Charles Yeo

Charles Yeo Yao Hui is a Singaporean lawyer and politician, and a member of the opposition Reform Party (RP). He is the chairman of the Reform Party.[1]

In this Chinese name, the family name is Yeo.
Charles Yeo
5th Chairman of the Reform Party of Singapore
Assumed office
5 August 2020
Secretary GeneralKenneth Jeyaretnam
Preceded byAndy Zhu
Personal details
Born
Charles Yeo Yao Hui

1990 (age 31–32)
Singapore
Political partyReform Party
Alma materUniversity of Warwick (LLB)
Occupation
  • Lawyer
  • politician

Education

Yeo studied at Bukit View Primary School and Victoria School before completing his pre-university education in Anglo-Chinese School (Independent).[2] He graduated from University of Warwick with a law degree.[3][4]

Career

Politics

Yeo became a member of the Reform Party (RP) since 2011.[4] Since June 2019, Yeo has been on the central executive committee of Reform Party (RP). On 5 August 2020, he was appointed to be chairman of RP.[1]

2020 General Election

Yeo was part of the five-member Reform Party team which contested the Ang Mo Kio Group Representation Constituency during the 2020 Singaporean general election, running against the People's Action Party team which led by Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong, and his team was defeated, with 28.09 percent of the votes.[5]

Constituency broadcast and Internet meme

Yeo reached national prominence following the Reform Party's constituency broadcast for Ang Mo Kio GRC. Due to the absence of other team members, Yeo attempted to deliver his party's broadcast in Mandarin. His attempt became viral due to his non-fluency and amusing phraseology in Mandarin, something which sparked many internet memes and even drew comment from the Prime Minister's wife Ho Ching.[6]

2021–present

Due to the arrest over alleged offences of criminal breach of trust and forgery in the course of his work, on 12 January 2022, Yeo had temporarily relinquish his chairmanship of the party since 15 January 2022.[7] Separately on 19 January 2022, Yeo faced six charges, three counts under the Protection from Harassment Act for "harassing communication to a police officer and three counts for deliberately intending to wound religious feelings".[8][9]

Law

Yeo was called to the bar in 2016,[10] and works as a criminal defence lawyer.[11] He was arrested on 12 January 2022 by the Singapore Police Force for alleged offences of criminal breach of trust and forgery.[12] Yeo claimed that the arrest was conducted unprofessionally, and that the charges were "entirely trumped up and false", which the police categorically denied that the arrest was "politically motivated".[13] The arrest was part of an investigation against Whitefield Law Corporation, where Yeo is working at as a criminal defence lawyer.[14] Four clients of the law firm had reported them, alleging criminal breach of trust and forgery.[14] After the arrest, he appealed to the public to help with his legal bills,[13] and had also launched a non-fungible token as a fundraising mechanism for the legal bills.[15]

References
  1. "Charles Yeo becomes Reform Party chairman, party to conduct GE2020 post-mortem". Retrieved 5 August 2020.
  2. "Reform Party's Charles Yeo reveals he got A2 for Chinese, answers random questions on Instagram". mothership.sg. Retrieved 2022-01-19.
  3. "GE2020: The Reform Party". TODAY. Retrieved 2022-01-19.
  4. "Our Candidates". Archived from the original on 18 August 2020.
  5. "GE2020 official results: PAP wins Ang Mo Kio GRC with 72% against Reform Party". The Straits Times. July 11, 2020.
  6. "Ho Ching defends Reform Party's Charles Yeo's Mandarin-speaking skills". Mothership. July 11, 2020.
  7. "Charles Yeo steps aside as Reform Party chairman, gives more details about how he was arrested". mothership.sg. Retrieved 2022-01-17.
  8. "Reform Party's Charles Yeo charged over remarks towards cop and Christians". sg.news.yahoo.com. Retrieved 2022-01-19.
  9. "Ex-Reform Party chairman Charles Yeo, 31, charged with wounding religious feelings of Christians, harassing police". mothership.sg. Retrieved 2022-01-19.
  10. "Yeo Yao Hui Charles". LawGuide Singapore. Retrieved 2022-01-19.
  11. "GE2020: 'Substantial' government spending needed to combat COVID-19 economic fallout, says Reform Party". CNA. Retrieved 2022-01-19.
  12. "Reform Party's Charles Yeo arrested for alleged criminal breach of trust, forgery: Police". TODAY. Retrieved 2022-01-19.
  13. "Reform Party Charles Yeo crowdfunds legal support to fight 'trumped up' charges | Coconuts". coconuts.co. Archived from the original on 2022-01-17. Retrieved 2022-01-17.
  14. Ong, Justin (2022-01-15). "Reform Party chairman Charles Yeo arrested for alleged criminal breach of trust, forgery | The Straits Times". www.straitstimes.com. Archived from the original on 2022-01-15. Retrieved 2022-01-17.
  15. "Charles Yeo launches NFT collection to raise funds for fines & legal fees". mothership.sg. Retrieved 2022-03-15.
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