SINGAPORE: Murali Pillai has an avuncular manner about him. Throughout our interview he is amiable and exudes an approachability that might make most people want to invite him for coffee.
But when required, he can be a fiery politician as seen during some of his speeches during his PAP team’s campaign in the 2015 election in Aljunied Group Representation Constituency (GRC) and again when he contested and won the 2016 by-election in the Bukit Batok Single-Member Constituency (SMC)
It was only then that he became a Member of Parliament, making him the newest MP in Parliament today.
Two years on, the 51-year old lawyer has spoken in Parliament about issues such as social mobility, balancing the Budget and legal matters such as rehabilitative options for offenders with challenging psychiatric illnesses.
As we sit down to discuss his political career so far, he describes his election experiences as “phenomenal”. Both times, he had to go up against highly experienced opposition politicians.
But he says the most important lesson he learnt goes back to the basics of public service.
“The relationship of trust is key. Trust takes an eternity to build but can be lost very, very quickly and that must be the focus in grassroots politics - building that trust,” he says.
His debut election experience in Aljunied GRC certainly proved that.
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