Ong Teng Cheong, Honorary GCMG (Chinese: 王鼎昌; pinyin: Wáng Dǐngchāng; POJ: Ông Tíng-chhiong; 22 January 1936 - 8 February 2002) was the first directly elected President of the Republic of Singapore. He was the nation's fifth President, in office from 2 September 1993 to 1 September 1999.
Born in 1936 as the eldest son, Ong was the second of five children from a middle class Chinese Singaporean family. His English-educated father felt that the Chinese language is important if one wants to make a success in life, and especially in business, so he sent all his children to Chinese medium schools. Ong graduated with distinctions from The Chinese High School (now Hwa Chong Institution) in 1955, but being Chinese-educated, he saw little opportunity for advancing his studies in the University of Malaya, as English was the university's language medium.
In 1956, with the help of his father's friends, Ong ventured abroad. Those years were to shape both his beliefs and passions. Ong studied architecture at the University of Adelaide in Australia along with his childhood sweetheart and future wife, Ling Siew May. Both Ong and Ling met each other during a Christmas party while they were still studying in secondary school. After graduation, Ong worked as an architect in Adelaide and married Ling in 1963.[2] Ong and his wife occasionally recite Chinese poetry and verses which they learnt during their younger days.
In 1965, Ong received an Colombo Plan scholarship to pursue a master's degree in urban planning at the University of Liverpool and graduated in 1967. In the same year, he joined the Ministry of National Development as a town planner. After four years of civil service, Ong resigned from his government profession and started his own architectural firm, Ong & Ong Architects, with his wife.
Ong ran for the presidency in 1993 under the PAP's endorsement. He ran against a reluctant Chua Kim Yeow, a former accountant general, for the post. A total of 1,756,517 votes were polled. Ong received 952,513 votes while Chua had 670,358 votes, despite the former having a higher public exposure and a much more active campaign than Chua.
However, soon after his election to the presidency in 1993, Ong was tangled in a dispute over the access of information regarding Singapore's financial reserves. The government said it would take 56 man-years to produce a dollar-and-cents value of the immovable assets. Ong discussed this with the accountant general and the auditor general and eventually conceded that the government only had to declare all of its properties, a list which took a few months to produce. Even then, the list was not complete; it took the government a total of three years (instead of fifty-six) to produce the information that Ong requested.
In an interview with Asiaweek six months after stepping down from presidency, Ong indicated that he had asked for this audit based on the principle that as an elected president, he was bound to protect the national reserves, and the only way of doing so would be to know what reserves (both cash and asset) the government owned.
In the last year of his presidency (1999) Ong found out through the newspapers that the government aimed to submit a bill to Parliament to sell the Post Office Savings Bank (POSB). However, as this was a statutory board whose reserves were under the president's protection, this move was procedurally inappropriate and did not regard Ong's significance as the guardian of the reserves; his office had to ring up and inform the government of this oversight.
Ong decided not to run for a second term as president in 1999.
Ong's wife, Ling Siew May, died in August 1999 after a cancer relapse. Ong died later on February 8, 2002, at the age of 66, from lymphoma in his home at about 8:14 pm SST after he had been discharged from hospital a few days earlier.
Among the five former presidents who have died, Ong is the first president who did not receive a state funeral. He received a state-assisted funeral instead, as his family rejected the offer for a state funeral.
Born in 1936 as the eldest son, Ong was the second of five children from a middle class Chinese Singaporean family. His English-educated father felt that the Chinese language is important if one wants to make a success in life, and especially in business, so he sent all his children to Chinese medium schools. Ong graduated with distinctions from The Chinese High School (now Hwa Chong Institution) in 1955, but being Chinese-educated, he saw little opportunity for advancing his studies in the University of Malaya, as English was the university's language medium.
In 1956, with the help of his father's friends, Ong ventured abroad. Those years were to shape both his beliefs and passions. Ong studied architecture at the University of Adelaide in Australia along with his childhood sweetheart and future wife, Ling Siew May. Both Ong and Ling met each other during a Christmas party while they were still studying in secondary school. After graduation, Ong worked as an architect in Adelaide and married Ling in 1963.[2] Ong and his wife occasionally recite Chinese poetry and verses which they learnt during their younger days.
In 1965, Ong received an Colombo Plan scholarship to pursue a master's degree in urban planning at the University of Liverpool and graduated in 1967. In the same year, he joined the Ministry of National Development as a town planner. After four years of civil service, Ong resigned from his government profession and started his own architectural firm, Ong & Ong Architects, with his wife.
Ong ran for the presidency in 1993 under the PAP's endorsement. He ran against a reluctant Chua Kim Yeow, a former accountant general, for the post. A total of 1,756,517 votes were polled. Ong received 952,513 votes while Chua had 670,358 votes, despite the former having a higher public exposure and a much more active campaign than Chua.
However, soon after his election to the presidency in 1993, Ong was tangled in a dispute over the access of information regarding Singapore's financial reserves. The government said it would take 56 man-years to produce a dollar-and-cents value of the immovable assets. Ong discussed this with the accountant general and the auditor general and eventually conceded that the government only had to declare all of its properties, a list which took a few months to produce. Even then, the list was not complete; it took the government a total of three years (instead of fifty-six) to produce the information that Ong requested.
In an interview with Asiaweek six months after stepping down from presidency, Ong indicated that he had asked for this audit based on the principle that as an elected president, he was bound to protect the national reserves, and the only way of doing so would be to know what reserves (both cash and asset) the government owned.
In the last year of his presidency (1999) Ong found out through the newspapers that the government aimed to submit a bill to Parliament to sell the Post Office Savings Bank (POSB). However, as this was a statutory board whose reserves were under the president's protection, this move was procedurally inappropriate and did not regard Ong's significance as the guardian of the reserves; his office had to ring up and inform the government of this oversight.
Ong decided not to run for a second term as president in 1999.
Ong's wife, Ling Siew May, died in August 1999 after a cancer relapse. Ong died later on February 8, 2002, at the age of 66, from lymphoma in his home at about 8:14 pm SST after he had been discharged from hospital a few days earlier.
Among the five former presidents who have died, Ong is the first president who did not receive a state funeral. He received a state-assisted funeral instead, as his family rejected the offer for a state funeral.
