Prior to entering politics, Tong was a lawyer at Allen & Gledhill practising extensively in corporate and commercial disputes, restructuring and insolvency matters, and international arbitration. He was appointed Senior Counsel in 2015.
After he was admitted to the Singapore Bar, Tong joined Allen & Gledhill and had been a partner at the law firm until 2018. During his legal career, Tong practised extensively in corporate and commercial disputes, restructuring and insolvency matters, and international arbitration.[7] He was appointed Senior Counsel in 2015.[8]
Tong was one of the lawyers representing Kong Hee, the pastor of City Harvest Church accused of misappropriating church funds in a high-profile case.[9] During the trial, which lasted from 2012 to 2018, a front-page headline from the Chinese tabloid Lianhe Wanbao, which had been edited to insinuate that Tong and the People's Action Party (PAP) had saved Kong from harsher penalties, appeared on social media. The original headline read "Outdated law saved [Kong and the other convicted church leaders]"; the edited headline read "PAP lawyer saved [Kong and the other convicted church leaders]". On 5 February 2018, the Attorney-General's Chambers (AGC) mentioned that it would take legal action against a man responsible for publishing the image, which amounts to contempt of court.[10]
Political career
Prior to entering politics in the 2011 general election, Tong was already active in grassroots activities in various constituencies, particularly Jalan Besar GRC. In 2011, he was fielded by the People's Action Party (PAP) as part of a four-member team to contest in Moulmein–Kallang GRC. The PAP team won 58.56% of the vote against the Workers' Party (WP) and Tong was elected a Member of Parliament representing the Jalan Besar division. He was Deputy Chairman of the Government Parliamentary Committee (GPC) for Law and Home Affairs between 2011 and 2018.[5]
In the 2015 general election, Tong joined the five-member PAP team contesting in Marine Parade GRC and they won 64.07% of the vote against the WP. He then elected as the Member of Parliament representing the Joo Chiat division of Marine Parade GRC. On 1 July 2018, he was appointed Senior Minister of State at the Ministry of Law and Ministry of Health. Former Prime MinisterGoh Chok Tong revealed that when Tong became a Senior Minister of State, he essentially had a 75% pay cut—down to about S$500,000 a year compared to his previous earnings of over S$2 million a year as a lawyer.[11] Tong also served on the board of the Land Transport Authority (LTA) from 2017 to 2018.[5]
In March 2018, Tong was selected to be part of the ten-member Select Committee on Deliberate Online Falsehoods tasked with looking into the issue of deliberate online falsehoods and how to deal with them. During the public hearings, a group of activists issued a lengthy missive on 2 April 2018, stating that the hearings did not feel like a genuine attempt to solicit views and that the attendees' views had been misrepresented. One of the activists, Kirsten Han, was questioned by Tong over an article she had written for the Asia Times whose relevance to the committee's terms of reference was not made clear. Tong also quoted the first three paragraphs of a 2011 article from The Guardian, in which former British Prime Minister Tony Blair described the Freedom of Information Act as "dangerous",[12] to question Han over the Freedom of Information Act when the rest of the article presents a different picture.[13]
During a Q&A with Mothership (website), it was revealed that Edwin Tong was personally involved in bringing Taylor Swift to Singapore. Tong said that Singapore had proactively courted Taylor Swift even before her International Concert Dates were announced.[14] By May 2023, an agreement was signed with Taylor Swift's team and the announcement was made in June 2023. [15] It was suggested that the Government had paid close up to US$2 million to US$3 million for all six shows [16] as compared to what was claimed by Thai Prime Minister Srettha Thavisin of up to US$4 million per show.[17]
Personal life
Tong is married with three daughters.
He has an active interest in football and had served in a volunteer capacity as the Vice President of the Football Association of Singapore (FAS) from 2013 to 2020.[5]
^"Mr Edwin Tong Chun Fai". Parliament of Singapore. Government of Singapore. 6 February 2012. Archived from the original on 11 July 2012. Retrieved 7 February 2012.
The party affiliation of each member is indicated right after the constituency/seat he or she represents. PAP: People's Action Party; WP: The Workers' Party; PSP: Progress Singapore Party All of the leaders of the respective GRCs are in underline. MP(s) who is go on a leave of absence is in italic. NMPs do not belong to any party.
The party affiliation of each member is indicated right after the constituency he or she represents. PAP: People's Action Party; WP: The Workers' Party NMPs do not belong to any party. There were two terms of NMPs in this parliament, with nine NMPs in each term.
