PSP may have new ace in Leong Mun Wai

The Progress Singapore Party was born out of Dr Tan Cheng Bock’s near-success in the Presidential Election in 2011 and also because, in the eyes of many, he had the door rudely slammed on him by the Malay candidates only PE in 2017. He will be 83 years by the time of PE2023 and is unlikely to have another go at the PE. 

But he can take some comfort that the Progress Singapore Party which he founded to contest the General Elections in 2020 had not done badly then and is going somewhere today. It would have made a big difference to him and to Singapore politics if the PSP had won seats in its own right in West Coast GRC. But it did not. The new party made it to Parliament via the Non-Constituency MP route in the same way that Sylvia Lim represented the Workers’ Party in Aljunied after GE 2006.

In those years, the WP assiduously built its foundation in Hougang which was represented by the redoubtable Low Thia Khiang. New members learnt their craft on the ground where the WP was starting to make its presence felt, especially in Aljunied and Eunos. Only the out-of-touch PAP was surprised when the WP beat George Yeo and his GRC team in 2011. The PAP miscalculated again in GE2020. Some pundits were talking about the disappearance of WP in Aljunied. As we all know, not only did the WP not vanish, it did even better in Aljunied GRC than in 2011. It also captured another GRC – Sengkang. Lee Kuan Yew’s passing delayed the tide against the ruling party.

The PSP did relatively well in GE2020, given that it did not have a chance to hold rallies (because of Covid-19) to let voters know its candidates better. It relied on Dr Tan’s public persona and track record as a longstanding and outspoken PAP MP for Ayer Rajah to project what PSP’s political values would be. In the end, the PAP retained West Coast with 51.69 per cent of the votes, while the PSP garnered a creditable 48.31 per cent.

Dr Tan’s work is not fully done yet, however.

First, he can still do something about PE2023, even if he may not be a candidate himself. He should throw his weight behind any non-establishment candidate for PE2023 worthy of his support. Here, he can play a spoiler-revenge role and publicly and actively back that candidate. He should use his PE2011 experience for the greater good of a country seriously in need of a stronger check-and-balance political system. Discontent ought not be sugar-coated under the guise of conversations and feedback. And the voice and will of the ground should not be blatantly disregarded and swept under the name of consensus.

Second, Dr Tan should realise that Leong Mun Wai, the PSP’s new secretary-general and one of PSP’s two NCMPS, may have struck a strong chord with Singapore voters watching the live telecast of Parliament.

Would you bother to get away from your work or house chores to watch any of the nondescript PAP MPs reading from uninspiring prepared speeches? Or would you simply skip these to root for an underdog opposition MP? I think more are rooting.

The PSP founder’s job now is to make Leong Mun Wai ready to win West Coast for the PSP.  There is a great chance.

Tan Bah Bah, consulting editor of TheIndependent.SG, is a former senior leader writer with The Straits Times. He was also managing editor of a magazine publishing company.