SINGAPORE: Former People’s Action Party (PAP) MP Ong Ah Heng died on Tuesday (May 5) at the age of 84.
Paying tribute to Mr Ong, a three-term MP for Nee Soon Central SMC, Home Affairs Minister K Shanmugam said that he was deeply saddened by his death.
Calling him “one of PAP’s well-respected stalwarts”, Mr Shanmugam said in a Facebook post: “I first knew Mr Ong not just as a fellow MP. But as someone who embodied the quiet ethic of service that underpins our labour movement and grassroots work.
“He often spoke from lived conviction. He once said he owed much to our meritocratic system. It allowed him to start as a construction worker, and go on to obtain a master’s degree. He became an effective unionist.”
Mr Ong’s spirit for the labour movement had defined much of his life, Mr Shanmugam noted.
