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Former President of Singapore, Tony Tan. Photo by Michael Tan.

Top 10 Fascinating Facts about Tony Tan

Tony Tan Keng Yam is a retired politician from Singapore. He was born on 7 February 1940.

He served as the 7^th President of Singapore, having won the 2011 general elections. He retired in 2017.

 Tony Tan also served as the Deputy Prime Minister before his presidency. He has several achievements to his name while in government, including the establishment of Singapore Management University, the country’s first publicly funded autonomous university.

Tony Tan is also remembered for his bold stand against what he considered faulty government policies, and these he opposed quite out-rightly.

While serving as a Minister for Education, he scraped  a policy favoring children of more educated mothers in primary school placement.

Here are the top 10 fascinating facts about Tony Tan.

1. He graduated from the University of Singapore

National University of Singapore, University Town. Photo by Joshua Rommel.

Tony Tan attended St Patrick’s School and St. Joseph’s Institution before joining the University of Singapore (now the National University of Singapore).

There, he graduated top of his class with first-class honors in Physics. He then went on to pursue a master’s in Science in operations research at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT).

Tony Tan would later return to the University of Singapore to lecture mathematics.

2. Tony Tan first pursued a career in banking

He left the University of Singapore in 1969 to start his banking career with Oversea-Chinese Banking Corporation (OCBC).

It’s a multinational banking and financial services corporation in Singapore. It is ranked as the second largest bank in Southeast Asia by assets and is one of the larger banks in the Asia Pacific.

Tony Tan rose steadily through the ladder to become OCBC’s general manager.

3. He joined national politics in 1979

Tony Tan vied for a parliamentary seat during the 1979 elections. He won to become the Member of Parliament for the Sembawang constituency under the People’s Action Party ticket.

He was a member of the party until 2010. He was subsequently appointed as a Senior Minister of State in the Ministry of Education.

4. He introduced the independent schools’ system

Serving as a Minister for Education in the Cabinet, Tony Tan made some changes to the education system.

First, he scrapped a policy that prioritized children of more well-educated parents in primary school placement at the expense of the less educated. This was in response to public discontent and open criticism of the discriminative policy.

In addition, Tony Tan introduced the independent school system which allowed established institutions to control their affairs without interference by the government.

The move was however criticized by some as it made top-ranked schools out of reach for poor families due to fee increments.

5. Tony Tan served in several ministries

Tony Tan Keng-Yam, then Deputy Chairman and Executive Director, Government of Singapore Investment Corporation (GIC), Singapore, at the Annual Meeting 2009 of the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland, January 30, 2009. Forum. Photo by Monikia Flueckiger.

Besides being the Minister for Education, Tony also assumed the role of Minister for Trade & Industry from 1981 to 1986. He is known to have been against the shipping industry in January 1986, which had been sanctioned by cabinet member Ong Teng Cheong.

Tony was concerned about the impact of perceived unstable labor relations on foreign investments owing to the strike. It lasted two days.

Tony Tan was appointed Minister for Finance (1983-85) and Minister for Health (1985-86). He, therefore, served in 4 ministries in the period between 1980 and 1986.

6. He served as Deputy Prime Minister for 10 years

Dr Tony Tan. Photo by Bidgee.

Tony Tan stepped down from the Cabinet in 1991 and returned to the private sector. He served as OCBC’s chairman and the chief executive officer from 1992 to 1995, when he received an offer to return to the Cabinet as Deputy Prime Minister.

He agreed but turned down an offer of make-up pay. It compensates ministers leaving the private sector for their loss in salary.

In declining the pay, Tony Tan intimated that the interest of the nation came first before that of a bank or his considerations.

He served as Minister for Defence from 2003 while retaining his post as Deputy PM. He is remembered for persuading the Minister for National Development Mah Bow Tan to abandon the demolition plans of an old mosque in his constituency Sembawang.

It was later listed as a heritage site, being the ‘last Kampung Mosque in Singapore.

He later stepped down in 2005 and refused an offer to become Prime Minister.

7. He was instrumental in the establishment of Singapore Management University

Singapore Management University. Photo by SengKang.

While serving as Deputy PM, he was one of the major driving forces in the founding of Singapore Management University (SMU).

The Singapore Government proposed the third university for Singapore in 1997.

 Having begun looking into university while serving as Minister for Education earlier on, Tony Tan believed that the new university should be different from the two established ones.

 He wanted it to follow the American example by focusing on management and business. He visited Universities in the USA for benchmarking and in search of potential partnerships.

Tony Tan reached out to veteran businessman Ho Kwon Ping to help in its establishment. In 2000, SMU was set up as Singapore’s first publicly-funded autonomous university.

8. Tony Tan vied for Presidency in 2010

Dr. Tony Tan and Mrs. Mary Tan at a press conference announcing his candidacy for President. Photo by Michael Tan.

Tony Tan announced his bid for Presidency on 22 December 2010. His move to vie as an independent candidate was met with different reactions.

His campaign stressed his independence and divergent views from the People’s Action Party government in several policies.

Top of the list was the Integrated Resorts issue. East Coast GRC MP Tan Soo Khoon had expressed that it was his first time to hear cabinet ministers hold opposing views.

Tony Tan won 35.2% in a heated race against his three opponents.

9. He is the 7^th former President of Singapore and the only surviving one

Tony Tan, then President of Singapore welcomes the President of Azerbaijan, 2012. Photo by President.az.

Tony Tan served as President of Singapore from 2011 to 2017. On 8 November 2016, he stated that he would not be running for another term.

The 2017 presidential election had been reserved for Malay candidates following a constitutional amendment in 2016.

Tony Tan was succeeded by Halimah Yacob in a walkover election since no other candidate was deemed eligible. She is the first female President in the country’s history.

10. Tony Tan has received numerous awards

He has been accorded awards and honors for his exemplary leadership service both in government and in the business sector.

In 2005, he received the National University of Singapore Eminent Alumni Award for his visionary role in Singapore’s university sector.

He was awarded a medal from the Foreign Policy Association in 2011 for ‘outstanding leadership and service.’

In 2018, Tan was awarded the top honor of the Order of Temasek (First Class) during Singapore’s National Day Awards. It is Singapore’s second most prestigious national honor.