Ong Ye Kung

Last updated

The Honourable
Ong Ye Kung
王乙康
Ong Ye Kung at the 2018 G20 Education Ministerial Meeting.jpg
Ong in 2018
Coordinating Minister for Social Policies
Incumbent
Assumed office
23 May 2025
Personal details
Born (1969-11-15) 15 November 1969 (age 55)
Singapore
Political party People's Action Party
SpouseDiana Kuik Sin Leng
Relations Xie Yao Quan (maternal cousin)
Children2
Parent(s)Ong Lian Teng (father)
Ng Soo Lung (mother)
Alma mater London School of Economics (BSc)
International Institute for Management Development (MBA)
Occupation
  • Politician
  • civil servant

Ong Ye Kung [a] (born 15 November 1969) [1] is a Singaporean politician and former civil servant who has been serving as Minister for Health since 2021. A member of the governing People's Action Party (PAP), he has been the Member of Parliament (MP) representing the Sembawang Central division of Sembawang Group Representation Constituency since 2015. [2] [3]

Contents

Prior to entering politics, Ong worked in the Ministry of Communications, Ministry of Trade and Industry, Singapore Workforce Development Agency, National Trades Union Congress and Keppel Corporation. He was also the principal private secretary to Deputy Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong between 2002 and 2004.

He made his political debut in the 2011 general election as part of a five-member PAP team contesting in Aljunied GRC but lost to the Workers' Party where the PAP team obtained 45.28% of the valid votes. He contested again in the 2015 general election as part of a five-member PAP team contesting in Sembawang GRC and won where the PAP team obtained 72.28% of the valid votes.

Before becoming Minister for Health, he was Minister for Education between 2015 and 2020, serving alongside Ng Chee Meng between 2015 and 2018, and Minister for Transport between 2020 and 2021. From 2020 to 2021, he is also a co-chair of the Multi-Ministry Taskforce set up by the government to manage Singapore's handling response to the COVID-19 pandemic.

Education

Ong attended Maris Stella High School and Raffles Junior College before graduating from the London School of Economics in 1991 with a Bachelor of Science degree in economics.

In 1999, he completed a Master of Business Administration degree at the International Institute for Management Development in Lausanne, Switzerland.

Career

Civil Service career

Ong started his career working in the Ministry of Communications between 1993 and 1999. He served as Director of Trade in the Ministry of Trade and Industry between 2000 and 2003 and was the Deputy Chief Negotiator for the Singapore–United States Free Trade Agreement signed in May 2003. He was Principal Private Secretary to Deputy Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong between 2002 and 2004. Ong also served as the chief executive officer of the Workforce Development Agency between 2005 and 2008. Following that, he joined the National Trades Union Congress as Assistant Secretary-General. [4]

Political career

In the 2011 general election, Ong contested in Aljunied GRC as part of a five-member People's Action Party (PAP) team. [5] The PAP team lost to the Workers' Party's (WP) team of Low Thia Khiang, Pritam Singh, Sylvia Lim, Muhamad Faisal Manap and Chen Show Mao. [6] This was the first time in Singapore's history when the PAP lost a GRC in an election. [7] Ong was subsequently regulated into branch chair duties as unelected Kaki Bukit Branch Chair. Ong would later leave his branch chair post in 2014. [8] [9]

Following the 2011 general election, Ong continued to work at the National Trades Union Congress (NTUC) and became Deputy Secretary-General in June 2011. [10] He was also elected into the NTUC's Central Committee later that year. [11] In 2013, he left the NTUC and became Director of Group Strategy at Keppel Corporation. [12]

In the 2015 general election, Ong joined as part of the five-member PAP team contesting in Sembawang GRC, [13] [14] The PAP team won with 72% of the vote and Ong was elected as the Member of Parliament representing the Gambas ward of Sembawang GRC. [13]

On 1 October 2015, Ong was appointed Senior Minister of State for Defence and Acting Minister for Education (Higher Education and Skills). On 1 November 2016, he was promoted to Second Minister for Defence while concurrently holding the portfolio of Minister for Education (Higher Education and Skills) alongside Ng Chee Meng, who was Minister for Education (Schools). In 2017, Ong moved a bill in Parliament to confer the Singapore University of Social Sciences autonomous status. [15]

On 1 May 2018, the two Education portfolios were merged into a single one; Ong took over the single portfolio as Minister for Education while simultaneously relinquishing his Second Minister of Defence portfolio.

