Former Non-Constituency Member of Parliament (NCMP) Yee Jenn Jong expressed his belief that the Workers’ Party (WP) is stronger today than it was 10 years ago, as he shared his thoughts on the end of the decade and compared it with 2010 in a Facebook post published on 31 Dec.
Mr Yee joined the WP about 10 years ago and contested Joo Chiat Single Member Constituency (SMC) under the WP ticket in the 2011 General Election. He lost the ward to the ruling party’s Charles Chong by just a hair of votes, earning a vote-share of 48.99 per cent.
As the second best loser in the 2011 election in which less than nine non-ruling party Members of Parliament (MPs) made it to parliament, Mr Yee was entitled to an NCMP position in the 12th Parliament of Singapore. He served as NCMP until Parliament was dissolved ahead of the 2015 General Election.
Joo Chiat SMC, which had been a single member ward from 1997 to 2015, was absorbed into Marine Parade Group Representation Constituency (GRC) during the 2015 General Election. Mr Yee joined the team of WP candidates who contested Marine Parade GRC and lost to the incumbent People’s Action Party (PAP), with 35.93 per cent of votes.
On New Years’ Eve, Mr Yee reflected that this past decade can be best summed up in the phrase ‘A Journey in Blue’ for him. Calling his political journey over the past 10 years an “unexpected” one, Mr Yee said that he was committed to politics as he saw a need to build up a strong alternative.
Sharing that he believes he has contributed to what convinced him to take the journey in the first place, Mr Yee said: “Some point to instability in other countries and say that we are wasting our time building an alternative because we should only have the stability of one strong government (forever!). I think differently.
“If there is no way for the people to make their choices felt, they can lose trust in the government and even take to the streets to riot or force a violent change if the government loses it way and becomes incompetent, or the people are very unhappy with life.”
Asserting that it will take time to build up and eventually offer an alternative strong stable government, given the way the dominant ruling party has squashed alternative voices since independence, Mr Yee said that while this journey is still in the making, he believes that the WP is “stronger today than when I joined at the start of the decade.”
Read his post in full here:
https://www.facebook.com/yeejj.wp/posts/2700263053374785?__xts__%5B0%5D=68.ARAAlWoN0jVjpgufIE049KkQ2K0_LBdazcWF8Rd5cpodQYpc0OHFCs85PSe4bYsD2JNSYTIQxcVM6UbAVkMs4LxUW6Q3KOWTMcCNlVq_lSFLf_52MLllisU3i_ca_92uz7R_IdRFquyVlPahpUyRJc1Rs3QRWAHWlh32XIqZ68jLt3DMyzuWAThozhxGncd_VT8zUG8Pi7XUu9j_jnhCpl8mJXIes3fPqxV0Snq1qX-eToKshVXx_ubLcpB9fGJ691Yg07Bb9Y678QhYkrFDkTLjkMJq9TOI4VhgJbZjlL5I2sxFAGiKxRQjZAVthq1XDBYxvbXlnLRbbuu6F_J1tQ&__tn__=-R