SINGAPORE: The Workers’ Party (WP) confirmed today (25 July) that its vice-chairman Muhamad Faisal bin Abdul Manap is in the Intensive Care Unit (ICU) due to a cardiac condition.

WP said that Mr Faisal is now conscious and in a stable condition while being monitored. Revealing that the 48-year-old’s fellow Aljunied GRC MPs and other party members will cover his duties while he recovers, the WP said:

“His family appreciates the public’s concern, and they have requested for privacy so he can focus on his recuperation.”

Mr Faisal entered politics during the 2011 general election as the ethnic minority candidate in a five-member WP team contesting in Aljunied GRC against the governing People’s Action Party (PAP). The WP team won with 54.72% of the vote, making it the first time in Singapore’s electoral history an opposition party had won a general election in a GRC.

Mr Faisal thus became a Member of Parliament representing the Kaki Bukit ward of Aljunied GRC in the 12th Parliament on 9 May 2011. The WP has since retained its parliamentary seats in Aljunied GRC in the subsequent general elections, and Faisal has continued serving as the Member of Parliament representing Kaki Bukit.

Within the Aljunied-Hougang Town Council, Mr Faisal has served as chairman of the Estate and Liaison Committee (2013—2018), overall Council chairman (2018—2021), and Council vice-chairman (2021—2022).

Mr Faisal was elected Vice Chairman of the WP’s central executive committee (CEC), its highest decision-making body, on 29 May 2016. His two-year term has been continuously renewed in subsequent CEC elections, with the last election on 27 December 2020.