SINGAPORE: On Thursday (Apr 3), The Straits Times reported that The Workers Party (WP) is likely to contest in eight constituencies and field at least 17 new candidates in the upcoming General Election (GE).
The report focused on two particular new faces:
- 47-year-old Ong Lue Ping, a former senior leader from the Institute of Mental Health (IMH);
- 37-year-old Michael Thng, a start-up founder who graduated from Harvard’s Kennedy School.
The piece also noted that many of the individuals making their political debut with the WP are “professionals, including lawyers and management consultants”.
So far, the other likely new candidates include
- Senior Counsel of the Supreme Court Harpreet Singh, seen on the ground at Marine Parade since late 2023;
- Kenneth Tiong, a tech executive expected to take up the fifth spot at Aljunied Group Representation Constituency (GRC);
- Abdul Muhaimin Abdul Malik, a senior property manager for Aljunied-Hougang Town Council (AHTC) seen more and more with WP’s Sengkang Members of Parliament (MPs);
- Jeraldine Phneah, a financial blogger who’s been active with the WP for the past 10 years at Jalan Besar and East Coast; and
- Lawyer Ang Boon Yaw, who has been part of WP’s Central Executive Committee (CEC) since 2022 and who has also been active on the ground at East Coast.
In the last GE, the party fielded only nine new candidates, three of whom were elected to Parliament.
The WP already holds two GRCs, Aljunied and Sengkang, as well as one Single Member Constituency (SMC), Hougang.
The report says that in addition to these, the party is expected to field candidates at Punggol GRC, East Coast GRC, Marine Parade-Braddell Heights, Tampines GRC, and Tampines Changkat SMC.
Dr Ong was the director of allied health from 2022 to 2024 at IMH, where he is currently a senior principal clinical psychologist. He is likely to be part of the WP’s Punggol slate. Importantly, until December 2024, he had also been part of Compass, the council advising the Education Ministry on strengthening partnerships between schools, parents, and the community.
Mr Thng, who will most probably be with WP’s candidates at Tampines GRC, is a principal with Big Three management consultancy BCG and has co-founded Showdrop, a product discovery and sampling start-up.
The response to WP’s new faces online has been largely positive, with many netizens saying they’re impressed with the calibre of the newbies, with one summing them up as “a solid team”.
“Looks like WP has been able to attract a lot of seemingly legit private sector peeps,” one observed, adding that in comparison, the People’s Action Party (PAP) has leaned towards civil servants, generals, government-linked company (GLC) directors, and small and medium-sized enterprise (SME) business owners.
“WP offers a fresh platform for high achievers to forge their own path,” wrote another, while one commented, “Impressive lineup, with tighter party discipline. Good tidings ahead of the hustings.”
A Reddit user wrote, “It will be so wonderful if we have a clinical psychologist as an MP (assuming he gets voted in)! So far, there has been no one in the mental health field working in politics. It will be a nice change to have, especially with regards to national mental health policies.”
Another commenter agreed, writing they were glad that there would be ” finally some real fight against the stigma”.
“Even if he doesn’t get voted in, his presence in WP would pressure PAP to up their game (in mental health and other areas), which still is a fabulous outcome,” one chimed in.
“For some time, I have been saying that WP has been struggling to get talents. Other than Harpreet Singh, there were no notable new joiners,” wrote one Reddit user, who added, “As it turned out, WP had cards hidden up their sleeves.”
Another agreed, writing, “A Senior Counsel, an IMH director, a Brown University Graduate, a Harvard University graduate… they are going for broke.”
“Honestly, I think a lot of the younger millennials and Gen Zs are ready to vote for WP,” a commenter wrote.
Another expressed the hope that the new WP candidates “will have a better understanding of what it’s like in the corporate world with job instability, layoffs, ageism, lack of work-life balance. I always wonder how scholars or SAF generals can really relate to us when they got a scholarship since 19 years old and life has been smooth for them in civil service/army, and then, they talk down to us about upskilling and resilience when they have never had to face any competition themselves.” /TISG
Read also: Smiles and thumbs up greet WP team at Marine Parade – Braddell Heights