SINGAPORE: A latest social media put up about former Member of Parliament Tan Cheng Bock has acquired lots of consideration, with many commenters praising Dr Tan for his character and lengthy file of service.
Dr Tan spent over 20 years representing Ayer Rajah SMC from 1980 to 2006, when he was a member of the Individuals’s Motion Occasion. In 2011, he left the ruling get together to mount a presidential bid, however misplaced by a 0.35 per cent margin to Tony Tan. He tried to run for the place once more in 2017. Nevertheless, modifications to the factors of candidates meant he was ineligible to contest.
In 2019, together with 10 others, he based Progress Singapore Occasion, and within the Normal Election the next 12 months, the PSP did nicely sufficient to ship Leong Mun Wai and Hazel Poa to Parliament as NCMPs.
He was a part of the PSP’s slate at West Coast-Jurong West GRC for GE 2025, which misplaced to the PAP group, and introduced his retirement shortly afterwards, although he’s nonetheless a PSP member.
Within the June 27 put up from native content material creator Alvin Huang, Mr Huang traces Dr Tan’s loss in 2011 by the thinnest of margins, in addition to his work as a doctor, opening Ama Keng Clinic in Lim Chu Kang in 1971 and practising medication for the subsequent 5 many years.
“In case you’ve by no means been to Lim Chu Kang, it was the agricultural fringe of Singapore. Farms, poultry, and low-income households. Tan was their physician. He as soon as delivered a child by kerosene lamp gentle. He mediated household feuds and land disputes. He wrote to authorities companies on behalf of people that didn’t know the way. When the village was finally cleared for redevelopment, his former sufferers tracked him down within the HDB heartlands,” wrote Mr Huang.
He then went on to notice that Dr Tan was the primary ex-PAP MP to discovered an opposition get together, and in 2020, had received a brand new technology of followers for his social media presence, to the extent that folks referred to as him “Hypebeast Ah Gong.”
Mr Huang ended his put up by writing of Dr Tan: “Some individuals construct issues that outlast them. He simply saved constructing till another person was prepared to hold it.”
What Singaporeans are saying
Commenters on the put up have responded positively, writing about Dr Tan’s character.
“I’ll not agree together with his insurance policies and actions. However I can attest to the truth that he’s a great man with a great coronary heart. I used to be the CCC chair of his redrawn constituency after he stepped down. And for a very long time, I’ve heard residents and grassroots volunteers converse nicely of him. The lesson he left behind is that irrespective of how sensible the politicians are, they have to at all times have a coronary heart for the individuals. That’s the motive force for insurance policies to work nicely for the nation and folks,” one wrote.
“He has a coronary heart of gold for individuals,” a commenter agreed.
“One of many few real and benevolent 1st Gen politicians who served individuals with a great coronary heart and from the underside of his coronary heart,” added one other.
A 3rd referred to as him “one of many nicest politicians.”
“It is a man who stands by his values and has the braveness to ‘problem’ the massive equipment. Not simple however his effort says all of it,” a Fb person opined. /TISG
Learn additionally: Dr Tan Cheng Bock: PSP chief and “hypebeast”, “woke” social media star
