r/singapore • u/Fryed9711 • 8h ago
News WP to hold special cadres conference on Jun 28, with Pritam Singh's position as party chief on the agenda
https://www.channelnewsasia.com/singapore/workers-party-wp-pritam-singh-chief-special-cadres-conference-6154341?cid=internal_sharetool_iphone_01062026_cna25
u/KopiSiewSiewDai 🌈 F A B U L O U S 8h ago
Growing dissatisfaction within the party, but still not enough majority to force PS to step down la… his senior inner circle so loyal to him
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u/Emergency-Team-3102 7h ago
Ownself check ownself... after all CEC only gave PS a slap on the wrist... but I doubt his support within the party as a whole is as strong as before
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u/Emergency-Team-3102 8h ago
if there's around 100 cadres and there's already 25 of them supporting PS to step down... it sadly doesn't look very good for him
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u/risingsuncoc Senior Citizen 8h ago
Who can replace him though? We will also need a new opposition leader
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u/Emergency-Team-3102 7h ago
I would personally say He Ting Ru is the front runner... lao jiao enough but not too old
Sylvia Lim possible but I think she just wanna enjoy her senior life with her husband while Jamus Lim not very leader material...
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u/shiinamachi 23 years experience in internet shitposting 4h ago
sylvia doesnt seem likely given that she's part of the 'older' generation of WP members, would be pretty much a step back. she and pritam are currently the only remaining members of the 2011 aljunied team and sylvia's tenure technically exceeds pritam as she also contested in 2006 before pritam even joined WP.
that said it is pretty hard to tell who should take over PS should he step down. ideally it has to be one of the current WP MPs but also senior enough to take over the position. this more or less narrows it down to dennis tan, gerald giam, HTR, louis chua or jamus, and i'm not sure if any of them have what it takes currently to lead WP
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u/GelatoBravado 6h ago
Not HTR please.
All she and Jamus did were to issue a reprimand letter to PS. The regular party members calling for PS to step down have more guts and integrity than her.
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u/TamaSGFU 7h ago edited 7h ago
Tbh with the ongoing self-goals he has made as party chief, he doesn’t really seem to be the best fit tbh. His predecessors had their own challenges, but they didn’t repeatedly hand political ammunition to the PAP or allow avoidable controversies to dominate the conversation. I would say I have less respect for him than compared to LTK during his tenure as party chief.
That being said, whatever PS currently is, he is not part of them and we all know how gutter politics work in here with him as the underdog. Until they decide to play fair and hear us out, he has my support.
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u/automatedrage 7h ago
people have their strengths. i don't think LTK was a good parliamentary debater/talker either, but WP needed someone to elevate it to the next stage. growing pains if you ask me.
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u/TamaSGFU 6h ago edited 6h ago
You are right, he wasn’t a good parliamentarian to give elegant speeches, but to be fair the demographics that elected him in wasn’t England exactly; you didn’t need to be that fluent in English, but you had to be relatable + have a Teochew affinity with your constituents.
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u/automatedrage 6h ago
Yea the idea is that some can be a local town hero but they aren't suited to be the leader of the party/country.
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u/risingsuncoc Senior Citizen 7h ago edited 6h ago
I think PS has taken WP as far as he can. He has been sec-gen for about 8 years and taking Sengkang GRC in 2020 was a historic achievement. They now have 12 MPs which is the largest opposition caucus since Barisan Sosialis
but I think strategically they were bested by PAP in 2025 and failed to capture at least one of Tampines or Punggol. They also went backwards in East Coast and left Marine Parade uncontested.
Whether this is as far as any opposition party can get in Singapore is anyone’s guess, but I’d like to see someone new try. Further, the LO post is one of the few benefits the opposition has, from a practical pov it’s a waste to let it go unfilled for long.
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u/TamaSGFU 7h ago
Whether this is as far as any opposition party can get in Singapore is anyone’s guess
If they think this is the epitome of Singapore politics, think again. No party rules forever, not the PAP, or the WP. Delivering economic growth is a fairly weak source of legitimacy.
Only we get to decide that.
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u/dlrr_poe Lao Jiao 7h ago
No. WP has always had a history of dissenters since LTK's time. 45 cadres voted for CSM over LTK yet no one ever thought LTK was close to losing his position. 25 requisitioning for a meeting doesn't mean anything. PS could still very well lose his position, but the 25 that you're seeing now isn't anything new.
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u/Hot-Job-6281 7h ago
Any normal party has dissenters.
