SINGAPORE: “I never wanted to let you see me cry.” Those words from his then-nine-year-old daughter struck Dr Tan Wu Meng deeply.
The former MP was recalling the toll his political career took on his family – particularly during his time as a political office holder, which required frequent overseas travel.
“I felt very sad,” he told CNA in an interview at a coffee shop in Clementi Avenue 5, in the ward he served for a decade.
Dr Tan was a People's Action Party (PAP) MP for Jurong GRC from 2015 until this year, when he did not contest the recent election.
From 2018 to 2020, when he was also a senior parliamentary secretary for trade and industry and for foreign affairs, he was often abroad. It was only after returning to the backbench that he saw how his absence had affected his daughters.
Dr Tan has two daughters, one in Secondary 2 and another in Primary 2. His elder daughter was around four years old when he first entered politics.
After he returned to the backbench, she told him: “Daddy, did you know that when you went for a trip overseas, I would cry quietly. But I never wanted to let you see me cry, because you might feel bad about fighting for Singapore, fighting for companies to bring factories and jobs to Singaporeans.”
Dr Tan, an oncologist now with the National Cancer Centre, described such moments as sobering reminders of what public service demands – not just of politicians, but of their families.
“This applies to all young parents who are in politics. The kids don't always tell you the weight of it until afterwards,” he said.
During his tenure, Dr Tan averaged five days a week on the ground: meeting residents, attending funerals, visiting markets and coffee shops and holding Meet-The-People Sessions (MPS).
One incident that he remembers clearly was helping a grieving mother who was denied compassionate leave after her son died from an infection. Her employer told her she could “take the three days off, but don't come back to work after that”.
“I was furious," Dr Tan recalled. "Anyone who messes with my resident like that, I have to do everything I can to try and make sure this kind of employer doesn't get a free pass. And some of these stories are what drive you to fight for residents in parliament.”
His team took the matter up with the Manpower Ministry.
Dr Tan’s political journey began in 2005, nearly a decade before his election, when he started volunteering at the MPS in Ulu Pandan. Mentored by experienced grassroots leaders – including a then-volunteer Tin Pei Ling – Dr Tan soon found himself increasingly involved.
“One thing led to another. I started helping out more in the community. I became the organising secretary of the Young PAP,” he said, referring to the party's youth wing.
Eventually, in the lead-up to the 2015 General Election, he was invited to stand as a candidate. He agreed as he “felt a certain duty to go ahead”.
As he stepped into politics, Dr Tan made a conscious choice to shield his children from the public eye. His family live near Clementi, but he would intentionally stay away from their outings in the estate.
He didn't want his kids to be known as "the children of an MP", he said.
While some MPs chose to involve their families publicly, Dr Tan said each family had to choose what worked for them. For his, maintaining privacy offered stability.
The role of an MP can be "quite all-consuming", he said, adding that even during family time, his mind was often on residents and how to improve their lives.
“Anyone who puts themselves forward for election to be an MP, regardless of whichever team you're on, regardless of your political persuasion, regardless of which party – these are folks who really deserve our respect as fellow Singaporeans.”
During his time in parliament, Dr Tan became known for opening his speeches with the phrase “my Clementi residents”. What began organically became a deliberate choice after residents told him it made them feel seen and heard.
Former Jurong GRC MP Tan Wu Meng talking to a resident at a coffee shop in Clementi on May 19, 2025. (Photo: CNA/Raydza Rahman)
“When you're trying to build a more fair and more equal society … sometimes there's also inequalities of whether people feel able to make their concerns heard,” said Dr Tan.
“You want to make sure these residents are heard in what is the highest law-making body in the land, which is parliament.”
That sense of connection also shaped his approach to digital engagement, which he said has changed dramatically in the past decade. MPs now deal with residents not just in person, but also through Facebook, Instagram and even TikTok. Still, nothing replaces the intimacy of face-to-face conversations.
“Sometimes, someone shares their story, there's that moment, that pause, and you just kind of know there's something that you need to try and discover a bit more to help that family,” Dr Tan said.
