Streats: WP gets first chairwoman

TEMASEK Polytechnic law lecturer Sylvia Lim, 38, was elected chairman of the Workers' Party yesterday, the first woman to hold the key post in the party's 45-year history.

The Straits Times today reports that another seven new faces were also elected into the 14-member central executive council, giving the policy-making heart of the opposition party are more youthful face as most of the eight are in their 30s, with one as young as 24.

A potential candidate for the General Election due by 2007, Ms Lim expressed the hope that her victory will reduce the fear among some Singaporeans in joining opposition parties.

Straits Times: Now more youthful, WP gets first woman chairman

The law lecturer is among the eight newcomers in the opposition party's 14-member central executive council

By AHMAD OSMAN


STEVEN LEE
A law lecturer, Ms Lim is the new Workers' Party chairman.

LAW lecturer Sylvia Lim, 38, was elected chairman of the Workers' Party yesterday, the first woman to hold the key post in the party's 45-year history.

Another seven new faces were also elected to the 14-member central executive council, rejuvenating the policy-making heart of the opposition party almost overnight with a more youthful face.

Most of the eight elected for the first time into the council are in their 30s, with one of them as young as 24.

"The election shows the party is open and is prepared to accept new blood and to support them to move the party forward," said Mr Low Thia Khiang, the MP for Hougang who retained his post as secretary-general of the party.

Dr Tan Bin Seng, 52, who showed no rancour at having lost the chairman post to Ms Lim, said: "With the younger image, we hope to attract more talented young people to join us."

Dr Tan has been the chairman since 1992. He will continue to be a council member.

The party's self-renewal has been hastened since Mr Low took over the reins in May 2001. He became secretary-general after the departure of Mr J.B. Jeyaretnam, who quit after 30 years of leading the party.

With the latest line-up, the party has clearly moved beyond the former secretary-general and any residual influence he has on the party is insubstantial, if not completely dissipated.

The results of yesterday's election at the cadres conference, held once every two years, also reflect the strong support for Mr Low's aim to step up the pace of self-renewal.

He said: "My message to the conference is that to serve Singapore well... we need to have new blood. I think the conference got the message."

Ms Lim, who is single and lectures at Temasek Polytechnic, joined the WP after the last General Election in 2001.

Commenting on her role as chairman, she said she would work with Mr Low, the top man in the WP, and the other council members to chart the direction of the party.

She can also speak up for the party and continue to build up its role "as a credible check on the Government" whenever it is necessary to do this.

She expressed the hope that her victory would reduce the fear among some Singaporeans of joining the opposition. "A few of us have taken the step and we are still around," she said.

Mr Low, who does not adopt Mr Jeyaretnam's confrontational style, chippped in: "You take the correct approach, you are responsible, even if you are in the opposition, you are okay."

The other new council members are: Miss Lee Wai Leng, 24, a journalist in a private publishing company, Mr Yaw Shin Leong, 27, who is Mr Low's legislative assistant, WP activist Melvin Tan, 29, Ms Jane Leong, a managing director of a firm who is in her 40s, researcher James Gomez, 37, financial controller Tan Wui-Hua, 37 and Dr Poh Lee-Guan, 41, a training consultant.

New Paper: Opposition parties: Meet the next generation

In the last General Election, the Singapore People's Party and the Workers' Party were the only opposition parties to field winning candidates. None of their fresh faces triumphed - which must concern veteran leaders Chiam See Tong and Low Thia Khiang. Have the parties' young stars - and hopes of grooming new ones - grown in oomph since? DENYSE YEO speaks to one youngster from each party


They must first ask themselves basic questions like whether they love the country or not.
- Mr Yaw Shin Leong (above) of the Workers' Party, on how Singaporean youths should be 'politicised'

'The least he could do'

IN his well-pressed light blue Boss shirt, Mr Yaw Shin Leong looks every inch the Shenton Way yuppie.

However, the bespectacled 27-year-old is no banker or lawyer.

He is Hougang MP Low Thia Khiang's legislative assistant - and a proud, card-carrying Workers' Party (WP) member.

Mr Yaw ran in the last General Election.

