5 things about Speaker Tan Chuan-Jin who resigned over affair with MP Cheng Li Hui

Former Speaker of Parliament Tan Chuan-Jin and Tampines GRC MP Cheng Li Hui resigned from their positions and from the People’s Action Party (PAP) on Monday over their affair.

In letters sent by the Prime Minister’s Office to the media, PM Lee Hsien Loong said that the pair’s resignations were necessary to maintain the high standards of propriety and personal conduct which the PAP has upheld all these years.

In a press conference on Monday, PM Lee said he had learnt of the affair after the 2020 general election.

Mr Lee said it was “simply inappropriate to have the Speaker having a relationship with one of the MPs”.

Here’s what you need to know about Mr Tan, who is 54:

1. His time in the SAF

Before joining politics, Mr Tan was a brigadier-general in the Singapore Armed Forces, having joined in 1987. His appointments included being commander of the 7th Singapore Infantry Brigade, commander of the 3rd Division and commander of the Army’s Training and Doctrine Command.

2. Stepping into politics

He retired from the SAF in March 2011 and ran as a candidate for the People’s Action Party in the Marine Parade GRC during the 2011 general election, alongside then-Senior Minister Goh Chok Tong.

In 2013, he was appointed Acting Minister for Manpower and was promoted to full minister in May the following year.

He was also appointed president of the Singapore National Olympic Council in January 2014. 

3. Cabinet positions

During a Cabinet reshuffle in April 2015, Mr Tan was appointed Minister for Social and Family Development in April 2015, following a Cabinet reshuffle, and continued in that role after the General Elections in the same year, where his Marine Parade GRC team won 64.07 per cent of the votes.

Mr Tan resigned as the Social and Family Development Minister in 2017, after being nominated by PM Lee to succeed Madam Halimah Yacob as the Speaker of Parliament. Mdm Halimah had resigned from her post to contest the Presidential Elections.

4. “Hot mic” incident

On July 10, a recording of parliamentary proceedings during the first day of debate on the President’s Address on April 17 was uploaded on social media platform Reddit.

In the recording, Mr Tan was heard uttering the words “****ing populist”, after a speech by Worker’s Party MP Jamus Lim, who had mooted the idea of establishing an official poverty line to help lower-income groups.

Mr Tan apologised to Prof Lim for his use of “unparliamentary language”, with Prof Lim later stating that he had accepted Mr Tan’s apology.

5. “A form of exercise”

As Social and Family Development Minister in 2015, Mr Tan faced a torrent of backlash online when he had seemingly suggested that senior citizens who were collecting cardboard were using it as “a form of exercise and activity rather than being cooped up at home”.

In response to the public’s reaction to his statement, Mr Tan said: “The main message that I wanted to convey is that we should not generalise the things that we see, and we should always speak to the people involved.

“For those who genuinely need assistance, we must and we will do all we can to help."