I am my own man: WP’s Yaw Shin Leong
The Workers' Party (WP) new elected MP for Hougang SMC Yaw Shin Leong says that both he and party chief Low Thia Khiang are their "own men" and that he will have a different approach in managing the constituency.
Yaw, 34, was speaking to reporters at the sideline of his first Meet-the-People-Session (MPS) held at Block 310, Hougang Avenue 5 on Wednesday evening.
He took over the reigns of helming the single-member ward from WP's secretary-general Low after defeating People's Action Party (PAP) candidate Desmond Choo in the recent general election by winning a convincing 64.81 percent of the vote share.
The ward has been an opposition stronghold ever since Low secured victory in the 1991 polls.
"Mr Low is his own man, he has very big shoes. But I would like to wear a size that is comfortable to myself," he said.
"But having said that of course, constituents who are familiar with him would also want to expect some form of continuity and to a very large extent, I am for continuity and I will not be changing too much at this juncture."
While Yaw -- who is also the party's organising secretary -- said that he will continue with Low's approach in the first few months, subsequently, he plans to improve on the latter's methods and add his own touch of serving the residents.
"Whatever practices he has in place, I will continue them. I will fine-tune and maybe improve upon some of the mechanism and processes. Maybe later, when I have settled in and get to know more of the grassroots volunteers, helpers and constituents," he said.
In fact, Yaw had already started to implement his own practices by starting the MPS half an hour earlier at 7.30pm as compared to Low whose session usually begins at 8pm.
"Both of us, we are our own men in that sense, so, I will do my best. My own style is that, I know in two hours you can't do much, so, what I've done is that I started half an hour earlier."
He added that being at a younger age, he is more open to technology and will also leverage on social media platforms to engage his constituents of a younger generation. "I blog he (Low) don't, you know," said Yaw laughing.
Still, it seems that he has also followed in Low's footsteps of attending and paying respects at the funerals of his residents — saying he had attended one earlier in the day. When asked whether he is continuing the tradition, Yaw dismissed this notion, saying that he was merely carrying on a "duty".
"I don't see it as a tradition, I see it as a duty. I think it's important because during funeral wakes is really the time where you can really understand what are the issues faced by the grieving family. So I think it is a very important duty for the MP to actually go down to the ground to understand the issues," he said.
Yaw also emphasized on the importance of sustainability, which he said was the single most important advice given to him by his mentor, Low. He added that over the course of assisting Low in his MPS for over ten years, it has helped him understand some of the issues and concerns on the ground.
"I understand that it is important not to over-promise, as much as possible I would rather sit down and assess the situation. If I want to launch a progamme, I will ensure that the programme is sustainable," said Yaw.
When asked whether he would be able to deal with residents who might not be satisfied with the assistance that he has provided, Yaw said that this is "part and parcel of the duty".
"There will be different people, different mindsets, so it's important for myself to be able to work with everyone to understand the issues from all angles and to know why certain people feel certain way and try to put myself in their shoes," he said, adding that he has a heavy sense of responsibility to the voters.
Although there are no concrete ideas to improve on the constituency as of yet, Yaw said that he will have to examine issues such as the structural well-being of the estates, including the need for covered walkways and the Lift Upgrading Programme (LUP) before he lays down the action plans required.
"So, I guess I will be looking at all these things, probably we got to sit down, examine all those things and then we will come down to a concrete plan subsequently."
He also said that the handover process of the town council is in its transitional period, adding that there was no need to rush and that it must be done in a systematic way.
Yaw pointed out that the party is also exploring a "cross-type of system" whereby Aljunied residents would be able to seek assistance at his MPS in Hougang and vice versa. But he emphasised that Hougang residents would still be his main priority.
Meanwhile, he also rejected the suggestion that the WP is outshining other opposition parties, saying that it is important to have check and balances regardless which party is in charge.
"I'm of the view that this must be a consistent process whereby you can never say that the Workers' Party is the alternative party.
"Because the whole idea of political competition is that you really need to have elements and mechanisms of competitions to ensure that the incumbent party, be it the ruling party or maybe in terms of the party that is administrating the constituency does his work.
"So I believe in this check and balance mechanism even in the context of the Hougang constituency," he explained.
