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Red Dot United conducts first major walkabout in Clementi

SINGAPORE — It was the first big walkabout for Singapore’s youngest political party, Red Dot United (RDU), and for some of its members it was also the first time that they met face-to-face.

Red Dot United’s secretary-general Ravi Philemon and candidates Liyana Dhamirah and Nicholas Tang seen distributing flyers and surgical masks to residents in Clementi.

Red Dot United’s secretary-general Ravi Philemon and candidates Liyana Dhamirah and Nicholas Tang seen distributing flyers and surgical masks to residents in Clementi.

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SINGAPORE — It was the first big walkabout for Singapore’s youngest political party, Red Dot United (RDU), and for some of its members it was also the first time that they met face-to-face.

Running a new party amid a pandemic has been quite hectic, said Ms Michelle Lee, the party’s chairperson, and so she has met only some of its members and volunteers over Zoom video calls and speaking over the telephone.

RDU, which has 12 members so far, is helmed by former PSP members Ravi Philemon and Ms Lee. It plans to contest Jurong Group Representation Constituency (GRC) in the coming General Election (GE).

Aside from Mr Philemon and Ms Lee, the party has also formally introduced three other candidates: Entrepreneur Liyana Dhamirah, legal engineer Nicholas Tang and theatre director Alec Tok.

All five candidates were present on Friday (June 26) night to distribute flyers and masks to residents living in two rental block units near Clementi Avenue 2.

They went door-to-door speaking to the residents for about an hour and a half from 8pm.

Speaking to TODAY, Mr Philemon, who is also RDU’s secretary-general, said its members and volunteers have only had three to four hours of sleep every day since the GE was called on Tuesday.

“Obviously (it’s been hectic). You can imagine being an 11-day old party and then being thrown into this election. We have had to scale up quickly.”

He added that the party needs help in many areas, from administrative matters and communications to ensuring that it has enough manpower to run its campaign, especially given the unique circumstances of the Covid-19 outbreak.

“This is not an ordinary election… We can’t have a physical rally and rallies are a place where you can communicate your ideas to the masses easily.

“So it’s a very tough time to be having this election and it’s especially disadvantageous to an opposition party,” he said.

The party is also still actively recruiting volunteers, said Mr Philemon, adding that some individuals have stepped forward after seeing their campaign efforts online.

When asked whether many of the party’s members and volunteers had also moved to RDU from PSP, Mr Philemon declined to comment as “it is no use talking about the past”.

“It’s known that besides Michelle and I, a few others came over from PSP but they came over not because they were ditching the party, but because they were my friends, they were Michelle’s friends and they believed in what we are doing,” he said.

“We have talked a lot about what has happened in the past but we are more excited about what we are doing now together with RDU, so that’s what I want to focus on.”

Related topics

Red Dot United Ravi Philemon Michelle Lee GE2020 SGVotes2020

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