Ms Hazel Poa has been appointed as the Acting Secretary-General of the National Solidary Party (NSP), following a meeting by the party’s Central Executive Committee (CEC) on Thursday (Jun 25).
In a statement on Friday, NSP President Sebastian Teo said the decision was made not to appoint a new Secretary General “in view of the need to focus on preparations for the next General Election”.
“The CEC felt this would not be an appropriate time to call for a Party Congress to elect a new Secretary-General,” Mr Teo said.
In the meantime, Ms Poa will carry out the duties of the Secretary General. She held the role from 2011 till September 2013 before resigning, citing health concerns.
If you are the secretary general (sec-gen) of the National Solidarity Party (NSP), chances are that you won’t last very long in the position.
The latest casualty of what some say is the result of internal political bickering is its sec-gen, 53-year old lawyer, Tan Lam Siong.
The NSP announced on Wednesday, 17 June, that Mr Tan has resigned as its sec-gen.
He had only been in the job for less than five months.
The NSP statement, posted on its Facebook page, said Mr Tan is stepping down so as to “focus more on his passion for social and community work, and charitable pursuits while remaining as a congress member.”
When he was elected into the NSP as its sec-gen in January, Mr Tan reportedly told the Chinese press that he “was surprised to be elected”.
However, he added: “Since I have taken up this heavy responsibility, I will give it my all.”
This seems to have lasted less than half a year – which, in the wider context of the shelf lives of the other sec-gens, has raised questions of NSP’s internal structure and politics.
In the last five years, besides the exodus of ordinary members, which include Ms Nicole Seah, the party has seen a turnover of several sec-gens.
All of them had had stints of less than two years each:
Law Sin Ling: Aug 2006 – Feb 2008 (18 months)
Ken Sunn: 2008 – 2009 (less than one year)
Goh Meng Seng: Feb 2010 – June 2011 (16 months)
Hazel Poa: June 2011 to September 2013 (15 months)
Jeannette Chong: Oct 2013 – Jan 2015 (15 months)
Tan Lam Siong: 26 Jan 2015 – 17 June 2015 (less than 5 months)
When each sec-gen stepped down, diplomatic reasons were given by the sec-gens themselves and the party.
For example, when Mr Goh resigned from his position after the 2011 general election, where he led the party’s campaign with NSP fielding the most number of candidates among all the opposition parties, he said it was “to reflect on his future”.
Mr Goh said he would be on a sabbatical for at least two years, and noted that it is “timely to take stock of my future directions”, Yahoo Singapore reported then.
Mr Goh’s successor, Ms Poa, cited personal health considerations for her decision to step down.
And Ms Chong-Aruldoss, who stepped down after losing a bid for the president’s post in an internal election earlier this year, told the press that “she and the others harboured no acrimony towards the NSP.”
Several NSP council members had quit the party together with Ms Chong-Aruldoss who subsequently joined the fold of Mr Chiam See Tong’s Singapore People’s Party.
As for Mr Tan, he has kept silent so far on the reasons for his resignation as sec-gen.
[UPDATE: Mr Tan has since written on his blog: “If there is a single reason why I choose to finally step down after putting in so much time, energy and resources in such a relatively short time, I can only say it is due to incompatibility issues.“]
So, what really is the reason for such a high turnover of leaders in such a short span of time?
One reason, as mentioned above, is the internal politicking, especially when new members join it.
This was what Mr Goh felt when he stepped down at the helm.
Speaking to The Online Citizen (TOC), he said he had “predicted NSP may not be sustainable due to too much internal politicking and partly due to the fact that the new comers who are ambitious to take over the party.”
While he said there was “nothing .. wrong being ambitious in politics”, he explained that integration must be done “properly” as this was “the key to successful leadership.”
“Everyone is a volunteer [in] the party and a leader of a political party cannot hire or fire [as he wishes],” Mr Goh said. “Therefore integration to the party and understanding of each member is important.”
A recent incident involving the status of the party newspaper might be indicative of disagreements in leadership style behind the NSP doors. (See here.)
Another reason for the frequent changes of sec-gens could be the role of the president of the party, which is currently being held by 67-year old, Mr Sebastian Teo. He has been a stalwart of the party and has been president for some 6 terms, or 12 years. (The party holds its central executive council election every two years.)
According to the NSP constitution, one of the powers of the president is the casting vote afforded to him.
A casting vote is an extra vote given to someone to decide an issue when the votes on each side are equal.
In other words, he has veto powers.
“The public would assume that the sec-gen is the leader and where there are such frequent changes, the public may view the ‘ship’ as being directionless,” Mr Ravi Philemon, a former NSP member, told TOC.
“From that perspective it is not in NSP’s interest to have such frequent changes,” he said.
Mr Philemon questioned if the party stalwarts, who seem to wield much control in the party, are ready for progress or new ideas which might take the party forward.
“If you observe, all these former party sec-gens are not party stalwarts, but people who had joined the party fairly recently before they were elected as sec-gens,” he said. “So one theory [for the high attrition rate of sec gens] could be that the newer recruits to the party have a different view of how the party should move forward, which could be in contrast to how party stalwarts feel on that topic. That could be one reason for the frequent changes.”
