Chin Harn Tong ''alias'' Chee Han Tong (; born 8 September 1937) is a former Singaporean politician. A member of the ruling

People's Action Party The People's Action Party ( abbreviation: PAP) is a major conservative centre-right political party in Singapore and is one of the three contemporary political parties represented in Parliament, alongside the opposition Workers' Party (WP) a ...

, Chin was a

Member of Parliament A member of parliament (MP) is the representative in parliament of the people who live in their electoral district. In many countries with Bicameralism, bicameral parliaments, this term refers only to members of the lower house since upper house ...

for

Aljunied SMC Aljunied Constituency was a single member constituency in Aljunied, Singapore that was formed in 1959 and continued throughout till 1988 where it was one of the wards that form the Aljunied Group Representation Constituency. Member of Parlia ...

and later

Aljunied GRC The Aljunied Group Representation Constituency is a five-member group representation constituency (GRC) in the north-eastern and eastern region of Singapore. The GRC consists of five divisions: Eunos, Bedok Reservoir-Punggol, Kaki Bukit, Ser ...

. In 1996, Chin retired from politics after 24 years.

Early life

Chin was born into a

Hainanese Hainanese ( Hainan Romanised: ', Hainanese Pinyin: ',), also known as Qióngwén, Heng2 vun2 () or Qióngyǔ, Heng2 yi2 (), is a group of Min Chinese varieties spoken in the southern Chinese island province of Hainan and Overseas Chinese ...

family. He was a teacher at now-defunct Kiau Nam School between 1957 and 1961, and briefly taught at

Chung Hwa Girls' High School Chung may refer to: Surnames * Chung (surname) * Jeong (surname), Korean surname * Zhong (surname), or Chung, Chinese surname * Cheung, or Chung, Cantonese surname Geography * Chung, Iran, a village in Kohgiluyeh and Boyer-Ahmad Province, Iran * ...

in 1964. He was awarded the Public Administration Medal (Bronze) and the Friend of Labour Award by NTUC in 1971.

Career

After leaving his teaching career, Chin joined the

labour movement in Singapore Labour or labor may refer to: * Childbirth, the delivery of a baby * Labour (human activity), or work ** Manual labour, physical work ** Wage labour, a socioeconomic relationship between a worker and an employer ** Organized labour and the labour ...

. He was Assistant Director at NTUC Research Unit between 1970 and 1978 and subsequently Executive Director and Advisor of NTUC COMFORT from 1978 to 1986. In 1972, Chin ran for parliament as a PAP candidate in

. He defeated candidates from the Workers' Party and the United National Front by winning 71.5% of the votes. In 1976, Chin ran for re-election in the same constituency, this time competing against Lim Kang Chew of the Workers' Party. Chin was re-elected with 74.9% of the votes won. In 1980, Chin faced

United Front A united front is an alliance of groups against their common enemies, figuratively evoking unification of previously separate geographic fronts and/or unification of previously separate armies into a front. The name often refers to a political a ...

's Sim Peng Kim and won 84.6% of the votes. The Aljunied SMC seat was uncontested in the 1984 General Election and Chin returned to parliament. In the 1988 General Election, the GRC system was introduced. Aljunied SMC became part of 3-person

. The PAP team consisted of Chin, Wan Hussin bin Zoohri, and future Foreign Minister

George Yeo George Yeo Yong-Boon ( zh, s=杨荣文, p=Yáng Róngwén; born 13 September 1954) is a Singaporean former politician and brigadier-general who served as Minister for Foreign Affairs between 2004 and 2011. Yeo served in the Singapore Army and ...

. They faced a challenge from the SDP team of Mohamed Jufrie, Neo Choon Aik, and Ashleigh Seow. The PAP team defeated the SDP team by winning 56.33% of the votes. In the 1991 General Election, Aljunied GRC was uncontested and Chin returned to parliament; this would be his last election before retiring. Chin chaired the Aljunied Town Council from 1989 to 1993. Chin became Political Secretary and later Parliamentary Secretary for

Home Affairs An interior ministry (sometimes called a ministry of internal affairs or ministry of home affairs) is a government department that is responsible for internal affairs. Lists of current ministries of internal affairs Named "ministry" * Ministr ...

between 1977 and 1981. He rose to become Senior Parliamentary Secretary for Home Affairs between 1981 and 1988. After his retirement from politics, Chin was appointed a Justice of the Peace in 1998.

References

People's Action Party politicians {{DEFAULTSORT:Chin, Harn Tong Living people 1938 births Singaporean people of Chinese descent Members of the Parliament of Singapore