A party with all yes man is an autocracy.28
u/TrainsMapsFlags East side best side 7h ago
exactly. the reason it seems like the pap doesnt have dissenters is that they can not only afford to be more picky with the ideological purity of their cadres, they can also hide the dissent better
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u/mrdoriangrey uneducated pleb 6h ago
Not a fan of PAP but I don't think they lack dissenters - it's just that they're very disciplined and close ranks when it comes to facing the public.
I hear rumours of all the factions and rivalries in PAP etc., but nothing concrete ever leaks out, unlike in WP.
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u/TrainsMapsFlags East side best side 6h ago
i think this is a feature of all local parties tbh. pap has the highest stakes so theyre the least willing to stick their necks out. wp if you stick your neck out you dont run the risk of the narrative being youre going against the state
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u/kuuhaku_cr 6h ago
That's the trait of many successful organizations. You have your own disagreements and conflicts but always present a united front. Despite the differences, enough common ground and alignment in ideology that keep the people still in. Those who diverge too much will leave on their own.
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u/Twrd4321 7h ago
There will always be dissenters. The difference now is that there is a strong reason for those dissenters to ask him to resign.
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u/TamaSGFU 7h ago edited 4h ago
Agreed. You can look at Lawrence Wong.
He didn’t even win the unanimous vote to become Prime Minister by the executive cabinet
Central Executive Committee.1
u/vecspace 4h ago
Hmmm it wasn't the CEC and also this is to choose 4G leader which will be weird to win unanimous given there are 2 other frontrunner who are both very credible candidates. 15/19 in that context is a v good result.
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u/Emergency-Team-3102 7h ago
But the 25 cadres in this case is against PS position as Sec-Gen which is vastly different from a leadership battle tho, but in the end it's about the number of cadres for and against PS to remain as their leader, and not just on who is a better candidate
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u/vecspace 4h ago
No one ever? Just 1 month before the election, WP took in 28 cadres with about 18 being nominated by LTK himself. He won by 16 votes.
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u/Own_Accountant_77 7h ago
How or where did you get the estimation of ~100 cadres? The venue can hold 200 pax according to the singapore land tower website. So there might be 150-200 cadres.
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u/Emergency-Team-3102 7h ago
Based on publicly available information, we won't be so sure about the real number https://www.channelnewsasia.com/singapore/wp-pritam-singh-parliament-cadres-secretary-general-special-conference-5725076?cid=internal_sharetool_androidphone_01062026_cna
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u/vecspace 4h ago
If you ask me, he can't lose because there is no one to take over but it likely to be something around 60-40.
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u/twilightaurorae 4h ago
Not necessarily. I believe those 25 to primarily be those from the Mandarin/Teochew speaking side - who weren't really in line with PS' politics or the more English-educated side of the WP
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u/shesellseychelles 6h ago
20 out of 100 is nothing. Anw there are likely more than 100, that was an old figure from LTK era
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u/MissLute East side best side 7h ago edited 7h ago
Mr Pritam Singh's future as the secretary-general of the Workers' Party (WP) will be on the agenda at a special cadres conference on Jun 28, where he will face a secret vote on his position if he does not offer to step down, CNA has learnt.
wow, raeesah khan really is the gift that keeps giving
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u/Medium-Choice-2246 7h ago
I really can't believe a single lie from Raeesah Khan did all this
At this rate I can only believe she's a PAP spy
If PAP attack WP, it'll actually benefit the WP as more people will be empathetic
But for there to be internal division can tarnish WP image
I legit worry for WP for this term and next election especially as there's no alternative as PSP got whacked hard last year and SDP is mainly CSJ and PT
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u/confused_cereal 5h ago
PAP aside, Pritam could have handled RK better. I can understand why he did what he did. People should remember that the PAP smear on RK in the 2020 election actually contributed to WP winning over SK. But RK lying crossed a line and he should have come clean earlier. As party leader he should know the PAP is going to milk this for all it's worth
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u/Big_Data_2236 7h ago
Lol WP own goal, also can blame PAP as doing spying.
Let’s just face the plain truth.
Raesah was a WP loyalist until it wasn’t in her interest. Pritam also made serious judgement errors. Both can happen whether PAP is 007 or not.
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u/trenzterra 7h ago
I mean this is all squarely on him. Quite clearly he tried to cover up and then things got out of hand and he still tried to be evasive and all. Granted his intentions may be good and he wanted to avoid being screwed if he admitted during the COI but end up he got screwed much worse.