“It's that sense of emotional availability. So if your resident is having a terrible time in life, people can tell you whether you feel for it, people can tell whether your heart is there in that moment.”
Not all in-person encounters went smoothly. In 2018, Dr Tan was attacked during an MPS session. A 32-year-old resident rushed into the venue and assaulted him, leaving him with bruises on his arm and abrasions on his neck.
His first thought was that he hoped no one else was hurt, since there were also seniors and children at the MPS, he told CNA.
The man was apprehended by police, while Dr Tan returned to his MPS duties that same night after getting checked at the National University Hospital.
The attacker had a history of drug abuse and was trying to seek help with a pending court case. He was later sentenced to three months' jail for the assault.
Dr Tan has not met the attacker since, but has met his mother, who was apologetic. His team later helped the man with an unrelated appeal.
Dr Tan said his experience as a political office holder helped him become a more effective backbencher.
“You now know how the policy is made, you now know how the policy paper is written, you also know how the PQ – parliamentary question – answer and follow-up is designed,” he said.
He believes the backbench offers MPs more freedom to express convictions and represent constituents directly. However, he acknowledged that office holders also advocate for citizens – just through different channels.
Dr Tan Wu Meng is known for starting his parliament speeches with "my Clementi residents".
The range of topics that a backbencher can cover is also broader, Dr Tan said, compared to a political office holder whose focus is typically on things related to the ministries they are appointed to.
From his time in government, Dr Tan also came to appreciate the interplay between local concerns and national interests.
“You want to advocate for residents. But at the national level, sometimes there has to be some triage. Agencies have to figure out which towns need help sooner, which towns may need help more urgently. But that's the nature of policy-making,” he said.
He added that unlike local issues, which may yield visible outcomes quickly, national-level work is often long-term and less tangible.
One such example was the development of the Price Kaki app during his time at the Ministry of Trade and Industry (MTI). Launched at the height of the COVID-19 pandemic, the app – developed in partnership with the Consumers Association of Singapore – lets users crowdsource and compare the retail prices of groceries, household items and hawker food.
“It was one of those ideas where we were able to launch it during my time at MTI, but in a sense, its full fruition came by quite some years later,” said Dr Tan.
In March this year, Deputy Prime Minister Gan Kim Yong said Price Kaki had grown to list unit pricing for over 6,000 items, up from more than 1,200 when it was introduced.
Since the May 3 polls, Dr Tan has been supporting his successor in the ward, first-term MP David Hoe, during the transition.
(From left) PAP’s Lee Hong Chuang, Xie Yao Quan, Rahayu Mahzam, Tan Wu Meng, Grace Fu and David Hoe bidding farewell to supporters after the rally at Jurong East Stadium on Apr 28, 2025. (Photo: CNA/Lan Yu)
Mr Hoe, a charity director, was elected as part of the PAP slate that won Jurong East-Bukit Batok GRC with 76.66 per cent of the vote against Red Dot United.
“Some of it was bringing David with me on community activities, helping him get to know residents and also just sharing with him my own thoughts on different situations in Clementi,” said Dr Tan.
He has also taken time to brief his successor on families with complex or long-running issues in the ward. “So it’s just really supporting him in whatever way he finds helpful,” Dr Tan added.
But he is also giving Mr Hoe “the space to be his own person”, and he is confident that Clementi will be okay under Mr Hoe’s charge.
As for why he left politics, Dr Tan said the party leadership understood his desire to be more present for his family, particularly his young daughters.
While every MP ultimately serves at the discretion of party leadership, individuals can indicate their preferences.
“If you need me, I will continue. But if you don't need me, at this point I'm okay to just return to being an ordinary citizen outside the political arena,” said Dr Tan.
“And so we had a number of conversations, and eventually we came to an understanding that it would be okay for me to retire.”
He recalled that a resident once told him: “When you've got little kids growing up, every day is like a page turning. Except that if you miss those pages, you can't turn the pages back.”
That message has stayed with him since.
Continue reading...
