SINGAPORE: A recent social media post about former Member of Parliament Tan Cheng Bock has received a lot of attention, with many commenters praising Dr Tan for his character and long record of service.
Dr Tan spent over two decades representing Ayer Rajah SMC from 1980 to 2006, when he was a member of the People’s Action Party. In 2011, he left the ruling party to mount a presidential bid, but lost by a 0.35 per cent margin to Tony Tan. He attempted to run for the position again in 2017. However, changes to the criteria of candidates meant he was ineligible to contest.
In 2019, along with 10 others, he founded Progress Singapore Party, and in the General Election the following year, the PSP did well enough to send Leong Mun Wai and Hazel Poa to Parliament as NCMPs.
He was part of the PSP’s slate at West Coast-Jurong West GRC for GE 2025, which lost to the PAP team, and announced his retirement shortly afterwards, though he is still a PSP member.
In the June 27 post from local content creator Alvin Huang, Mr Huang traces Dr Tan’s loss in 2011 by the thinnest of margins, as well as his work as a physician, opening Ama Keng Clinic in Lim Chu Kang in 1971 and practising medicine for the next five decades.
“If you’ve never been to Lim Chu Kang, it was the rural edge of Singapore. Farms, poultry, and low-income families. Tan was their doctor. He once delivered a baby by kerosene lamp light. He mediated family feuds and land disputes. He wrote to government agencies on behalf of people who didn’t know how. When the village was eventually cleared for redevelopment, his former patients tracked him down in the HDB heartlands,” wrote Mr Huang.
He then went on to note that Dr Tan was the first ex-PAP MP to found an opposition party, and in 2020, had won a new generation of fans for his social media presence, to the extent that people called him “Hypebeast Ah Gong.”
Mr Huang ended his post by writing of Dr Tan: “Some people build things that outlast them. He just kept building until someone else was ready to carry it.”
What Singaporeans are saying
Commenters on the post have responded positively, writing about Dr Tan’s character.
“I may not agree with his policies and actions. But I can attest to the fact that he’s a good man with a good heart. I was the CCC chair of his redrawn constituency after he stepped down. And for a long time, I have heard residents and grassroots volunteers speak well of him. The lesson he left behind is that no matter how smart the politicians are, they must always have a heart for the people. That’s the driver for policies to work well for the country and people,” one wrote.
“He has a heart of gold for people,” a commenter agreed.
“One of the few genuine and benevolent 1st Gen politicians who served people with a good heart and from the bottom of his heart,” added another.
A third called him “one of the nicest politicians.”
“This is a man who stands by his values and has the courage to ‘challenge’ the big machinery. Not easy but his effort says it all,” a Facebook user opined. /TISG
Read also: Dr Tan Cheng Bock: PSP leader and “hypebeast”, “woke” social media star
