Anthea Ong: Saying No to Nominated Member of Parliament (At First), NMP Scheme Reforms & Majoritarian vs. Nonpartisanship - E564

"Actually, Malcolm Gladwell did a challenge many years ago for people to come up with a seven-word biography. So in seven words I cheated la so 'full-time' I hyphenated as one word and 'part-time' also hyphenated as one word. But I thought it kind of really described me, that I really want to never forget that I'm first a human before I'm anything else. And that also informs a lot of the work I do, the ideas I have, the things that I spend and give time to, right? And therefore also how I show up in my relationships, right? So that's kind of foregrounding who I am." - Anthea Ong, Former Parliamentarian & Leadership Speaker

"So what Well Leaders' rallying cry is, 'Be well to lead well' really wanting to bring the attention back to taking care of yourself before you can take good care of others and lead the organization to success. It's the same sort of notion as 'put on your oxygen mask first before you put on the oxygen mask for others.' And so we really want leaders to start making the change for themselves. I mean, it's going back to Gandhi's quote, right? 'Be the change you want to see in others.' So if you want to see better well-being in your people, you have to start with yourself, because you role model that and you also change the culture when you do that." - Anthea Ong, Former Parliamentarian & Leadership Speaker

"It's actually bringing CEOs together to stop thinking of workplace well-being or the well-being of your people as an HR responsibility it is not, right? It is actually the responsibility of every leader, and especially the CEO. It is an organisational well-being that you need to aspire towards and make that happen. I think enough study and we've just finished a study with NUS to show that organizational well-being contributes directly to organizational performance. In a time today where growth is a struggle, where there's so many macro challenges coming our way, we really cannot think of workplace well-being and employee well-being as secondary. It's very central to performance. It's very central to why we lead in the first place." - Anthea Ong, Former Parliamentarian & Leadership Speaker

Jeremy Au reconnects with Anthea Ong for a candid conversation on what it means to lead with integrity, empathy, and independence. They trace her journey from corporate leadership into the social sector and eventually into Parliament as a Nominated Member of Parliament (NMP). Anthea shares how she first declined the NMP role, then later accepted it after realizing that structural change especially around mental health and vulnerable communities required policy influence. She recounts her unconventional first speech in Parliament, starting with three collective breaths to bring mindfulness into the chamber. They discuss how debate still matters in a supermajority system, why recent mid-term resignations have damaged the credibility of the NMP scheme, and the need to rethink Singapore’s political structures in light of global democratic shifts. Anthea also talks about her current work leading WorkWell Leaders, a nonprofit that helps CEOs prioritize employee wellbeing and lead more sustainably.