GE2020: Red Dot United presents 4th candidate, a 28-year-old legal engineer

SINGAPORE — The newest political party Red Dot United unveiled its fourth candidate on Wednesday (June 24), a day after it presented the first three.

Mr Nicholas Tang, 28, works as a legal engineer at law firm Pinsent Masons MPillay LLP. A legal engineer develops technological solutions to help clients. 

He will join party secretary-general Ravi Philemon, chairman Michelle Lee and entrepreneur Liyana Dhamirah as part of a five-person team to contest for seats at Jurong Group Representation Constituency (GRC) — provided that no other opposition party is doing so. 

Red Dot United was started by Mr Philemon and Ms Lee this year after leaving the Progress Singapore Party headed by Dr Tan Cheng Bock. It was registered as a political party only last week. 

The party plans to release information on the remaining team member and the party’s manifesto in the days leading up to Nomination Day on June 30.

Red Dot United said that Mr Tang has “always been interested in political and social issues”. 

Mr Tang, who got his law degree from King’s College London, believes that his experiences and the challenges he faces as a young Singaporean in an increasingly daunting and globalised world are representative of others his age. His goal in entering politics is to better understand the problems of his peers and help improve the lives of future generations. 

He also hopes to “engage and energise Singaporean youth” to take part in the political process. 

He would like people to be held to account by their community.

“As a society, we need to take responsibility for ourselves and seek first to resolve our problems, instead of routinely handing over the reins to the government to manage our society.”

Mr Tang added that some of the country’s infrastructure that has been “built on the backs of cheap migrant labour”, as well as the ban on personal mobility devices along footpaths, all hide the underlying issue — that the population needs to have more empathy for the problems faced by some of the least well-off residents.

“This empathy must be reflected in both our policies and mindset,” he said.