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WP

David Marshall, the first Chief Minister of Singapore after UK granted self-government, founded Workers' Party. Joshua B Jeyaretnam, its leader during 70s and part of 80s, shocked PAP by winning the 1981 Anson by-election. After legal problems cut short his parliament presence, Low Thia Khiang became WP's spearhead, winning Hougang in 1991, and added Aljunied Group Constituency in 2011, plus Punggol East in the 2013 by-election caused by the Palmer scandal. Since then its tide has somewhat ebbed, having to defend rather than advance. The current uncertainty concerning Low's health must have added a further pall.

23/6/2020 WP leadership has decided to contest Aljunied, East Coast, Marine Parade group representation constituencies, Hougang single-member constituency, as well as the new Sengkang GRC. new faces, among those who have been seen on the ground are information technology professional Peter Tan; equity analyst Louis Chua; economics professor Jamus Lim; social activist Raeesah Khan; lawyer Fadli Fawzi, who is a town councillor at the Aljunied-Hougang Town Council; and advertising executive Nicole Seah, who was a National Solidarity Party candidate in the 2011

23/6/2020 WP announced a number of candidates today, but without neatly presented photo panels which I hope will be available tomorrow; Nicole Seah is in, but Daniel Goh and Low Thia Khiang are not (here is the photo)

25/6/2020 It was announced Chen Show Mao will not be standing in this election; since Low Thia Khiang was for some time expected not to stand after his injury and slow recovery from the 30 april fall, chen's passing is noticed only in passing; and if someone not actively monitoring SG politics is told about the excitement in 2011 when Chen joined WP, his/her reaction is likely to be "really? why?"

I think I will just leave it at that, but do note what I wrote earlier today about He Ting Ru on the right.

Again, "really?"

29/6/2020 after WP announced all candidates, it turns out Lee Li Lian is also not standing; since she is 41, age is not the reason; like Chen, Low and Png Eng Huat, she had MP experience, which seems not to count any more

Fanous Rebels

Francis Seow, JBJ, Tang Liang Hong, are all prominent opposition figures with WP; what people may not know so well is: all three started as government insiders: Seow was Solicitor General, in fact worked closely with Lee Kuan Yew on some hard legal cases; JBJ was Senior Magistrate, and normally would expect to be promoted to High Court, but left to start private practice; Tang Liang Hong was being considered for appointment a as Nominated Member of Parliament.

While the falling out of Seow and JBJ with the establishment is shrouded in mystery, Tang's case was public: his parliamentary nomination was dropped because a number of insiders consulted on his case had reservations, in particular Tay Eng Soon (a Junior Minister, passed away  1993 - his brother Kheng Soon, former husband of Chan Heng Chee UN/US Ambassador 1989-2012, remains active in architecture and other social circles) who specifically called Tang a chinese chauvinist, a rather superficial observation with unfortunate consequences.

While not getting into parliament was disappointing, in the claustrophobic Singapore system it does not stop there: people whisper "government disapproves of him" and he found himself isolated in his old circle, and those outside the circle found it worthwhile to approach him as "one of us", which he soon became.

To make a long story short, Francis Seow was arrested for discussing politics and money with a US embassy diplomat (who was expelled)  but was allowed to go into exile at Harvard. Tang Liang Hong, after the failed Cheng San election, migrated to Australia. JBJ soldiered on until his death in 2008. His son kenneth founded Reform Party and is still trying to make something of it

WP and Professors

Sociologist Daniel Goh ran for parliament under WP in 2015; when Lee Li Lian's losing vote in Punggol qualified her for NCMP she chose not to accept, and WP was allowed to nominate Goh as her replacement; he has been quiet in the nearly 5 years there and it was almost unnoticed when he posted on web his farewell to parliament in April, and again when WP announced he would not be running in July for health reasons. Another professor Jamus Lim from a different university will however join the WP ticket.

As I said on a different page, PAP has not been recruiting professors for some time but opposition has been; none of the parties have taken the trouble to explain the change

Yee Jenn Jong

Workers Party mystified me during the last two days (24-5/6/2020) by first showing a video featuring a number of activist members (see left column bottom) including party leader, chairman and golden girl Nicole Seah, but not veteran member and my former undergrad and MSc student Yee Jenn Jong, then produced an Our Candidates webpage, again with Nicole Seah but also with Yee (I am even more mystified now, about Lee Li Lian not being a candidate)

but at least I know Yee is in and can write about him; he first ran on WP ticket in Joo Chiat 2011, and almost won - the previous, quite popular PAP member was sent into retirement for unknown reasons, and replaced by an even older candidate, a move that did not go down very well with the district. By scoring a high losing percentage, Yee qualified as Non Consituency Member, and was an active figure in the civic society and party politics scene even after he lost in the 2015 election (without qualifying for NCMP). Here he is with Nicole Seah at a panel discussion, clearly uncomfortable because audience were more interested in Nicole, who on the other hand dont know much to talk about, looking at her phone probably less out of boredom, more from avoiding embarrassmenthere Yee is with another WP golden girl He Ting Ru, who says she initially started going to WP functions as Groupie of Chen Show Mao. I do not know to what extent she managed to fulfil this nor why anyone would have that concept of politics, but here he listens to her speak looking a bit bored