Edwin Tong
Edwin Tong | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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| 唐振辉 | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||
 Tong in 2019 | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Minister for Culture, Community and Youth | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Assumed office 27 July 2020 | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Prime Minister | Lee Hsien Loong Lawrence Wong | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Preceded by | Grace Fu | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Second Minister for Law | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Assumed office 27 July 2020 | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Prime Minister | Lee Hsien Loong Lawrence Wong | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Minister | K. Shanmugam | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Preceded by | Indranee Rajah (2018) | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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| Member of Parliament for Marine Parade GRC (Joo Chiat) | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Assumed office 11 September 2015 | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Preceded by | Charles Chong | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Majority | 20,143 (15.52%) | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Member of Parliament for Moulmein–Kallang GRC (Jalan Besar) | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| In office 7 May 2011 – 24 August 2015 | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Preceded by | Constituency established | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Succeeded by | Constituency abolished | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Personal details | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Born | 12 August 1969[1][2] Singapore | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Political party | People's Action Party | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Alma mater | National University of Singapore (LLB) | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Profession | Lawyer | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Edwin Tong Chun Fai SC (Chinese: 唐振辉; pinyin: Táng Zhènhuī; born 12 August 1969)[1][2] is a Singaporean politician and lawyer who has been serving as Minister for Culture, Community and Youth and Second Minister for Law concurrently since 2020. A member of the governing People's Action Party (PAP), he has been the Member of Parliament (MP) representing the Joo Chiat division of Marine Parade GRC since 2011. He has also been serving as Deputy Chairman of the People's Association since 2021.[3]
Prior to entering politics, Tong was a lawyer at Allen & Gledhill practising extensively in corporate and commercial disputes, restructuring and insolvency matters, and international arbitration. He was appointed Senior Counsel in 2015.
Tong made his political debut in the 2011 general election as part of a four-member PAP team contesting in Moulmein–Kallang GRC and won. Throughout his political career, he served as Senior Minister of State for Law and Senior Minister of State for Health before being promoted to full minister after the 2020 general election. He forms part of the new Cabinet selected by Lawrence Wong announced in May 2024.[4]
Education
[edit]Tong was educated at St. Joseph's Institution and Raffles Junior College[5] before graduating from the National University of Singapore in 1994 with a Bachelor of Laws degree.
During his time in Raffles Junior College, he was classmates with former Parliament Speaker and former Marine Parade GRC Member of Parliament, Tan Chuan-Jin.[6]
Career
[edit]Legal career
[edit]After he was admitted to the Singapore Bar, Tong joined Allen & Gledhill and had been a partner at the law firm until 2018. During his legal career, Tong practised extensively in corporate and commercial disputes, restructuring and insolvency matters, and international arbitration.[7] He was appointed Senior Counsel in 2015.[8]
Tong was one of the lawyers representing Kong Hee, the pastor of City Harvest Church accused of misappropriating church funds in a high-profile case.[9] During the trial, which lasted from 2012 to 2018, a front-page headline from the Chinese tabloid Lianhe Wanbao, which had been edited to insinuate that Tong and the People's Action Party (PAP) had saved Kong from harsher penalties, appeared on social media. The original headline read "Outdated law saved [Kong and the other convicted church leaders]"; the edited headline read "PAP lawyer saved [Kong and the other convicted church leaders]". On 5 February 2018, the Attorney-General's Chambers (AGC) mentioned that it would take legal action against a man responsible for publishing the image, which amounts to contempt of court.[10]
Political career
[edit]Prior to entering politics in the 2011 general election, Tong was already active in grassroots activities in various constituencies, particularly Jalan Besar GRC. In 2011, he was fielded by the People's Action Party (PAP) as part of a four-member team to contest in Moulmein–Kallang GRC. The PAP team won 58.56% of the vote against the Workers' Party (WP) and Tong was elected a Member of Parliament representing the Jalan Besar division. He was Deputy Chairman of the Government Parliamentary Committee (GPC) for Law and Home Affairs between 2011 and 2018.[5]
In the 2015 general election, Tong joined the five-member PAP team contesting in Marine Parade GRC and they won 64.07% of the vote against the WP. He then elected as the Member of Parliament representing the Joo Chiat division of Marine Parade GRC. On 1 July 2018, he was appointed Senior Minister of State at the Ministry of Law and Ministry of Health. Former Prime Minister Goh Chok Tong revealed that when Tong became a Senior Minister of State, he essentially had a 75% pay cut—down to about S$500,000 a year compared to his previous earnings of over S$2 million a year as a lawyer.[11] Tong also served on the board of the Land Transport Authority (LTA) from 2017 to 2018.[5]
In March 2018, Tong was selected to be part of the ten-member Select Committee on Deliberate Online Falsehoods tasked with looking into the issue of deliberate online falsehoods and how to deal with them. During the public hearings, a group of activists issued a lengthy missive on 2 April 2018, stating that the hearings did not feel like a genuine attempt to solicit views and that the attendees' views had been misrepresented. One of the activists, Kirsten Han, was questioned by Tong over an article she had written for the Asia Times whose relevance to the committee's terms of reference was not made clear. Tong also quoted the first three paragraphs of a 2011 article from The Guardian, in which former British Prime Minister Tony Blair described the Freedom of Information Act as "dangerous",[12] to question Han over the Freedom of Information Act when the rest of the article presents a different picture.[13]
In the 2020 general election, Tong managed to retain his parliamentary seat in Marine Parade GRC after the five-member PAP team won 57.76% of the vote against the WP. On 27 July 2020, he was promoted to full Minister and appointed Minister for Culture, Community and Youth, and Second Minister for Law.[5]
During a Q&A with Mothership (website), it was revealed that Edwin Tong was personally involved in bringing Taylor Swift to Singapore. Tong said that Singapore had proactively courted Taylor Swift even before her International Concert Dates were announced.[14] By May 2023, an agreement was signed with Taylor Swift's team and the announcement was made in June 2023. [15] It was suggested that the Government had paid close up to US$2 million to US$3 million for all six shows [16] as compared to what was claimed by Thai Prime Minister Srettha Thavisin of up to US$4 million per show.[17]
Personal life
[edit]Tong is married with three daughters.
