SingFirst unveils second batch of candidates

SINGAPORE — Singaporeans First (SingFirst) unveiled its second batch of candidates for the polls next month today (Aug 29). 

Apart from party chairman and psychiatrist Ang Yong Guan, 60, and vice-chairman and retired army colonel Tan Peng Ann, 67, the new candidates include treasure and chemist David Foo Ming Jin, 51; central executive committee member and retired police officer Sukdeu Singh, 64; and chemical sales director Wong Soon Hong, 57.

"We're heavier today as compared to yesterday in terms of titles. Today we're giving you experienced candidates, all out here to serve you with our wealth of experience," said Dr Ang. 

All are standing in their first election, except for Dr Ang, who contested in the 2011 General Election under the Singapore Democratic Party's banner. His Holland-Bukit Timah GRC team lost to the People's Action Party's incumbents with 39.92 per cent of the votes. 

The party intends to field two five-member teams in Tanjong Pagar and Jurong GRC, but would only reveal its line-up on Nomination Day. 

SingFirst, which launched its slogan Restore Our Nation yesterday, introduced their first five candidates yesterday. They include secretary general Tan Jee Say, communications consultant Fahmi Rais, market risk manager Chirag Desai, IT consultant Wong Chee Wai and sales executive Melvyn Chiu.

Yesterday's press conference also surfaced an embarrassing gaffe resulting from the botched Tamil translation of the party's slogan on a banner. 

Instead of "Restore our Nation", the print on the banner was gibberish, made up of non-existent Tamil characters. 

The party has since rectified the gaffe by pasting a strip of paper with the correctly translated slogan on top of it. 

Said Dr Ang: "We're honest enough to embrace our mistakes. We embrace imperfection."

"It's no worse off than misspelling an ex-president's name," added Mr Tan, referring to the Monetary Authority of Singapore misspelling of former president Yusof Ishak's name on the SG50 commemorative notes folder.