His Aljunied GRC team, led by former Think Centre chief James Gomez, was disqualified from contesting against PAP's team led by Trade and Industry Minister George Yeo, because its nomination papers were not in order.

Since then, Mr Yaw has moved on to be the deputy organising secretary in the central executive committee and a town councillor with Hougang Town Council - all before reaching 30.

Mr Yaw became a party member in June 2001. He rose up its ranks two years after graduating with a degree in political science and sociology from the National University of Singapore, where he had been president of the Democratic Socialist Club.

A year before joining WP, he had also joined the Think Centre as a partner and project director.

The eloquent young man, who wears a floppy fringe and a commitment ring to his "very supportive" girlfriend, likens joining the party to "answering a national service call".

It was the "least he could do" to help address what he sees as the "dire state of political imbalance" here with a "one party-hegemony".

YOUTH NETWORK

Aside from helping Mr Low prepare for parliamentary sessions, Mr Yaw also has a hefty role as chairman of the Hougang Constituency Committee's Youth Action Committee, which tries to expand its youth network via social welfare and sports activities.

The 70 members are from all walks of life, and are "sincere and committed", said Mr Yaw. There is also an independent e-mail network of 350 non-member supporters.

The party tries to recruit young people by various means, such as through the open houses at the party's Jalan Besar headquarters every Monday, and at meet-the-people sessions.

So far, the response to this "youth outreach" programme has been "reasonable", although "more will be better".

Mr Yaw puts it down to the political apathy that he believes exists in Singapore. For instance, there are still people who say to him, 'Hey, don't waste your time'.

So, as a young opposition member, one way is to work towards the setting up of a dual-party system in Singapore.

He also feels that to "politicise" youths, politics cannot be seen as a high concept. "They must first ask themselves basic questions like whether they love the country or not."

Straits Times: Workers' Party member resigns from union post

He quits voluntarily after the sacking of another branch chairman by a union for his SDA ties, a move with which he disagrees

By AHMAD OSMAN

THE branch chairman of a National Trades Union Congress-affiliated union has quit his post voluntarily because of his membership in the Workers' Party.

Mr Melvin Tan, 29, said he left his position as he was shocked by the expulsion of opposition leader Muhamad Ali Aman, who was also branch chairman of another NTUC-affiliated union.

Mr Muhamad Ali, secretary-general of the four-party Singapore Democratic Alliance, was sacked by the executive council of the United Workers of Electronic and Electrical Industries (UWEEI) in early December.

He was accused of acting against the interests of the union, which supports the long-standing ties between the NTUC and the ruling People's Action Party.

Mr Tan, who disagreed with the sacking, disclosed yesterday that he resigned from his post as union branch chairman soon after Mr Muhamad Ali was forced out. "I don't agree with the UWEEI's stand. Before I joined the WP last year, I knew about the PAP-NTUC symbiotic relationship, but not the extent to which those ties would be enforced," he said.

"After Muhamad Ali's expulsion, I decided to resign because I did not feel comfortable staying on in my union post."

Mr Tan did not name the union which he had joined in 1998, but sources said it was the Singapore Manual and Mercantile Workers' Union and added that although he is no longer branch chairman, he remains a union member.

He did not declare his membership in the WP to the union because, he said, he was not required to do so under its constitution.

In Mr Muhamad Ali's case, UWEEI general secretary Cyrille Tan had said that PAP-NTUC ties were endorsed in a resolution passed at the labour movement's conference in 1980. The resolution was an undertaking by all NTUC affiliates to support its relationship with the PAP.

That support was reaffirmed at annual May Day rallies by the 65 affiliated trade unions, which represent some 400,000 workers here.

Mr Muhamad Ali has appealed against his expulsion and his case will be heard by the UWEEI's council of advisers today.

He was not the first unionist to be expelled because of ties with the opposition. In 1988, the Metal Industries Workers' Union threw out branch chairman M. Ramasamy, who was also leader of the Singapore Justice Party at that time, after he contested against the PAP in a general election.

