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Shipping lawyer a surprise choice to take on PAP in Fengshan

SINGAPORE — The Workers’ Party (WP) today (Sept 1) fielded shipping lawyer Dennis Tan in the new Fengshan single-seat ward, contrary to expectations that academic Daniel Goh would be the one to challenge the People’s Action Party’s (PAP) Cheryl Chan.

Mr Dennis Tan, WP's candidate for Fengshan, will be going up against PAP candidate Cheryl Chan. Photo: Wee Teck Hian

Mr Dennis Tan, WP's candidate for Fengshan, will be going up against PAP candidate Cheryl Chan. Photo: Wee Teck Hian

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SINGAPORE — The Workers’ Party (WP) today (Sept 1) fielded shipping lawyer Dennis Tan in the new Fengshan single-seat ward, contrary to expectations that academic Daniel Goh would be the one to challenge the People’s Action Party’s (PAP) Cheryl Chan.

Mr Tan, 45, said today that he had been working the ground for the last two years .

“... We have tried to cover every HDB block and every house, essentially every flat that is open to us ... I believe that getting to know the residents is not a one-day, two-day, or even a one-year, two-year thing,” he told reporters at the nomination centre at Fengshan Primary School.

“It takes time, and I hope that Fengshan residents will give me this opportunity to get to know them and serve them in the years to come,” Mr Tan said.

Fengshan Single Member Constituency was carved out from East Coast Group Representation Constituency (GRC) for the Sept 11 polls. Fengshan was previously an SMC from 1984 to 1991, under PAP’s Member of Parliament Arthur Beng. Dr Beng beat WP candidate Chng Chin Siah twice: First in 1984 with 65.1 per cent of the vote, then in 1988 with 57.9 per cent off the vote.

Mr Tan, a shipping lawyer at DennisMathiew, would not be drawn on rating his chances in Fengshan, saying it is too “presumptuous” to do so. His PAP opponent, Ms Chan, 38, is a long-time grassroots volunteer in Fengshan.

Meanwhile, Associate Professor Goh, who is part of the WP’s four-man team that will be contesting in East Coast GRC, said a team’s strength is based not just on its members’ academic qualifications, but also how the team can relate to people.

“We need to be corrected too by the people, and the people are ultimately the wisdom. They are the collective wisdom of the nation,” said the 42-year-old National University of Singapore sociologist.

His other team members are Mr Gerald Giam, 37, a Non-Constituency MP in the last Parliament; research and consultancy firm CEO Leon Perera, 44, and ex-librarian Mohamed Fairoz Shariff, 36.

The WP candidates will be facing the PAP team led by Manpower Minister Lim Swee Say, 61. The other members of the PAP team are Senior Minister of State (Trade and Industry and National Development) Lee Yi Shyan, 53; Minister of State (National Development and Defence) Mohamad Maliki Osman, 50, and two-term backbencher Jessica Tan, 49.

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