News analysis
LO or no? WP faces tough trade-offs in decision over Leader of the Opposition role
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WP chief Pritam Singh was removed as Leader of the Opposition on Jan 15.
PHOTO: ST FILE
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SINGAPORE – Just hours after Workers’ Party chief Pritam Singh was removed as Leader of the Opposition (LO)
Dressed in a blue-checked shirt, he chatted with residents and posed for photographs with them.
“The work continues today, and it will continue tomorrow,” he said in social media posts put up around 11pm.
The message echoed the slogan his party had put out the day before, after Parliament had voted to declare him unsuitable as LO
“#WeContinue”, it said.
A video hammered home the point with snippets of the party’s MPs including Mr Singh, Ms Sylvia Lim and Mr Gerald Giam repeating the same phrase earlier in Parliament.
For the WP, the message it seeks to project is clear: The LO title may be gone, but it is business as usual.
Closing ranks amid potential fractures
The party has been projecting a united front even as Mr Singh’s position as party chief has been called into question.
For the past two weekends, party leaders and members have been out in force selling the WP’s Hammer newsletter in Aljunied GRC and Sengkang GRC. Even former WP chief Low Thia Khiang, who is not always seen at all of the party’s activities, was notably present.
Another walkabout is planned for Jan 18.
These “Hammer outreach” walkabouts are regular activities, but take on greater significance during periods of crises when showing unity is crucial, members say.
This is all the more key amid potential for upheaval – Prime Minister Lawrence Wong had, in removing Mr Singh as LO, also sent the WP a letter inviting it to nominate another elected MP to the post.
The prospect of a new leader could fuel internal dissatisfaction that was already bubbling before PM Wong’s Jan 15 announcement.
Among the party’s card-carrying members with voting powers, a small group had called for a special meeting
This group of cadres feel that Mr Singh has not accounted for what they consider his botched handling of former WP MP Raeesah Khan’s lie in Parliament
The party has said the special cadres’ meeting will be held only after its disciplinary panel is done assessing whether Mr Singh had contravened the party’s Constitution.
The panel, announced on Jan 3, has been given three months to do its work. The WP has not disclosed who the panel members are.
If the panel exonerates Mr Singh, it is likely to thwart the attempt to unseat him, party sources say.
Chances of unseating him were not high to begin with.
Mr Singh is said to have consolidated his support within the party over the years, including by winning over some from the faction of disgruntled cadres and bringing in new cadres.
The party’s leadership also appears to be firmly behind Mr Singh, who took over as chief in 2018.
At the debate on the motion
They included his fellow Aljunied GRC MPs – WP chairwoman Lim who called it a “political exercise”, and WP policy research head Giam who questioned why Mr Singh was paying a “further political penalty” beyond a legal one.
At the debate, Mr Singh had lifted the party whip so the WP MPs could vote “as they consider fit”.
The eventual unanimous rejection of the motion by all 11 WP MPs present – all of them are also on the WP central executive committee – seems to indicate that the party’s leadership has closed ranks behind him.
All 11 WP MPs present in the House (standing) voted against the motion to deem their party chief Pritam Singh unsuitable as LO, which Parliament agreed to.
PHOTO: MDDI
To nominate a new LO or not?
Given this staunch support for Mr Singh, will the party still nominate another MP for the role of LO?
The party has said it will deliberate on PM Wong’s letter carefully
Among the factors it will consider might be how much it has reaped from the LO role that then PM Lee Hsien Loong had conferred on Mr Singh in 2020
Critics have said that the LO role is merely symbolic, citing how it is appointed at the prime minister’s discretion, unlike in other countries where it is codified in the Constitution or Standing Orders.
Even so, Mr Singh’s appointment as Singapore’s first official LO marked a historic shift in the country’s political landscape, and has undoubtedly boosted his standing.
He had more airtime in Parliament, the first right of response among MPs, and could also represent Parliament at state functions and meetings with foreign dignitaries.
He also got $385,000 a year – double a regular MP’s annual allowance, with half of the extra money, he said, donated to party and charity causes – and an extra allowance to hire more staff.
For the WP, this translated into a bigger platform to showcase its policies, and more resources to match its growing parliamentary presence.
And while there is no concept of a shadow government in Singapore, having an LO does help signal to voters that the WP could serve as a legitimate alternative one day.
In the latest Institute of Policy Studies post-election survey
Given the benefits of having an LO, some political observers have suggested that the WP will be better off nominating another one of its MPs for the role, so as not to lose the extra resources and profile that come with it.
Already, some pundits have started to speculate who the next LO may be.
The names of long-time WP members, such as Hougang MP Dennis Tan and Mr Giam, have been thrown up as likely candidates.
Despite the benefits of having an LO, there are other factors the WP must consider.
It may not have much room to manoeuvre after its strong defence of Mr Singh in Parliament.
After all, nominating another MP, no matter what justification is given, will be taken as an acknowledgement that Mr Singh is unfit for the role.
In this term of Parliament, the WP is the only opposition party in the House.
This means that regardless of the LO title, should Mr Singh remain as secretary-general of the party, he will also be the de facto leader of the opposition.
That alone had been enough for his predecessor, Mr Low, to build up not just his own but also the WP’s profile, as he led the party to the first ever group representation constituency victory by an opposition party in Aljunied in 2011.
Today, the WP, no doubt, sees itself in a stronger position.
Despite Mr Singh’s case, the party had retained Aljunied GRC, Sengkang GRC and Hougang SMC in the 2025 General Election
Mr Singh himself had noted this in an interview, saying that the party had “done respectably” in the light of his legal troubles.
This is likely to factor into the WP’s calculations of how it will respond to PM Wong’s letter.
Given that Mr Singh has often said he will “let the public decide”, the party will surely also consider the premium that voters place on having an LO.
The role has only been around for slightly more than one election cycle, but in the short time, Mr Singh has helped to further burnish it as an important feature in Singapore’s political system.
Might the party alienate voters by not nominating someone? That is something it will have to weigh.
Ultimately, none of the choices come without trade-offs, and the party will be tested by its eventual decision.
