Khaw Boon Wan

Career

Khaw began his career in the Singapore Civil Service, working in the Ministry of Health in 1977.

From 1985 to 1987, Khaw served as the first Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of the National University Hospital. He also worked in the Kandang Kerbau Women's and Children's Hospital, and the Singapore General Hospital.

From 1992 to 1995, Khaw served as the Principal Private Secretary to Prime Minister Goh Chok Tong (who is currently Emeritus Senior Minister)

From 1995 to 2001, he served as the Permanent Secretary at the Ministry of Trade and Industry.

Political career

Khaw has been a Member of Parliament since 2001. He represented Tanjong Pagar Group Representation Constituency (Tanjong Pagar GRC) from 2001 to 2006, and Sembawang GRC since 2006, taking over from Dr Tony Tan (who subsequently became the 7th President of the Republic of Singapore).

Minister for Health

Khaw was appointed as Minister for Health in August 2004.

As Minister for Health, Khaw claimed that he played a key role in combating the SARS epidemic that happened between February to June 2003, which put a strain on and tested Singapore's public health resources. Khaw was also noted for his role in handling the National Kidney Foundation (NKF) scandal, and made Gerard Ee the new Chairman of the NKF following the resignation of T. T. Durai.

In a parliamentary speech on 9 February 2009, in the context of tackling the rising healthcare costs, Khaw suggested that Singaporeans can consider sending their elderly parents to nursing homes in Johor Bahru in Malaysia, which are more affordable to lower-income Singaporeans. This was quoted by news reports and a public outcry ensued. Khaw subsequently clarified that his statement was quoted out of context by the media and his suggestion was only one of the many choices available to Singaporeans.

In 2010, Khaw wrote on his blog boasting that his heart bypass surgery had only cost him a mere $8 (SGD) in cash, as the rest of the cost was offset by payments from his Medishield account and private insurance. This sparked off a huge controversy in the public sphere, with many questioning if an ordinary Singaporean had the means to pay for such high insurance premiums as he did in the first place.

Minister for National Development

Following the 2011 general election where the ruling PAP garnered its lowest vote share of 60.1% since independence, Khaw was appointed the Minister for National Development. At a press conference, Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong revealed that Khaw had volunteered for this new role as the public was extremely unhappy with the Government's housing policy, and Khaw felt that he had the ability to solve the problem. In his new appointment, Khaw assured the public that he will make housing affordable and accessible to all Singaporeans. In his 2013 budget debate, he said:

“We can now pause and see what else we can do to bring BTO prices in non-mature estates to, say, around four years of salary as it was before the current property cycle started.”

Though the relative prices of BTO flats have fallen since Khaw's speech, most of the flats still cost more than four years of an applicant's salary. The prices of new flats remain high despite six rounds of cooling measures. In January 2013, a seventh round of property cooling measures was introduced to moderate the increase in residential and industrial prices.

In July 2012, NParks purchase of 26 Brompton bikes costing $2,200 each sparked a nation wide uproar after it was revealed by a whistleblower on online forum HardwareZone of possible corruption due numerous red flags in the way the procurement was done. Khaw, who initially defended NParks purchase of the high-end foldable bikes, was criticised for handling the saga poorly. Subsequent investigation by the CPIB resulted in National Parks Board assistant director Bernard Lim Yong Soon being fined $5,000 for lying to auditors about his relationship with the bicycle firm which was awarded the tender.

He also led the initiative to encourage cycling in the city state, such as through transforming the Park Connector Network for use by people on bikes as well as walking.

Minister for Transport

On 28 September 2015, it was announced that Khaw will be the Co-ordinating Minister for Infrastructure as well as the Minister for Transport from 1 October 2015.

Khaw received flak for his insensitive Facebook post on 23 March 2016 for a conflated post celebrating 150 days of no train service disruptions for the new Downtown Line while offering condolences to the two SMRT staff killed by an oncoming train that was not informed of their presence on the tracks.

On 5 July 2016, Hong Kong based investigative news agency, FactWire broke news about 35 SMRT trains being secretively shipped back to China for repair by manufacturer CSR Sifang Locomotive & Rolling Stock Company Ltd. It was reported that cracks were found in the structure connecting the car body and the bogie. After remaining silent for a week, Khaw came out to explain that the cracks were not safety issues and that the news could result in “undue panic” during a briefing at the Bishan Depot. He criticised the news agency for mischief and even suggested that Singapore is a victim caught in the rivalry between factions in Hong Kong and China.

FactWire noted that instead of taking responsibility for an incident which has damaged the Singaporean public’s trust in the authorities, Khaw chooses to blame the news agency for exposing the cover up. FactWire defended its reporting and denied allegations of political interference. In an open letter to Khaw on 14 July, the agency maintained that it is funded by the Hong Kong public and that its reporting is independent of commercial or political considerations.

On 27 July 2017, at a forum on infrastructure management, he stated that train reliability has improved three times since he took over. He was subsequently criticised online by commuters who had experienced persistent breakdowns in the same period. Khaw had derived his statistics based on preliminary data excluding all delays caused by re-signalling works. Other online sources suggest that Khaw may have used a positive-sounding Mean Kilometre Between Failures metric to back up his claims, instead of the industry-standard Mean Time Between Failures metric. Khaw further berated the Singapore press for reporting extensively on the MRT breakdowns, criticizing them for magnifying the problem to which he has no solution. He added that if solving the problem was as simple as "holding a pen and writing a few articles", members of the media should run the transport system instead and Singapore does not need any engineers.

Education

Khaw received his secondary education in Chung Ling High School and Anglo Chinese School in Penang, Malaysia.

In 1973, he was awarded the Colombo Plan Scholarship from Singapore to study a combined degree program in Engineering and Commerce at the University of Newcastle in Australia. He graduated in 1977 with a Bachelor of Engineering (Honours Class I) and Bachelor of Commerce.

He received his Master of Science degree in Industrial Engineering in 1982 from the National University of Singapore and received his Doctor of Engineering honoris causa from the University of Newcastle in 2002.

Personal life

Khaw Boon Wan was born in Penang, Malaysia, on December 8, 1952. Khaw is married to a retired pharmacist with three daughters. He professes to be a religious man in parliament. In 2010, Khaw underwent a heart bypass operation and after his recovery, it was reported that he has switched to a vegetarian diet, avoiding all meat, fish and dairy products.