Heralding a new era of politics
After the tension of the polls, it was a time for bonhomie among old hands and new faces
By Rachel Chang
Newly elected Aljunied GRC MP and Worker's Party chief Low Thia Kiang (centre) with (from left) PAP MPs Low Yen Ling, Sim Ann, Fatimah Lateef (back to camera in red), and Baey Yam Keng. -- ST PHOTO: SAMUEL HE
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IF THERE was still any doubt that the political landscape in Singapore has transformed, the scene at the Istana last night should dispel it.
At the ceremony to swear in the new Cabinet, there were eight MPs from the Workers' Party (WP), its biggest contingent ever at such an event.
Newly elected MP for Aljunied GRC Pritam Singh strode up the steps, hand-in-hand with his mother, whom he had brought as his date to the ceremony.
As he entered the State Room, where the ceremony would take place, he joined a conversation with his WP compatriots - fellow Aljunied MP Muhamad Faisal Abdul Manap and Non-Constituency MP Gerald Giam. With them was PAP backbencher Liang Eng Hwa, outnumbered within the group by opposition politicians.
A few paces away, WP chairman Sylvia Lim, in a navy-blue dress with sequined embroidery, was in animated conversation with Moulmein-Kallang GRC MP Denise Phua of the PAP. The bonhomie in the room was thick; the gruelling campaign behind them, the MPs seemed determined to get along.
Many PAP MPs could not resist the pull of 'celebrity' Chen Show Mao - the WP candidate so labelled by Minister Mentor Lee Kuan Yew during the campaign. They greeted him with gusto as he stepped into view, face and silvery hair aglow.