The former MP was recalling the toll his political career took on his family – particularly during his time as a political office holder, which required frequent overseas travel.
“I felt very sad,” he told CNA in an interview at a coffee shop in Clementi Avenue 5, in the ward he served for a decade.
Dr Tan was a People's Action Party (PAP) MP for Jurong GRC from 2015 until this year, when he did not contest the recent election.
From 2018 to 2020, when he was also a senior parliamentary secretary for trade and industry and for foreign affairs, he was often abroad. It was only after returning to the backbench that he saw how his absence had affected his daughters.
Dr Tan has two daughters, one in Secondary 2 and another in Primary 2. His elder daughter was around four years old when he first entered politics.
After he returned to the backbench, she told him: “Daddy, did you know that when you went for a trip overseas, I would cry quietly. But I never wanted to let you see me cry, because you might feel bad about fighting for Singapore, fighting for companies to bring factories and jobs to Singaporeans.”
Dr Tan, an oncologist now with the National Cancer Centre, described such moments as sobering reminders of what public service demands – not just of politicians, but of their families.
“This applies to all young parents who are in politics. The kids don't always tell you the weight of it until afterwards,” he said.
During his tenure, Dr Tan averaged five days a week on the ground: meeting residents, attending funerals, visiting markets and coffee shops and holding Meet-The-People Sessions (MPS).
One incident that he remembers clearly was helping a grieving mother who was denied compassionate leave after her son died from an infection. Her employer told her she could “take the three days off, but don't come back to work after that”.
“I was furious," Dr Tan recalled. "Anyone who messes with my resident like that, I have to do everything I can to try and make sure this kind of employer doesn't get a free pass. And some of these stories are what drive you to fight for residents in parliament.”
His team took the matter up with the Manpower Ministry.
ADJUSTING TO PUBLIC LIFE
Dr Tan’s political journey began in 2005, nearly a decade before his election, when he started volunteering at the MPS in Ulu Pandan. Mentored by experienced grassroots leaders – including a then-volunteer Tin Pei Ling – Dr Tan soon found himself increasingly involved.
“One thing led to another. I started helping out more in the community. I became the organising secretary of the Young PAP,” he said, referring to the party's youth wing.
Eventually, in the lead-up to the 2015 General Election, he was invited to stand as a candidate. He agreed as he “felt a certain duty to go ahead”.
As he stepped into politics, Dr Tan made a conscious choice to shield his children from the public eye. His family live near Clementi, but he would intentionally stay away from their outings in the estate.
He didn't want his kids to be known as "the children of an MP", he said.
While some MPs chose to involve their families publicly, Dr Tan said each family had to choose what worked for them. For his, maintaining privacy offered stability.
The role of an MP can be "quite all-consuming", he said, adding that even during family time, his mind was often on residents and how to improve their lives.
“Anyone who puts themselves forward for election to be an MP, regardless of whichever team you're on, regardless of your political persuasion, regardless of which party – these are folks who really deserve our respect as fellow Singaporeans.”
"MY CLEMENTI RESIDENTS"
During his time in parliament, Dr Tan became known for opening his speeches with the phrase “my Clementi residents”. What began organically became a deliberate choice after residents told him it made them feel seen and heard.
Former Jurong GRC MP Tan Wu Meng talking to a resident at a coffee shop in Clementi on May 19, 2025. (Photo: CNA/Raydza Rahman)
“When you're trying to build a more fair and more equal society … sometimes there's also inequalities of whether people feel able to make their concerns heard,” said Dr Tan.
“You want to make sure these residents are heard in what is the highest law-making body in the land, which is parliament.”
That sense of connection also shaped his approach to digital engagement, which he said has changed dramatically in the past decade. MPs now deal with residents not just in person, but also through Facebook, Instagram and even TikTok. Still, nothing replaces the intimacy of face-to-face conversations.
“Sometimes, someone shares their story, there's that moment, that pause, and you just kind of know there's something that you need to try and discover a bit more to help that family,” Dr Tan said.
