PAP sticks to its guns to defend Marine Parade. Will the Workers’ Party risk an open fight?

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People’s Action Party has revealed its team for the redrawn Marine Parade-Braddell Heights GRC this election, and it’s hard to even notice that it lacks the former Speaker of Parliament, Tan Chuan-Jin.

Leading the slate is the Minister for Manpower Tan See Leng, who is joined by the current Speaker of Parliament Seah Kian Peng, Minister of State for Home Affairs and National Development Muhammad Faishal Ibrahim, former MacPherson SMC MP Tin Pei Ling, and newcomer Diana Pang, who’s spent 20 years in Fengshan as treasurer and chair of the Women’s Wing.

But it’s Tin Pei Ling who could give the PAP a boost within the new boundaries, after her SMC in MacPherson was absorbed into the group constituency.

She won her individual seat there twice in 2015 and 2020, with 65% and 71% of the vote, respectively. These wins proved her earlier critics wrong, who had made dismissive comments regarding her candidacy as a part of the Marine Parade GRC in 2011 as an attempt to smuggle a young, inexperienced candidate into the Parliament.

Her strong track record should give the party a boost, especially as it tries to distance itself from the extramarital affair scandal that cost Tan Chuan-Jin his political career.

At the same time, a failure to defend the constituency would be a huge blow to its ranks for the PAP, costing it a minister, Parliamentary Speaker and a popular, young MP with a bright career still ahead.

Will the Workers’ Party risk an open fight?

The leading opposition party is keeping its cards close to its chest so far and hasn’t revealed its candidates yet.

However, there has been strong indication that it was at least considering fielding its leading political transfer, senior counsel Harpreet Singh, in Marine Parade.

He was seen during walkabouts in the area over the past two years—including a recent tour of MacPherson just last month—fueling speculation that WP will try to grab the constituency weakened by Tan Chuan-Jin’s ejection.

However, as good a candidate as he might be, standing against a very strong lineup of the PAP is a big risk for the Workers’ Party, which previously announced it would contest fewer than one-third of all seats.

WP will be cautious not to expend its limited human resources on fighting fights that are difficult to win, hoping instead to find weak spots to take advantage of, like it did in Sengkang five years ago.

It’s not helped by the fact that Mr Singh is almost 60 years old already, and can’t really afford to spend the coming term outside of the Parliament if he intends to contribute as an MP.

If he fails to make it in now, it’s unlikely that the party would field him again in 2030, when he’s already past retirement age and might have a limited career as a politician ahead.

The delay in announcing its candidates suggests that the party might be weighing the option of fielding the seasoned lawyer in the neighbouring East Coast GRC or perhaps even one of the SMCs, where he could stand a better chance in a one-on-one fight (neighbouring Mountbatten SMC, in particular, springs to mind, as the PAP is fielding a newcomer there, after the four-time MP Lim Biow Chuan stepped down).

It’s difficult to say whether the decision to keep its choices a secret is a political manoeuvre or if WP leaders really haven’t decided where to place their pieces on the electoral chessboard, waiting for the PAP to make its moves first.

That said, after investing so much time and effort into making Harpreet Singh the fresh face of the party in this GE, they now have to utilise him in a way that is going to maximise his chances of victory as a leader of one of the constituencies, rather than just a member of a larger GRC.

And the PAP is not making it easy.

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Featured Image Credit: PAP