Ong Teng Cheong

Ong Teng Cheong (22 January 1936 – 8 February 2002) was a Singaporean statesman, architect and union leader who served as the fifth president of Singapore between 1993 and 1999. Born when Singapore was a part of the Straits Settlements, Ong was educated at the University of Adelaide and studied architecture. He later received a Colombo Plan scholarship and graduated from the University of Liverpool with a master's degree in urban planning.

Prior to his presidency, he was a member of the governing People's Action Party (PAP). Ong served as Chairman of the PAP between 1981 and 1993, after Toh Chin Chye stepped down from the position in 1981. He was the Member of Parliament (MP) for Kim Keat Single Member Constituency between 1972 and 1991 and the Kim Keat division of Toa Payoh Group Representation Constituency between 1991 and 1993, after the constituency was absorbed into the GRC. His ministerial positions included Minister for Communications between 1978 and 1981, Minister for Labour between 1981 and 1983, and Deputy Prime Minister between 1985 and 1993. During his tenure in Parliament, Ong was known for being the main advocate behind the construction of an extensive rail network in the country, known as the Mass Rapid Transit (MRT), the largest construction project in Singapore's history.

In 1993, Ong resigned from the PAP, his ministerial positions and as a Member of Parliament (MP) to contest in the 1993 presidential election, winning 58.7% of the vote. Ong was nicknamed the "People's President" for being the first directly elected president in Singapore's history and he was sworn in on 1 September 1993. He decided not to run for a second term as president in 1999, in part due to the death of his wife. He was succeeded by S. R. Nathan on 1 September 1999. Ong died in his sleep from lymphoma at his Dalvey Estate residence in Tanglin on 8 February 2002, at the age of 66.

Early life and education

Ong was born on 22 January 1936 to Ong Keng Wee and Chung Lai Heng in the Straits Settlements (present-day Singapore), the second of five children from a middle-class family. His English-educated father Ong Keng Wee felt that the Chinese language was important if one ever wanted to become successful in business at the time and thus sent all of his children to Chinese-medium schools.

Ong graduated with distinctions from The Chinese High School in 1955. Having received a Chinese-language education, Ong saw little opportunity for advancing his studies in the University of Malaya, as English was the university's language medium.

In 1956, with the help of his father's friends, Ong ventured abroad. Those years were to shape both his beliefs and passions. Ong studied architecture at the University of Adelaide along with his childhood sweetheart and future wife, Ling Siew May.Ling Siew May (Infopedia)
Both Ong and Ling met each other during a Christmas party while they were still studying in secondary school. In 1965, Ong received a Colombo Plan scholarship to pursue a master's degree in urban planning at the University of Liverpool and graduated in 1967.

Pre-political career

Upon graduation, Ong worked as an architect in Adelaide, Australia, and married Ling in 1963.In Memoriam – Ong Teng Cheong
, Channel News Asia Ong and his wife occasionally recite Chinese poetry and verses they learnt during their younger days.Moving Image and Sound Archives of Singapore (MISAS) – Crowds gather at crematorium to pay last respect to late First Lady

In 1967, Ong joined the Ministry of National Development (MND) as a town planner. After four years of civil service, Ong resigned in 1971, and started his own architectural firm, Ong & Ong Architects & Town Planners, with his wife.ONG & ONG Website

Political career

MP and Minister

Ong's political career spanned 21 years. He was a Member of Parliament (MP), Cabinet minister and Deputy Prime Minister, before he resigned to become the first elected President of Singapore in 1993.

Ong's political beginnings started when he got involved in the grassroots activities in Seletar and was then introduced to Prime Minister Lee Kuan Yew. The People's Action Party (PAP) subsequently fielded him as a PAP candidate contesting in Kim Keat SMC during the 1972 general election.

Mass Rapid Transit (MRT)

His first political appointment came just three years later when he was appointed Senior Minister of State for Communications. At that time, he was notable for pushing for an extensive rail network in the country, now known as the Mass Rapid Transit (MRT), the largest construction project in Singapore's history. During his tenure as Minister for Communications, Ong continued to be a proponent and advocate of the MRT system, often coming at odds with his fellow political colleagues who were against such an idea. He was subsequently appointed Second Deputy Prime Minister in 1985.

The origins of the MRT was first derived from a forecast by the country's planners back in 1967 which stated the need for a rail-based urban transport system by 1992. Sharp 2005, p. 66 However, opposition from the government on the feasibility of the MRT from prominent ministers, among them Finance Minister Goh Keng Swee and Trade and Industry Minister Tony Tan, nearly shuttered the programme due to financial grounds and concerns of jobs saturation in the construction industry.

Following a debate on whether a bus-only system would be more cost-effective, Ong came to the conclusion that an all-bus system would be inadequate, as it would have to compete for road space in a land-scarce country. Ong was an architect and town planner by training and through his perseverance and dedication became the main figure behind the initial construction of the system. Ong and other pro-rail advocates eventually won the argument, with the MRT being given the go-ahead in May 1982.