TODAY: Workers' Party's website hacked

THE website of the Workers' Party, www.wp.org.sg, has come under attack twice in the last two days by a notorious Brazilian hacker group that call itself the Smurf_RedHat.

Early investigations showed that the website's password had been hacked.

The party's IT committee tracked the group to the Ir4Dex Deface Group, which was found to have used open proxy servers in Malaysia, South Korea and France to launch the attack.

"To them, it's like collecting trophies," a party official said. The party is monitoring if the hackers will attack again but said the website should be up by 6pm tomorrow. - Lee Ching Wern

TODAY: Birthday smiles and defiance

WP's birthday number

by Lee Ching Wern
chingwern@newstoday.com.sg


Workers' Party chief Low Thia Khiang, right, and Central Executive Committee member Dr Poh Lee Guan, left, at the celebration. - TODAY photo by ALVIN TOH

ANYONE entering Toa Payoh's Lucky Restaurant last Saturday night would have thought he had walked into a cosy family celebration.

Chinese music played softly in the background while people kept leaving their seats to shake hands with each other.

Only the flashing cameras and the throng of recorder-armed reporters hinted that this was not one of your run-of-the-mill birthday parties.

The Workers' Party was turning 45. Its leader, Mr Low Thia Khiang, was smiling broadly and other Opposition figures such as Mr Chiam See Tong were at hand to celebrate with him.

This usually tense and tight-lipped fraternity was completely relaxed.

"You know my daughter is a journalist," offered Mr Chiam, who doesn't always open up to the media.

The Potong Pasir MP then revealed that he had retired from his law practice last month. But, contrary to what some have speculated, he has every intention of running in the next election.

Non-Constituency MP Steve Chia, who had been criticised by columnist Ravi Veloo in this newspaper a couple of months back, said he had shrugged it off. "If you are going to be so sensitive to criticism, you shouldn't join opposition politics," he explained, saying that he was glad his response to the article was published in full.

Meanwhile, women members of WP, all wearing identical puffed sleeves, made a fashion statement. "We went shopping together at Toa Payoh to get this," laughed Ms Sylvia Lim, one of the party's latest recruits.

But the restaurant fell silent as WP, showing its embrace with technology, made a PowerPoint presentation of its history.

As sentimental background music played, dusty newspaper reports on its triumphs and disappointments were flashed on the big screen. Most of them referred to the one man who spurned the invitation to dinner that night. It was obvious, though, that the party's former chief, Mr JB Jeyaretnam, who has had a public falling out with Mr Low, would always be a part of WP's history.

His aggressive style, though, may have left the stage with him. Mr Low agreed that there seemed to be a greater convergence of views between the PAP and opposition parties.

"Is the PAP moving closer to the Opposition ... or is the Opposition leaning towards PAP?" asked Mr Low. "The Workers' Party will confront when necessary ... but we must not lose sight of the national interest. Our role is that of a watchdog. We do not propose to be a mad dog," he said.

All the six new central executive committee members introduced at the dinner - Dr Poh Lee Guan, Mr James Gomez, Mr Yaw Shin Leong, Mr Tan Wui Hua and Ms Sylvia Lim - are young educated professionals. So expect WP to field a team to contest in a GRC at the next polls, said Mr Low.

He said he had once asked Senior Minister Lee Kuan Yew if he was certain that there would never be a PAP Government that might squander national reserves. SM Lee responded that while he could say he knew Mr Low, he couldn't say how Mr Low's son or grandson would turn out.

In other words, no one could predict the future. In that spirit, Mr Low said his party would continue to provide choices. "We fall, we stand up and move on - and 45 years of holding up is no small feat," he said.

Streats: Ready for hell

New Workers' Party cadre willing to lose all to stand up for what she believes in

By Yong Hui Mien


'I have no regrets joining WP. The path ahead is very uncertain, but I will regret more if I did not take that step to join.' - Ms Lim

WHEN law lecturer Sylvia Lim Swee Lian, 37, decided to join the Workers' Party, she resigned herself to two things: She might find herself in jail one day and she might be declared a bankrupt.

And when her friends learnt she was entering opposition politics, they too advised her to get her personal finances in order, just in case.

