Terence Lee
In this third installment of our “Youth in Politics” series, we speak to Koh Choong Yong and Ng Swee Bee, President and Vice-President of the Worker’s Party Youth Wing.
Don’t expect rabble-rousing politics from the Worker’s Party of today. Unlike the late JB Jeyaretnam, who was nicknamed “The Tiger” for his unrestrained election rally speeches and rambunctious attacks on the PAP government, the party is set on treading the careful path.
(The ExCo. From left: Chelsea Lu, Frieda Chan, Ng Swee Bee, Nathaniel Koh, Tan Thuan Tong, Koh Choong Yong, Alfred Ng, Bernard Chen / Courtesy of the Worker’s Party Youth Wing. Not in photo: Aaron Peng, Koh Chee Wei, Jamilah Lim Bt Md Lutfi Lim)
At least, the Worker’s Party seems adamant about avoiding the bevy of defamation suits suffered by its former Secretary-General.
And if The Online Citizen’s e-mail interview with its Youth Wing leaders is any indication, such an approach seems to be its future as well.
Mr Koh Choong Yong, who is 36 years old but “born” in 2006 as a result of the unfairness he felt at the General Elections against the opposition, is unapologetic about it.
When asked how he would respond to criticisms that the party is too mild, he said: “There are many labels critics give [to the Worker's Party], but we are sure you won’t find that any of them can call [the party] not credible and be able to back that claim up.”
The President of the Youth Wing added: “The Worker’s Party of yesteryear was less ‘mild’, but it only took the party to a certain point. We believe the current approach of taking the cautious path to build up its strength will be more beneficial to Singaporeans in the long term.”
Both Mr Koh, and 28-year-old Ng Swee Bee, who is the Vice-President, were appointed to their posts in August this year to facilitate leadership renewal.
The Online Citizen (TOC): It was mentioned on the party website that the last elections motivated you to join politics. Are there specific experiences that you’d like to share that ultimately led to that decision?
Choong Yong (CY): My interest in local politics is more of a gradual build-up, with many factors influencing me to learn more about it bit by bit. However, if I am to pin it down to a specific trigger point which catalysed my decision to contribute [it] is the fact that I finally had the opportunity to vote after 33 years of living in walkover constituencies. This motivated me to attend rallies from the different parties: WP, PAP and another party to know more about them. Along the way, I also learnt about the huge imbalance in the decision-making process in Parliament, where every bill can be bulldozed by the mere fact of the numbers of ruling party MPs in it.
Added to this is the fact that I began to learn about the problem of Peak Oil (and the related problem of Global Warming and Climate Change) earlier on in 2006, and I felt that something needed to be done about it. It became an obvious next course-of-action for me: to contribute my effort and time to help reduce the imbalance and eventually help make the needed changes happen.
Swee Bee (SB): I joined the party in 2003 and was Mr Low’s Election Agent for the last election. When I joined the party, I was hoping to be more involved in social activities through the HGCC (Hougang Constituency Committee). But later I became more involved in the party level activities as I feel that there is a very thin line between politics and social activism as both aim to serve and benefit the populace as a whole. Political action is necessary to effect political changes and policies, which include social policies.
TOC: Choon Yong, congratulations on being appointed the new president of the Youth Wing in August. What are your vision and goals for the Youth Wing?
CY: Thank you. I am a more hands-on person rather than a vision or goal person, so I don’t have a flowery statement on such things. My belief is that the Youth Wing’s main role is to help engage younger Singaporeans, so that we will be able to attract younger members who might be the party leaders tomorrow. Its secondary role is to show Singapore youth that politics is not something that is confined to older people, and youngsters can and should be part of this process, whether inside or outside a political party.
TOC: Swee Bee, it seems that most politicians in Singapore and abroad are male. What are your personal thoughts on this?
SB: I think it is just an “old” mindset that needs to be educated [sic] and changed. This thinking is the same as the olden days’ thinking that females should stay at home to be housewives. However I am confident that in time to come there will be more females coming forward to become politicians. Of course, the main issue is not about more male or female politicians as this is just numbers to me.
TOC: Why did you choose to join the Worker’s Party over the other opposition parties?
CY: A primary reason is that the Worker’s Party fielded the most numbers of candidates in the last General Elections, and to me (as a member of the public at that time) it was a more credible party. I was impressed by candidates from the Worker’s Party. The second reason is that the party contested in the constituency I lived in during during the last Elections, and I felt that I should join the party that was “responsible” for my political awakening.
SB: I am a Hougang Resident and saw for myself the quality of a constituency under a Worker’s Party MP.
TOC: List two of the most important public policy issues in Singapore that you think needs change. What recommendations would you make?