“It's that sense of emotional availability. So if your resident is having a terrible time in life, people can tell you whether you feel for it, people can tell whether your heart is there in that moment.”
Not all in-person encounters went smoothly. In 2018, Dr Tan was attacked during an MPS session. A 32-year-old resident rushed into the venue and assaulted him, leaving him with bruises on his arm and abrasions on his neck.
His first thought was that he hoped no one else was hurt, since there were also seniors and children at the MPS, he told CNA.
The man was apprehended by police, while Dr Tan returned to his MPS duties that same night after getting checked at the National University Hospital.
The attacker had a history of drug abuse and was trying to seek help with a pending court case. He was later sentenced to three months' jail for the assault.
Dr Tan has not met the attacker since, but has met his mother, who was apologetic. His team later helped the man with an unrelated appeal.
SERVING IN GOVERNMENT
Dr Tan said his experience as a political office holder helped him become a more effective backbencher.
“You now know how the policy is made, you now know how the policy paper is written, you also know how the PQ – parliamentary question – answer and follow-up is designed,” he said.
He believes the backbench offers MPs more freedom to express convictions and represent constituents directly. However, he acknowledged that office holders also advocate for citizens – just through different channels.
Dr Tan Wu Meng is known for starting his parliament speeches with "my Clementi residents".
The range of topics that a backbencher can cover is also broader, Dr Tan said, compared to a political office holder whose focus is typically on things related to the ministries they are appointed to.
From his time in government, Dr Tan also came to appreciate the interplay between local concerns and national interests.
“You want to advocate for residents. But at the national level, sometimes there has to be some triage. Agencies have to figure out which towns need help sooner, which towns may need help more urgently. But that's the nature of policy-making,” he said.
He added that unlike local issues, which may yield visible outcomes quickly, national-level work is often long-term and less tangible.
One such example was the development of the Price Kaki app during his time at the Ministry of Trade and Industry (MTI). Launched at the height of the COVID-19 pandemic, the app – developed in partnership with the Consumers Association of Singapore – lets users crowdsource and compare the retail prices of groceries, household items and hawker food.
“It was one of those ideas where we were able to launch it during my time at MTI, but in a sense, its full fruition came by quite some years later,” said Dr Tan.
In March this year, Deputy Prime Minister Gan Kim Yong said Price Kaki had grown to list unit pricing for over 6,000 items, up from more than 1,200 when it was introduced.
PLANS MOVING FORWARD
Since the May 3 polls, Dr Tan has been supporting his successor in the ward, first-term MP David Hoe, during the transition.
(From left) PAP’s Lee Hong Chuang, Xie Yao Quan, Rahayu Mahzam, Tan Wu Meng, Grace Fu and David Hoe bidding farewell to supporters after the rally at Jurong East Stadium on Apr 28, 2025. (Photo: CNA/Lan Yu)
Mr Hoe, a charity director, was elected as part of the PAP slate that won Jurong East-Bukit Batok GRC with 76.66 per cent of the vote against Red Dot United.
“Some of it was bringing David with me on community activities, helping him get to know residents and also just sharing with him my own thoughts on different situations in Clementi,” said Dr Tan.
He has also taken time to brief his successor on families with complex or long-running issues in the ward. “So it’s just really supporting him in whatever way he finds helpful,” Dr Tan added.
But he is also giving Mr Hoe “the space to be his own person”, and he is confident that Clementi will be okay under Mr Hoe’s charge.
As for why he left politics, Dr Tan said the party leadership understood his desire to be more present for his family, particularly his young daughters.
While every MP ultimately serves at the discretion of party leadership, individuals can indicate their preferences.
“If you need me, I will continue. But if you don't need me, at this point I'm okay to just return to being an ordinary citizen outside the political arena,” said Dr Tan.
“And so we had a number of conversations, and eventually we came to an understanding that it would be okay for me to retire.”
He recalled that a resident once told him: “When you've got little kids growing up, every day is like a page turning. Except that if you miss those pages, you can't turn the pages back.”
That message has stayed with him since.
Continue reading...