Tony Tan Keng Yam (simplified Chinese: 陈庆炎; traditional Chinese: 陳慶炎; pinyin: Chén Qìngyán; Pe̍h-ōe-jī: Tân Khèng-iām; born 7 February 1940) is the seventh President of Singapore, in office since 2011. He served as a Member of the Singapore Parliament from 1979 to 2006 and held various ministerial portfolios, including defence, finance, Arts, trade and industry. In the late 1980s, Lee Kuan Yew mentioned Tan as his first choice to succeed himself as Prime Minister of Singapore, but he declined.[1] He left the Cabinet from 1991 to 1995 to lead the Oversea-Chinese Banking Corporation before returning as Deputy Prime Minister, a position he held until 2005.
After stepping down as a Member of Parliament in 2006, Tan was appointed Executive Director and Deputy Chairman of the Government of Singapore Investment Corporation (GIC) and Chairman of Singapore Press Holdings Limited (SPH). He also served as Chairman of Singapore's National Research Foundation, and Deputy Chairman of the Research, Innovation and Enterprise Council.[2] In July 2011, he resigned from these positions to contest in the 2011 presidential election. He received 35.20% of the votes, winning by a narrow 0.34% margin over the second-placed candidate. Tan was sworn in as President on 1 September 2011.[3]
Contents [hide]
1 Education and early career
2 Cabinet member
2.1 Union disputes and conflict with Ong Teng Cheong
2.2 Return to the private sector
2.3 Return to Cabinet
3 Second retirement from the Cabinet
4 2011 presidential election
4.1 Campaign platform
4.2 Campaign endorsements
4.3 Campaign proceedings
5 Presidency
6 Personal life
7 References
Education and early career[edit]
Tan was educated at St Patrick's School and St Joseph's Institution. As a recipient of a government scholarship, he graduated with first class honours in physics from the University of Singapore (now the National University of Singapore), topping his class.[4] As an Asia Foundation scholar, he attended the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) where he completed a Master of Science in operations research. He later earned a Doctor of Philosophy in applied mathematics at the University of Adelaide, and went on to lecture mathematics in the University of Singapore.[5] [6]
In 1969, Tan left the University of Singapore to begin a career in banking with Overseas-Chinese Banking Corporation (OCBC), where he rose to become General Manager, before leaving the bank to pursue a career in politics in 1979. From 1980 to 1981, Tan was the first Vice Chancellor of the National University of Singapore (NUS).[4]
In 2005, Tan was presented the NUS Eminent Alumni Award in recognition of his role as a visionary architect of Singapore’s university sector.[4] In 2010, he was presented the inaugural Distinguished Australian Alumnus Award by the Australian Alumni Singapore (AAS) at its 55th anniversary dinner in recognition of his distinguished career, and his significant contribution to society and to the Australian alumni community.[7][8] In 2014, Tan was conferred an honorary doctorate by his Alma mater University of Adelaide for his “long record of outstanding achievements both as a leader in the Singapore government and in the business sectors.[9]
Tan opening the "International Evening" at the 2012 Lindau Nobel Laureate Meeting
Cabinet member[edit]
A member of the People's Action Party (PAP) until June 2011, Tan became a Member of Parliament (MP) in 1979. He was appointed as a Senior Minister of State in the Ministry of Education in 1979. He joined the Cabinet in 1980, serving as Minister for Education (MOE, 1980–81 & 1985–91), Minister for Trade & Industry (1981–86), Minister for Finance (1983–85), and Minister for Health (1985–86).[4]
Tan espoused a cut in the Central Provident Fund (CPF) in the 1980s, which Prime Minister Lee Kuan Yew had said would not be allowed except “in an economic crisis”.[10]
Singapore saw a leadership transition that started shortly before the 1984 general elections. Three months before the election, all the members of the PAP Central Executive Committee (CEC)—except Lee Kuan Yew —had left the CEC to allow the "second generation" of PAP leaders to take root. This leadership transition saw Tan replace Singapore's chief economic architect, Goh Keng Swee, as Education Minister.
