Tan has been the Medical Director of Ama Keng Medical Clinic in Jurong since 1971 . He was chairman of the Society of Private Practice, council member of the College of General Practitioners and committee member in the council of the Singapore Medical Association (SMA), as chairman of the SMA Trust Fund, as board member of the SMA ethics committee, as representative of the SMA in the committee of the Ministry of Health for regulating medical clinics and serving as a part-time clinical teacher in general medicine at the National University of Singapore .

Tan entered the political arena in the 1980 general election under the banner of the People's Action Party and was elected member of the Ayer Rajah constituency with 83% of the vote. Tan's subsequent election results averaging 77% were seen as one of the top performing candidates in Singapore. His best result so far was his last election in 2001 with 88%.

While in Parliament, he chaired the Government's Parliamentary Committees (GPCs) on Education (1987–1990), National Development (1991–1995), and the Environment (1995–1997) and coordinated chairman for all GPCs from 1987–88. He was also a member of the GPCs for Communications (1997–2000) and Defense and Foreign Affairs (2001–2006). Tan was Chairman of the Singapore European Parliament Group from 1991 to 1996 and the Singapore SEA Group from 1997 to 2006. From 1987 to 1996 he was an elected member of the PAP Central Executive Committee, the highest government committee within the PAP. Tan resigned as a MP in the 2006 general election. He was also Chairman of Jurong East Town Council from 1989 to 1991, Chairman of West Coast-Ayer Rajah Town Council from 2001 to 2004, Chairman of Bukit Timah Community Development Council from 1997 to 2000 and Chairman of the Feedback Unit in the Ministry of Community Development from 1985 until 1989.

He left politics before the 2006 general election, while his constituency moved to the nearby West Coast GRC constituency (the Ayer Rajah division has since been renamed by S. Iswaran (who was taken over alongside Iswaran's West Coast) and later renamed Foo Mee Har 2011 general election) .

2011 presidential election

Nomination Center (August 17, 2011)

On May 27, 2011, 20 days after the recent general election, Tan was the first candidate to run for the upcoming presidential election. He resigned from the PAP earlier in the month before the announcement (the constitution states that candidates running for the presidential election must be impartial, independent candidates and not belong to or represent any political party). On July 22, 2011, Tan submitted the forms for the presidency.

Ahead of nomination day (which is scheduled to take place on August 17th), despite the expectation of strong competition against the other potential rivals who have also announced their candidacy (former Deputy Prime Minister Tony Tan and Chief Executive Officer of NTUC Income, Tan Kin Lian), He filed his motions on July 22nd and was one of four candidates (the above three plus former Singapore Democratic Party candidate Tan Jee Say) to be awarded the Certificate of Eligibility on August 11th, a point required was to complete their nominations during the year on nomination day. The square fight only marked the second presidential election in history (the first was in 1993) with a contest, as the two previous presidential elections (1999 and 2005) were both undisputed overtaking maneuvers.

Tan stated that if he were elected he would encourage multiracism.

On August 27, Singapore elected its seventh and newly elected candidate. About five hours after the polls were closed, Tan called the polling department at 1:23 a.m. to get a recount of the polls. Due to a narrow margin of less than 2% between the top two candidates (the other was Tony Tan), ELD approved Tan's proposal and it took about three hours for the vote to be counted before the results were final.

At 4:10 in the morning Tan Cheng Bock lost the election slightly to Tony Tan with a margin of 0.35% (7,269 votes). Cheng Bock received 737,128 (34.85% of the 2,115,118 valid) votes, while Tony received 744,397 votes (35.20%).

Tan Cheng Bock did not want to run for the 2017 presidential election but filed a constitutional challenge with the High Court to determine whether it is right to set the election as a reserved option under the newly introduced changes to the elected presidency, and whether Wee Kim Wee (the fourth President of Singapore) has been counted as a six-year term since the constitution was established for the elected presidency in 1991, but the High Court Judge Quentin Loh denied his challenge, stating: "Article 164 (1 ) (a) provides that Parliament shall determine the President's first term of office to be counted in accordance with Article 19B (1) ("First Term of Office"), but the Court of Five Judges unanimously dismissed his appeal on 23 August and decided that Parliament, at its own discretion, would determine the first term that President Wee counted as a presidency term, ending with Halimah Yacob on Se 13th ptember 2017 the only candidate for the certificate of approval.

Progress Singapore Party

In 2018, Tan chaired a gathering along with seven opposition parties (Singapore Democratic Party, Reform Party, Singaporean First, People's Party, Democratic Progressive Party, National Solidarity Party and a new party founded by former NSP leader Lim Tean, Peoples Voice). to plan a possible coalition for the upcoming elections. On January 19, 2019, Tan, along with 12 other petitioners, filed a motion to form a new political party called the Progress Singapore Party to be an "additional voice in Parliament" and launched on August 3, 2019.

Tan ran on the West Coast GRC in the Singapore general election in 2020, which featured his former community Ayer Rajah. His PSP team on the West Coast GRC again narrowly lost 48.31% of the vote against the incumbent People's Action Party. PAP candidates include Rachel Ong Sin Yen, Desmond Lee, Ang Wei Neng, S. Iswaran and Foo Mee Har, while PSP candidates are Leong Mun Wai, Hazel Poa, Nadarajah Loganathan and Jeffrey Khoo. Two candidates went to non-constituency MPs; Hazel Poa and Leong Mun Wai.

Individual evidence

1. ↑ Profiles . Retrieved August 13, 2011.
2. ^ Leonard Lim: Dr Tan Cheng Bock files presidency forms . In: The Straits Times , July 22, 2011. Retrieved July 23, 2011. 
3. ↑ Hetty Musfirah, Riz Sunawan: PE: Dr Tan Cheng Bock says he'll promote multiracialism very strongly if elected . In: Channel News Asia , August 7, 2011. Retrieved August 15, 2011. 
4. ↑ Dr Tan Cheng Bock's constitutional challenge on counting of Reserved Presidential Election, dismissed by High Court . 7th July 2017.
5. ↑ Law allows Parliament to count Wee Kim Wee's term in triggering reserved presidential election: High Court . July 7, 2017. Retrieved July 8, 2017.  
6. ↑ Tan Cheng Bock's constitutional challenge dismissed by High Court , Channel NewsAsia. July 7, 2017. Retrieved July 8, 2017.  
7. ↑ GE2020 official results: PAP retains West Coast GRC with 51.69% of votes against Tan Cheng Bock's PSP ( en ) Retrieved July 11, 2020.