Weekend TODAY: Young, bilingual Lian banks on WP's coin
GE2006
TOR CHING LI
chingli@newstoday.com.sg
WORKERS' Party (WP) candidate Lian Chin Way, 36, knows the odds are stacked against him in the single member ward of Nee Soon Central.
"I know it's going to be a very steep uphill battle, but I will do my best to offer voters a choice," said Mr Lian, an election debutant, who joined the WP last September.
The business manager is now pit against election battle veteran and incumbent People's Action Party MP Ong Ah Heng after a last-minute change in plans.
Mr Lian, who had been working the ground in Aljunied GRC, said the swop was part of his party's election strategy.
He said: "I may be relatively new to the ground myself but my party is not. We have been active in Nee Soon for three years now."
He has been actively working the ground for the "past couple of weeks". Mr Lian sees his bilingualism and "humble grassroots background" as qualities that will put him in relatively good stead for the working and lower-middle class electorate at Nee Soon Central.
One of the things the University of London graduate hopes to bring about is a waiver of the Goods and Services Tax for some basic food items such as rice, milk powder, flour and oil.
Does he think his youthful image will help him? Said Mr Lian: "I hope people don't vote for me because I am younger but because of the values of the WP. We are offering Singaporeans a choice, for the long term prospects of Singapore."
NEE SOON CENTRAL
WHO WILL LEAD THE WAY?
TREVOR TAN
PAP's Ong Ah Heng (right), 62, and his Workers' Party opponent Lian Chin Way (left), 36.
FACTS ABOUT NEE SOON CENTRAL:
• Number of voters: 23,152, mostly working-class.
• Last election: 2001. This would be its fifth consecutive election contest.
• PAP's Ong Ah Heng took the ward back from Singapore Democratic Party's Cheo Chai Chen in the 1997 GE. In 2001, he beat SDP's Ling How Doong with 78.52 per cent of the vote.
