About Ong Teng Cheong
Ong Teng Cheong (22 January 1936 – 8 February 2002) was a Singaporean architect and politician who served as the fifth president of Singapore between 1993 and 1999 after winning the 1993 presidential election. Born when Singapore was part of the Straits Settlements, Ong was educated at the University of Adelaide, where he studied architecture. He later received a Colombo Plan scholarship and earned a master's degree in urban planning from the University of Liverpool. In 1967, Ong joined the Ministry of National Development (MND) as a town planner. After four years in the civil service, he resigned in 1971 and established his own architectural firm, Ong & Ong Architects & Town Planners, with his wife Ling Siew May who was also an architect. Ong became involved in politics in the early 1970s, joining the People's Action Party (PAP). He was elected as an MP for the Kim Keat Constituency in the 1972 general election and served until 1991, after which he represented the Kim Keat division of the Toa Payoh Group Representation Constituency until 1993. He also served as PAP's Chairman from 1981 to 1993 and held ministerial positions including Minister for Communications (1978–1981), Minister for Labour (1981–1983) and Deputy Prime Minister (1985–1993). In Parliament, Ong was best known for advocating the construction of the Mass Rapid Transit (MRT), the largest construction project in Singapore's history at the time. A union leader, he was also the Secretary-General of the National Trades Union Congress (NTUC) from 1983 to 1993. On 16 August 1993, Ong resigned from both the PAP and Parliament to contest the 1993 presidential election, winning 58.7% of the vote. He was nicknamed the "People's President" for being Singapore's first directly elected president and was sworn in on 1 September 1993, concurrently leaving his position at NTUC. He decided not to run for a second term as president in 1999, in part due to the illness and death of his wife. He was succeeded by S. R. Nathan. Ong died from lymphoma in 2002 at the age of 66.
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