SINGAPORE — The Progress Singapore Party (PSP) announced a reshuffle in its Central Executive Committee (CEC) as it co-opted five new members into the party leadership on Friday (Jan 17). Three of the new members were government scholars.

At a New Year dinner party held in a restaurant at the Harbourfront Centre, the party’s secretary-general, Dr Tan Cheng Bock, said assistant secretary-general Anthony Lee Yung Hwee, 40, and vice-chairman K S Singam, 82, will be stepping down from their posts but remain in the CEC.

Replacing Mr Lee is new CEC member Leong Mun Wai, 60, the chief executive officer (CEO) of investment firm Timbre Capital.

He was an overseas merit scholar who graduated as a top economics student from the Hitotsubashi University in Japan and previously worked at sovereign wealth fund GIC, Mitsubishi Bank, Salomon Brothers and Merrill Lynch Hong Kong.

Dr Tan said: “He will bring his managerial, organisation and financial competency to the party.”

Mr Singam will be replaced by Ms Michelle Lee, 43, who was previously a CEC member with no particular post. Ms Lee was a London School of Economics graduate who was part of the Singapore Democratic Party team that contested Holland-Bukit Timah Group Representation Constituency in the 2011 General Election.

Other than Mr Leong, the four other members who are co-opted into the CEC are:

• Mr Francis Yuen, 70, a Singapore Armed Forces scholar who is board director at Huarui Aerosystems, a US-Chinese joint venture for the manufacture of aero-structure for commercial airplanes.

• Mr Andrew Ng, 53, an overseas merit scholar who had worked in the Ministry of Foreign Affairs (MFA) before joining the private sector in the field of wealth management. While at MFA, Mr Ng was part of a policy, planning and analysis directorate and served as Country Officer for Indonesia.

• Mr Ong Seow Yong, a 63-year-old who worked in the banking and securities industry before rising to serve in leadership positions as CEO and a board member of several public listed companies.

• Ms Tan Chika, a human resource-trained 39-year-old who manages her family’s company, which she declined to name.

Stating his reasons for the reshuffle, Dr Tan, 79, said that with the injection of newer members, the founding members’ roles “must also change”.

He said Mr Lee relinquished his role to take care of his sick five-year-old daughter who has contracted “a very special disease”, but will continue to work with him on ground operations. Ms Lee is made vice-chairman upon Mr Singam’s advice, he added.

Meanwhile, Dr Tan announced that the PSP has acquired a unit at Bukit Timah Shopping Centre as the party’s headquarters and will hold an open house there on the second day of Chinese New Year.

NEW ASST SEC-GEN ‘RELUCTANT’ TO JOIN POLITICS

Giving a short speech after he was made second-in-command, Mr Leong said that he was initially “very reluctant” to join politics, but what tipped the balance for him was witnessing Dr Tan’s perseverance in the face of widespread doubts and scepticism to build up the party.

While he said he is fully aware of his shortcomings as a political rookie who “will have to work hard to earn the people’s recognition on top of my paper qualifications”, Mr Leong said he will work with PSP to make the upcoming General Election a “watershed”.

During his speech, Mr Leong mentioned briefly that he is now a “serious” politician.

Asked by reporters if that means that he has plans to take over the reins of the party in the future from Dr Tan, he said: “I think Dr Tan is still very healthy, he has a lot of drive, and a lot of compassion, which is most important. So I think he will be around for a long time.”

PSP’s dinner on Friday was attended by a few politicians from other opposition parties. They include Workers’ Party CEC member Gerald Giam, Singapore Democratic Party’s secretary-general Chee Soon Juan and chairman Paul Tambyah, and People’s Voice Party leader Lim Tean.

Asked how closely he is working with other opposition parties towards an alliance at this point, Dr Tan said: “I think it is still too early. I just want to have a loose association now. I just want to keep this contact with them, and wait and see because each political party has got its own agenda, so I have to see how best I can gel with them.”

Asked if PSP’s relationship with the four smaller parties that have announced plans to form an alliance had soured after one of its CEC members, Mr Alex Tan, called them “captains of sinking boats”, Dr Tan said no, as he called this episode a hiccup that he would not worry too much about.

“His views didn’t represent mine,” he said.

He added: “I expected all these things. In politics, sometimes things do happen. Don’t be too worked up by it. You must look at the bigger picture. And the bigger picture is to get all together.”