Addressing the Annual Public Service Management Ceremony on Wednesday (September 18), Senior Minister Lee Hsien Loong cautioned about the risks of a extra fiercely contested political surroundings.
“It will become harder to disregard short-term considerations in decision-making. The political dynamics will become very different,” he stated.
In the meantime, the opposition is on a roll, and with recent faces like Senior Counsel Harpreet Singh Nehal becoming a member of the Employees’ Party (WP), the Individuals’s Motion Party (PAP) may need causes to fret.
Who’s Harpreet Singh?
Harpreet Singh is at the moment the co-managing accomplice of Audent Chambers, a boutique legislation agency he based in 2019. As a Senior Counsel, he is recognised as considered one of Singapore’s high authorized professionals, a title bestowed on solely 98 people by the Singapore Academy of Legislation.
Different outstanding Senior Counsel in politics embody Okay Shanmugam, the Minister for Residence Affairs and Minister for Legislation, and Edwin Tong, the Minister for Tradition, Group and Youth and Second Minister for Legislation.
Harpreet’s entry into politics was nothing wanting extraordinary. At simply 30 years outdated, he publicly confronted then-Senior Minister Lee Kuan Yew throughout a televised discussion board on the Singapore Dream in 1996. He raised issues about the perceived lack of resilience in Singapore’s “post-independence generation,” of which he was a component.
Whereas Harpreet was not initially focused on a political profession, his outlook has modified. In a latest interview with Jom, he expressed his readiness to face for the opposition Employees’ Party (WP) in Singapore’s subsequent Common Election (GE), due by November 2025.
Why did he be part of the Employees’ Party?
Harpreet Singh’s political journey is compelling, significantly provided that he as soon as sought to affix the ranks of the PAP. Previous to the 2006 GE, he aspired to put on the celebration’s signature white, as he believed that PAP supplied an opportunity to do good.
With Lee Hsien Loong newly appointed as Prime Minister and calling for better openness, Harpreet was drawn to the celebration’s extra “liberal voices”, similar to Tharman Shanmugaratnam, Raymond Lim, and former nominated Members of Parliament (MPs) like Kanwaljit Soin and Braema Mathi, whom he drastically revered.
Although he didn’t make the lower, Harpreet revealed in the interview with Jom that his political views haven’t modified since then. He additionally utilized to be a nominated MP in 2007, after he grew to become a Senior Counsel, however was once more not chosen.
Harpreet’s disillusionment with the PAP grew in the 2010s, as the celebration’s vote share plummeted from 75.3 per cent in the 2001 GE to 61.2 per cent by 2020. He believes {that a} pivotal second for the PAP got here once they selected to not choose Tharman as Lee’s successor.
In keeping with him, the political panorama grew to become “more hostile” to unbiased, important thought from that time, including that he had recognized troubling indicators of authoritarianism over the previous decade below Lee.
I simply don’t see the system evolving…I simply don’t see this factor self-correcting. It’s moved thus far down in a rightward path that anybody hoping for change to come back from inside the PAP goes to be dissatisfied.
– Harpreet Singh Nehal
A “big fish” for the Employees’ Party
Harpreet Singh, mentored by former PAP MP Davinder Singh throughout his time at Drew & Napier, brings an insider’s understanding of Singapore’s political institution to the opposition. His connections with key institution figures and his determination to affix the WP have led some on-line commentators to label him a “big fish” for the WP.
In 2021, Harpreet started volunteering alongside former WP MP Leon Perera at group occasions. Whereas his disappointment with the PAP deepened, WP impressed him.
Leon Perera describes Harpreet as a “conviction politician”—somebody pushed by the need to enhance issues for future generations, prepared to take a position time and vitality, and able to take dangers with the intention to give again to the nation.
In a Could commentary titled “Should Singaporeans vote for a stronger opposition?”, Harpreet outlined his imaginative and prescient for the city-state: political plurality, together with extra numerous viewpoints main to raised policy-making, better political engagement, fostering open-mindedness and creativity to bolster a information economic system.
Harpreet’s WP walkabouts have additionally formed his understanding of Singapore’s evolving socio-economic panorama additional. He has been significantly struck by what number of, particularly Chinese language households, aren’t fluent in English and are disconnected from higher alternatives.
This perception has fueled his concepts for neighbourhood studying packages, and he champions for a extra inclusive schooling system.
Harpreet’s pro-bono work, on the different hand, showcases his dedication to defending the underdog, from representing a childhood pal in a landmark Constitutional case to advocating for homosexual rights, together with his involvement in the 2022 repeal of S377A.
Regardless of his work on S377A, Harpreet isn’t simply categorised as far left. Whereas he opposes the obligatory dying penalty, he doesn’t help its full abolition. As a substitute, he believes in judicial discretion.
In terms of freedom of speech and meeting, he believes in additional open discussions on delicate matters like race and faith, but he’s nonetheless cautious of points like the Israel-Palestine battle, involved about the issue of managing discourse that might spiral uncontrolled.
With Harpreet becoming a member of the WP, the opposition may stand an actual probability of profitable 4 or extra further Group Illustration Constituencies (GRCs) at the subsequent GE.
In 2011, WP gained Aljunied, with Chen Present Mao carrying the Party to its first GRC victory, and in 2022, the celebration gained Sengkang GRC, with Jamus Lim shifting the electoral votes over.
Will 2025 see the WP clinch one other GRC, with the Senior Counsel poised to make an identical distinction?
Learn different articles we’ve written about Singapore affairs right here.
Featured Picture Credit score: Harpreet Singh Nehal
