SINGAPORE: Workers’ Party (WP) chairperson Sylvia Lim has called on voters to welcome the female candidates her party has introduced as part of their GE2025 slate, urging for more Singaporean women representation in Parliament.
Speaking from her own experience, Ms Lim pointed out that women in Singapore politics often face greater pressure, scrutiny, and demands placed upon them as compared to their male counterparts. This dissuades women from entering the political fray at all, especially joining an opposition party, she said.
The WP is fielding six women as part of its 26-person slate for GE2025. Aside from Ms Lim and Sengkang GRC MP He Ting Ru, the party has launched four new female candidates — Paris V Parameswari at East Coast GRC, Alia Mattar and Alexis Dang at Punggol GRC, as well as Eileen Chong at Tampines GRC.
Ms Lim became the first female opposition politician to be elected to Parliament when the WP won Aljunied GRC in the 2011 election. She was the only elected woman from the opposition in the House from 2011 to 2013, when Lee Li Lian was elected in a by-election at Punggol East SMC.
When Ms Lee was not returned to Parliament in the 2015 election, Ms Lim again became the sole female voice from the opposition, until the 2020 general election when Ms He and Raeesah Khan were elected at Sengkang GRC. With Ms Khan’s departure from the WP, Parliament only had two elected female opposition members.
Ms Lim told the press she feels she has a duty to emphasise the importance of women’s participation in politics, given her own experiences, and remind voters that they too have a responsibility to allow more women to speak for other women as parliamentarians.
She added that women have different perspectives as compared to men, and no matter how much male legislators try to speak for women in the House, they cannot fully represent real women’s voices, given the gap in real, lived experience.
Given this, Ms Lim called on voters to vote for her team of women candidates and allow them to enter Parliament to serve all Singapore women better.
Not the first time WP chair has spoken about the need for more women in Parliament
This is not the first appeal Ms Lim has made for more women in the House. In an interview with ST earlier this year, she pointed out that women face a lot more hurdles when it comes to putting their name up for candidacy compared to men. She had said:
“Speaking for our party, the Workers’ Party, I do see significant numbers of women coming forward to be volunteers with the party, that’s very healthy, and even to be party members.
“But I think, quite often when it comes to considering being a candidate at the general election, there seem to be many other hurdles to cross, partly because becoming a candidate is a much more public role. The scrutiny will be at the national level. You can expect that people who don’t like you will try to find fault with you, and you have to be able to stand up to that.
“At the same time, your family members and those close to you, they also have to walk that journey with you. Sometimes it can be more difficult for them than for you yourself. So, many women, because there are so many stakeholders in their lives and they feel obligated to many people, crossing the bridge to become a candidate requires so much more thinking and introspection.
“I find that that is something that is not so prevalent in men, because somehow men seem to have an easier time making such decisions, and then once such a decision has been made, the whole village just rallies behind them.
“We want that to happen with women too. I think the society as a whole needs to work together for that. I think that the environment has to nurture freedom of choice in women, meaning that women should not feel guilty or more guilty if they, say, have to compromise on time spent with loved ones in order to go out there to serve the general public.
“It should be the same for women and men. We still have to work towards that.”
She added, “Speaking for myself, I’ve never regretted my decision. It has not been smooth sailing. All these years, we’ve had hard times, but we’ve also had exhilarating moments.
“So it kind of comes with the territory, and I feel that I’m fortunate to have been given the opportunity to walk this journey, to experience the highs and lows, because I don’t think any other career choice that I could have made could have let me see so much of life.”
21 female candidates from the opposition
The opposition is fielding a total of 21 female candidates, including the six from the WP. Red Dot United is fielding the second-highest number of candidates overall and the second-highest number of women candidates from the opposition, with four women on its ticket: Liyana Dhamirah, Emily Woo, Kala Manickam and Sharon Lin.
The Progress Singapore Party (PSP) and the People’s Alliance for Reform (PAR) have each nominated three female candidates. PSP is fielding ex-Non-Constituency Member of Parliament Hazel Poa, Wendy Low, and Stephanie Tan while PAR is putting forward Han Hui Hui, Vignes Ramachandran and Sarina Abhu Hassan.
The Singapore Democratic Party is fielding two women candidates, Surayah Akbar and Gigene Wong, while the National Solidarity Party, People’s Power Party and Singapore United Party are fielding one each — Verina Ong, Arbaah Haroun and Noraini Yunus, respectively.