Before the 1984 election, Lee Kuan Yew and Goh Keng Swee had also pushed for policies that experimented with eugenics in Singapore, including a policy that favoured children of more well-educated mothers ahead of children of less-educated mothers in primary school placement. However, in response to popular discontent and public criticism of the policy during and after the 1984 general election (which saw the lowest votes for the PAP since independence), Tan as the new Minister for Education announced that the scheme would be scrapped. This announcement followed Tan's own May 1985 recommendation to the Cabinet to scrap the scheme.[11][12]
Union disputes and conflict with Ong Teng Cheong[edit]
See also: Labour relations in Singapore
Tan was also known to have opposed the shipping industry strike in January 1986, the first for about a decade in Singapore, which was sanctioned by fellow cabinet member Ong Teng Cheong, secretary-general of the National Trades Union Congress (NTUC), who felt the strike was necessary.
As Minister for Trade and Industry, Tan was concerned about investors' reactions to a perceived deterioration of labour relations and the impact on foreign direct investment.
In his analysis, historian Michael Barr explains that older [grassroots] union leaders" bore "increasing disquiet" at their exclusion from consultation in NTUC's policies, which were effectively managed by "technocrats" in the government. Unlike the previous NTUC secretary-general Lim Chee Onn, Lee Kuan Yew's protégé Ong Teng Cheong in 1983 had an "implicit pact" with the trade unions—involving grassroots leaders in top decisions and "working actively and forcefully" in the interests of the unions "in a way Lim had never seen to do"—in exchange for the unions' continued "cooperation on the government's core industrial relations strategies". (In 1969 the NTUC had adopted "a cooperative, rather than a confrontational policy towards employers".)[13]
Although striking was prohibited and trade unions were barred from negotiating such matters as promotion, transfer, employment, dismissal, retrenchment, and reinstatement, issues that "accounted for most earlier labour disputes", the government provided measures for workers' safety and welfare, and serious union disputes with employers were almost always handled through the Industrial Arbitration Court, which had powers of both binding arbitration and voluntary mediation.[14] However, Ong felt these measures did not prevent "management [from] taking advantage of the workers", recalling in a 2000 interview in Asiaweek: "Some of them were angry with me about that... the minister for trade and industry [Tan] was very angry, his officers were upset. They had calls from America, asking what happened to Singapore?"[15] However the fact that the strike only lasted two days before "all the issues were settled" was cited by Ong in a 2000 interview with Asiaweek as proof that "management was just trying to pull a fast one".
Separately, Tan initially opposed the timing of building the Mass Rapid Transit in 1981 when it was raised by Ong. Tan held the view that the local construction industry was overheated at the time, and public housing should take priority.[16]
Return to the private sector[edit]
In December 1991, Tan stepped down from the Cabinet to return to the private sector, and rejoined the Oversea-Chinese Banking Corporation (OCBC) as the Chairman and Chief Executive Officer from 1992–95, while retaining his seat in Parliament as a representative for the Sembawang Group Representation Constituency.
Return to Cabinet[edit]
After Ong Teng Cheong and Lee Hsien Loong were diagnosed with cancer in 1992,[17] and 1993[18] Tan was asked[19] to return to Cabinet in August 1995 as Deputy Prime Minister (1995–2005) and Minister for Defence (1995–2003). It was reported that he declined an offer of make-up pay, which compensated ministers for a loss in salary when they leave the private sector.[20] Tan declared, "the interests of Singapore must take precedence over that of a bank and my own personal considerations".[21]
In August 2003, he relinquished the defence portfolio and became the Co-ordinating Minister for Security and Defence, while retaining the post of Deputy Prime Minister.[4] He later persuaded the Minister for National Development Mah Bow Tan to abandon plans to demolish an old mosque in his constituency of Sembawang.[22] Dubbed the “Last Kampung Mosque in Singapore”, it was later designated a heritage site.[23]
Tan joined other dissenting colleagues in opposing the implementation of “integrated resorts” with their attached casinos to Singapore. Commenting on an MCYS survey of gambling habits, Tan had said he was “appalled” that a newspaper headline dismissed the number of likely problem gamblers (55,000) as insignificant: “I don't think it's insignificant. Every Singaporean is important. Every Singaporean that gets into trouble means one family that is destroyed. It cannot be a matter of small concern to the Government.”[24][25]
Second retirement from the Cabinet[edit]
Tan at the Annual Meeting 2009 of the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland (30 January 2009)
Tan stepped down as Deputy Prime Minister and Co-ordinating Minister for Security and Defence on 1 September 2005. After his retirement from the Cabinet, Tan became the chairman of the National Research Foundation, and deputy chairman of the Research, Innovation and Enterprise Council. He was also the Executive Director of the Government of Singapore Investment Corporation (GIC), and Chairman of Singapore Press Holdings Limited (SPH).[2]
Tan's tenure
Tony Tan Keng Yam (simplified Chinese: 陈庆炎; traditional Chinese: 陳慶炎; pinyin: Chén Qìngyán; Pe̍h-ōe-jī: Tân Khèng-iām; born 7 February 1940) is the seventh President of Singapore, in office since 2011. He served as a Member of the Singapore Parliament from 1979 to 2006 and held various ministerial portfolios, including defence, finance, Arts, trade and industry. In the late 1980s, Lee Kuan Yew mentioned Tan as his first choice to succeed himself as Prime Minister of Singapore, but he declined.[1] He left the Cabinet from 1991 to 1995 to lead the Oversea-Chinese Banking Corporation before returning as Deputy Prime Minister, a position he held until 2005.
