GE2015: Terence Tan of the Workers' Party

In this series, Yahoo Singapore speaks to candidates for the upcoming General Election. Members of Singapore's various political parties have been invited to participate. Featured here: Terence Tan of the Workers’ Party, who was interviewed Monday, 31 August.

At first glance at his resume, one might almost think that Terence Tan, 44, was a People’s Action Party candidate. The lawyer at Peter Low LLC attended Anglo-Chinese School and Raffles Institution, before going to boarding school in England.

Tan, who is of Peranakan stock, grew up in a condominium on River Valley Road. His father worked as a doctor, while his mother was once a newscaster with the now-defunct Radio Television Malaysia. He has two half-brothers from his mother’s first marriage.

At the start of his legal career, Tan even did his pupilage under Foreign Minister K. Shanmugam, and also worked under retired Member of Parliament Alvin Yeo. “I respect the both of them very much. Perhaps we have slightly different political views, but I’m hoping that this is all part of the diversity and plurality that Singapore needs,” says Tan in a slightly British-tinged accent.

With candidates like him, the Oxford-educated Leon Perera and the Cambridge-educated He Ting Ru, Yahoo Singapore points out during the interview that the Workers’ Party seems to now be drawing from the same elite circles as the PAP. When asked if the WP is in danger of becoming too similar to the PAP, the candidate for Marine Parade GRC demurs.

“On the face of it, if you look at the PAP manifesto, they aspire to the same things that the Workers’ Party does. I think it’s a question of trying to keep the government as honest as it keeps us, and/or the other way around. Is it elitism that people have a deep and abiding concern for the future of Singapore and Singaporeans?,” says Tan.

“If you look at the composition of WP MPs, we actually come from a very diverse background, but we’re all genuinely committed to making Singapore better.”

Tan certainly has diverse interests apart from the law – he has worked in hotel management and the real estate industry, and managed several restaurants and bars. He has also worked in Malaysia, Indonesia and Thailand.

Tan and his fellow Workers’ Party candidates  are certainly well prepared for the media. He rattles off well-rehearsed talking points with ease, repeating the point that the WP wants to be a “rational, reasonable and responsible” opposition several times. He adds  that the party isn’t here to “tear the system down", and that he doesn’t believe in a “natural aristocracy”.

But there is a genuine idealism about Tan, especially when he recalls his days in RI as a time of “uncorrupted meritocracy”.  “We were also told by the principal in my time, that our primary duty was not to be vainglorious, but to give back to society,” says Tan. He sounds almost in awe of the 1970s and 80s, when Singapore was the “Swiss clock” of Asia, everything worked well and income inequality “had not reared its ugly head”.

While Tan remains soft spoken throughout the interview, there is a certain fieriness lurking just beneath the surface. “Mr Lee Hsien Loong wants a very strong mandate. It sounds like his definition of a strong mandate is not to have any opposition at all,” says Tan.

And his hackles really begin to rise when the subject of income inequality comes up. Tan notes that Singapore has “virtually the largest income inequality gap in the developed world", a phenomenon he calls an “affront” to him.

“I’m not naïve to think that no poverty ever existed in Singapore, but I don’t buy any argument that people do this for exercise, and certainly not in the numbers that I see on a day to day basis,” says Tan.

Perhaps his concern for the underprivileged is not surprising, given that Tan has done extensive pro bono legal work. He sits on the Criminal Legal Aid Scheme Committee, the Criminal Practice Committee and the Advocacy Committee for the Law Society. Tan also volunteers at the Hougang Community Legal Clinic

But his political awakening started in his late 30s, when he began reflecting on his “me, myself and I” way of life, he says. Then in 2011, Tan attended political rallies in a bid to understand the “loss of optimism” among his fellow Singaporeans.

Ultimately, it was the Workers’ Party that resonated most with him. “It’s not about extremist politics. I think that the WP does deliver a very nuanced position on these things. That’s what attracted me,” says Tan. “We’re not disconnected from the ground. That’s our strength.”

And what of the ‘psychological baggage’ of fear in Singapore that WP chief Low Thia Khiang has spoken of? Did that hold him back from getting involved in politics? Tan readily admits that he felt reservations initially.

He says, “My earliest memory is, when adults had discussions in respect of politics, even in their own homes, they would speak in hushed whispers. Anyone of my generation understands the underlying climate of fear back in those days.”

Well-meaning friends also tried to warn him off getting involved, “A lot of comments are ‘Be careful, be careful’. I really think that we have to reject those notions of ‘be careful’. More Singaporeans need to participate and be more concerned.”

But in the end, perhaps it is really about overcoming your fears. Tan notes, “I tell you, it does take a little bit of courage, I think, to marshal your fears, to make sure that you’re always reasonable and responsible on behalf of Singaporeans."