10 Facts About Workers’ Party, Which Now Has 10 Elected MPs in Parliament

If you had followed the live news of the results of this year’s General Election last night, or you’ve taken a look at our detailed articles on who won the seats for the GRC or SMC constituencies, you would have known that the People’s Action Party (PAP) won 83 seats in parliament while the Workers’ Party (WP) managed to secure the remaining 10 seats in parliament.

This is surprising because this is an increase from the six seats that they previously won in GE2015.

But while we all know quite a bit about Singapore’s ruling party, PAP, how many of us can say that we know everything about the opposition party, WP?

Well, here’s a list of facts about WP that is sure to make you slightly more knowledgeable in terms of general knowledge than your friends.

1. Biggest Opposition Party In Singapore

In case you didn’t know, WP is actually the biggest opposition party in Singapore. After all, it did win 10 seats in parliament.

Furthermore, it is the only opposition party that has representation in the parliament that is pretty much dominated by PAP since 1991.

Even in the 2015 General Election, they secured 6 out of 89 seats in parliament and had 3 Non-Constituency Members of Parliament (NCMP).

Don’t know what an NCMP is? Here, watch this video and you’d understand:

2. Hougang SMC Seat Won Since 1991

If you’re not a resident of Hougang, you probably wouldn’t have known that the seat in Hougang SMC has been held by a WP Member of Parliament (MP) since 1991.

During the 1991 General Elections, former secretary-general of WP, Low Thia Khiang, went against the ruling PAP and won the seat in Hougang SMC.

Low then went on to serve the residents of Hougang for the next 20 years, before he passed his baton to fellow party member Yaw Shin Leong to contest for the seat in 2011.

Clearly, the residents of Hougang loved what WP had brought about for them, as they continued to vote them into power over PAP. Yaw managed to defeat PAP candidate Desmond Choo.

However, due to allegations that he was involved in an extramarital affair, Yaw was expelled from WP in February of 2012, so a by-election was held a few months later in May. WP’s Png Eng Huat was sent to contest and he retained the seat in Hougang SMC by garnering 62.08% of the vote.

Png served from 2012 to 2020 before he passed the baton on to WP’s Dennis Tan, who then also retained the seat after garnering 61.19% of the votes.

Yes, a hammer has been planted in Hougang since 1991.

3. The First To Unseat PAP In A GRC

During the 2011 General Election when Low decided to pass the baton for the seat in Hougang SMC to Yaw, he and his team which consisted of Pritam Singh, Muhamad Faisal Bin Abdul Manap, Chen Show Mao, and Sylvia Lim contested for the seats in Aljunied GRC.

In a surprising turn of events, the seats that were previously held by PAP from 1984 to 2011 were lost to WP.

This was the first time in history that an opposition party unseated PAP in a GRC.

Since then, Aljunied GRC has been under the jurisdiction of WP.

4. WP Might Have Won More Seats In 1997 & 2001

Back in 1997, there were reports that WP might have won the Eunos and Kaki Bukit wards of the Eunos GRC after such a close fight with PAP.

Redrawing of the electoral districts by the Elections Department caused Eunos GRC to be absorbed into Aljunied GRC and the brand new East Coast GRC for the 1997 General Election.

Similarly, in 2001, WP seemed to be quite popular amongst the residents of the Punggol East and Punggol South divisions of the Cheng San GRC.

However, Cheng San GRC was later absorbed into Ang Mo Kio GRC, Pasir Ris-Punggol GRC, and Aljunied GRC.

Of course, the redrawing of the electoral districts was attributed to further developments in the various areas, but because of the lack of clarity in the separation of power between the Prime Minister’s Office and the Elections Department, WP has called out the ruling party for gerrymandering, which is basically the use of “unfair electoral practices to maintain significant majorities in the Parliament of Singapore.”

5. First Woman To Win A By-Election Was From WP

During the 2011 General Election, WP’s Lee Li Lian and PAP’s Michael Palmer contested for the seat in Punggol East SMC. Ultimately, Palmer won and he took the seat.

However, in 2012, Palmer, who was also the Speaker of Parliament, resigned from his seat after allegations of his involvement in an extramarital affair. This resulted in a by-election and WP’s Lee Li Lian was called upon by WP to once again contest for the seat.

