Chee Hong Tat ( zh, s=徐芳达, p=Xú Fāngdá; born 1973)
is a Singaporean politician who has been serving as
Senior Minister of State for Finance since 2022 and
Senior Minister of State for Transport since 2020. A member of the governing
People's Action Party (PAP), he has been the
Member of Parliament (MP) representing the Toa Payoh West–Thomson division of
Bishan–Toa Payoh GRC since 2015.
Before entering politics, Chee had worked at various Ministries and was
Principal Private Secretary to
Lee Kuan Yew from 2008 to 2011. He was also the Chief Executive Officer of the
Energy Market Authority between 2011 and 2015 before he resigned to run for election in the
2015 general election as part of a five-member PAP team contesting in Bishan–Toa Payoh GRC. After the PAP team won with 73.59% of the vote, Chee became a Member of Parliament representing the Toa Payoh West–
Balestier ward of Bishan–Toa Payoh GRC. Since then, he had retained his parliamentary seat in the
2020 general election
The following elections were scheduled to occur in 2020. The International Foundation for Electoral Systems maintains a comprehensive list of upcoming elections on its E-Guide Platform. The National Democratic Institute also maintains a calend ...
and had been Minister of State and later Senior Minister of State at various Ministries.
Education
Chee was educated at
The Chinese High School and
Raffles Junior College before graduating from the
University of California, Berkeley in 1996 with a
Bachelor of Science with highest honours degree in
electrical engineering
Electrical engineering is an engineering discipline concerned with the study, design, and application of equipment, devices, and systems which use electricity, electronics, and electromagnetism. It emerged as an identifiable occupation in the l ...
and
computer science, as well as a
Bachelor of Arts with highest honours degree in
economics, under the Overseas Merit Scholarship awarded by the Singapore Government.
He subsequently went on to complete a
Master of Business Administration degree at the
University of Adelaide in 2006,
and was awarded the Newmont Australia Prize for being the Most Outstanding MBA Graduate.
Public service career
Chee joined the
Singapore Administrative Service in 1998 and worked at various Ministries, including
Home Affairs,
Finance
Finance is the study and discipline of money, currency and capital assets. It is related to, but not synonymous with economics, the study of production, distribution, and consumption of money, assets, goods and services (the discipline of fina ...
,
Transport and
Education.
Chee was also
Principal Private Secretary to
Minister Mentor Lee Kuan Yew from 2008 to 2011. During this time, he attracted attention after he wrote on behalf of Lee to ''
The Straits Times'' forum on 7 March 2009 in response to a call by
Nanyang Technological University
The Nanyang Technological University (NTU) is a national research university in Singapore. It is the second oldest autonomous university in the country and is considered as one of the most prestigious universities in the world by various inte ...
's Division of Linguistics and Multilingual Studies for a return to the use of Chinese dialects. In the letter, he wrote 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". Lee later mentioned Chee's letter in his book ''My Lifelong Challenge: Singapore's Bilingual Journey'' and said that the call to return to the use of Chinese dialects was a "daft call". During
Lee's state funeral in 2015, Chee was one of the eight pallbearers.
From 9 May 2011 to 1 April 2015, Chee served as the Chief Executive Officer of the
Energy Market Authority. He also was
Second Permanent Secretary
A permanent secretary (also known as a principal secretary) is the most senior civil servant of a department or ministry charged with running the department or ministry's day-to-day activities. Permanent secretaries are the non-political civil se ...
at the
Ministry of Trade and Industry from 1 December 2014 to 11 August 2015.
Political career
Chee resigned from the Singapore Administrative Service on 11 August 2015 to run for election in the
2015 general election as part of a five-member
People's Action Party (PAP) team contesting in
Bishan–Toa Payoh GRC after
Wong Kan Seng,
Hri Kumar and
Zainudin Nordin stepped down from their respective wards and politics. Two years before that, he had been attending grassroots events in Bishan–Toa Payoh and
Marine Parade GRCs. On 1 September 2015 (Nomination Day), Chee's fist-clenching and chest-thumping action in response to hecklers
shocked a few observers and amused others. When he was asked about that, Chee replied, "I'm new to this, so there's much for me to learn. I'll certainly try to improve."
On Polling Day, the PAP team won with 73.59% of the vote against the
Singapore People's Party. Chee was elected Member of Parliament representing the
Toa Payoh West–
Balestier ward of Bishan–Toa Payoh GRC.
On 1 October 2015, Chee was appointed
Minister of State at the Ministries of
Health and
Communications and Information.
Chee was promoted to
Senior Minister of State on 1 May 2017
and served at the Ministries of
Communications and Information and
Health from May 2017 to April 2018. On 9 November 2017, he alleged in a
Facebook post that
Leon Perera, a
Non-constituency Member of Parliament, had made false accusations about
Mediacorp making partisan edits on the video of a parliamentary debate on Presidential Elections (Amendment) Bill in February 2017. In response, Perera refuted Chee's allegation 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 publicly available, as is the case in many other countries. Perera later apologised in Parliament.
On 10 March 2018, Chee was one of the PAP Members of Parliament who responded to
Workers' Party Member of Parliament
Sylvia Lim
Sylvia Lim Swee Lian (; born 1965) is a Singaporean politician, lawyer, former police officer and lecturer who has been serving as Chairwoman of the Worker's Party since 2003. She has been the Member of Parliament (MP) representing the Paya Le ...
over her remark that the government had intended to raise the
goods and services tax 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. Lim acknowledged that she "may have been wrong".
On 24 April 2018, Chee was redesignated as Senior Minister of State at the Ministries of
Trade and Industry and
Education.
In the
2020 general election
The following elections were scheduled to occur in 2020. The International Foundation for Electoral Systems maintains a comprehensive list of upcoming elections on its E-Guide Platform. The National Democratic Institute also maintains a calend ...
, Chee contested in Bishan–Toa Payoh GRC as part of a four-member PAP team and they won with 67.26% of the vote against the
Singapore People's Party. He thus retained his parliamentary seat, representing the Toa Payoh West–
Thomson ward of Bishan–Toa Payoh GRC. He is also a member of the Bishan–Toa Payoh Town Council and an advisor to the Bishan–Toa Payoh grassroots organisations. On 27 July 2020, he was appointed Senior Minister of State at the Ministries of
Transport and
Foreign Affairs
''Foreign Affairs'' is an American magazine of international relations and U.S. foreign policy published by the Council on Foreign Relations, a nonprofit, nonpartisan, membership organization and think tank specializing in U.S. foreign policy and ...
. Following a
Cabinet reshuffle, on 15 May 2021, his portfolio as Senior Minister of State for Foreign Affairs was dropped, but he remained Senior Minister of State for Transport as he was shifted to the Labour Movement following a request by PM Lee to send him in return for
Koh Poh Koon. Chee was however appointed Senior Minister of State at the
Ministry of Finance on 13 June 2022, he was replaced by
Desmond Tan (politician) at NTUC.
Personal life
Chee is married with four children.
References
External links
Chee Hong Taton
Parliament of Singapore
The Parliament of Singapore is the unicameral legislature of the Republic of Singapore, which governs the country alongside the president of Singapore. Largely based upon the Westminster system, the Parliament is made up of Members of Parliam ...
{{DEFAULTSORT:Chee, Hong Tat
People's Action Party politicians
Living people
1973 births
UC Berkeley College of Engineering alumni
Singaporean people of Hokkien descent
Hwa Chong Institution alumni
Raffles Junior College alumni
Members of the Parliament of Singapore