Seah Kian Peng

Seah Kian Peng (simplified Chinese: 谢健平; traditional Chinese: 謝健平; pinyin: Xiè Jiànpíng; born 1961)[1] is a Singaporean politician. A member of the country's governing People's Action Party (PAP), he was elected as a Member of Parliament (MP) for the Marine Parade Group Representation Constituency (GRC) and served as the MP for Braddell Heights ward since 2006. Seah also served as a deputy speaker of the Parliament between 2011 and 2016.

The Honourable Seah Kian Peng MP
谢健平
Member of Parliament for Marine Parade Group Representation Constituency (Braddell Heights)
Incumbent
Assumed office 27 April 2006
Preceded by	R Ravindran
Constituency	Marine Parade GRC
Majority	Walkover (2006) 78,286 (56.65%) (2011) 84,939 (64.07%) (2015) 75,204 (57.74%) (2020)
Deputy Speaker of the Parliament of Singapore
In office 2011–2016 Serving with Charles Chong
Preceded by	Matthias Yao Chih
Succeeded by	Lim Biow Chuan
Personal details
Born	1961 (age 59–60)
Citizenship	Singapore
Political party	People's Action Party
Spouse(s)	Jean Yap
Children	2
Education	University of New South Wales

Early life

Seah was born into a family of six, consisting of his father, a line worker in a printing firm and his mother, a housewife who took on sewing gigs to supplement the family income, and himself, the third out of the four children.[2][3] Seah studied at Raffles Institution, before being awarded with a Colombo Plan scholarship which allowed him to study at the University of New South Wales in Australia.[2]

Career

Early career

Upon graduation with a 1st class honours degree in Building,[4] Seah Kian Peng returned to Singapore to complete his National Service, then worked in a government-linked company, Indeco Engineers Pte Ltd,[5] before joining in Singapore's civil service.[3] Seah was seconded to the National Trades Union Congress (NTUC) to do corporate planning and start NTUC Healthcare's chain of pharmacies.[3] Seah then went to the corporate world between 1994 and 1996 to do corporate planning, as a "bucket list item".[3][5] He returned to the public sector in 1996 to head NTUC Healthcare and NTUC Media successively, before being appointed as the chief operating officer of NTUC FairPrice in 2001, then as the chief executive officer of NTUC FairPrice in 2010.[3][5]

Seah Kian Peng is active on the community front. Seah served as a director on Centre for Fathering Limited, a non-profit organisation that aims to get fathers more involved in the lives of their children,[6] from 2004 to 2018.[5][7] Seah has been an advisor to Amalgamated Union of Public Daily Rated Workers as early as 2005.[4][8]

Political career

Seah Kian Peng was fielded as a People's Action Party candidate for the Marine Parade Group GRC in the 2006 general election,[9] and was elected as Member of Parliament for Marine Parade GRC (Braddell Heights ward) in a walkover for the 11th Parliament of Singapore.[10] Seah was re-elected for Marine Parade Group GRC in the 2011 and 2015 general elections where the PAP team was challenged by National Solidarity Party and Workers' Party respectively.[11][12]

In the Singapore Parliament, Seah served as a deputy Speaker from October 2011 to January 2016.[13] On 10 March 2010, Vivian Balakrishnan, the then Minister for Community Development, Youth and Sports, suggested that Seah to work out a private member's bill to propose amendments to the Maintenance of Parents Act.[14] After establishing a 10-men workgroup to look at the proposal,[15] the bill was introduced on 18 October 2010 and was passed on 23 November 2010.[16][17]

He was then appointed chairperson of Social and Family Development Government Parliamentary Committee (GPC) in the 14th Parliament of Singapore.

Personal life

Seah Kian Peng is married to Jean Yap, with two children.[4]

References

1. "MP | Parliament Of Singapore". www.parliament.gov.sg. Retrieved 11 June 2020.
2. "Higher taxes on the rich and being more open to using our national reserves: MP Seah Kian Peng goes On the Record". CNA. Retrieved 11 June 2020.
3. migration (28 April 2013). "Save, give, value all". The Straits Times. Retrieved 11 June 2020.
4. "People's Action Party Constituency Portal - People's Action Party". Archived from the original on 7 January 2012. Retrieved 11 June 2020.
5. "Welcome To Braddell Heights Division". Retrieved 11 June 2020.
6. "A champion for the fatherless | Salt&Light". saltandlight.sg. Retrieved 11 June 2020.
7. "Centre for Fathering - Financial Report 2018" (PDF). Retrieved 11 June 2020.
8. "This Week" (PDF). 30 August 2015. p. 10.
9. "AsiaOne". www.asiaone.com. Retrieved 11 June 2020.
10. "AsiaOne - General Election 2006". www.asiaone.com. Retrieved 11 June 2020.
11. hermesauto (7 December 2017). "Former NSP star Nicole Seah now with WP in East Coast GRC". The Straits Times. Retrieved 11 June 2020.
12. Tan, Mindy (12 September 2015). "PAP takes Marine Parade with 64% of votes". The Business Times. Retrieved 11 June 2020.
13. hermes (8 August 2017). "'Either deputy could take over as Speaker'". The Straits Times. Retrieved 11 June 2020.
14. "SPEECH Report". www.nas.gov.sg. Retrieved 11 June 2020.
15. "Feedback on changes to Maintenance of Parents Act". www.asiaone.com. Retrieved 11 June 2020.
16. "Maintenance of Parents (Amendment) Bill" (PDF).
17. "Maintenance of Parents (Amendment) Act 2010 - Singapore Statutes Online". sso.agc.gov.sg. Retrieved 11 June 2020.

External links

• Seah Kian Peng on Parliament of Singapore
• Braddell Heights constituency website
• Seah Kian Peng on Facebook