CY: The first would be energy policy. It is a given fact that fossil fuels are faced with two challenges: Firstly, a finite amount that is not renewable and secondly, higher CO2 emissions that contributes to the Global Warming problem. There is a commendable effort in recent years to change the local fuel mix such that approximately 80% of the fuel used for power generation is natural gas, which emits less CO2 when compared to other fossil fuels.
On the other hand, the price of natural gas in this part of the world is tagged [to] the price of fuel oil, which is ever increasing due to the fact that it is not renewable. This directly impacts the households in Singapore with increasing electricity tariffs which saw only a slight breather during last year’s economic crisis. There was some mention of building coal-fired power plants when Tuas Power was sold, as coal is a much cheaper fuel, but it is also a much [more] dirty fuel with high levels of carbon emission.
My recommendation for this is to make early plans and conscious efforts to gradually reduce our reliance on fossil fuel. Left to the free market forces currently in place in our liberalised energy market, it is without a doubt that large scale investments in renewable energy will not be looked at with the current high costs of implementation.
The commonly cited reasons for not relying more on renewable energy is our location and land size, but with advances in technology, these will be small obstacles in the future. The key thing is for the government to take the lead in making infrastructure investments in renewable energy. These investments may be expensive today, but with the increasing price of crude oil, they will be looked upon as relatively cheap early investment on hindsight. The profits gained by the current energy-related companies still under the government’s control (they should not have sold some of them in the first place) should be used to finance these investments.
My second concern is with food security. We currently import most of our food from overseas. Local production of food is limited to mainly fish, eggs, vegetables and chicken, which constitute a low percentage of the total amount of such food consumed here. It is already estimated that with Climate Change and the increasing price of crude oil, food prices will remain high going forward. There was a recent announcement of a Food Diversification Fund and Food Capability Development Fund, worth a total of $5 million to enhance local food supply. However, the news report seem to suggest that these funds are for the refinement of farming methods of current food types like fish farming. There needs to be a separate effort to increase the food type in local production.
SB: Education is a concern for me. I feel that our education system is still too “ranking and scoring” based. Though the government is making improvements on this, most parents’ mindset are still not changed as I think there is a lack of the education process [or] parents. They should be educated that ranking and scores are not the only things that matter in education.
I also feel that political education is still quite weak in our education system which lead to a “can’t be bothered” mindset of most youths today.
With regards to housing, I feel that our HDB flats will become more and more difficult to afford. Our HDB flat prices should be lower and a maximum cap should be introduced in selling prices for resale flats instead of leaving it to the open market that results in the current high prices of a HDB flat.
CPF should provide housing loans at market rates to first and second-time flat purchasers with CPF having the first charge on the property, to prevent [cases] where one’s flat is seized and placed under forced sale, that the savings in CPF can be gone and one can be left with no roof over the head.
TOC: Talk about your married lives. It certainly isn’t easy to juggle work, family, and politics! How do you maintain that balance?
CY: For me, I am fortunate to have a wife who holds the same views as me and is supportive of my work. When I am busy with party work, she helps to look after our two boys, a 5-year-old and a 20-month-old. The one that demands my attention the most is the 5-yr-old, whom I sometimes bring along to the social events in WP so that he can better understand why I am away from home for a few evenings every week and every Sunday morning.
SB: My family is always supportive of my participation in politics.
TOC: What kind of activities does the Youth Wing organise? What’s coming up on your calender?
CY: We do some social events, some charity work, outreach work and of course discuss policies. Social events organised include a bowling competition, a movie screening of “An Inconvenient Truth” back in 2006 and our annual year-end BBQ. For a number of years we collected items from residents to be donated to charity and there was one year where we help to organise a small carnival in a children’s home on Children’s Day.
We also hold regular Night Hammer outreaches, where we go to areas that are frequented by youth, like Bugis Junction and Tampines Central at night. When it comes to discussing policies, we have established a series of forums known as YouthQuake, where we invite speakers to speak on different topics each time.
So far, which current PAP MP or cabinet minister has impressed you the most, and why do you say that?
CY: The one that I am impressed with is not a current MP or cabinet minister, but an ex-DPM, and PAP party chairman if I remember correctly. He is Mr Ong Teng Cheong, one of our elected Presidents. I think he is a man of integrity to be able to stand up and question the government with regards to the Reserve, although he was from the same party previously.
SB: Mr Tharman Shanmugaratnam – he has improved the education system by moving it towards a more creativity and hands-on based one.
The Online Citizen would like to thank Mr Koh and Ms Ng for their time in doing this interview.
Related posts:
- “Milder but more credible”…for whom?
- Establishing the Internet as a credible opinion base
- S’pore press freedom ranked 133rd – MP says this shows “our press remains credible” !
- Fuel oil prices are falling, so why are tariffs still high?
- Can young S’poreans afford public housing in S’pore today?
i’m spoiling my vote too.
