Who is Cheng Li Hui, the Tampines MP involved in affair with Speaker Tan Chuan-Jin?
Speaker of Parliament Tan Chuan-Jin and Tampines group representative constituency (GRC) MP Cheng Li Hui resigned on Monday over their personal misconduct.
Ms Cheng, who stepped down with immediate effect as a member of the The People’s Action Party (PAP), has also resigned as a MP for Tampines GRC.
Here are five things to know about her.
1) She helped out her father at the grassroots in secondary school
She said previously that in secondary school, she had accompanied her grassroots volunteer father on grassroots activities.
Prior to the 2015 election, she was a councillor in Northwest CDC for over 10 years, and was said at the time to have 12 years of grassroots experience.
“From being a girl scout to assisting at Meet-the-People sessions since 2003, helping people has been such an integral part of my life,” she told The Straits Times in 2015.
2) She became a Tampines MP in 2015
Ms Cheng started volunteering in Tampines East in early 2015 and was fielded in the PAP’s Tampines GRC team in the general election later that year.
She took over from former minister Mah Bow Tan, who had described her as a “quiet” person who gets things done.
As of her resignation on July 17, the remaining MPs in Tampines GRC are Mr Masagos Zulkifli, Dr Koh Poh Koon, Mr Desmond Choo and Mr Baey Yam Keng.
3) She was appointed Deputy District Advisor in the PAP Women’s Wing in 2016.
Ms Cheng was appointed Deputy District Advisor in the PAP Women’s Wing in 2016, along with Ms Cheryl Chan, Ms Joan Pereira, Ms Rahayu Mahzam and Ms Sun Xueling.
Ms Cheng, who has been speaking in Parliament on the issue of elective egg freezing since 2016, said in April 2022 during a marathon debate on the White Paper on Singapore Women’s Development in Parliament that the age limit on elective egg freezing should be raised from 35 to 40.
She has also advocated for infant care and childcare facilities in new estates, more help for couples undergoing fertility treatments, and has spoken on environmental issues such as Singapore’s domestic recycling rate.
4) She is an independent director of supermarket chain Sheng Siong
Ms Cheng was appointed as an independent director of Sheng Siong in December 2021.
Prior to this, she served on the board of NTUC Foodfare in 2019 until it merged with NTUC Fairprice in September 2019.
5) She held various positions in engineering firm Hai Leck Holdings
Ms Cheng’s father, Cheng Buck Poh, is publicly-listed Hai Leck Holdings’ founder and CEO. He owns 84.83 per cent of the company’s shares according to its FY2022 financial report. The engineering firm recorded revenue of $82.5 million in FY2022.
Ms Cheng - the third of five siblings - was appointed to the firm’s board as executive director of operations in May 2010.
The company said her role is to assist its chief executive “overseeing the daily operations of the Group”.
She was later appointed as Hai Leck’s deputy chief executive in 2012, a post she held until December 2017.
Along with her parents, Ms Cheng and her siblings all hold shares in Hai Leck Holdings.
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