After stepping down as a Member of Parliament in 2006, Tan was appointed Executive Director and Deputy Chairman of the Government of Singapore Investment Corporation (GIC) and Chairman of Singapore Press Holdings Limited (SPH). He also served as Chairman of Singapore's National Research Foundation, and Deputy Chairman of the Research, Innovation and Enterprise Council.[2] In July 2011, he resigned from these positions to contest in the 2011 presidential election. He received 35.20% of the votes, winning by a narrow 0.34% margin over the second-placed candidate. Tan was sworn in as President on 1 September 2011.[3]
Contents [hide]
1 Education and early career
2 Cabinet member
2.1 Union disputes and conflict with Ong Teng Cheong
2.2 Return to the private sector
2.3 Return to Cabinet
3 Second retirement from the Cabinet
4 2011 presidential election
4.1 Campaign platform
4.2 Campaign endorsements
4.3 Campaign proceedings
5 Presidency
6 Personal life
7 References
Education and early career[edit]
Tan was educated at St Patrick's School and St Joseph's Institution. As a recipient of a government scholarship, he graduated with first class honours in physics from the University of Singapore (now the National University of Singapore), topping his class.[4] As an Asia Foundation scholar, he attended the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) where he completed a Master of Science in operations research. He later earned a Doctor of Philosophy in applied mathematics at the University of Adelaide, and went on to lecture mathematics in the University of Singapore.[5] [6]
In 1969, Tan left the University of Singapore to begin a career in banking with Overseas-Chinese Banking Corporation (OCBC), where he rose to become General Manager, before leaving the bank to pursue a career in politics in 1979. From 1980 to 1981, Tan was the first Vice Chancellor of the National University of Singapore (NUS).[4]
In 2005, Tan was presented the NUS Eminent Alumni Award in recognition of his role as a visionary architect of Singapore’s university sector.[4] In 2010, he was presented the inaugural Distinguished Australian Alumnus Award by the Australian Alumni Singapore (AAS) at its 55th anniversary dinner in recognition of his distinguished career, and his significant contribution to society and to the Australian alumni community.[7][8] In 2014, Tan was conferred an honorary doctorate by his Alma mater University of Adelaide for his “long record of outstanding achievements both as a leader in the Singapore government and in the business sectors.[9]
Tan opening the "International Evening" at the 2012 Lindau Nobel Laureate Meeting
Cabinet member[edit]
A member of the People's Action Party (PAP) until June 2011, Tan became a Member of Parliament (MP) in 1979. He was appointed as a Senior Minister of State in the Ministry of Education in 1979. He joined the Cabinet in 1980, serving as Minister for Education (MOE, 1980–81 & 1985–91), Minister for Trade & Industry (1981–86), Minister for Finance (1983–85), and Minister for Health (1985–86).[4]
Tan espoused a cut in the Central Provident Fund (CPF) in the 1980s, which Prime Minister Lee Kuan Yew had said would not be allowed except “in an economic crisis”.[10]
Singapore saw a leadership transition that started shortly before the 1984 general elections. Three months before the election, all the members of the PAP Central Executive Committee (CEC)—except Lee Kuan Yew —had left the CEC to allow the "second generation" of PAP leaders to take root. This leadership transition saw Tan replace Singapore's chief economic architect, Goh Keng Swee, as Education Minister.
