K-Pop girl bands motivate SDP’s Bryan Lim in the gruelling work of settling election expenses

The Singapore Democratic Party’s (SDP) Bryan Lim Boon Heng has revealed that K-Pop girl bands help him in the grueling work of settling election expenses, in a recent social media post.

Mr Lim is in charge of overseeing the submission of election expense reports to the Elections Department. Revealing that he has been at the task of settling the party’s accounts over the past three weeks, Mr Lim said that the work is so overwhelming that he was not even able to help out with party chief Chee Soon Juan’s recent ‘Chee-sy Mashed Potatoes’ grassroots fundraiser.

He wrote on Facebook, on 2 Aug: “I can’t help out with Dr Chee Soon Juan 徐顺全’s Bukit Batok grassroots fundraiser as I have to focus on settling the Party’s accounts over this precious long weekend.

“Been at it for the past 3 weeks as there has been an overwhelming number of accounting entries. I also have to help our election agents compile the candidates’ election expenses reports for submission to Elections Department in 2 weeks’ time.”

The SDP Central Executive Committee (CEC) member added that he has discovered that K-Pop music helps him when he is dealing with finance, ever since he became party treasurer about four years ago. He wrote: “Ever since I became the Treasurer of the Singapore Democratic Party (SDP) in 2017, I have discovered that hippy Kpop music & boring numbers form an awesome combo.

“I couldn’t have survived the arithmetic without the likes of WJSN_ 우주소녀, 9MUSES, Lovelyz 러블리즈, 레드벨벳 (Red Velvet), fromis_9 (프로미스_9), 이달의 소녀 etc as companions.”

Mr Lim has been a member of the SDP for the past two decades. He first joined the party in 2000, at the age of 24, after buying a party newsletter from late chairman Gandhi Ambalam. He later rose within the party to become the Vice-President of the Young Democrats – the youth wing of the SDP.

Mr Lim became the youngest candidate in the 2001 General Elections when the SDP fielded him as part of a 5-man team to contest in Hong Kah GRC. The SDP team was unsuccessful in their election bid.

Mr Lim did not contest the 2006 and 2011 General Elections but helped the party out behind-the-scenes instead. After the 2011 election, he was appointed as the Head of the Party’s Ground Operations Unit and was elected to the SDP’s CEC.

The father of two returned to electoral politics in the 2015, and contested Marsiling-Yew Tee GRC in the 2015 and 2020 General Elections. The SDP’s four-man team were defeated at the ward by the incumbent on both occasions.