He has an active interest in football and had served in a volunteer capacity as the Vice President of the Football Association of Singapore (FAS) from 2013 to 2020.[5]
He is a Christian belonging to the Roman Catholic denomination, and is an ethnic Chinese of Cantonese descent.[18]
References
[edit]- ^ a b "PARL | MP". www.parliament.gov.sg.
- ^ a b "Parliament of Singapore : MP Edwin Tong Chun Fai's CV". Parliament of Singapore. Archived from the original on 16 July 2012. Retrieved 7 August 2024.
- ^ Auto, Hermes (23 April 2021). "Singapore's Cabinet reshuffle: Edwin Tong takes over as People's Association deputy chairman | The Straits Times". www.straitstimes.com. Retrieved 21 April 2023.
- ^ anthony_chia (14 May 2024). "PMO | Changes to Cabinet and Other Appointments (May 2024)". Prime Minister's Office Singapore. Retrieved 19 May 2024.
- ^ a b c d e "PMO | Mr Edwin TONG". Prime Minister's Office Singapore. 16 March 2021.
- ^ Au-Yong, Rachel (24 April 2018). "Cabinet reshuffle: New Senior Minister of State Edwin Tong makes up power quartet from same Raffles JC batch". The Straits Times.
- ^ "Members of the Sentencing Advisory Panel - Edwin Tong". Sentencing Advisory Panel.
- ^ "Mr Edwin Tong Chun Fai". Parliament of Singapore. Government of Singapore. 6 February 2012. Archived from the original on 11 July 2012. Retrieved 7 February 2012.
- ^ "Accused in CHC case hire elite lawyers". Asiaone News Portal. 25 July 2012. Archived from the original on 25 June 2016. Retrieved 21 October 2015.
- ^ "AGC has written to man who posted 'fake news' about lawyer who defended City Harvest Church leaders". Channel NewsAsia. Archived from the original on 18 September 2018. Retrieved 28 March 2018.
- ^ "Thanks to ESM Goh, our respect for Minister Edwin Tong went up several notches". sg.news.yahoo.com. 9 August 2018.
- ^ "Mixed results since Blair's 'dangerous' Freedom of Information Act launched". the Guardian. 20 September 2011.
- ^ "Select Committee hearings slammed for misquoting attendees, being hardly consultative". mothership.sg.
- ^ "S'pore 'proactively' courted Taylor Swift even before international tour dates announced: Edwin Tong".
- ^ "Edwin Tong led multi-agency team to US to help bring Taylor Swift to S'pore for 6 concerts". The Straits Times. March 2024.
- ^ "Govt subsidies for Taylor Swift's exclusive Singapore deal 'nowhere as high' as speculated: Edwin Tong".
- ^ "Thai PM claims S'pore paid Taylor Swift up to S$4M/Show for exclusivity in Southeast Asia". 18 February 2024.
- ^ "PAP Marine Parade GRC candidate Edwin Tong tells us about being Kong Hee's lawyer, being uprooted & more". mothership.sg.
External links
[edit]
- People's Action Party politicians
- 1969 births
- Singaporean politicians of Chinese descent
- Living people
- Singaporean Senior Counsel
- National University of Singapore alumni
- Raffles Junior College alumni
- Saint Joseph's Institution, Singapore alumni
- Singaporean Roman Catholics
- Singaporean people of Cantonese descent
- Members of the Parliament of Singapore
- Members of the Cabinet of Singapore