GE2020: WP's Pritam vows to do his best as Leader of the Opposition

Workers' Party chief Pritam Singh yesterday pledged to do his best as the Leader of the Opposition, responding to the announcement by Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong that the WP leader would be appointed to a newly created position and given staff and resources.

Posting on Facebook the morning after his party made historic gains in the general election, he wrote: "I look forward to serving as the Leader of the Opposition and will carry out my duties to the best of my abilities. I will endeavour to ensure that the Workers' Party under my leadership will remain loyal to Singapore and all Singaporeans."

The WP had won Sengkang GRC in one of the surprise results of election night, and it also consolidated its majorities in Aljunied GRC and Hougang SMC.

It was Mr Singh's first outing as party chief, and he had entered the election aiming to defend the party's home turf, but by the wee hours of the morning yesterday, it became clear that he had led his party to another breakthrough.

That the 43-year-old will now be Singapore's first formally appointed Leader of the Opposition caps the meteoric rise of a politician who had taken over the reins of the country's largest opposition party from Mr Low Thia Khiang, 63, just two years ago.

Speaking to reporters outside his party's headquarters at Teambuild Centre in Geylang, Mr Singh stressed the need for the party to stay grounded: "I think there's a lot of work to do and I think we've got to work hard, we've got to keep our feet grounded. This is something that I'll be repeating to all the winning candidates through the course of tomorrow and the weeks that come, because there's a number of things that need to be done."

On a night that saw raucous celebrations by WP supporters in Hougang, Mr Singh was serious as he delivered his remarks: "I am very grateful to all the voters in Hougang, Aljunied, Sengkang for trusting us with their vote. But I am also very humbled, and I'm not feeling euphoric at all, in fact."

During the hustings, Mr Singh had raised the spectre of an opposition wipe-out in Parliament, drawing criticism from the People's Action Party (PAP) that it was an election ploy.

"When I was suggesting to the public that there is a real risk of a wipe-out, I wasn't kidding," he said yesterday, repeating that he had expected a difficult election.

"So indeed the result is a pleasant surprise, I would say, for the WP."

But his biggest satisfaction is that people have "become au fait with our brand of politics".

The WP had campaigned on the platform of more diversity in Parliament, persuading voters that it would be a constructive presence in Parliament.

It is a brand of politics that the party has represented since 2001, when Mr Low, the former party chief, first took the helm and sought to shape the WP as a responsible opposition party that would provide rational criticism and scrutiny of policies.

Mr Singh said that many before him had played their part in building this reputation for the party.

"It's the duty of the current leadership team to continue that tradition and to make sure that the WP is a party relevant to Singapore and Singaporeans."

Mr Singh, a father of two young daughters, was part of the new generation of WP candidates - many of them graduates and professionals - introduced in 2011.

A lot of the attention that year had been focused on the WP's star catch, corporate lawyer Chen Show Mao, though Mr Singh's own star would eventually shine brighter.

Mr Singh's current style appears to have been forged from that political baptism, as he was part of the team that created history by becoming the first opposition team to win a group representation constituency - doing so by campaigning on the message of checks and balances in Parliament that it also used this year.

Asked in 2011 why he joined the WP, Mr Singh, then a 34-year-old postgraduate law student, told The Straits Times that he was drawn by the "level-headedness and leadership qualities" of WP's senior leaders.

And while he started out as a more fiery presence in the party, he has slowly developed a calmer, more level-headed style.

His constant emphasis on being a constructive force that will work with the PAP to tackle Singapore's toughest problems appears to have helped achieve the breakthrough.

Commenting yesterday on the increased number of WP parliamentarians, Mr Singh said: "I think that number is still far short of the one-third that is significant for being able to make a strong position on constitutional amendments Bills. It's still not a quantum leap, if you know what I mean.

"So I think we should still focus on strengthening the party as an organisation and speaking up in Parliament intelligently and thoughtfully, such that we actually represent people on the ground."