Who’s Leon Perera, The Workers’ Party MP Who’s Been Quiet So Far?

Just a week ago, the names Leon Perera and Cheng Li Hui were hardly household names. Fast forward to yesterday, and Cheng Li Hui was the star of Google, with over half a million searches to her name.

If they were influencers, they’d be over the moon, probably flooding their Instagram stories with shoutouts and follow requests.

But nope, they’re not influencers. They’re politicians, and they’re caught in a whirlwind of scandal.

While it’s confirmed that Tan Chuan-jin and Cheng Li Hui were playing footsie under the table, Leon Perera has been as silent as a library since a video that looks a lot like him getting a bit too friendly with another man’s wife surfaced.

Word on the street is, he didn’t turn up on a scheduled Meet-the-people session yesterday (17 July 2023).

You can bet your last dollar that we’ll be hearing more about him soon.

So, who exactly is this Leon Perera?

The Life and Times of Leon Perera

Born in the year 1970, the 53-year-old is a family man, with a wife and two kids, a daughter and a son.

Before he jumped into the political arena, he was a big shot in civil society. He was a committee member of local human rights organization Maruah, served as Vice President of migrant worker rights organization HOME, and was an adviser to alternative news website The Independent.

He kick-started his career as a Senior Officer with the Singapore Economic Development Board’s International Business Development Division, where he first served in the policy planning function, supporting Singapore’s regional investments.

He later climbed the ladder to serve as Assistant Head in the EDB’s Enterprise Development Division, where he played a key role in the growth of large Singaporean companies in the service sector, spanning from logistics, education and healthcare, to IT services, engineering and retail.

Mr Perera then hopped over to Asia Market Intelligence Business Consulting, where he set up their Singapore office.

In the year 2000, he co-founded Spire Research and Consulting with Koh Ee Mei, and served as its CEO from 2000 to 2021. He currently sits as its Chairman.

The firm specializes in research and consulting, and is now majority owned by the Yamada Consulting Group, a publicly listed firm in Japan.

The Political Journey of Leon Perera

Currently, apart from being an MP in Aljunied GRC, Perera is a key player in the Workers’ Party Central Executive Committee, and is the Media Team Head of the party.

Before he threw his hat in the ring as a candidate, Mr Perera was a Workers’ Party grassroots activist in the Paya Lebar ward of Aljunied GRC.

During the 2015 general election, Mr Perera was part of a four-member team of the Worker’s Party that contested in East Coast GRC. His team received 39.27% of the votes cast, with the governing People’s Action Party taking home the win with 60.73% of votes. The Workers’ Party team was the best performing opposition team, which meant one of the team members was eligible to take up a Non-constituency Member of Parliament (NCMP) seat.

The Workers’ Party thus nominated Mr Perera to be a NCMP in Parliament.

During the 2020 general election, both Low Thia Kiang and Chen Show Mao stepped down as Member of Parliament for Aljunied GRC. Mr Perera joined the five-member Workers’ Party team contesting in Aljunied GRC and they won with 59.95% of the vote.

As a result, Mr Perera became an elected Member of Parliament representing the Serangoon ward of Aljunied GRC in Parliament.

So, he’s got two terms under his belt: one as an NCMP and one as an MP.

That is…if he’s serving the full term this Parliament lah.