Chok Tong Goh

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Goh Chok Tong SPMJ AC (Chinese: 吴作栋; pinyin: Wú Zuòdòng; Pe̍h-ōe-jī: Gô͘ Chok-tòng; born 20 May 1941) is a Singaporean former politician who served as Prime Minister of Singapore between 1990 and 2004, and Secretary-General of the People's Action Party between 1992 and 2004. He was the Member of Parliament (MP) for Marine Parade SMC between 1976 and 1988, and Marine Parade GRC between 1988 and 2020. Prior to his appointment as prime minister, he was the country's deputy prime minister, where he advocated for the Medisave, a scheme that allows Singaporeans to set aside part of their income into a Medisave account to meet future medical expenses. Goh also advocated for the Edusave Awards, a monetary reward for students who did well in school based on either their academic or character, to enshrine meritocracy. During his tenure as prime minister, political reforms like the introduction of Non-Constituency Members of Parliament (NCMP), to allow more oppositions into Parliament, Group Representation Constituency (GRC), to make sure that the minorities are represented in Parliament and Nominated Member of Parliament (NMP), to have independent opinions in Parliament since all NMPs are non-partisan, were also proposed by Goh when he was serving as Deputy Prime Minister after assuming the responsibility of the government in a carefully managed leadership transition. Goh's tenure as prime minister was also marked by the 1991 aircraft hijack of SQ117, 1997 Asian financial crisis, 2001 embassies attack plot and the 2003 SARS outbreak. His government enacted the Elected President scheme in 1991 as presidents before were appointed by Parliament. His government also introduced the Vehicle Quota Scheme to limit the number of vehicles in the city-state. He was succeeded by Lee Hsien Loong, the eldest son of Singapore's first prime minister, Lee Kuan Yew, on 12 August 2004 and was subsequently appointed as a senior minister in the Cabinet and chairman of the Monetary Authority of Singapore (MAS) between 2004 and 2011. He resigned from the Cabinet in 2011 before stepping down as a Member of Parliament (MP) and retire from politics in 2020. He was given the honorary title Emeritus Senior Minister in 2011 by Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong. He is also the only living former prime minister. (Source: DBPedia)