Edwin Tong

Edwin Tong Chun Fai (born 12 August 1969) is a Singaporean politician and lawyer. A member and Central Executive Committee (CEC) member of the ruling People's Action Party (PAP), he has served as the Minister for Culture, Community and Youth, Second Minister for Law since July 2020 and Deputy Chairman of the People's Association (PA) since May 2021.
He served as the Senior Minister of State in the Ministry for Law and Ministry for Health from July 2018 to his promotions in July 2020. Additionally, he has also served as the Member of Parliament (MP) for Marine Parade GRC for Joo Chiat since September 2015.
Biography.
Tong was educated at St. Michael's School and St. Joseph's Institution. He read law at the National University of Singapore, graduating in 1994. After admission to the Singapore Bar, he joined Allen & Gledhill LLP where he was a partner until 2018. He is a Roman Catholic.
Political career.
Tong's political involvement commenced with grassroots work with various incumbent Members of Parliament and constituencies, especially the now defunct Jalan Besar GRC. Tong was fielded by the People's Action Party (PAP) as a candidate in the group representation constituency of the newly formed Moulmein–Kallang GRC in the 2011 General Election. He was elected, with the team garnering 44,828 votes or 58.56% of the total votes cast. Tong previously served as a Member of Parliament for the sub-electoral division of Jalan Besar, but it has since been split up and merged with Kolam Ayer, Kampong Glam and Whampoa in 2015.
Tong ran in Marine Parade GRC against the Workers Party in the 2015 General Election and was elected with 67.02% of the vote.
Tong represented Pastor Kong Hee of the City Harvest Church in the City Harvest Church Trial. On 5 February 2018, the Singapore Attorney-General's Chamber said it would take action against a man for contempt of court for publishing on a Facebook group a doctored image of Chinese tabloid Lianhe Wanbao, insinuating that Edwin Tong and his affiliated political party had saved Kong Hee from harsher penalties. The original title of the Chinese paper had used the word "outdated law" instead of "PAP lawyer", to describe the reason behind Kong's relatively light penalties.
Tong is also a member of the select committee set up to look into tackling the issue of online falsehoods. In March 2018 at the committee hearings, Tong led evidence from freelance journalist Kirsten Han, whose submission to the select committee centered on Singapore's tight control on civil liberties, and who clarified that she was one of the 34 interviewees who contributed to the Human Rights Watch Report on Singapore in 2017. Han acknowledged that her article titled "Singapore plays up terrorism to curb liberties" was “incomplete at the very least, and possibly misleading at the other end of the spectrum”. In banter with Han, he seemed to allude to the possibility that those who similarly post misleading articles may eventually be subjected to litigation.
On 1 July 2018, Tong was appointed as Senior Minister of State for Law and Health.
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