Although most Singaporeans celebrated Singapore’s 55th National Day from their homes and watched the annual National Day Parade (NDP) through their screens this year, in view of the COVID-19 pandemic, Aljunied GRC parliamentarians Pritam Singh, Sylvia Lim and Faisal Manap were among those who witnessed the NDP at Padang on Sunday morning (9 Aug).
Sharing photos from the event, Mr Pritam wrote on Facebook: “Pictures from the Padang this morning where my Parliamentary colleagues and I witnessed NDP2020 followed by a snapshot of the Mobile Column (southeast route) lead by the Leopard 2 tanks making their way into Guillemard Road which I was delighted to watch go by with my family.
“Thank you to the NDP2020 committee, and all the men and women across various agencies like the SAF and Home team, amongst many many others, who came together to put up a first-class parade!”
Mr Pritam, who is the secretary-general of the Workers’ Party (WP) and the Leader of the Opposition (LO) in Parliament, also posted a photo of himself with Ms Lim and Mr Faisal. The photo, which showed the WP leaders dressed in red, quickly went viral and has garnered a whopping 10,000 likes on Facebook.
https://www.facebook.com/pritam.eunos/photos/a.640647072624276/3364616800227276/?type=3&__xts__%5B0%5D=68.ARBFuDfbcvy6QQkapQ-JOLS8iWu7OZ18bFRfpwNZEmQnZTVJ63dx9qR2SQ2jDleqETMXKauiicJpi9yC-3owviXNf_4BsRtXDT-Tpg7mfmnjjy2tilZBxEFDDgcoydBgYio_Szcf06a10KWCyH-janEo8wd_o6OHFKNuxHyESWCbHHvG6x4BQevjFbyTz4KH5KTI7eVJ9r24kxWpefEeK0rTst3CpmIquG_vqCI7VeBjIFycwAMSBDvoGlMW3ckjjSTsEwNq4R1QwfFb54Lg4E8UK6jP7sNa_SeOpw9Qn2msaPII7dxP_vLfUuyOgXpn6KaAIYWZdVYR4wBWgxx854qpwQ&__tn__=-R
Mr Pritam, Ms Lim and Mr Faisal are the only three incumbent Aljunied MPs who contested the ward in the 2020 General Election. The trio, along with opposition legend Low Thia Khiang and star candidate Chen Show Mao, were first elected at Aljunied GRC nearly a decade ago in 2011.
Mr Low and Mr Chen, however, announced that they would not be contesting the 2020 election days after the election was called. Their places were filled by former Non-Constituency Members of Parliament (NCMPs) Gerald Giam and Leon Perera.
The new WP team was re-elected with a resounding mandate of nearly 60 per cent – its best result since it first won the ward in 2011. The WP, which was standing in its first election under Mr Pritam’s leadership, also held on to Hougang SMC and also won a new multi-member ward – Sengkang GRC – unseating a prominent Cabinet Minister.