Tan Choo Leng () is a Singaporean lawyer. Choo is the spouse of the second

Prime Minister A prime minister or chief of cabinet is the head of the cabinet and the leader of the ministers in the executive branch of government, often in a parliamentary or semi-presidential system. A prime minister is not the head of state, but r ...

Goh Chok Tong Goh Chok Tong (born 20 May 1941) is a Singaporean former politician who served as the second prime minister of Singapore from 1990 to 2004 and as a senior minister of Singapore from 2004 to 2011. He served as the secretary-general of the Peo ...

. Choo took the role of the spouse of the

Prime Minister of Singapore The prime minister of Singapore, is the head of government of Singapore. The President of Singapore, president appoints the prime minister on the advice and consent of the Cabinet of Singapore. The incumbent prime minister is Lawrence Wong, ...

between 1990 and 2004.

Early life and career

Tan graduated from the University of Singapore (now the

National University of Singapore The National University of Singapore (NUS) is a national university, national Public university, public research university in Singapore. It was officially established in 1980 by the merging of the University of Singapore and Nanyang University ...

) with

Bachelor of Laws A Bachelor of Laws (; LLB) is an undergraduate law degree offered in most common law countries as the primary law degree and serves as the first professional qualification for legal practitioners. This degree requires the study of core legal subje ...

degree. She is currently an

advocate An advocate is a professional in the field of law. List of country legal systems, Different countries and legal systems use the term with somewhat differing meanings. The broad equivalent in many English law–based jurisdictions could be a ba ...

and

solicitor A solicitor is a lawyer who traditionally deals with most of the legal matters in some jurisdictions. A person must have legally defined qualifications, which vary from one jurisdiction to another, to be described as a solicitor and enabled to p ...

for WongPartnership LLP.

Controversy

She has given her support to many charities, and was best known for being a patron of the

National Kidney Foundation The National Kidney Foundation, Inc. (NKF) is a voluntary nonprofit health organization in the United States, headquartered in New York City. Its mission is to prevent kidney and urinary tract diseases, improve the health and well-being of indiv ...

(NKF). During the 2005 NKF scandal, she commented that the annual salary of S$600,000 drawn by NKF's chief executive officer T. T. Durai was considered "peanuts" as compared to the hundreds of millions of dollars managed by the NKF. Her remark was subsequently met with negative reactions from many Singaporeans. Tan stepped down as a patron after Durai and the NKF's board of directors resigned under public pressure on 14 July 2005. Senior Minister

later told the press that his wife regretted making that comment.

References

Year of birth missing (living people) Living people Spouses of prime ministers of Singapore National University of Singapore alumni Singaporean people of Chinese descent 20th-century Singaporean lawyers 20th-century Singaporean women lawyers 21st-century Singaporean lawyers 21st-century women lawyers {{Singapore-politician-stub