Military career Tan enlisted in the
Singapore Armed Forces in 1987 and was commissioned as an officer in the
Singapore Army before attaining the rank
Brigadier-General. During his time in the military, he held various command and staff positions, including Commanding Officer of the
3 Guards Battalion,
Army Attaché at the Singapore embassy in
Jakarta, Commander of the
7th Singapore Infantry Brigade, Assistant Chief of the General Staff (Plans), Commander of the
3rd Division, and Commander of the Army Training and Doctrine Command. In the aftermath of the
2004 Indian Ocean earthquake and tsunami, Tan was the commander of the Singapore Armed Forces Humanitarian Assistance Task Force deployed to
Meulaboh. He received the
Public Administration Medal (Silver) (Military) for services rendered in the Tsunami Relief Operation in 2005. He was also the chairman of the executive committee of the 2009
Singapore National Day Parade. On 25 March 2011, Tan retired from the
Singapore Armed Forces to enter politics.
Political career Tan was announced as a
People's Action Party (PAP) candidate joining the five-member PAP team contesting in Marine Parade GRC during the
2011 general election. After the PAP team won with 56.65% of the vote against the
National Solidarity Party, Tan became a
Member of Parliament representing the
Kembangan–
Chai Chee ward of Marine Parade GRC. On 1 August 2012, he was appointed
Senior Minister of State at the
Ministry of National Development and Acting
Minister for Manpower. On 1 September 2013, Tan relinquished his appointment at the Ministry of National Development and became Senior Minister of State at the Ministry of Manpower while continuing to serve as Acting Minister for Manpower. On 1 May 2014, he was promoted to full Minister. On 9 April 2015, Tan became
Minister for Social and Family Development as part of a
Cabinet reshuffle and continued to helm the Ministry of Manpower until he relinquished it to
Lim Swee Say on 4 May of the same year. During the
2015 general election, Tan with his PAP teammates defended their seats in Marine Parade GRC which they won with 64.07% of the vote against the
Workers' Party. After the election, Tan continued serving as Minister for Social and Family Development. On 11 July 2023, Tan made a public apology to WP MP
Jamus Lim after a clip of him using
unparliamentary language during a 17 April parliamentary sitting was shared on
Reddit. As Speaker of Parliament, Tan was heard saying "fucking populist" under his breath at the end of a 20-minute speech by Lim urging the PAP government to further help lower-income groups and to establish an official
poverty line, when the microphone picked up Tan's comment. Tan apologised to Lim who accepted his apology.
Resignation On 17 July 2023, both Tan and
Cheng Li Hui simultaneously resigned from Parliament and as members of the PAP due to "propriety and personal conduct". Prime Minister and PAP's Secretary-General
Lee Hsien Loong confirmed that Tan, who is married, and Cheng were having an extramarital affair, since at least 2020. Though Lee found out that the extramarital affair continued through to February 2023, and Tan had offered his resignation then, Lee asked for Tan to first sort out the succession arrangements in his ward. In a statement, Lee responded to their resignation letters that their resignations were "necessary" for "maintain[ing] the high standards of propriety and personal conduct which the PAP has upheld all these years." Their respective parliamentary seats at Marine Parade GRC and Tampines GRC were subsequently left vacant, and the workload for Tan's Kembangan–Chai Chee division of Marine Parade GRC and Cheng's Tampines East division of Tampines GRC were distributed among the other MPs in their respective GRCs. Tan also resigned his position as Speaker of the Parliament. He resigned in 2023 following his announcement of his extramarital affair. In 2024, Tan would be announced as an instructor for a "masterclass in leadership" held at the SMF Centre for Corporate Learning in a Facebook post, which was quickly taken down due to significant backlash; the course itself would proceed as scheduled. He has also been a consultant at the
Tan Chin Tuan Foundation since October 2023. ==Personal life==