He subsequently went on to complete a Master of Engineering degree in operations research at the University of New South Wales in 1973 and received an honorary doctorate from the university in 2001.[2]
Career in SBS and SPH
After completing his university education, Mah worked in the Singapore Bus Service from 1973 to 1983 and became its general manager. He was then seconded to Singapore News and Publications to serve as the chief executive officer of the Singapore Monitor newspaper. From 1985 to 1988, he was the group general manager of Singapore Press Holdings, which was formed from the 1984 merger of Singapore News and Publications and two other organisations.[2]
During the 1988 general election, Mah joined a three-member PAP team contesting in Tampines Group Representation Constituency (GRC) and they won with 61% of the vote, so Mah became a Member of Parliament representing the Tampines East ward of Tampines GRC. Since then, he and the PAP team in Tampines GRC had won the subsequent five general elections (1991, 1997, 2001, 2006 and 2011) against the opposition Singapore Democratic Alliance and National Solidarity Party. Excluding an uncontested walkover in 1997, Mah and the PAP team in Tampines GRC won with results of between 73.34% (in 2001) and 57.22% (in 2011) of the vote during those five general elections.
On 20 May 2011, Mah said at a Building and Construction Authority event that he accepted responsibility over public unhappiness due to a sharp increase in housing prices over the previous years.[4] He stepped down from his Cabinet position of Minister for National Development after the 2011 general election.[5] In a 2013 Chinese-language book published by the Hainan Culture and Heritage Centre, Mah refuted rumours that he had to step down because he had seemingly been blamed for growing public unhappiness over sky-rocketing property prices, claiming that he stepped down to make way for younger, talented people to take over.[6]
Throughout his political career, Mah had also held other positions, including chairman of the board of directors of NTUC Comfort from 1983 to 1986; chairman of the National Productivity Board, National Productivity Council and Skills Redevelopment Fund Advisory Council; chairman of the board of governors of the Singapore Institute of Labour Studies from 1990 to 2002; and president of the Football Association of Singapore from 1999 to 2004.[2]
Mah announced his retirement from politics on 23 August 2015 just before the 2015 general election.[7]
Post-political career
After retiring from politics in 2015, Mah was appointed as an independent director and non-executive chairman of Global Yellow Pages in September 2011.[8][9] In November 2018, Mah joined Singapore-based fintech firm HydraX as an adviser and director, in addition to serving as chairman of GlobalCities Sustainable Investment.[10] He stepped down as non-executive chairman of Global Yellow Pages in 2020 and has been non-executive deputy chairman and non-independent director since then.[11]
The party affiliation of each member is indicated right after the constituency he or she represents. PAP: People's Action Party; SPP: Singapore People's Party; WP: The Workers' Party For NCMPs, Gerald Giam and Yee Jenn Jong are from the WP, while Lina Loh is from the SPP. NMPs do not belong to any party. There were two terms of NMPs in this parliament, with nine NMPs in each term.
The party affiliation of each member is indicated right after the constituency he or she represents. PAP: People's Action Party; SDA: Singapore Democratic Alliance; 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.
