ONG TENG CHEONG HAVE MOUNTAIN NAMED AFTER HIM

Dear A.S.S. Editor

For the first time ever, a mountain have been named after a prominent Singaporean. And if you think it is LKY, then you are wrong. In the middle of a remote Tien Shan range that extends along the border between Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan and China, the mountain in question has been named the Ong Teng Cheong peak.

The 4,743m-tall mountain, named after Singapore’s first elected president, was formally recognised by the Mountaineering and Sport Climbing Federation of Kazakhstan on June 28 this year. It was so named because a Singaporean team of mountaineers was the first to conquer the peak back in July 2005. Kazakhstan gives a person the privilege of naming a mountain if he was the first to scale it, and has submitted documents such as a report of its exact geographical location and the climbing route for approval. The team had comprised of mountaineers David Lim, Wilfred Tok, Mohd Rozani Maarof and Shani Tan.

So the irony here is, Ong Teng Cheong has done a lot for Singapore, and is widely regarded as a people’s President, yet, his name is only celebrated in a mountain in faraway Kazakhstan.

Kaylor Ng

A.S.S. Contributor