Even her father joked that she would land up in the lock-up one day, she said. While such thinking might be a major reason why so few Singaporeans join opposition political parties, Ms Lim, the WP's new cadre, said yesterday she was prepared to go to jail or through hell to uphold her beliefs.

Nothing will stand between her and her convictions, she said in an interview with Streats.

And one conviction is that there is an urgent need for diverse voices in the opposition camp.

"Nobody encouraged me to join politics," she said. "Who would? This is Singapore, you know."

Recalling her former job as a police inspector from 1991 to 1994, she said: "I have seen what can happen to people sometimes, like lawsuits and bankruptcies.

"I know what the score is. We only live life once and I refuse to live in fear. That's my philosophy."

Ms Lim, who is single, joined the WP soon after the General Election last November.

The spunky law lecturer at Temasek Polytechnic decided to join the opposition party after the PAP took 75 per cent of the seats at the election. WP's leader, Mr Low Thia Khiang, won in Hougang.

She recalled: "I sent a card to congratulate Mr Low after the General Election, along with a donation for the party. I also expressed my interest to contribute to the party. When he called me back, I was very excited, but I couldn't answer the phone because I was teaching a class. We met later in Tampines.

"I think he wanted to size me up - to see if I was a lunatic or if I have any personal agenda for wanting to join the party."

Besides being a council member in the party's policy-making central executive committee, Ms Lim is also the chairman of the WP's Party Vision Manifestal Committee and a member of the Policy and Current Affairs Committee.

Being in the opposition doesn't mean being being anti-PAP, she stressed.

"We are not here to bring down the Government. It's not our intention. They have been doing all right the past few years.

"I am aware of the broad government concerns, like I can see their operational considerations. This gives me a balanced view. I have become more realistic in my expectations."

But more can be done, she added.

"The WP has always been speaking for working class and the less well-off. I agree with this platform."

She and five other new WP members who joined since last June will be introduced at an anniversary dinner on Nov 16.

---

She got me thinking

Comment
By YONG HUI MIEN

AS a typically apathetic third-generation, or 3G, Singaporean, I have never felt excited about local politics.

It didn't help that my constituency, Pasir Ris-Punggol GRC, had a walkover in the last General Election.

We complain that the political scene is one-sided but we do nothing about it. And we expect someone else to do the dirty job of championing our rights.

But my meeting yesterday with Ms Sylvia Lim, 37, a new Workers' Party cadre, set me thinking and made me somewhat ashamed of my apathy.

At the end of our hour-long chat, I went away impressed with her.

I was particularly touched by her willingness to sacrifice her privacy and her time.

That someone ensconced in a secure, well-paying job as a law lecturer is willing to brave all odds and fight the mighty machinery of the PAP is in itself admirable.

Ms Lim is currently sacrificing her weekends to pore over tedious parliamentary bills to help WP leader Low Thia Khiang prepare for debates in the House.

If she becomes a party election candidate one day, she will have to do much more - keep in touch with Singaporeans and carry out a myriad of party programmes.

I admire her guts. Rightly or wrongly, she believes there are dangers in opposition politics, yet she is going ahead, come hell or high water.

Why does she bother?

Ms Lim said the PAP's one-party voice in Parliament is too strong. There must be diverse voices. She hopes more younger Singaporeans will follow her steps and enter the arena.

Straits Times: WP grooming new faces ahead of next election

Underlining its push for self-renewal, it has in place a team with newcomers such as a lecturer and a financial controller

By AHMAD OSMAN


AZIZ HUSSIN
A wish to help the opposition prompted Ms Lim to join the WP. It's a matter of conscience, she says.


WONG KWAI CHOW   STREATS
Newcomers Mr Tan (left) and Mr Yaw hope to boost the WP's chances at the next GE.

GOING into its 45th year next month, the Workers' Party (WP) is pushing ahead with self-renewal and injecting new blood way before the next General Election (GE), which is due only in 2007.

A law lecturer, Ms Sylvia Lim, 37, and a financial controller, Mr Tan Wui-Hua, 36, are newcomers among the 14 members in the policy-making central executive committee led by Mr Low Thia Khiang.

