Tag Archives: Chong Kee Hiong

I supported his position then, with a column on how elected MPs shouldn’t be given such short shrift. That it was important that a representative in Parliament be in touch with public sentiments by dealing with them at ground level. I still say it is bad to have MPs and Nominated MPs sitting cheek by jowl in Parliament because it is an indictment on elected MPs who, presumably, aren’t able to represent the whole spectrum of the people. There was a sop thrown to the dissenting PAP MPs then (Dr Tan wasn’t the only vocal one although he was the only one who said “nay’’) – that it was for MPs to decide every term on whether they would let NMPs into the House. But this “sop’’ has been taken away. The NMP scheme is now carved in stone.

Two years ago, during an interview with the ST (‘To be a CEO, read martial arts novels’, 13 May 2012), Mr Chong told the reporter that he was still feeling upset about not getting a prize for scoring the highest marks in mathematics when he was in Primary 5. Then, at the now defunct Kim Keat Primary School, he scored the highest marks for mathematics and Chinese among his Primary 5 cohorts. But his teacher told him he had won one prize too many and gave the maths award to another pupil who had finished half a mark behind. “I didn’t argue with the teacher but I was very upset,” recalled Mr Chong. “The fact that I still remember it with such clarity shows that I am still disturbed by it.”