When a fresh-faced Workers’ Party team in Sengkang, a new town in the northeast of Singapore, won the popular vote in 2020, ousting a cabinet minister who was slated to become part of the next generation of leaders, resident Maideen Abdul Kader was shocked.
But Maideen, who recalled his primary school being used as a polling station in 1959 when the ruling People’s Action Party (PAP) began its uninterrupted reign in the city state, is not holding his breath for the multi-seat constituency to be won back by the PAP.
“Nowadays young people feel their demands aren’t satisfied. They also lose nothing if they vote for the opposition, so the mentality is ‘why not just try, nothing to lose’,” said 75-year-old Maideen, a retired accountant who has lived in Sengkang for 25 years.
In the last election, the Workers’ Party team comprising He Ting Ru, Jamus Lim, Louis Chua and Raeesah Khan garnered 52.12 per cent of the vote resulting in a shock victory against a PAP team that included labour chief Ng Chee Meng, then a minister in the Prime Minister’s Office.
Ng told local media outlet The Straits Times earlier this month that running in the coming election was “on the table” and he was prepared if asked.
While Ng has not been revealed as one of the PAP’s representatives in Sengkang, the party has switched its line-up of representatives in Sengkang East three times in as many years.
