Paul Tambyah has ‘pleasant encounter’ with Ong Ye Kung; netizens tell him ‘You are the best man for MOH top job’

Singapore Democratic Party chairman Paul Tambyah wrote in a Saturday (Aug 13) Facebook post of a recent encounter with Health Minister Ong Ye Kung, which he called a pleasant one.

Mr Ong anchors the People’s Action Party team at Sembawang (GRC), where the SDP has said it will field candidates for the next general election.

“I had a pleasant encounter with Minister Ong Ye Kung last night at an awards dinner.  We are all Singaporeans and look forward to the coming elections. #SDP #BukitPanjang,” wrote Dr Tambyah.

The next GE must be held by November 2025.

Mr Ong has said, however, that the next election will not be held very soon, Mothership reported.

When members of the press asked the Health Minister about SDP’s plans to field candidates at Sembawang GRC, he said this was “not surprising” as it had already done so in 2011.

Speaking at the launch of a resident “flea market” for home-based businesses on Aug 13, Mr Ong noted that this would be something “positive” as long as there was healthy competition and would provide residents with a choice.

“I suppose it’s the time when different parties, especially opposition parties, try to ‘chope’ places around Singapore, where they should contest,” he added.

A number of netizens commenting on Dr Tambyah’s post, meanwhile, said he should be Singapore’s Health Minister.

The SDP chair is a doctor and professor of infectious disease. He became the assistant Dean of Yong Loo Lin School of Medicine at the National University of Singapore in 2015, and in 2020, became president of the International Society for Infectious Diseases, the first Singaporean to hold the position.

Last October, Dr Tambyah received the Distinguished Senior Clinician Award conferred by the Ministry of Health, one of the four eminent senior clinicians to be given this honour.

/TISG

Paul Tambyah, Chee Soon Juan re-elected as SDP’s Chairman & Secretary-General