The WP secretary-general and MP for Hougang is also beefing up his support with not one, but two assistant secretary-generals.

Besides training consultant Poh Lee-Guan, 40, who contested the Nee Soon East seat in the last GE, Mr Low also has researcher James Gomez, 36, as his other right-hand man.

Mr Gomez was instrumental in drafting the party's last election platform, emphasising the strains on the "new poor" in Singapore.

Another newcomer, Mr Yaw Shin Leong, 26, the deputy organising secretary, is also Mr Low's legislative assistant.

Both Mr Gomez and Mr Yaw were part of a WP team who tried to contest in the Aljunied GRC in the last election, but were disqualified because their nomination papers were not in order.

The new team will be introduced to members at an anniversary dinner on Nov 16, during which highlights of the WP's history since 1957 will be shown.

Said Mr Low, 46, who took over the reins of the WP in May last year: "We must bring in new blood. You must build an organisation, a team, rather than an individual."

The new members have updated the look of the party organ, The Hammer. And they are using it and the party's website to disseminate views and information on party activities.

His priority, Mr Low said, was to ensure that the party was not associated with just one man, as it was with its first leader, Mr David Marshall and, later, lawyer J.B. Jeyaretnam, who quit the party just before the last GE.

Ten other members quit along with him, but the membership base is still dominated by older people.

Mr Low declined to talk about an ongoing legal suit against the party by Mr Jeyaretnam, who is now a bankrupt raising money to pay off debts incurred from fighting court cases.

Contacted by The Straits Times, Ms Lim, a former police inspector and lawyer, said the People's Action Party's (PAP) victory in the last GE in November with 75 per cent of the total votes prompted her to join the WP after the polls.

After seeing how strapped the opposition was in its fight against the PAP in that election, she decided it was time for her to do something "as a matter of conscience".

Ms Lim, who is single and lectures at Temasek Polytechnic, helps Mr Low prepare for parliamentary debates by reviewing Bills presented by the Government to Parliament.

"Sometimes, I feel some of the laws are very widely drafted. Past experience has shown that, sometimes, the net may be cast too wide, which may have effects nobody intended," she said.

Mr Tan, who works in a real estate investment company, has three postgraduate and graduate degrees in accounting, business administration and mathematics.

He is the WP's deputy treasurer and wants to contribute ideas addressing issues like the factors stunting Singapore's economic growth.

Before the last election, expressing his wish to join the party, he wrote in an e-mail message to Mr Low: "Let's put our heads together.

"If we can come up with something good, let's try it out. If we can win the trust of the people and do something, at least in our lifetime, we can say that is an achievement."

---

'No point wishing for a strong and credible opposition if one is not prepared to so anything.'
- Law lecturer Sylvia Lim, in an article in The Hammer entitled Stand Up For Singapore

Straits Times: Workers' Party slams proposal to raise GST

The Workers' Party (WP) has slammed the proposal to raise the Goods and Services Tax (GST) from 3 per cent to 5 per cent, saying that this will hit the poor hardest and is merely a means to ensure that the Government has a steady source of revenue.

While Mr Low Thia Khiang, the party's chief, noted that the proposal would help offset the revenue lost through proposed cuts in personal income and corporate taxes, he also asked: "Is the loss in revenue from the cuts so significant that GST must be increased?"

"And should this be done at a time when people are already facing hardship?"

The Economic Review Committee, which suggested the hike in GST, has suggested bringing the corporate tax rate, now at 24.5 per cent, and top marginal income tax rate, now at 26 per cent, down to 20 per cent within three years.

This is to make Singapore more attractive as a place to do business and work, and create more jobs.

But Mr Low noted yesterday that with tax rebates of 15 per cent, the effective top marginal tax rate has already been cut to 22.1 per cent in the last calender year.

The cuts in corporate and personal income tax benefit only businesses and high-income earners, not the two-thirds of workers in Singapore who do not pay these direct taxes, he said.

While rebates to cushion the impact of the increased GST have been promised, they are only temporary measures, he argued.

