SINGAPORE: Opposition leader Tan Cheng Bock shared over social media that he’d had “a great relaxing holiday” after he returned from a trip to Malacca.
“Last week, I went on a road trip with friends to Malacca. We had a great time, ate wonderful food and met many Singaporeans there. Malacca is a great place to have a holiday – my last trip there was more than 10 years ago and Malacca has changed tremendously. We enjoyed ourselves wandering around the heritage site – which was very well preserved,” he wrote in Facebook on Wednesday (Sept 20).
He posted a few photos from the trip as well.
The 83-year-old Dr Tan is the chairman of Progress Singapore Party, which he co-founded in 2019, with the stated aim of PSP being an “additional voice in Parliament”. He was also PSP’s first secretary general.
In the recently held presidential election, he openly and rather controversially supported Mr Tan Kin Lian, the former chief executive officer of insurer NTUC Income, even though Dr Tan and Mr Tan had been rivals in the 2011 presidential election.
Mr Tan came in third out of three candidates, getting only 13.87 per cent of the vote, while former Deputy Prime Minister Tharman Shanmugaratnam, won the election with an overwhelming majority, getting 70.4 per cent of the votes.
After the election results were announced, Dr Tan congratulated the victor and commended Mr Tan and Mr Ng Kok Song, the other candidate, for being “very courageous to step forward as underdogs.”
Dr Tan, who had served as member of Parliament for Ayer Rajah SMC from December 1980 to May 2006 under the ruling People’s Action Party (PAP), appears to remain popular with many.
The Ayer Rajah division was absorbed into West Coast GRC in 2006.
He resigned from the PAP in 2011, shortly before mounting his presidential bid.
In the general election of 2020, Dr Tan led the PSP slate at West Coast GRC. They got 48.31 per cent of the vote, narrowly losing to the PAP team, which includes ministers S Iswaran and Desmond Lee.
Dr Tan underwent a minor procedure last year. Upon his doctors’ advice, he had a lesion removed from his lung at the National University Hospital (NUH) on July 28, 2022.
Two days later, he thanked the NUH staff in a July 30 Facebook post, adding that he was recovering well and would be up and about shortly. /TISG