GE2020
Senior Minister of State for Digital Development and Information and National Development Tan Kiat How stepped down from his post as chief executive of the Infocomm Media Development Authority to make the jump into politics in 2020.
Senior Minister of State in the Prime Minister’s Office Desmond Tan was chief executive of another statutory board, the People’s Association (PA), before leaving public service the same year.
Mr Eric Chua, who’s now senior parliamentary secretary for culture, community and youth and social and family development, came from a background in the Singapore Civil Defence Force. He was also previously a director at the Home Affairs Ministry.
Among the backbenchers, there’s Mr Yip Hon Weng, a former group chief of the Silver Generation Office under MOH. He was also a PSC scholar.
Ang Mo Kio GRC MP Ms Ng Ling Ling was also chief of future primary care and director of community engagement at the MOH Office of Healthcare Transformation.
In the opposition camp, Non-Constituency MP Leong Mun Wai from the Progress Singapore Party was also a government scholar under the PSC’s Overseas Merit Scholarship. He started his career with the Government of Singapore Investment Corporation or GIC, before moving on to work with global investment banks.
GE2015
At the 2015 election, Transport Minister Chee Hong Tat made his political debut after 17 years in public service. Another PSC scholar, he was a principal private secretary to founding Prime Minister Lee Kuan Yew, a CEO of the Energy Market Authority (EMA) and also a second permanent secretary at the Ministry of Trade and Industry (MTI).
MPs such as Mr Saktiandi Supaat, Ms Joan Pereira and Mr Melvin Yong also left their respective organisations to contest in the polls that year.
Mr Saktiandi had spent more than 10 years at the Monetary Authority of Singapore; Ms Pereira was a director at the PA; and Mr Yong was Assistant Commissioner of Police.
Former opposition Workers’ Party MP Leon Perera, who started out as an NCMP after the 2015 election, was an assistant head at EDB’s enterprise development division.
GE2011
PM Wong began his career at MTI before moving on to the finance and health ministries. He was then principal private secretary to then-PM Lee Hsien Loong, and EMA chief executive officer before going into politics.
Deputy Prime Minister Heng Swee Keat too was in the civil service, and a former principal private secretary to the late Mr Lee Kuan Yew. He also served as permanent secretary of MTI and managing director of the Monetary Authority of Singapore.
Minister for National Development Desmond Lee was a deputy public prosecutor in the Attorney-General’s Chambers and held positions in the health and law ministries, among other roles. He then joined Temasek as in-house counsel, two months before the polls in May 2011, and remained in the role until appointed as minister of state for national development in 2013.
Health Minister Ong Ye Kung also made his debut in the 2011 polls, though as part of a losing PAP team in Aljunied GRC. He was previously deputy chief negotiator of the United States-Singapore Free Trade Agreement, also a principal private secretary to Senior Minister Lee, and CEO of the Singapore Workforce Development Agency, now known as Workforce Singapore.
Senior Minister of State for Culture, Community and Youth and Trade and Industry Low Yen Ling was formerly with EDB as well.
Ms Sim Ann, senior minister of state for foreign affairs and national development, started her career in the civil service. She held senior leadership positions at IE Singapore and the National Population Secretariat before leaving in 2011.
Another 2011 debutant, Mr Desmond Choo, served in various roles in the Singapore Police Force (SPF). He is now Mayor of North East District.
The PSP’s other NCMP Hazel Poa also contested in her first elections in 2011, albeit with the National Solidarity Party. She previously spent four years in the civil service, first at PMO then at the MOF where she was assistant director for indirect taxation.
