Surprising facts about politicians in Singapore
Politicians are almost always facing public scrutiny, with citizens craving for the latest updates or interesting facts about their policy makers.
Over the years, politicians in Singapore — new and old — have offered Singaporeans a glimpse into their personal lives outside of politics.
These include familial connections and inspiring love stories.
Here is a compilation of surprising facts featuring politicians such as Mr Ong Ye Kung, Mr Chiam See Tong, and Mr Desmond Lee.
1. MP Xie Yao Quan and health minister Ong Ye Kung are cousins
News about the connection between People’s Action Party (PAP) Member of Parliament (MP) Xie Yao Quan and health minister Ong Ye Kung first emerged in 2020.
This was when the former debuted as a fresh face in Singapore politics.
Eagle-eyed netizens had then pointed out the duo’s resemblance to each other, even with the 15-year age gap.
Mr Ong is 54 years old while Mr Xie 39 years old.
Sources: People’s Action Party and Ong Ye Kung on Facebook
According to The Straits Times (ST), Mr Ong confirmed to reporters that they were cousins on Nomination Day (30 June 2020).
As it turns out, Mr Ong and Mr Xie’s mothers are sisters.
Mr Xie fondly recounted his early memories as young boy with Mr Ong in a Facebook post, where he shared that they used to play as children.
Source: Xie Yao Quan 谢曜全 on Facebook
“But because we are several years apart in age, once he started work, I would remember him during family gatherings sitting in front of the TV following economic news and other serious matters, while my brother and I would play on our own,” wrote Mr Xie.
Mr Xie is the Member of Parliament for Jurong GRC where he was elected in the 2020 General Election (GE).
Meanwhile, Mr Ong — who has had a much longer career in politics — was first elected MP for Sembawang GRC in September 2015.
In 2011, he fought for Aljunied GRC as part of the PAP team but lost.
Since being voted into politics in 2015, Mr Ong held various positions in the Government such as Minister for Transport and Minister for Education.
2. Ong Ye Kung is the son of a former opposition politician
Mr Ong and Mr Xie are not the first ones in their family tree to be in politics.
The former’s late father, Mr Ong Lian Teng, was a politician from Barisan Socialis — a political party founded in 1960s Singapore.
The late Mr Ong was one of the 13 Barisan Socialis representatives elected in the 1963 GE.
According to ST, he once famously walked out of Parliament over National Service, and then quit politics soon after.
He had served as an assemblyman for Bukit Panjang from 1963 until he resigned in 1966.
In 2015, Mr Ong Ye Kung shared a portrait of his late father on Facebook — back when he was an MP at Bukit Panjang.
Source: Ong Ye Kung on Facebook
“I never knew him as someone who is against the system,” said Mr Ong Ye Kung to ST in 2012, adding that his father had never shared much about his past — choosing to shield his children from his struggles.
“I also knew him as someone who wanted to make a difference to the people he served.”
The father and son pair had to have a difficult discussion when the younger was approached to run for PAP in 2006.
Mr Ong Ye Kung sat out of that year’s GE after sensing his father’s reservations.
The elder Mr Ong eventually gave his blessing to his son to go into public service before passing away in 2009.
3. Desmond Lee is the son of former PAP minister Lee Yock Suan
Like health minister Ong Ye Kung, 47-year-old Desmond Lee — Singapore’s Minister for National Development — also has a father who was in politics.
His father, Lee Yock Suan, was a member of the PAP and held positions such as Minister for Education and Minister of Information and the Arts.
He served as an MP from 1980 to 2006 and was in Cabinet from 1987 to 2004.
Sources: @DesmondTSLee on X and National Archives of Singapore. Image on the right shows Mr Lee Yock Suan and his wife, Madam Adeline Oh Choon Neo in 1985.
Meanwhile, the younger Mr Lee contested in the PAP team that won Jurong GRC during the 2011 GE.
After six years in politics, then Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong announced Mr Desmond Lee and Mrs Josephine Teo’s promotions as full ministers in 2017.
This made Mr Lee, then 40 years old, one of Singapore’s youngest full ministers.
4. Multiple Singapore ministers have been married twice
Though it might be not be a surprise to some that Senior Minister Lee Hsien Loong has been married twice — one of the lesser known facts is that other politicians have also done so.
Minister for Law K. Shanmugam and Prime Minister (PM) Lawrence Wong were both once divorced.
