Comrade Kenneth Chen Koon Lap passed away on 17 August 2026, aged 86.
While Comrade Chen was better known as an MP for Hong Kah GRC (1991 – 2001), he was also an architect and community leader. His journey in politics began in the unlikeliest of places – Potong Pasir, seen as one of Singapore’s most politically contested constituencies.
Born in Burma (now Myanmar) on 30 March 1940, Comrade Chen spent his childhood surviving the upheavals of Asia in the middle of the 20th century. His family escaped to Calcutta during the turmoil of the Second World War, then settled in Hong Kong afterwards.
In 1956, at the age of 16, he arrived in Singapore with his family on a cargo liner.
A grassroot leader at heart
By the 1970s, Comrade Chen had built a successful career as an architect. Along the way, he also acquired another vocation – community work.
Living in Sennett Estate in Potong Pasir, Comrade Chen had been introduced by his half-brother, Bernard Chen to the constituency’s MP, Howe Yoon Chong.
Bernard Chen would become a PAP MP himself for Radin Mas in the 1977 by-elections.
“Bernard said [to Howe], ‘Why don’t you get him to do some work for you?’ That was how I got drafted into this Citizens’ Consultative Committee (CCC), Management Committee (MC) and all in Potong Pasir,” shared Comrade Chen. .
Despite being asked by Mr Howe to join the PAP in 1980, Comrade Chen declined the invitation, preferring the behind-the-scenes work of planning and organising.
“I threw the form in the drawer and never touched it for the next, I think, nearly 10 years. I was merrily working as a community leader, helping Mr Howe and then later on, Mr Mah (Bow Tan) ” .
Stepping up for Potong Pasir residents
It was not until a game of golf with then-First Deputy Prime Minister Goh Chok Tong in 1988 that politics came knocking (again).
As Mr Goh lamented the difficulty of fielding a suitable candidate in Potong Pasir, Comrade Chen offered to stand and contest in the 1988 general elections. This would give Potong Pasir residents a choice for their elected representative.
He also joked that if he were to lose, he had asked then-DPM Goh to allow him to step down from his community leadership positions.
With the wildly popular incumbent opposition MP Mr Chiam See Tong as a formidable opponent, Comrade Chen was realistic about his chances.
“At that time, I don’t think anybody had and disillusion that [they] can win Potong Pasir; […] Chiam See Tong was a nice person […] he is very humble. […] There is also a lot of resettlement problem in Potong Pasir, and because of the nation’s clamour for opposition, […] the wave cannot be stopped.” recalled Comrade Chen.
Despite being the underdog in the fight, Comrade Chen refused to let it dampen his spirits. The important thing was to give Potong Pasir residents the respect of having a choice at the GE.
The very next day, then DPM Goh sent him to meet with Mr Lim Kim San and then-BG Lee Hsien Loong. His proposition had been taken seriously. In his first foray into politics, Comrade Chen put himself in a real baptism of fire in Potong Pasir.
Despite his best efforts, including a promise to build an Olympic-sized swimming pool for residents, Comrade Chen was defeated. However, the loss did not dampen his spirit and he remained as a grassroots adviser in Potong Pasir.
Three years later, Comrade Chen contested in his second election and entered Parliament as part of the PAP team in Hong Kah GRC.
A grassroots MP
Comrade Chen threw himself wholeheartedly into improving the surroundings for Hong Kah residents, and that included getting into clashes with government agencies almost immediately.
“When I was there [in Hong Kah], I found out that our community centre to be built was located across Jurong East Avenue in Yuhua’s location. It doesn’t make sense! We made so much effort in raising funds after all you put a community centre in the next ward?” recalled Comrade Chen in a 2002 oral histories interview with the National Archives.
“Jurong East is a very heavily trafficked road, I don’t think our Hong Kah East people would go over there to use the community centre!”
When faced with more bureaucratic intransigence, he took matters into his own hands and approached the authorities to exchange the land earmarked for another plot closer to his residents. Even then, he faced more obstacles from naysayers.
“‘Oh, the other piece of land too small, too long,’” Comrade Chen recalled people saying to him. In reply, he said, “Look you leave it to me. I am an architect, I know I can put a community centre there.”
The end result was Hong Kah East CC, now renamed as Jurong Green CC.
Comrade Chen made especially sure that the CC was designed around a full size basketball court, to honour the ward’s basketball team, which had been champions in constituency games.
True to his word as MP and architect, the design of the CC also blocked the sound of the basketball games from annoying residents at the neighbouring HDB blocks.
“I must have ruffled a few feathers […] but anyway I am doing a job. That is what it’s all about to be an MP, you see. You see what is best for the constituency and you carry on doing it, no matter what,” he recalled.
In Parliament, Comrade Chen brought with him the instincts of a man who had spent years working with residents, communities and the institutions around them. As an MP, Comrade Chen was determined to speak up for his constituents, even if it did not echo the government line.
In particular, he was determined to help families avoid unnecessary financial or personal stress.
During the 1997 Financial Crisis, Comrade Chen called on the government to suspend the Electronic Road Pricing (ERP) system for 12 months to help Singaporeans with their cost of living.
In 2000, Comrade Chen brought up in Parliament the challenges faced by single parents in obtaining permanent residency for their children.
In one of his last Parliament appearances, he called for a review of the law that forfeits an employer’s security deposit when their maids run away.
“No employer would willingly want his or her maid to run away,” said Comrade Chen. “It is physically not possible for employers to prevent their maids from doing so.”
When Minister of State Encik Othman bin Haron Eusofe responded that employers could get their deposits back if they locate their maids within a month, Comrade Chen did not hesitate to call out the fallacy in the argument.
Instead, he likened the ordeal of an ordinary Singapore citizen looking for a runaway maid in a month to “a needle in a haystack”.
During his time in office, he also served as the deputy chairman of the Government Parliamentary Committee for the Environment.
In 2001, Comrade Chen retired from politics after two terms in Parliament.
By his own admission, Comrade Chen entered politics late in life. However, his dedication to public service had begun many years earlier, in the community of Potong Pasir he called home.
As for what advice he would give aspiring politicians, Comrade Chen had this to say, “You must have passion, you must have your goal very clearly. My goal is not to aspire to any higher office, my goal is to serve the community in whatever way I can.”
Whether as a grassroots leader or an MP, Comrade Chen has served Singaporeans in different ways and capacities. But the defining thread connecting them all has been his passion and commitment to improving the lives of fellow Singaporeans.
Comrade Chen is survived by his wife Mdm Desiree Hsu and their two children. His wake will be held at the Church of Our Lady Queen of Peace from 18 to 20 August 2026.
