Louis Chua

SINGAPORE: When He Ting Ru, Louis Chua, and Jamus Lim recently guested on The Daily Ketchup podcast, they told the hosts that their win at the then newly-created Sengkang GRC in the General Election of 2020 came as a complete surprise.

Ms He, who anchors the team, said they were in shock for the first six months of their term. Since their win, however, they’ve hunkered down and worked for the good of the residents of Sengkang, regardless of whom they voted for.

One of the podcast hosts is a Rivervale resident and told Mr Chua that whenever he and his wife saw an issue in their ward, the next thing they knew, their MP had already raised the issue in Parliament.

“I’m a little bit starstruck,” the host said, adding, “I just want to say you guys have been doing an amazing job.”

The hosts and the MPs—all of whom are fast-talking millennials—had a lively, freewheeling discussion on a broad range of topics, from having to film their Christmas video at the non-airconditioned multi-purpose hall to their chances of winning again to the future of the opposition in Singapore to old WP rally sites to party chief Pritam Singh’s case to their former fellow MP, though she was not mentioned by name.

Watch the video in full below:

The three MPs talked at length about the difficulties they face as opposition MPs in Sengkang but said that despite these, the most important thing is “we’re here to do a job,” as Assoc Prof Lim said.

There were times when they’ve even felt like persona non grata in Sengkang.

“When the bus interchange opens, when the CC opens, we find out through social media sometimes,” said Ms He, adding that residents have at times asked them why they have no access to better facilities, some of which are air-conditioned.

But the Sengkang MPs have not only learned to endure the heat and discomfort; they’ve thrived despite it.

Ms He, who has volunteered with the WP since 2011, explained that this was nothing new, though she still hopes it will change one day.

“As Ru said, you can whinge and moan, or you can be proactive and say what we can do what is within our control. So we go ahead and do that, and that’s ultimately what the voters of Sengkang want us to do— not to complain and shake our fist at the sky but to focus on what we can do, what we can control,” said Assoc Prof Lim.

When asked if the WP is ready to form a government, he reiterated the party’s medium-term goal, which is to deny a two-thirds supermajority to the ruling party, underlining that at this point, Singaporeans still want the WP “to prove their chops.”

“If we win in more GRCs, how we perform will be evaluated by Singaporeans,” he said, adding that this would, in turn, inform them if the WP is ready to get more representation in Parliament.

Ms He chimed in to say that it has been “tough” to get people to join the WP since some still get intimidated. Moreover, she underlined the stress many Singaporeans face, adding that the party has had volunteers who show up for a while but do not continue due to work and family commitments.

Mr Chua said some people still believe that one’s vote in Singapore is not a secret and feel that if they vote for the opposition, they run the risk of possible consequences such as not getting a BTO or a place at school.

It’s clear, however, that the three are not resting on their laurels and believe that there is no guarantee that they’ll keep their seats or that the WP will continue to make progress.

Ms He underlined that there is no room for “misplaced optimism.”

“We don’t take our position as the current incumbent for granted at all. We work every day to try to convince the voters of Sengkang that they made the correct choice in putting us to serve them… we take that responsibility seriously,” she added. /TISG