Leong Mun Wai

Leong Mun Wai (born 1959) is a Singaporean politician, financial executive, and former civil servant.

He was educated at Raffles Institution in the 1970s, and was later awarded an Overseas Merit Scholarship by the Singapore Government in 1979 to study economics at Hitotsubashi University in Japan, where he graduated valedictorian and at the top of his economics class.

Whilst pursuing his degree, Leong was also elected Secretary-General of Singapore's Student Association of Japan.

Leong began his career in 1986 with the GIC and subsequently worked with investment banks in Tokyo, London and Hong Kong, including at Salomon Brothers and at Merrill Lynch as a director.

In 1992, Leong obtained a Master of Science in management from London Business School as a Sloan Fellow.

He is a Chartered Financial Analyst.

He returned to Singapore in 1997 to accept an appointment as Managing Director of OCBC Securities, a leading brokerage firm in Singapore.

He stepped down from the position in 2005, joining DBS Vickers as Managing Director later that year.

He is currently the Chief Executive Officer of his own private equity firm, Timbre Capital.

He was formerly the Deputy Chairman of the Singapore Exchange Disciplinary Panel.

A member of the opposition Progress Singapore Party (PSP), he has been a Non-Constituency Member of Parliament of the 14th Parliament of Singapore since 2020 and served as Secretary-General of the PSP from 2023 to 2024.

An Overseas Merit Scholar and Sloan Fellow, Leong worked at the Government of Singapore Investment Corporation (GIC) and Merrill Lynch, before joining OCBC Securities, and later DBS Vickers, as managing director.

He joined the PSP in 2020, contesting in the West Coast Group Representation Constituency where his team narrowly lost to the PAP.

He was appointed an NCMP that same year and is also the CEO of Timbre Capital, a private equity firm.

Leong grew up in Chinatown, his family sharing a rented floor of a shophouse with nine other families.

Leong was appointed as assistant secretary-general of the Progress Singapore Party on 17 January 2020.

In the 2020 Singaporean general election, Leong along with team members, Tan Cheng Bock, Hazel Poa, Nadarajah Loganathan and Jeffrey Khoo contested in the West Coast GRC as part of a five-member PSP team but narrowly lost to the People's Action Party with 48.31% of the vote.

Notwithstanding, under the Non-constituency Member of Parliament (NCMP) scheme, Leong was appointed an NCMP with effect from 16 July 2020.

Four days later, he stepped down as assistant secretary-general of PSP to focus on his NCMP duties, with the position handed over to Francis Yuen.

In 2023, Yuen stepped down as secretary-general of PSP and Leong was elected secretary-general.

On 23 February 2024, Leong stepped down as secretary-general of PSP after the Singapore government used a controversial fake news law against a Facebook post he had made, remaining on the party's governing body and as an NCMP.

In 2021, Minister for Foreign Affairs Vivian Balakrishnan called Leong "illiterate" in Parliament in a hot mic accident, later apologising for the remark.

In August 2023, Leong filed a complaint against Balakrishnan, which Speaker of Parliament Seah Kian Peng dismissed.

In 2023, Parliament voted in favour of an amended motion Leong proposed on the impartiality of duties of the Speaker of Parliament.

The same year, Leong's motion on housing policy was supported by all 11 opposition Members of Parliament, but failed to win the majority PAP's vote.

Eugene Tan, an associate professor at Singapore Management University, has described Leong as having a "dogged but confrontational style" in Parliament with a "folksy persona" that attempts to embody a "defiant underdog speaking for the masses".

Felix Tan, a lecturer at Nanyang Technological University, notes that "A vocal articulation of [Leong's] thoughts in parliament has given him... perhaps an increasing number of supporters for the way that he goes about voicing concerns amongst certain groups of Singaporeans."

Leong argues that Singaporeans at large are worried about domestic jobs being replaced by expatriates, advocating for laws that prevent discrimination on the basis of nationality.

In 2020, Leong proposed a cap on the ratio of non-resident workers to Singapore citizens, and for more stringent regulations on the admission of foreign PMETs.

In 2021, Leong criticised the government for the India–Singapore Comprehensive Economic Cooperation Agreement, claiming that the policy had negatively affected Singaporean employment whilst increasing immigration into Singapore.

Leong has criticised the government's social policy as giving out handouts.

He advocates for long-term social policy solutions and for a minimum wage in Singapore.

In light of rising costs of living, Leong has proposed re-lowering Singapore's goods and service tax from 9% to 7%, after it was increased by the government.

At the 2023 budget debates, Leong expressed the view that middle-class Singaporeans are taxed disproportionately to their income.

He advocates for more affordable public housing in Singapore.

He has called for the abolition of the GRC system, financial support for opposition MPs, and for greater opposition representation in Parliament.

He opposed the government's passing of the Foreign Interference (Countermeasures) Act, arguing that more public consultation and legislative checks should have been put into place.

During the COVID-19 pandemic, Leong voted against the government's bill to allow the use of TraceTogether contact tracing information by law enforcement officials in investigations.

Leong is fluent in Japanese.