Hougang is the ‘political conscience’ of Singapore: Low

The single-member constituency (SMC) of Hougang represents the “the political conscience” of Singapore, said Workers’ Party (WP) chief Low Thia Khiang.

Speaking on Friday evening at a closed-door session organised by the National University of Singapore (NUS) graduate club on the recently-concluded Hougang by-election, Low said the roughly 22,000-strong group of electors had humbled both the People’s Action Party (PAP) and the WP.

“To the PAP, their message is loud and clear — they want justice and fairness and will not bow down to bullying tactics,” he said. “The Hougang voters have also sent a message to WP that we have to do our best to live up to our promises, to serve the people and not be afraid to admit our shortcomings and mistakes, even if it embarrasses us.

“The Hougang residents, in that sense, keep both the PAP and WP in check,” he said.

In his speech posted on the Workers' Party website, Low also rebutted claims that his party’s candidate in the by-election, Member of Parliament-elect Png Eng Huat, only won at the poll as “a personal result” of Low’s presence in the ward for 20 years, and that it would be a different story if the secretary-general were no longer in politics.

“People who hold this view fail to understand the people of Hougang,” he said. Acknowledging that he does know, and is even good friends with, many people in the constituency, he maintained that his party understood that Hougang voters “demand a standard of service and conduct from their MP that is worthy of their support”.

Describing the party’s decision to expel former Hougang MP and his immediate successor Yaw Shin Leong as a “difficult decision with high political risk”, Low said simply that the party owed it to the voters in Hougang.

“(Yaw) failed to live up to the expectations of both Hougang voters and WP. If the Workers’ Party had failed to do what was right, we would have shortchanged the Hougang voters and betrayed their trust,” he stated.

Friday night also saw one of Low’s first attempts to explain the spirit that residents in Hougang have, something he calls义气 in Mandarin.

“It is more than just personal loyalty or (a) sense of brotherhood. The Chinese meaning of 义 encompasses the meaning of justice, fairness and morality,” he said.

The political dialogue on Friday evening saw views from a panel of speakers that included MP for Tampines group representation constituency Baey Yam Keng, political scholar Derek da Cunha and Lam Peng Er, a senior research fellow at NUS’ East Asia Institute.

The by-election held in end-May saw the return of power to the Workers’ Party, with Png winning some 62.1 per cent of the valid vote against second-time PAP candidate Desmond Choo, who garnered 37.9 per cent of the votes.

Former Hougang MP Yaw Shin Leong, who was elected to the seat in last year’s general election, was expelled from the party in mid-February after failing to address allegations of personal indiscretions.