SINGAPORE: On the Yah Lah BUT podcast on Tuesday (April 2), opposition politician Paul Tambyah explained why he chose to join the Singapore Democratic Party (SDP) when he entered politics.
Dr Tambyah, now the SDP chair, is a prominent infectious disease specialist, having been made the President of the International Society for Infectious Diseases in 2022, the first Singaporean to hold this distinction.
He first started volunteering with the party in 2010 and was fielded as a candidate in 2015 and 2020. This year, he will contest at Bukit Panjang SMC for a second time.
For nearly an hour and a half, Dr Tambyah spoke to the podcast hosts on a range of topics, including one closest to his heart —healthcare access —as well as why he did not get in as a Nominated Member of Parliament, how he and his wife feel about SDP chief Chee Soon Juan, and the challenges that an opposition politician faces.
Dr Tambyah recalled that former Prime Minister Goh Chok Tong famously said, “If you really want to make a difference, you have to go into politics”.
“So I decided I would and I started volunteering for the SDP,” he said. In 2011, he made a speech that a student of his posted on Facebook. It went viral, and the rest is pretty much history.
When asked by the hosts why he chose the SDP among all the other opposition parties, Dr Tambyah said it is because SDP has “the most clearly defined ideology.”
“You know they’re very much left of centre—focused on human rights, focused on universal access to healthcare, housing and education… so that was kind of aligned with my views.”
Dr Tambyah also told the host about the time he had been put up as a potential Nominated Member of Parliament (NMP) by the Singapore Medical Association, which he quipped, “Now we know it’s actually a training ground for PAP MPs.”
However, he said he “failed the test,” referring to an interview with a select committee of MPs, including the former Workers’ Party chief Low Thia Khiang.
After the panel interview, he told the SMA, “Sorry, too bad. There’s not going to be a doctor in the nominated MP group.”
He went on to say that he did not think too much about it until he was on a flight to Bandung sometime later with PAP MP Masagos Zulkifli, who told Dr Tambyah he looked “really familiar”.
While the SDP chair thought maybe they had just met at an event, Mr Masagos told him, “’Now I remember,’ he said, ‘You were the guy who went for the NMP interview and you gave all the wrong answers.’”
He explained to the podcast hosts that this had to do with his strong views on the Goods & Services Tax (GST) way back in 2009, which might not have pleased some members of the panel.
Dr Tambyah was also asked why he chose to align himself with Chee Soon Juan, a controversial figure in his own right.
He answered that he understands that alignment with SDP and Dr Chee can come with baggage, especially for the older generations who have a specific image of the SDP chief, partly because of how Dr Chee has been portrayed in the media.
Even his wife had initial concerns, but after having spent some time with Dr Chee, these were put to rest. Dr Chee also became a source of contention between Dr Tambyah’s mother, who also had reservations about Dr Chee, and his aunt, a psychologist who knows the SDP head.
The sisters had “a bit of an argument”, he said.
However, those who have listened to Dr Chee speak have often changed their minds about him, he said, calling Dr Chee an “optimist” and a conviction politician in a country where most are pragmatists, he added.
“People in opposition politics are just trying to chip away at the edifice or make a chink in the wall and to try and open up Singapore a little bit,” said Dr Tambyah.
/TISG
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