Phey Yew Kok (simplified Chinese: 彭由国; traditional Chinese: 彭由國; pinyin: Péng Yóuguó) is a former Singapore politician and union leader. He was convicted in 2016 for charges of misuse of union funds laid against him in 1979. He was on the run for 35 years before surrendering to Singapore authorities in 2015.
Phey was born in 1934.[1] He was educated in a Chinese stream secondary school before switching to an English stream secondary school.[1] He also had graduated from the Singapore Technical Institute.[2]
Phey started working in the Malaysia-Singapore Airlines (MSA) as an accounts clerk and joined its union, Singapore Air Transport Union (SATU). He was elected into SATU's executive committee in 1960. He subsequently held the treasurer post in SATU in 1966,[3] and finally the president position in 1968. Devan Nair took noticed of him in 1969, and under Devan's mentorship, Phey also became the head of two other prominent unions, Singapore Industrial Labour Organisation (SILO) and Pioneer Industries Employees' Union (PIEU) by 1970. Phey also became the president of National Trades Union Congress in the same year. By then, he was also promoted into the planning division of Singapore Airlines, the Singapore successor of MSA. On 21 June 1970, he was slashed by four men over union infighting, which left him a 7.5 cm scar on his face.[1]
Phey entered into politics in the 1972 Singaporean general election under People's Action Party banner for Boon Teck constituency, and won 66.8% of the votes casted there.[4] Phey was reelected in the same constituency in the next general election in 1976, winning 71.9% of the votes casted there.[5]
In 1977, an amendment to The Trade Unions Act was introduced and passed in the Parliament to limit the usage of the funds of registered trade unions to just investments in stocks and shares of companies, and with a Minister's approval. On 16 September 1978, Phey used $11,235 of SILO's funds to finance the purchase of shares of a supermarket. On 18 September 1979, he used $6,510 of PIEU's funds to purchase shares of another supermarket. Both purchases were done without approval from the Minister.[6]
On 4 December 1979, Phey tendered his resignations at SILO, PIEU and SATU. However, these were held in abeyance until he was formally dismissed from all union posts in absentia on 8 January 1980.[7]
Phey was formally charged on 10 December 1979 under the laws introduced in the 1977 amendments and for criminal breach of trust.[6] He was placed under a $100,000 bail, and was due to appear in courts on 7 January 1980.[8] However, Phey did not turn up in courts, and caused $95,000 of the bail money to be forfeited.[9] It was widely accepted that Phey had fled the country and an arrest warrant for him was placed.[10] He was also placed on Interpol's wanted list.[11]
On 22 June 2015, Phey turned himself in at the Singapore Embassy in Bangkok.[9] He pleaded guilty to 12 charges,[9] and was sentenced to 60-month jail.[12] He completed the jail sentence on 23 October 2020, with a year of the sentence served under home detention.[12]
1971: Public Service Star[1]