He suggested that the Government look at other ways to reduce costs. One way would be by reviewing its own expenditure on projects and buildings, which are sometimes "even more posh than five-star facilities".

He also asked if the Government's objective in raising the GST was to ensure a steady income for itself, to make up for the loss in revenue caused by lower corporate and income taxes, regardless of the state of the economy.

"The GST is therefore a tax instrument to ensure that the Government will continue to have a source of income from the people regardless of whether the economy is doing well or badly; it is a weapon which does not bother with whether our people are facing hardship or not."

Mr Tharman Shanmugaratnam, Senior Minister of State (Trade and Industry, and Education), who announced the tax proposals on Thursday, described the WP statement as "not unexpected" last night.

"We need to ask ourselves why we are proposing to cut taxes, why we are proposing to raise the GST. Why would we want to do something unless it was in the interest of Singaporeans?"

Singapore needed bold action or jobs will go and wages decline, hurting the lower-income most, he said. "We've got to address the issue forthrightly, not shrink from it or get caught up in a divisive argument of whether this is to benefit one group more than the other."

As for the WP's claim that the GST increase was a merely a tool to ensure a "steady income" for the Government, he said: "It is a predictable response and ignores the very grave situation we are in, and the grave responsibility that we have in getting Singapore going again."

Straits Times: Hougang voters wanted me, and upgrading: Low

THE MORNING AFTER

They handed him a victory, but at a smaller margin because they want to see their flats upgraded as the PM promised, says WP chief

By AHMAD OSMAN

MANY voters in Hougang wanted to have the "best of both worlds".

They wanted to have Workers' Party (WP) chief Low Thia Khiang as their MP and enjoy upgrading at the same time.

That is why they trimmed his winning margin from 58 to 55 per cent, Mr Low told reporters yesterday after his victory parade in Hougang.

On Saturday, he was re-elected as MP for the ward for the third time, beating Mr Eric Low of the People's Action Party.

Before Polling Day, the Prime Minister had asked voters to cut overall support for the WP in Hougang from 58 to 52 per cent.

Mr Goh Chok Tong had said that if 45 per cent of the voters in any Hougang precinct voted for the PAP, he would consider that precinct for upgrading.

"The ball is in the PM's court now. The voters in Hougang have responded to his request. Is he going to keep his promise?" asked the WP secretary-general.

He said that he did not know if bookies taking bets on the outcome of the polls had helped to swing votes against him.

But he made it plain that the polling results would not hurt the WP's efforts to recruit younger Singaporeans who believe an opposition must be part of Singapore's political landscape.

The issue of whether Singaporeans want an opposition was not settled conclusively in this election because there had been other factors at play, he argued.

The economic downturn, for example, had made people more uncertain about voting for opposition candidates, he said.

And before the polls, he noted, his party had been bogged down by defamation suits against its former chief, Mr J.B. Jeyaretnam, and had not been able to begin working the ground as early as it should have.

During the hustings, the PAP tried to tie him down in Hougang and reduce the time he could spend helping Dr Poh Lee-Guan, the WP assistant secretary-general, who was defeated by Associate Professor Ho Peng Kee in Nee Soon East.

But he said that the voters in Hougang knew he did his best to serve them and was not the type to carry out a last-minute door-to-door campaign "to beg for votes" during an election.

"I don't do that," Mr Low said, adding: "I do my regular things and leave it to the people to decide in an election."

Mr Low said Dr Poh, who got 26 per cent of the valid votes, was new to politics and had had only nine days to campaign.

But the latter had to face the firepower of all the PAP's big guns, including Senior Minister Lee Kuan Yew, he said, adding: "Why is there a need for all the big guns, including SM, to... go down to the ground?"

Dr Poh, who accompanied Mr Low on his victory parade yesterday, said he was happy with the result in the new single-seat ward of Nee Soon East, where his party had performed "pretty well" despite the challenges it had faced.

Asked whether he was prepared to stand with Mr Low in a group representation constituency in the next election, he replied: "We really have to ask the question again: What do the people of Singapore want?"

"We will see what we can do, add value to and contribute. The rules of engagement will remain the same. We will be responsible and constructive."