It is also rumoured that the party elders, who are getting on with age, see the next elections as their last opportunity to even contest the GE, and are obstructing internal changes which might or would require them to make way for new blood.
NSP President, Sebastian Teo
With the next elections less than 2 years away, it would be disconcerting to party members, and indeed its supporters too, that the party seems to be rudderless, as far as leadership renewal is concerned.
The NSP, which was formed in 1987, has only managed to put one MP in Parliament in all those 28 years – and even then, it was only a non-constituency MP.
But with the constant changes at the top, it looks like the party will continue to lack the stability to accomplish more than this.
The prize of an elected MP seat in Parliament for the party is as elusive as ever, if not more so now.
*The NSP will be appointing a new sec-gen in the next few weeks
National Solidarity Party (NSP) secretary-general Tan Lam Siong has stepped down less than five months after being elected to the position at the opposition party’s biennial central executive committee election in January.
An NSP statement on Wednesday night said that he stepped down “to focus more on his passion for social and community work, and charitable pursuits”.
Mr Tan told The Straits Times that he remains a “congress member” – or cadre member – of the party, with voting powers. He did not elaborate on the reasons for his stepping down or say who would succeed him.
The NSP’s statement, signed by party president Sebastian Teo, said that during his tenure as secretary-general, Mr Tan had been “energetic and resourceful, putting in place new initiatives and introducing new perspectives into the party”.
“Whilst the party is sad to lose him as our secretary-general, we would like to thank him for his contributions during this period, and wish him all the best in his pursuits.”
Mr Teo added in a comment to The Straits Times that the next secretary-general will be decided on at a party meeting scheduled for next week.
Netizens have been sending us questions about the mysterious girl spotted at the National Solidarity Party’s (NSP) “Meet & Greet” walkabout, which was held in the evening of 27th May at Serangoon Central. NSP candidates have been working hard and conducting frequent walkabouts in the Marine Parade GRC ward in preparation for upcoming elections.
At first, there seemed to be very little information about the mysterious hottie, who struck a cute figure among the more senior and serious figures in the NSP walkabout team. One particular photo that caught every eligible bachelor’s eye was a shot where the young lady struck a “V for Victory” pose while posing gamely for a candid camera photo. The shot was taken by a fellow NSP team member.
But the wait is over, it seems. A reader has come forward with information on the young political starlet, who goes by the name Kevryn Lim Tong Zhen.
Kevryn, who currently runs her own event management and digital marketing firm, EMDM, while holding down a position as a Project Manager at WOW Productions, is definitely not your run-of-the-mill political lightweight.
According to her Linkedin profile, she holds a Bachelor’s Degree in Mass Communications, Public Relations and Film & TV from the Curtin University of Technology, as well as a Masters in Professional Communication from the same university.
She also participated actively as a student volunteer to help the less fortunate during her studies overseas, and even co-founded the Curtin Student United Way, a youth leadership program that gives its members the chance to make a difference in their communities by building up their communities in the areas of education, income and health.
Kevryn even served as an online radio presenter on Radio Television Hong Kong, making her a mini-celebrity in her own right!
Our reader also informed A.S.S. that Kevryn had worked as a model for a few years. This comes as no surprise, given Kevryn’s lithe frame and attractive features.
The reader has generously submitted some photos below of Kevryn during hermodelling days, all of which confirm that Kevryn might just be the hottest political star to hit Singapore politics since Nicole Seah.
SINGAPORE – Former National Solidarity Party (NSP) secretary general Jeannette Chong-Aruldoss has quit the party and applied to join the Singapore People’s Party (SPP), helmed by veteran politician Chiam See Tong.
The 51-year-old lawyer, who lost a bid to become NSP president in party polls held in January, left along with former council members Ravi Philemon, 46, and Bryan Long, 37, and party member Osman Sulaiman, 39.
Speaking before she joined Mr Chiam and his wife, Non-Constituency MP Lina Chiam, for a walkabout at Bishan Street 24 on Sunday, she acknowledged that their decision to leave came in the wake of the central executive committee (CEC) election results.
But she said that she and the others harboured no acrimony towards the NSP.
Mrs Chong-Aruldoss, who joined the party in 2011 and became its secretary-general in October 2013, tendered her resignation last week
So too did Mr Philemon, a community worker, and Mr Long, an entrepreneur. Both joined the NSP in July 2012 and were co-opted into the party’s previous CEC.
Mr Osman, a human resources executive, joined the NSP in April last year. He contested in Ang Mo Kio GRC in the 2011 general election as part of the Reform Party’s team.
All except Mr Osman have submitted their applications to join SPP. These are pending the approval of the party’s central executive, which is expected to meet this month.
At the NSP’s CEC election in January, Mrs Chong-Aruldoss challenged party stalwart Sebastian Teo, 66, for presidency, while Mr Philemon stood against lawyer Tan Lam Siong, 53, for the secretary-general position. Mr Teo and Mr Tan won by a landslide.
On Sunday, Mrs Chiam, who is the SPP chairman, said of the four: “They have good potential and they will help spearhead our party even more to greater heights.”
While she did not want to say when asked whether the SPP will contest in Potong Pasir at the next general election – which must be held by January 2017 – Mrs Chiam said that it will put together a “very strong team” to contest in Bishan-Toa Payoh GRC.