On 27 July 2020, Ong relinquished his portfolio as Minister for Education and succeeded Khaw Boon Wan as Minister for Transport. [16]

In the lead-up to the 2020 general election, Ong was widely seen as one of the three leading candidates (alongside Heng Swee Keat and Chan Chun Sing) to succeed Lee Hsien Loong as Prime Minister of Singapore. [17] Ong led the PAP team in Sembawang GRC and they won with about 67% of the vote. Ong's former Gambas ward was merged with part of Khaw Boon Wan's former Sembawang ward, forming the new Sembawang Central ward which Ong has since represented. [18]

On 23 April 2021, Ong was appointed co-chair of the multi-ministerial committee formed on 22 January 2020 to manage the COVID-19 pandemic in Singapore. Following a Cabinet reshuffle on 15 May 2021, Ong relinquished his portfolio as Minister for Transport and succeeded Gan Kim Yong as Minister for Health.

Ong was considered by many to be one of the most likely candidates to succeed Heng Swee Keat as leader of the fourth-generation (4G) team, however it was ultimately revealed that Finance Minister Lawrence Wong had the most support compared to the other candidates. [19]

On 23 April 2025, Ong stood for re-election in Sembawang GRC, and was successfully nominated. He led the PAP team, which also consisted of incumbent MPs Mariam Jaafar and Vikram Nair, and new faces Gabriel Lam and Ng Shi Xuan. His team won in a three-cornered fight with the National Solidarity Party (NSP) and Singapore Democratic Party (SDP). [20]

Other appointments

Personal life

Ong's father, Ong Lian Teng, was a Barisan Sosialis politician who served as the Member of the Legislative Assembly for Bukit Panjang SMC from 1963 to 1965 and later Member of Parliament from 1965 to 1966, who later resigned to protest the "undemocratic acts" of the PAP government. In an interview with The Straits Times in 2011, Ong noted that his father, who died in 2009, had been fully supportive of his decision to become involved in politics as a member of the PAP despite his own past involvement in opposition politics in Singapore. [24]

Ong is married to Diana Kuik Sin Leng, the daughter of real estate magnate Kuik Ah Han. [25] [26] They have two daughters. [27] In 2012, Straits Times correspondent Susan Long described him as a "free thinker" and a "Confucius-quoting unionist". [28]

Ong's older brother, Howard, is an Australian political candidate and businessman. He contested and lost in the Division of Tangney under the Liberal Party of Australia ticket in the 2025 Australian federal election. [29]

Ong's maternal cousin, Xie Yao Quan, is also a PAP Member of Parliament representing Jurong Central SMC, having previously represented the division of the same name in the defunct Jurong GRC. [30]

Controversies

On 6 May 2025, 3 days after the general elections Ong along with fellow minister Chee Hong Tat and Ng Chee Meng were caught in a publicized scandal that caught the three dining with convicted money launderer Su Haijin. [31] [32]

