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GE2015: Workers' Party unveils 4 new faces for upcoming elections

Workers' Party's four new candidates are (L-R): Terence Tan, Firuz Khan, Cheryl Denise Loh, Luke Koh.

The Workers' Party unveiled four new faces who will contest the upcoming election at a press conference Thursday afternoon.

They are Cheryl Denise Loh, a 32-year-old sales consultant, Firuz Khan, 48, the owner of a chocolate factory, lawyer Terence Tan, 44, and Luke Koh, 40, the chief executive of a holding company.

Together with party chairman Sylvia Lim and Hougang MP Png Eng Huat, the four introduced themselves and spoke about their reasons for running under the WP banner.

EDUCATION

Loh, who is a former student of Lim's from Temasek Polytechnic, spoke of being raised by relatives and working part-time to make it through her schooling years.

She said young Singaporeans should not face such difficulties simply because of their family background, and also believed more could be done for the older generation here.

Growing up in a Peranakan household, Loh also took the opportunity to introduce herself to reporters in Malay, a language which helped her to communicate with her late grandmother.

"If my grandmother were alive today, she would be my biggest supporter," Loh said.




Firuz, who stayed for periods in the United Kingdom, said his desire to help fellow Singaporeans was a driving factor to volunteering with the WP.

Having represented Singapore in his youth at a soka tournament, Firuz later took on a role with children's home Pertapis, where he was "exposed to cases of family violence and abuse".

He described an incident where he and his staff had helped parents who could not afford to visit their children at the home, and hoped to bring his experience from implementing changes at Pertapis to aid Singaporeans on the ground.

Tan, who like Firuz has lived overseas, said he was inspired to join the WP after volunteering with them in 2011 and witnessing how the MPs and volunteers interacted with residents.

"I really believe the government has focused too much on short-term economic gain without regard to long-term implications," he said.

Tan also said despite staying in Thailand, Malaysia and Indonesia, he had been able to return to Singapore every weekend, and felt "very rooted here".




Koh, the managing partner of a financial investment business, started his introduction with praise for WP founder and former Chief Minister David Marshall.

He criticised previous government policies, including the two-child policy, the graduate mothers policy, and the 6.9 million target set by the government in the population White Paper.

"Singapore needs more Workers' Party members of parliament to prevent a bigger crisis in the next 20 or 30 years," Koh said.

If elected, Koh said he would focus on extending compulsory education to "kindergarten and even earlier", adding more would be revealed in the WP's manifesto later.

The four joined sociologist Daniel Goh, wealth manager Dylan Ng, engineer Redzwan Hafidz and 2011 Sengkang West candidate Koh Choong Yong as the faces the Workers' Party has unveiled for the coming election.

The WP has previously said it would field a record 28 candidates in five Group Representation Constituencies and five Single-Member Constituencies.




Additional reporting by Nicholas Yong.