Workers’ Party (WP) secretary-general Pritam Singh revealed that his predecessor Low Thia Khiang dropped in at the Aljunied-Hougang Town Council (AHTC) meeting, even though the opposition legend is no longer a town councillor or MP after his retirement in June 2020.
Calling Mr Low “boss,” Mr Pritam shared a ‘selfie’ of Mr Low with AHTC town councillors Sylvia Lim, Mohamad Faisal Manap and Dennis Tan Lip Fong in a Facebook post published this afternoon (18 Aug). He wrote: “Boss drops in on an Aljunied-Hougang Town Council meeting! He is in good spirits!”
Mr Pritam’s post drew nearly 3,000 likes in just 30 minutes. The official WP Facebook page shared Mr Pritam’s post and garnered hundreds of likes in minutes, as well.
https://www.facebook.com/pritam.eunos/posts/3391941720828117
Mr Low – who was the MP for Hougang SMC from 1991 to 2011 and the MP for Aljunied GRC from 2011 to 2020 – stepped down from electoral politics ahead of the 2020 General Election.
The 2020 general election, which took place in July, was the first election in 32 years that Mr Low did not contest but he told the press that he was stepping down with no regrets as he feels that his work is done.
The 63-year-old said that he had set two goals for himself when he took over as party chief: To secure and renew the leadership of the party. He said he has achieved these goals.
In 2011, Mr Low left the Hougang Single-Member Constituency (SMC) — where he had served as Member of Parliament (MP) since 1991 — and led a team to run in Aljunied GRC. He was successful and the party was elected in both Hougang SMC and Aljunied GRC in 2011 and 2015. In 2018, he handed over the reins of the party to Pritam Singh.
The 2020 election was the very first election that the WP contested under the leadership of Mr Pritam. Even though Mr Low, fellow ex-Aljunied GRC MP Chen Show Mao and ex-Hougang SMC MP Png Eng Huat stepped down ahead of the election, the WP held on to its Aljunied-Hougang stronghold and scored better than it did in the 2015 general election.
In a historic upset, the WP also won Sengkang GRC – the second GRC that the opposition in Singapore has won. The WP team at Sengkang GRC unseated three political office-holders, Minister in the Prime Minister’s Office and labour chief Ng Chee Meng, Senior Minister of State Lam Pin Min and beloved grassroots MP Amrin Amin.
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