@ Green box -
WP Chairman: “Singapore laws are fair and just.”
WP Sec Gen: “I am a lap-, Ops, guard- dog, not a mad dog.”
So both apples are equally rotten, what would I do in the next GE if both WP and PAP come to my GE ward? Simple – draw a tortoise on the card and dump inside the ballot box.
Why are there so many comments urging us to spoil our votes, are the puppies very afraid, very very scared now. LOL
Sorry my votes go to those who truly care for singaporeans.
I had a nightmare.
I dreamt that many fear posting comments on the net.
The dream continued that one fine day, a magician cast a spell and let all have the courage to post comments that are pushing the envelope but still legal.
After that, everyone got a record for posting non praising comments. ‘record’ as in people’s individual own record.
From thereon, everyone realise that everyone have courage to post. of course, legal comments lah. At most hor, almost grey area kind of comments lah. Then hor, the admin responsible for allowing comments lor.
Is this article attempting to influence voters to spoil votes? I hope not?
guess who benefits in the end?
WP has helped achieved the 33.3% in a big way.
Though not garang enough, still quite garang, imho, it has room to improve.
But this does not mean we spoil the votes.
That is falling into a tra..
If all or most spoils their vote, then a re-election might happen.
If all vote for opposition, then Ah Yew will send the army (like Burma hor?).
If WP comes to my ward to fight PAP, I move to where SDP stands.
Eh sai buay?
You want to know why?
Because WP has performed so well during the last election but what did they do? Where are the actions?
Are comments about spoilt votes a joke?
Is it not that there is serialization?
what i not sure is , is it illegal to cast a spoilt vote, not that i wanna?
some people are rumored (not that it is a fact or not) to be scared by serialization.
so who would spoil vote?
let me side track a bit…
given the fact that opposition only commands 2 seats , even after 50 years , it is logical to suggest that WP should not take for granted given:
1. huge increase in new citizens since last election.
2. a new opposition potentially can also achieve 1 or 2 seats given that 0 is the worse case scenario out of 80 odd.
3. what is the difference if people support a new opposition given WP only has 1 seat won and 1 by ncmp?
4. what is the difference if people support a new and more garang or gungho
opposition like RP? how much difference would it make given for last 50 years only 2 seats won by opposition?
do u see my point?
56) Tiong Bai Ta
serial so what, i thought votes are secret? haha
“some people are rumored (not that it is a fact or not) to be scared by serialization.
so who would spoil vote?”
again, it’s all pap mind games and scare tactics. again, people need to be reminded that the people are not slaves to the govt but in fact the govt are to serve the people.
WP website:
“Racial equality in practice in all spheres of public activity and equal respect in law for all racial cultures.”
WP CEC: 14 members = 13 Chinese, 1 Malay.
WP Youth Wing Exco: 11 members = 10 Chinese, 1 Malay.
Looks like after taking over from JBJ, Low TK has eradicated any Indians from party positions.
WP Sec Gen: “I AM PROUD TO BE COMPARED TO THE PAP!”
WP Org Sec: “I VOTED FOR THE PAP!”
WP Youth Wing President: “WE ARE CREDIBLE!”
25 CEC & Youth Wing Exco members.
23 are Chinese.
2 are Malays.
0 Indians.
What a joke, this political party. The President of the WP Youth Wing should not try and tar the reputation of JBJ, its former sec gen. The Youth Wing President should remember that he was still sucking his thumb when JBJ was putting his neck on the line against LKY and faced LKY’s hatchet head-on.
Unlike this current bunch of conceited, big-headed, big-ego wannabe politicians who hide in the longkang and call themselves “credible”.
One thing is for sure. These last 3 years have shown that S’poreans don’t need WP. And also that when S’poreans needed WP, WP was nowhere to be found.
You can be sure you won’t have my vote in the next elections.
opposition parties have it hard in policitics, how many of them dare to join opposition then daring stand against the PAP, knowing that the PAP will dig up everything on you and splash them in public.
we need opposition no matter how timid they are, at least they dare to stand and have their history dug up by the govt. Most of us would not.
First and foremost, I have no intention to discredit wp’s chairman sl, as I do not know her personally but, just to recall what happen during last ge on 2006, the new-paper of sph reported that her father is also a press secretary of lky (just like grace fu’s father james fu) and her father had discussed politics with her during most of their dinners’ get-together. Sorry to assume, does sl join wp because she can not defeat gf as being more preferred by lky?
According to my own analysis, the “MILD” culture proclaims by the wp, does it has to do with the “fear-culture” imposes by lky to “Singaporeans” , (I specially emphasize Singaporeans as I believe strongly that lky will not impose it to the foreigners as he needs foreign investments desperately and relentlessly! Again, unfair double standard treatments to Singaporeans) the secretary-general of wp ltk is Chinese-educated in natural who has very strong Confucius mindset and is “totally non-confrontational”.
