SINGAPORE — As the latest former government scholar to join the Opposition, Mr Winston Lim, 45, who runs his own architecture firm, said that it was the chance of “creating a legacy” that saw him joining the long-dormant Democratic Progressive Party (DPP).

Speaking to TODAY in an interview, Mr Lim, a former Urban Redevelopment Authority scholar who holds a master’s degree in architecture from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, also felt that, despite the already fragmented Opposition scene, there was “space for a party that shares the old vision of the People’s Action Party but that is disheartened by its current policies”.

“The old PAP founding values were looking out for the (interests of) Singaporeans,” said Mr Lim, who claimed that the ruling party was straying from these.

On Saturday, at the DPP Party Congress, he was one of seven members elected to the Central Executive Committee (CEC) who would be trying to revive the fortunes of the party, which was set up in 1993, but has since only contested a combined total of four single-seat wards in the 1997 and 2001 general elections (GEs). The party currently has 15 members.

Mr Lim, who is not married, said his personal political awakening happened in 2009 when he returned home after a three-year working stint overseas. He said he had experienced a “culture shock” in a “very different” Singapore.

He added: “I was quite taken aback by the large number of immigrants in the country. Having lived in another country, I know how it is like to feel dislocated ... It is very disheartening to be dislocated in your own country.”

Impressed by DPP Secretary-General Benjamin Pwee’s rally speeches, Mr Lim said he approached Mr Pwee, a former government scholar and civil servant himself, after one of the latter’s rallies during the 2011 GE.

Mr Pwee was then part of the Singapore People’s Party team, which included veteran Opposition politician Chiam See Tong, that contested unsuccessfully in the Bishan-Toa Payoh Group Representation Constituency (GRC).

Mr Pwee, along with DPP Chairman Mohamad Hamim Aliyas and Assistant Secretary-General Wilfred Leung, left the SPP in January last year due to differences in opinion over the party’s leadership style and direction.

About 12 months later, he took over the DPP from its founder, Mr Seow Khee Leng. Having kept in touch since the 2011 GE, Mr Pwee then invited Mr Lim to join the DPP.

Mr Lim worked for the URA between 1996 and 2001. He left after completing the bond for his master’s scholarship and joined the private sector.

He started his own architecture firm here in 2009 and worked as a consultant for an Indonesian developer in Jakarta between 2010 and last year.

With the next GE due by 2016, Mr Lim said he had not considered whether he would run in the next election. Nevertheless, he reiterated that “politics is for the long-haul”.

Apart from Mr Lim, there are two other architects in the DPP CEC: Mr Lim’s former colleague Fatimah Akhtar and former SPP member Juliana Juwahir.

Mr Pwee said the party aims to recruit more “quality” members, including professionals, in the months ahead. He added that, over the next few weeks, about 15 to 20 newcomers would be joining the party, including 10 who would be defecting from another party.

He declined to say whether the defecting group would be from his former party, the SPP.

Former Workers’ Party stalwart Eric Tan, who was present at the DPP Party Congress, was coy about the suggestion that he was interested in joining the DPP. He said that the party and him were “just spending time getting to know each other”.

“My role has always been to help the Opposition movement and I could share my experience in rebranding the WP with them,” he said.

Mr Pwee said the DPP is eyeing the Bishan-Toa Payoh GRC for the next election and it would stepping up its walkabouts there.

On the addition of DPP to the crowded political landscape, Mr Pwee said that there is scope for “one small party” in Parliament to act as an auditor of the “larger two parties of the day”. “We hope to play that role,” he added.