Before the 1984 election, Lee Kuan Yew and Goh Keng Swee had also pushed for policies that experimented with eugenics in Singapore, including a policy that favoured children of more well-educated mothers ahead of children of less-educated mothers in primary school placement. However, in response to popular discontent and public criticism of the policy during and after the 1984 general election (which saw the lowest votes for the PAP since independence), Tan as the new Minister for Education announced that the scheme would be scrapped. This announcement followed Tan's own May 1985 recommendation to the Cabinet to scrap the scheme.[11][12]
Union disputes and conflict with Ong Teng Cheong[edit]
See also: Labour relations in Singapore
Tan was also known to have opposed the shipping industry strike in January 1986, the first for about a decade in Singapore, which was sanctioned by fellow cabinet member Ong Teng Cheong, secretary-general of the National Trades Union Congress (NTUC), who felt the strike was necessary.
As Minister for Trade and Industry, Tan was concerned about investors' reactions to a perceived deterioration of labour relations and the impact on foreign direct investment.
In his analysis, historian Michael Barr explains that older [grassroots] union leaders" bore "increasing disquiet" at their exclusion from consultation in NTUC's policies, which were effectively managed by "technocrats" in the government. Unlike the previous NTUC secretary-general Lim Chee Onn, Lee Kuan Yew's protégé Ong Teng Cheong in 1983 had an "implicit pact" with the trade unions—involving grassroots leaders in top decisions and "working actively and forcefully" in the interests of the unions "in a way Lim had never seen to do"—in exchange for the unions' continued "cooperation on the government's core industrial relations strategies". (In 1969 the NTUC had adopted "a cooperative, rather than a confrontational policy towards employers".)[13]
Although striking was prohibited and trade unions were barred from negotiating such matters as promotion, transfer, employment, dismissal, retrenchment, and reinstatement, issues that "accounted for most earlier labour disputes", the government provided measures for workers' safety and welfare, and serious union disputes with employers were almost always handled through the Industrial Arbitration Court, which had powers of both binding arbitration and voluntary mediation.[14] However, Ong felt these measures did not prevent "management [from] taking advantage of the workers", recalling in a 2000 interview in Asiaweek: "Some of them were angry with me about that... the minister for trade and industry [Tan] was very angry, his officers were upset. They had calls from America, asking what happened to Singapore?"[15] However the fact that the strike only lasted two days before "all the issues were settled" was cited by Ong in a 2000 interview with Asiaweek as proof that "management was just trying to pull a fast one".
Separately, Tan initially opposed the timing of building the Mass Rapid Transit in 1981 when it was raised by Ong. Tan held the view that the local construction industry was overheated at the time, and public housing should take priority.[16]
Return to the private sector[edit]
In December 1991, Tan stepped down from the Cabinet to return to the private sector, and rejoined the Oversea-Chinese Banking Corporation (OCBC) as the Chairman and Chief Executive Officer from 1992–95, while retaining his seat in Parliament as a representative for the Sembawang Group Representation Constituency.
Return to Cabinet[edit]
After Ong Teng Cheong and Lee Hsien Loong were diagnosed with cancer in 1992,[17] and 1993[18] Tan was asked[19] to return to Cabinet in August 1995 as Deputy Prime Minister (1995–2005) and Minister for Defence (1995–2003). It was reported that he declined an offer of make-up pay, which compensated ministers for a loss in salary when they leave the private sector.[20] Tan declared, "the interests of Singapore must take precedence over that of a bank and my own personal considerations".[21]
In August 2003, he relinquished the defence portfolio and became the Co-ordinating Minister for Security and Defence, while retaining the post of Deputy Prime Minister.[4] He later persuaded the Minister for National Development Mah Bow Tan to abandon plans to demolish an old mosque in his constituency of Sembawang.[22] Dubbed the “Last Kampung Mosque in Singapore”, it was later designated a heritage site.[23]
Tan joined other dissenting colleagues in opposing the implementation of “integrated resorts” with their attached casinos to Singapore. Commenting on an MCYS survey of gambling habits, Tan had said he was “appalled” that a newspaper headline dismissed the number of likely problem gamblers (55,000) as insignificant: “I don't think it's insignificant. Every Singaporean is important. Every Singaporean that gets into trouble means one family that is destroyed. It cannot be a matter of small concern to the Government.”[24][25]
Second retirement from the Cabinet[edit]
Tan at the Annual Meeting 2009 of the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland (30 January 2009)
Tan stepped down as Deputy Prime Minister and Co-ordinating Minister for Security and Defence on 1 September 2005. After his retirement from the Cabinet, Tan became the chairman of the National Research Foundation, and deputy chairman of the Research, Innovation and Enterprise Council. He was also the Executive Director of the Government of Singapore Investment Corporation (GIC), and Chairman of Singapore Press Holdings Limited (SPH).[2]
Tan's tenure
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