Ahead of coming GE, community page guesses at potential Malay candidates

Many parties are now gearing up to announce the candidates that they will be fielding for the upcoming General Elections (GE). As speculation about potential candidates abound, Singapura Kita, a community-run facebook page has also shared its guesses, specifically regarding potential Malay candidates.

On June 14, the page introduced three potential Malay candidates.

Progress Singapore Party’s (PSP) Taufik Supan was first to be introduced yesterday, with the page highlighting that Mr Supan will be “looking into helping the Malay community in the country progress by proposing a number of new ideas”. This was something that Mr Supan spoke about during a webinar organised by PSP on June 11. Mr Supan graduated with a Bachelor’s Degree in Computing, and has a Master’s Degree in Management.

The second potential candidate to be introduced on the page was Singapore Democratic Party’s (SDP) Fadly Azad. Mr Azad was first introduced as a member of SDP during a walkabout in August last year. He has just graduated in 2018 with a Bachelor’s Degree in Mass Communication and Public Relations, and started volunteering with SDP in 2016.

SDP’s Secretary-General Chee Soon Juan has said that he was considering fielding younger candidates, and SDP chairman Paul Tambyah seconded this, saying “[young people] would appreciate having people who are able to speak up for them in parliament”.

The last of the potential candidates introduced on Singapura Kita yesterday was (People’s Action Party) PAP’s Zhulkarnain Abdul Rahim. He is a 38 year-old lawyer, a partner at Dentons Rodyk & Davidson LLP. Mr Rahim is also the youngest chairman at the Association of Muslim Professionals Singapore (AMP), a non-profit organisation serving the Muslim community.

In the elections, any party contesting for a Group Representation Constituency (GRC) must have a candidate among the three to six people who is Malay, Indian, or any other minority community. PAP’s Rahayu Mahzam and Workers’ Party’s (WP) Muhamad Faisal bin Abdul Manap are some of the Malay Members of Parliament in the current Government.