Secretary-General of the NTUC

Replacing Lim Chee Onn

In 1983, Ong succeeded Lim Chee Onn as Secretary-General of the National Trades Union Congress (NTUC). Historically, the NTUC, representing non-communist trade unions in Singapore, maintained a notably close relationship with the ruling People's Action Party (PAP) as part of a tripartite system involving the government, employers, and unions. This alliance was instrumental to the PAP's consolidation of power during the 1960s.

Despite this longstanding partnership, tensions between the NTUC leadership and the grassroots union base had begun to surface by the 1980s. In 1982, Lim, then still Secretary-General, publicly affirmed the deep historical ties between the two organisations, declaring that the "PAP and the NTUC came from the same mother—the struggle with the communists and the colonialists." Nevertheless, internal frictions were becoming more pronounced. According to political analyst Michael Barr, the NTUC leadership had come to be dominated by technocrats aligned with the PAP, many of whom were seen as distant from the traditional labour movement. Older grassroots union leaders increasingly felt sidelined in decision-making processes.

Prime Minister Lee Kuan Yew expressed concern that Lim, despite being his ''protégé'', was not successfully integrating the new generation of elite professionals and scholars with the rank-and-file union leadership. This failure to harmonise the NTUC's leadership structure led to growing unease among the grassroots. Lim's predecessors included figures such as Devan Nair, the NTUC's founder and a prominent democratic socialist from the PAP's Old Guard, and Phey Yew Kok, a powerful union figure instrumental in bringing Chinese unions into the NTUC fold during the 1970s. Phey, however, resigned in 1980 amidst a corruption scandal and subsequently fled the country.

Discontent with the NTUC's leadership became more visible in the early 1980s. The United Workers of Petroleum Industry (UWPI), along with the NTUC Triennial Delegates' Conference, publicly opposed government efforts to promote the establishment of house unions, a move that provoked political concern within the PAP leadership. In an open letter, Lee informed Lim that he would be reassigned to head a government ministry, and that Ong would assume the position of Secretary-General of the NTUC. Though the role of Secretary-General was typically held by a Cabinet member, Ong's appointment was notable. At the time, he served concurrently as Minister for Labour and Chairman of the PAP, and was widely regarded as a potential successor to Lee.

Implicit pact with unions

As Secretary-General of the NTUC, Ong made significant progress in mending the strained relationship between the unions and the government, an area where his predecessor Lim had struggled. Within months of his appointment, Ong confronted the leadership of the UWPI, which had previously resisted the government's push for house unions. Their opposition was swiftly reversed, and by 1985, the NTUC Triennial Delegates' Conference formally endorsed the policy. Barr observed that Ong demonstrated a strong "mastery of institutional power".

Despite the prohibition on strikes and trade union negotiations over key employment matters such as promotion, transfer, dismissal and retrenchment, which were issues that had historically triggered most labour disputes, the Singaporean government had, since the 1960s, implemented broad protections for workers' welfare and safety. Disputes were typically resolved through the Industrial Arbitration Court, which was empowered to provide both binding arbitration and voluntary mediation. However, concerns persisted within the union grassroots about their declining political influence and the increasing dominance of PAP technocrats within the NTUC.

These concerns were voiced by figures such as Peter Vincent, NTUC President from 1980 to 1984, who suggested that PAP technocrats should remain in advisory roles until they earned the trust of the union movement. In response, Ong actively sought to rebuild trust by increasing consultation with union leaders and reversing the trend of excluding grassroots representatives from top NTUC leadership. His approach was seen as a deliberate effort to restore the legitimacy and inclusiveness of the union hierarchy.

Ong also stood out for his vigorous advocacy on behalf of the labour movement. Unlike his predecessor, he was deeply involved in union affairs and pushed the limits of what the government would tolerate in union activism. According to Barr, such an approach would not have been acceptable under another leader, but Ong's personal credibility and close relationship with the government afforded him greater leeway. In return for his assertive representation of union interests, the NTUC maintained its overall alignment with the government's core industrial relations strategies.

In January 1986, Ong sanctioned a strike in the shipping industry, the first for about a decade in Singapore, believing it was necessary as " hemanagement were taking advantage of the workers". However, he did not inform the Cabinet beforehand out of fear that the Cabinet would prevent him from going ahead with the strike. Ong recalled in a 2000 interview in ''Asiaweek'': "Some of them were angry with me about that... the Minister for Trade and Industry was very angry, his officers were upset. They had calls from America, asking what happened to Singapore?" Minister for Trade and Industry Tony Tan, vigorously opposed Ong's decision to sanction the strike, being concerned with investors' reactions to a perceived deterioration of labour relations or an impact on foreign direct investment (FDI) needed for jobs creation. Ong viewed the strike as a success, and according to Barr, Ong justified his commitment "in Confucian terms" in a "notion akin to ''noblesse oblige''".

Demonstration at the United States Embassy

As Secretary-General of the NTUC, Ong also organised a 4,000-strong demonstration at the United States Embassy in protest against the United States First Secretary E. Mason Hendrickson's encouragement of dissident lawyers to stand for election against the PAP.

