There must be room for a normal life after Singapore politics
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Straits Times
2026-11-10
By--- Eugene K.B. Tan is associate professor of law at Singapore Management University and a former Nominated Member of Parliament.
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More good people will be encouraged to join politics if there is a higher chance of a smoother transition back to civilian life when the time is right.
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https://www.straitstimes.com/opinion/there-must-be-room-for-a-normal-life-after-singapore-politics
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Recent reports highlighted that former Senior Minister of State Koh Poh Koon has returned to Singapore General Hospital as a colorectal surgeon.This piece of news is more important than it appears at first glance. It shows that Singapore politicians can transition back to regular careers once they step down from political office or leave politics. Put simply, politics is not and need not be a dead end.Why does this matter? This is linked directly to political talent. There has been a longstanding discussion on attracting talented and well-intentioned Singaporeans to join politics, but less attention is paid to the exit mechanics. The two are deeply connected, in fact.
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The recent parliamentary debate on political salaries highlighted that political compensation is more about making the personal and financial trade-offs less prohibitively steep for political office holders.People hesitate to give up lucrative careers and take the plunge into politics, especially if they don’t know how the move will pan out. With Singapore’s political landscape becoming more competitive and diverse, there is no guarantee how long an elected MP’s political career will last, unlike in the relatively politically placid days of previous decades.Such uncertainty could deter good people from joining politics in the first place. Meanwhile, the personal opportunity cost of such a career switch – of lost seniority, accumulated capital and experience in a former profession – for someone successful and comfortable in his or her craft has gone up.But if we can nurture and sustain an environment in which a talented person could return more seamlessly to another career if his or her sojourn in politics did not work out, or if he or she decided that his or her political life had run its course, more might be inclined to dip their toes in politics.
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For a country like Singapore, with its limited talent pool, the benefits can be immense, both in terms of attracting good people to politics and subsequently putting their skills to other uses once their political race is run.This will require the evolution and sustenance of a gentler political culture – one that sees politics as one of many ways to contribute to society, and that one can still contribute as a private citizen unencumbered by one’s past as a politician.
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Still contributing
Former MPs and political office holders can still contribute in a variety of ways. Former public office holders with decades of experience may also be assigned new ones within the public sector, in government-linked companies or corporate boards.For instance, former Deputy Prime Minister Heng Swee Keat now serves as chairman of the National Research Foundation and a GIC Board director. Former Senior Minister Teo Chee Hean chairs the board of Temasek Holdings and is a senior adviser in the Prime Minister’s Office.Former Coordinating Minister Khaw Boon Wan, who retired from politics in 2020, just stepped down as chairman of SPH Media Holdings and SPH Media Trust, the publisher of this newspaper.
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Former opposition MPs have also moved on. Faisal Manap, vice-chairperson of the Workers’ Party (WP), has embarked on a new career in real estate. Former WP MP Leon Perera was reported in January 2025 taking on a new role in his company as an executive director based in New York City.It helps that most former MPs on both sides of the political aisle had continued in their professional careers while serving as legislators. This has helped in the post-politics transition. There is personal usefulness of backbencher MPs having a day job while in politics.
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There are opportunity costs to being away from one’s professional life for an extended period.
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An extended time away from one’s profession would necessarily mean that one would be quite out of touch with the rapid developments in one’s areas of expertise. It will take time and effort to rebuild one’s career and renew networks so vital in professional life.This explains why, for every former politician who has a substantive post-politics career, there are many who did not find it easy to find or settle into careers after politics.Reintegration becomes harder because politicians have higher profiles, are often under much greater scrutiny and may even be judged more harshly by those who may disagree with their political leanings.From time to time, politicians may have their political careers ended unceremoniously because of severe errors of judgment or personal indiscretions. They all paid their dues whether serving a prison sentence or being subjected to opprobrium, and having to deal with the fallout to their professional and personal lives, including on family and loved ones. Without making light of their actions that damaged public trust and confidence, surely, they should be afforded the opportunity to redeem themselves instead of being hounded after and to make a career elsewhere. This would also be in accord with our being a society that advocates second chances.Meanwhile, former Speaker of Parliament Tan Chuan Jin has remade himself as an “entrepreneur, adviser, speaker and facilitator” and is on the faculty of NUS medical school’s Centre for Infectious Disease Emergency Response. Former Senior Minister of State Faishal Ibrahim was recently reported seeking a return to academia.
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Political culture
How easily former politicians can return to professional life, family and private citizenship also depends on our political culture, which must strive to be a principled one, even in a more competitive political landscape.Political disagreements, even contested ones that we may have with ex-politicians when they were serving, should not be ported over to civilian life.If Singapore needs good people in politics, we as an electorate should strive to create a gentler political culture that assures them of a relatively smooth return to civilian life at the end of their political lives.This recognises that we can disagree agreeably in our political worldview, that we wear different hats at different times, and that one’s political views and actions should not determine one’s life after politics.Former politicians remain recognisable figures in Singapore and continuing public curiosity and media attention can make a completely anonymous normal life harder (unless they opt to be publicly visible in civilian life).The Singapore electorate can be very demanding of our politicians, often expecting them to sacrifice themselves to a certain ultimate degree. In return, it behoves us to seriously treat dignified transitions from political life to private citizen as essential to our public life standards, instead of treating their lives after politics as fair game for spectator sport.Our shared civic ethos can and must collectively ensure that there is life after politics. Our political culture must be receptive to and nurturing of that.
.•Eugene K.B. Tan is associate professor of law at Singapore Management University and a former Nominated Member of Parliament.
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