Notes

  1. ↑ Chinese :王乙康; pinyin :Wáng Yǐkāng

References

  1. ↑ "MP | Parliament Of Singapore". www.parliament.gov.sg.
  2. ↑ "About Ong Ye Kung". facebook. Archived from the original on 20 September 2020. Retrieved 23 September 2015.
  3. ↑ Ong Ye Kung's page on the PAP website Archived 12 August 2011 at the Wayback Machine says he was 42 in 2011, so it is deduced that he was born around 1969 or 1970.
  4. ↑ "ONG YE KUNG" (PDF). Ministry of Health.
  5. ↑ "Aljunied GRC: The battle for 143,148 votes". AsiaOne. Archived from the original on 20 July 2011. Retrieved 4 April 2012.
  6. ↑ "2011 PARLIAMENTARY ELECTION RESULTS". Singapore Elections Department. Archived from the original on 13 May 2011. Retrieved 4 April 2012.
  7. ↑ "Low expectations". The Economist. 12 May 2011. Archived from the original on 9 September 2017. Retrieved 20 February 2020.
  8. ↑ "Ex-Aljunied GRC PAP candidate Ong Ye Kung explains why he is making the rounds in Sembawang". mothership.sg. Retrieved 18 August 2025.
  9. ↑ "Desmond Choo, Ong Ye Kung leave Aljunied, Hougang wards". TODAY. Retrieved 18 August 2025.
  10. ↑ It's confirmed: Ong Ye Kung is leaving NTUC Archived 28 September 2012 at the Wayback Machine , Today, 27 September 2012.
  11. ↑ "Nurse Diana Chia is NTUC's first woman president". The Straits Times. Archived from the original on 19 December 2011. Retrieved 4 April 2012.
  12. ↑ "Ong Ye Kung joins Keppel Corp". www.asiaone.com. Archived from the original on 1 January 2018. Retrieved 1 July 2020.
  13. 1 2 Ong Ye Kung, Amrin Amin join PAP's Sembawang GRC team, channelnewsasia.com, 14 August 2015.
  14. ↑ Ying, Foo Jie (15 August 2015). "PAP's Ong Ye Kung makes comeback in Sembawang GRC". The New Paper. Archived from the original on 8 October 2019. Retrieved 8 October 2019.
  15. ↑ "Singapore University of Social Sciences Bill Second Reading Speech by Mr Ong Ye Kung, Minister for Education (Higher Education and Skills)". Ministry of Education. Archived from the original on 4 March 2019. Retrieved 24 May 2018.
  16. ↑ Mahmud, Aqil Haziq (25 July 2020). "PM Lee announces new Cabinet; 6 office holders promoted, 3 retirements". CNA. Archived from the original on 25 July 2020. Retrieved 25 July 2020.
  17. ↑ Yahya, Yasmine (26 January 2018). "Singapore's 4G leaders need more time to gain exposure and experience: Analysts". The Straits Times. Archived from the original on 19 September 2020. Retrieved 28 January 2018.
  18. ↑ "ELD | 2020 Parliamentary General Election Results".
  19. ↑ Tang, See Kit (18 April 2022). "Strong party support for Lawrence Wong as 4G leader even without unanimous vote: Political analysts". CNA. Retrieved 5 June 2022.
  20. ↑ "ELD | 2025 Parliamentary General Election Results". www.eld.gov.sg. Retrieved 7 May 2025.
  21. ↑ "Changes to the MAS Board of Directors". Archived from the original on 30 August 2016. Retrieved 29 August 2016.
  22. ↑ "Ong Ye Kung retires as SMRT director". Singapore Business Review. 21 July 2014. Archived from the original on 15 August 2017. Retrieved 1 July 2020.
  23. ↑ "Ong Ye Kung to head SMRT probe". Channel NewsAsia. Archived from the original on 13 March 2012. Retrieved 4 April 2012.
  24. ↑ Their dads were once PAP adversaries Archived 24 July 2011 at the Wayback Machine , The Straits Times , 22 March 2011.
  25. ↑ "Change Announcement of Cessation::Resignation of Executive Director" (PDF). Sim Lian Group. Archived (PDF) from the original on 20 September 2020. Retrieved 27 July 2017.
  26. ↑ Tan, Sumiko (15 January 2017). "Lunch With Sumiko: Ong Ye Kung on new ministers' 'collective ambition' for Singapore". The Straits Times. Archived from the original on 21 July 2017. Retrieved 27 July 2017.
  27. ↑ Justin Ong (5 April 2022). "See things from a woman's point of view, stop mansplaining: Ong Ye Kung". The Straits Times . Retrieved 22 April 2025.
  28. ↑ "The one who got away". The Straits Times . June 2012. Retrieved 28 May 2024.
  29. ↑ Johnathan Pearlman (13 April 2025). "Parties bank on Asian-Australian candidates at May election Down Under". The Straits Times . Retrieved 13 April 2025.
  30. ↑ Lay, Belmont (30 June 2020). "Ong Ye Kung is cousin of newest PAP candidate Xie Yao Quan". mothership.sg. Archived from the original on 30 August 2020. Retrieved 30 July 2020.
  31. ↑ "Singapore ministers deny dealings with 'Fujian gang' money launderer". South China Morning Post. 6 May 2025. Retrieved 15 July 2025.
  32. ↑ Yong, Jun Yuan (6 May 2025). "Singapore ministers, lawmaker under scrutiny over dinners attended by convicted money launderer". Reuters. Retrieved 15 July 2025.
Political offices
Preceded by Minister for Education
2018–2020
2016–2018 (Higher Education and Skills)
Acting: 2015–2016
Served alongside: Ng Chee Meng (Schools)		Succeeded by
Preceded by Minister for Transport
2020–2021		Succeeded by
Preceded by Minister for Health
2021–present		Incumbent
Vacant
Title last held by
Tharman Shanmugaratnam
2023		 Coordinating Minister for Social Policies
2025–present		Incumbent
Parliament of Singapore
Preceded by Member of Parliament for
Sembawang GRC
2015–present
Served alongside:
(2015-2020): Lim Wee Kiak, Vikram Nair, Khaw Boon Wan, Amrin Amin
(2020-2025): Lim Wee Kiak, Vikram Nair, Poh Li San, Mariam Jaafar
(2025-present): Gabriel Lam, Ng Shi Xuan, Vikram Nair, Mariam Jaafar		Incumbent
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