She was subsequently voted into power and became the first woman in Singapore to win a by-election.

Not that there’s a lot of by-elections, but still, it’s an achievement.

Follow us on Telegram for more informative & easy-to-read articles, or download the Goody Feed app for articles you can’t find on Facebook!

6. First Opposition Party To Win Multiple GRCs In A Single General Election

As you would have already known, most of the seats in GRCs are usually won by the incumbent PAP.

Over the years, many opposition parties, including WP, have tried to contest for the various seats in GRCs, but to no avail.

However, things were a little different in this year’s General Election.

After winning seats in Aljunied GRC and the newly formed Sengkang GRC, WP has become the first opposition party in Singapore to win multiple GRCs in a single general election.

Two is also considered multiple, right?

7. Changed Uniform Colour To Light Blue During Political Campaigning & Canvassing

During political campaigning and canvassing, you would have seen many of the parties in their own respective uniforms.

However, did you know that it was only recently that WP changed the colour of their uniform to light blue?

The reason for this change was to better represent the relationship that the party and the working-class blue-collar workers have. It also represents the support that the party has for them.

A blue-collar worker is someone who does manual labour, and it can be both skilled and unskilled labour.

8. Chen Show Mao Was The First Foreign-Born Opposition MP 

Chen Show Mao is a Singaporean politician and lawyer who was born in Pingtung, Taiwan. He moved to Singapore at the age of 11 and finished his primary, secondary, and tertiary education in Singapore.

By then, he had become a Singapore Permanent Resident (PR), so he went on to serve National Service (NS).

Afterwards, he pursued his undergraduate studies and graduated from Harvard University in 1986 with a degree in economics and from Corpus Christi College, Oxford in 1988, where he was a Rhodes Scholar.

1986 was also the year that Chen gained Singapore citizenship.

He received his Juris Doctor from Stanford Law School in 1992 and went on to receive his Master of Arts from Corpus Christi College, Oxford in 2005.

Despite being abroad a lot, he still made time to return back to Singapore to visit his family.

During the 2011 General Elections, Chen faced a lot of heat after it was announced that he was contesting for a seat in Aljunied GRC along with Low Thia Khiang, Sylvia Lim, Pritam Singh, and Muhamad Faisal Abdul Manap.

Ng Eng Hen, PAP’s Organising Secretary and Minister for Education, questioned Chen’s motives for joining politics and whether he was even capable of understanding the aspirations of the common folk of Singapore since he spent most of his time after his education in the United States and China.

PAP’s co-founder and former Prime Minister Lee Kuan Yew also implied that Chen could always fly back to China if he were to lose the election.

Despite these setbacks, Chen maintained a low profile as he continued to interact with Singaporeans with bits of Malay and Hokkien thrown into his speeches to prove that he was a true-blue Singaporean.

When the results of the 2011 General Election was released, Chen and his WP team won the seats in Aljunied GRC and he became the first foreign-born opposition MP in Singapore.

He, together with Low Thia Khiang and Png Eng Huat, decided not to run for re-election this year.

9. Sylvia Lim Was The First Female Opposition MP

Sylvia Lim is a Singaporean politician, criminal lawyer and academic. She first joined WP in 2001 and quickly became the Chairman of the party in 2003 thanks to her capabilities.

She led her team to contest for the seats in Aljunied GRC in the 2006 General Election but lost to PAP after garnering only 43.9% of the votes.

However, since this was the highest percentage of the votes among the losers during that general election, WP was offered the opportunity to select one of their members to be an NCMP.

Lim was selected and she went on to serve from 2006 to 2011.

In 2011, she joined her fellow WP members in contesting for the seats in Aljunied GRC once again. This time, the party emerged victorious and Lim became the female opposition MP in Singapore.

10. Muhamad Faisal Manap Was The First Malay Opposition MP

Muhamad Faisal Manap is a Singaporean politician who joined WP in 2011.

Prior to that, he graduated from Monash University in 2005 with a Bachelor of Science in Psychology.

After he joined WP, he rose to the position of the vice-Chairman. As a minority candidate, he joined his fellow WP members in contesting the seats in Aljunied GRC and ended up winning. He then became the first Malay opposition MP.