“Mad respect” for varied work experience of WP candidate Abdul Shariff

Singapore — A Workers’ Party candidate in this election, Mr Abdul Shariff bin Aboo Kassim, has earned “mad respect” from those online who stumbled across his work experience.

A post on the Reddit social news website on Monday (June 29) shared a photo of a quick write-up of his humble work history. The write-up shared his life struggle and the hard work behind the candidate he has become today.

According to his profile on the Workers’ Party site, Mr Abdul Shariff disrupted his Secondary 4 studies in order to work in a factory. Then, after completing National Service, he worked as a market shop assistant, a security guard, a dispatch rider and an undertaker.

After he completed his GCE O Levels, Mr Abdul Shariff started working as a technical support officer at the Ministry of Law. In addition to this, in order to put himself through university, he worked as a bus driver and a relief taxi driver.

Many Redditors, flabbergasted by such resilience, paid homage to his humble yet commendable background. Some even contrasted his blue-collar work experience with that of other politicians who “parachute” into Singapore’s political arena, with a different definition of “successful” written on their report cards.

One person noted that Mr Abdul Shariff’s wide range of experience gives him an upper hand when it comes to understanding the community perspective, saying: “His various experience(s) in the different jobs will really help him with a wider range of perspectives of the community. Not many people get to have such experience unless they’re being put in a hard circumstance or (are) very willing to take on all (that) work.”

This appeal seems to have gained Mr Abdul Shariff the backing of underdog supporters. He is in the WP team contesting against a People’s Action Party team in East Coast GRC.

He has lived many lives. from singapore

/TISG