Presidency

In August 1993, Ong resigned from the Cabinet, the People's Action Party and as Secretary-General of the NTUC to stand for the 1993 Singaporean presidential election. Ong ran for the presidency under the PAP's endorsement. He ran against Chua Kim Yeow, former Accountant-General, for the office. A total of 1,756,517 votes were polled. Ong received 952,513 votes while Chua had 670,358 votes despite the former having a higher public exposure and a much more active campaign than Chua.

Ong became Singapore's first elected president in 1993 and was ''ex officio'' appointed Chancellor of the National University of Singapore and the Nanyang Technological University.
However, soon after his election to the presidency in 1993, Ong was tangled in a dispute over the access of information regarding Singapore's financial reserves. The government said it would take 56-man-years to produce a dollar-and-cents value of the immovable assets. Ong discussed this with the accountant-general and the auditor-general and eventually conceded that the government could easily declare all of its properties, a list that took a few months to produce. Even then, the list was not complete; it took the government a total of three years to produce the information that Ong requested.

In an interview with ''Asiaweek'' six months after stepping down from the presidency,Ong Teng Cheong- Extended Interview
Accessed 15 February 2010 Ong indicated that he had asked for the audit based on the principle that as an elected president, he was bound to protect the national reserves, and the only way of doing so would be to know what reserves—both liquid cash and assets—the government owned.

In the last year of his presidency, Ong found out, through the newspapers, that the government aimed to submit a bill to Parliament to sell the Post Office Savings Bank to The Development Bank of Singapore Limited. The POSB was a government statutory board whose reserves were under the president's protection; the move according to Ong, was procedurally inappropriate and did not regard Ong's significance as the guardian of the reserves; he had to call and inform the government of this oversight. Still, the sale proceeded, and The Development Bank of Singapore Limited still owns the Post Office Savings Bank.

Ong was appointed as Honorary Knight Grand Cross of the Order of St Michael and St George (GCMG) by Queen Elizabeth II of the United Kingdom in 1998.Loo Lay Yen. "Our Chancellors and Vice-Chancellors : a biographical sketch : Our Chancellors.Ong Teng Cheong". Lib.nus.edu.sg

Ong decided not to run for a second term as president in 1999 partially because of the illness and subsequent death of his wife. He was succeeded by S. R. Nathan. In his farewell speech on 30 August 1999, he stated

Ong's presidency was marked by many charitable projects—the largest of which is the President's Star Charity, an annual event initiated by Ong. It has benefited many charities, arts groups and youth organisations. He famously stepped up on stage to perform a piano recital of Teresa Teng's famous song The Moon Represents My Heart in his final year as president with Mediacorp artistes Evelyn Tan and Kym Ng singing to the tune. Ong stepped down as president at the age of 63.

Death

Ong died in his sleep from lymphoma on 8 February 2002, at the age of 66, at his residence in Dalvey Estate at Tanglin at about 8:14pm Singapore Standard Time ( UTC+08:00) after he had been discharged from hospital a few days earlier. As a mark of respect, state flags at all government buildings were flown at half-mast, including the Istana, on 11 February instead of on 12 February, the day of Ong's funeral, to avoid state flags being flown at half-mast on the first day of Chinese New Year.

Legacy

Ong was also known as "The People's President", as he was the first president to be directly elected by Singaporeans.

*The Ong Teng Cheong Professorship in Music was launched by National University of Singapore on 2 October 2002.
*The Ong Teng Cheong Student Activities and Leadership Training Centre was opened in his alma mater Hwa Chong Institution on 21 March 2007.
*The Singapore Institute of Labour Studies, which opened in 1990, was renamed the Ong Teng Cheong Institute of Labour Studies in March 2002. It was later renamed as the Ong Teng Cheong Labour Leadership Institute.
*In August 2017, a mountain located in south eastern Kazakhstan near the Kyrgyz border, was named Ong Teng Cheong peak.
*Two of his autobiographies have been published. The first book, Route to Istana was published a year after being President in 1994 written in Chinese. The second book named: Ong Teng Cheong: Planner, Politician, President was published in 2005 after his death.

References

Notes

Citations

External links

Ong Teng Cheong
nbsp;– In Memory of Singapore's first Elected President, Mr. Ong Teng Cheong (1936–2002)

In Memoriam of Ong Teng Cheong
 – ChannelNewsAsia

{{DEFAULTSORT:Ong, Teng Cheong
1936 births
Singaporean people of Chinese descent
2002 deaths
Alumni of the University of Liverpool
Deaths from lymphoma in Singapore
Honorary Knights Grand Cross of the Order of St Michael and St George
Hwa Chong Institution alumni
Members of the Cabinet of Singapore
Members of the Parliament of Singapore
People's Action Party politicians
Singaporean politicians of Chinese descent
Presidents of Singapore
Singaporean agnostics
Singaporean architects
Singaporean art patrons
Singaporean people of Hokkien descent
University of Adelaide alumni
Singaporean trade unionists
Deputy prime ministers of Singapore
Communications ministers of Singapore
Ministers for labour of Singapore