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u/GelatoBravado 6h ago
RK didn't do this to WP or PS.
PS did it to himself by lying under oath. You have to get this right.
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u/Emergency-Team-3102 7h ago
Outcome could've been PS being a hero or a zero for the reputation of the WP, unfortunately he chose the latter
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u/tm0587 7h ago
I wonder how many spies within WP also.
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u/vansinghworld Fucking Populist 7h ago edited 7h ago
I think they did their due diligence in terms of getting new members after the RK incident.
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u/Jammy_buttons2 🌈 F A B U L O U S 6h ago
If she is one then PS's eye for character is suspect then?
At the end of the day,, he chose to cover this shit up and got into bigger trouble instead of really making everyone come clean. Heck it was LTK who forced everyone to come clean ASAP.
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u/Super-Key-Chain 7h ago
He will get to keep his position. The dissenters won’t be able to muster enough votes to displace him.
Both sides will then claim victory on the agenda. And PS, convicted as he is, will still be party chief.
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u/vansinghworld Fucking Populist 7h ago
That’s because it’s more likely that WP would stand behind him/support him. Not a matter of not being able to muster votes against him, they have no reason to.
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u/Super-Key-Chain 7h ago
The 25 that called for the special meeting asked for ‘Secondly, the cadres are calling for Mr Singh to step down immediately as secretary-general for breaching Article 30 of the party’s constitution – to be "honest and frank in all his dealings with the party and the people of Singapore".
Unless these 25 have a change in mind, 25% is already voting against him. But they can get at most another 10. So that makes it around 35% or so.
The rest will vote against the resolution. This PS will keep his position.
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u/Emergency-Team-3102 7h ago
Depends on who are the cadres, I dare say those from LTK era will be the fastest to vote against him, they really rule with an iron fist to protect the integrity of the party
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u/vansinghworld Fucking Populist 7h ago
I could see someone like Faisal Manap voting against him, Sylvia and Gerald? Personally don’t think so
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u/automatedrage 6h ago
??? in what world would faisal vote against PS? This guy is like a rare pokemon in politics.
the dissenting faction is probably the teochew faction within WP.
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u/Super-Key-Chain 6h ago
Faisal won’t as he’s part of the trinity. Voting against PS is telling the world that he is wrong too.
Faisal as a rare Pokémon? Surely you joke.
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u/shesellseychelles 6h ago
Lol zero chance PS is replaced as sec-gen la. His political capital is insane. You look at the CEC decision you know already. These 20 cadres likely all the 50+ y/o from LTK era. None of the elected MPs woll vote against PS
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u/ianthepragmatist 5h ago edited 5h ago
For the WP, what matters most is how many electoral votes Pritam is worth, and like he said in the CNA programme, the Court of Public Opinion has largely ignored his crime of lying about telling a subordinate to keep lying to parliament. Hence, he will likely keep his leadership position. But that will also mean it will be harder for the party to attract respectable candidates who genuinely value honesty and integrity in politics.
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u/GelatoBravado 6h ago
The regular party members have more guts than Jamus and He Ting Ru on the Central Executive Committee who merely just issued a letter of reprimand to PS.
I say replace all the CEC members involved in the Raeesah Khan fiasco, whether their indecision or incompetence (eg Sylvia Lim, Faisal), and those that shelter PS despite his criminality and moral failings (eg Jamus, HTR).
WP sorely needs intelligent leadership with integrity to mount an effective opposition to PAP.
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u/vansinghworld Fucking Populist 7h ago edited 7h ago
Why would the WP party disband if Pritam is ousted?
In fact I think he’ll still remain as Secretary General. Even if he is removed as Secretary General, he’ll still remain in the party.
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u/Hot-Job-6281 7h ago
You must be young if you think Pritam is that critical to WP.
JBJ and LTK were each far more iconic and influential than Pritam - who was never the only member of WP in Parliament.
Till this day, most Singaporeans - because we are a generally middle-aged and above country - don't think of it as a Pritam party, it's a mere blip relative to multiple decades' long leadership.
When WP survived the transition from JBJ to LTK, Pritam is not hard to transition from in comparison, given there are other actual MPs that have served multiple terms already.
Edit: Guy downvoted then blocked me? Can't see his comment anymore LOL
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u/alevel19magikarp 6h ago
WP is now big enough to be a broad tent with good support from traditional Chinese (historical base) and minority races (since 2010s) and liberals (more opposition leaning).
Hard for WP to find a new leader who can balance support from all three groups like Pritam.