What I want to impress here is that if one of the main opposition party is so “MILD” that to the extent of giving unnecessary due respect to the ruling party and its cronies, what is the point of having opposition party to counterbalance the ruling party. It totally defeat the original purpose of politicking to oppose most of the time and to agree to the least extent, (I tweak it a little bit, by right it should be to oppose all the time) I agreed that there are more than one way to show the citizen’s dissatisfactions of the ruling party not just in supporting the “mild” opposition, spoiling the vote is one good option, sorry to say!! Why shall we, the born and bred Singaporeans helping the ruling party to show to the world that Singapore is a “democratic country” that has ge every five-year under the guise of voting for the opposition-party? Does it benefit us? Let’s demonstrate to the world that Singapore is the empire carefully craft out by lky and a dynasty maintains by his son.
What a great disappointment to have sure an opposition that does not even dare to confront just tap along the bandwagon of the political tide!!! Wait long-long to be an alternative credible opposition to counter the ruling party, if you carry on this type of mentality!!! To replace, “FLAT-FLAT HOPE”!
hoyyo6,
I am not afraid of WP or PAP. I just don’t want to vote for a candidate who serves no purpose if he can’t even ensure that his personal qualities are qualified to become a MP in the first place.
Seriously, this is the issue of “seeking assistance from MP” and “make sure the MP is up to his tasks” in my GE ward. I am not an emotional person who simply vote for any opposition because I despise the PAP. You have to be rational; voting is not a computer game where you can restart in a second and select another candidate if the latter is found to be useless.
To 66) Triple Threat on December 22nd, 2009 10.56 am
I am not afraid of WP or PAP. I just don’t want to vote for a candidate who serves no purpose if he can’t even ensure that his personal qualities are qualified to become a MP in the first place.
>> You should be learn to be afraid. Policies passed down by the parliment dictates your way of life whether you like it or not.
Seriously, this is the issue of “seeking assistance from MP” and “make sure the MP is up to his tasks” in my GE ward. I am not an emotional person who simply vote for any opposition because I despise the PAP. You have to be rational; voting is not a computer game where you can restart in a second and select another candidate if the latter is found to be useless.
>> If you want an ideal candidate, I suggest you stand for election.
“Mr Koh Choong Yong, who is 36 years old but “born” in 2006 as a result of the unfairness he felt at the General Elections against the opposition, is unapologetic about it.”
I wonder how does Mr Koh feel after hearing about the Cool Off thingie?
That ‘cool off’ that by name itself is sama sama to the Cool Off of Australia but as we readers learnt, its different!!!
1st world intellectuals ah.
Highly educated ah.
Swiss standard ah.
Seeing all the WP bashing here fills me with sadness.
And all the urgings to spoil our votes … the only puny little thing we have in our hands, that can effect change for a better place to live in.
Several posters have said this and I will say it again.
Any opposition is better than one-party (one-family) rule. Embrace all oppositions, warts and all. Allow them to evolve, even if they stumble along the way. Accept the whole spectrum, from very-mild to triple-chilli hot.
Do we really want another 50 years of PAP, with the 3rd generation Lee (Li) in power ?
Unite.
//Sad Singaporean
Yeah it is true.
Pigs are worse than anything else now.
I hope everybody knows that and vote against PAP.
Any opposition is better than PAP.
63) Green box on December 22nd, 2009 8.57 am
Hammer and Lightning are paired together. Don’t believe me? Ask THOR!
What if WP was to lose its only seat in Hougang due to PAP interference?
What if CST fails in his attempt to capture a GRC and losing Potong Pasir as well (very close last election)?
Mission accomplished PAP – 84/84.
I wonder what the world community do – look on with apathy like Singaporeans I guess.
To 72) Clement Tan on December 22nd, 2009 9.30 pm
What if WP was to lose its only seat in Hougang due to PAP interference?
>> I hope they win others.
>> Nonetheless, unless we turned to a non-democratic election system; i.e. don’t need to vote, otherwise, if the majority of the people allowed this to happen, I would concede defeat and move on with my life (my family’s one to be exact); perhaps, another country.
a cautious approach is as good as kowtowing to the PAP
A cautious approach wouldn’t allow you to mince words when
speaking about the flaws of the system and abuses of power.
Give me the SDP anytime. I prefer their more open courageous
and to call a spade a spade style of politics.
A Certain Type For Singapore
By: Yaw Shin Leong
“I will take this opportunity to share my political experiences,
reflections and understandings accumulated over 10 years of political activism.”
http://www.eastoglobal.com.sg/downloads/A_Certain_Type_For_Singapore.pdf
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