SM Lee’s first wife — Dr Wang Ming Yang — died in 1982 at 31 years old.
Source: NewspaperSG and NewspaperSG
She had left behind a bereaved Mr Lee, along with their 19-month old daughter Li Xiuqi and three-week-old son Li Yi Peng.
They were only married for four and a half years.
In 1985, SM Lee married Madam Ho Ching with whom he has two sons — Li Hongyi and Li Haoyi.
As for Mr Shanmugam, he was first married to Jothie Rajah — the daughter of Senior Counsel and Judicial Commissioner of the Supreme Court of Singapore Kasinather Saunthararajah (K.S. Rajah).
AsiaOne reported that the pair divorced after a 15-year marriage due to mutual incompatibility. However, a rumour that he had an extramarital affair recirculated in 2023, leading to a police report.
Mr Shanmugam had married his second wife — clinical psychologist Seetha Subbiah — in 2008.
Meanwhile, PM Wong’s wife, Loo Tze Lui, recently grabbed headlines due to her philanthropy and elegant looks.
Loo Tze Lui: 5 things to know about PM Wong’s wife, a former banker with a heart of gold
Though she is known to be pretty low-key, even less is know about PM Wong’s first wife — whom he divorced due to incompatibility.
Reuters reported that the pair married when PM Wong was in his 20s but her identity is not widely known.
5. He Ting Ru & Terence Tan were Workers’ Party colleagues before marriage
Politician power-couples are rare in Singapore — with Ms He Ting Ru and Mr Terence Tan being a known pair.
The duo joined the Workers’ Party (WP) in 2011 but only became serious following the 2015 GE when they contested Marine Parade GRC as part of the WP team.
Source: Yahoo News Singapore
According to Yahoo News Singapore, the Chinese newspaper Lianhe Wanbao broke the story of their marriage in 2016.
Though the couple was initially uneasy about the publicity, they have since celebrated their partnership on social media.
On 6 March 2021, Ms He posted a series of three photos on Facebook, commemorating five years since their wedding party.
Source: He Ting Ru 何廷儒 on Facebook
The pair have three young sons together.
While Ms He, 41, is now an MP at Sengkang GRC, Mr Tan, 53, left the opposition party in April this year to focus on his family and his career.
He is at present, a director at law firm Robertson Chambers.
6. Chiam See Tong’s closest political confidante is his wife
That said, Ms He and Mr Tan are not the only political couple in Singapore.
Before them, there was Mr Chiam See Tong — who is reported to be one of the Republic’s longest-serving opposition MP — and his wife Lina Loh Woon See.
The two had met in the 1970s when he was a 37-year-old law student in London and she was a 24-year-old trainee nurse at a hospital.
Retrieved from The Straits Times.
They then got married in 1975 and Mr Chiam entered politics a year after that with her support.
She has often been seen supporting her husband during election periods.
Mrs Lina Chiam (left) during the 2006 Singapore General Elections. Source: National Archives of Singapore.
Mr Chiam, now 89 years old, founded the Singapore Democratic Party (SDP) in 1980.
He finally won a parliamentary seat in 1984 after three failed attempts. Mr Chiam was then repeatedly re-elected as MP of the Potong Pasir ward for six terms.
After he left SDP in the 1990s, Mr Chiam joined the Singapore People’s Party in 1996.
In the 2011 GE, he chose his wife to contest the Potong Pasir ward while he helmed a team in the Bishan-Toa Payoh GRC.
Both of them lost, but Potong Pasir ended up having the tightest race in the election.
Mrs Chiam once told ST that her husband believes in her capabilities — she knows the residents and often gave him feedback from them when he was MPÂ in Potong Pasir for 27 years.
“We are like two-in-one, we understand each other,” said Mrs Chiam in 2015.
“We always plan our strategies together, even when he won the six elections.”
Facts about Singapore politicians that may surprise you
Singapore is due for another General Election before November 2025, with some speculating that it may be called as early as September this year.
The likelihood of that, however, is getting slim, as the Electoral Boundaries Review Committee has not been convened.
Still, when it does happen, Singaporeans can likely look forward to getting to know some new faces to the political scene.
Who knows what other surprising facts might surface with the newest batch of aspiring politicians?
Also read: The underrated wives of 4 S’pore politicians & what’s known about them
The underrated wives of 4 S’pore politicians & what’s known about them
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Featured images adapted from People’s Action Party and Ong Ye Kung on Facebook.
