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SINGAPORE: For some moments on Thursday night, the candidate for the Workers’ Party (WP) for Jalan Kayu SMC, Andre Low, trended online after he showed that he would not shy away from topics that the ruling party may find sensitive, as he addressed the blocked Income-Allianz deal.
The first-time candidate was one of the speakers at the WP’s first rally on Apr 24 for the residents of Sengkang GRC, Jurong GRC, and the newly-created Jalan Kayu SMC.
Mr Low, who received a standing ovation from WP chief Pritam Singh and the other candidates midway into his speech, had told the crowd, which some reports said numbered 10,000, that he would be “a dedicated MP (Member of Parliament), a present MP. If elected, my team and I will hit the ground running at Jalan Kayu.”
The candidate, who is about to become a father in August, talked about a number of topics ranging from being the child of two teachers, why he entered opposition politics, and the changes he wants to see in Singapore, which include tiered pricing for utilities to aid the city-state’s low-income families, and free public transport for seniors during off-peak hours.
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However, what appeared to rouse the crowd was when Mr Low referred to the thwarted 2024 Income-Allianz deal.
Mr Low is up against the People’s Action Party’s (PAP) Ng Chee Meng, who hopes to make a a political comeback. Mr Ng has been the Secretary-General of the National Trades Union Congress since 2018 and is a one-time MP for Pasir Ris–Punggol GRC (2015 to 2020). He had been part of the PAP slate that contested at Sengkang GRC in the last election, which narrowly lost to the WP.
The WP candidate reminded the crowd of the deal to sell NTUC Income to the German company Allianz, which had first been announced last July.
“What we did not know at the time was that there was a plan to return S$1.85 billion to shareholders,” including Allianz itself, within three years. He said, adding that in spite of public assurances that Income’s social mission would be maintained and protected, Mr Low, a lawyer, saw little by way of legally binding safeguards to protect Income’s mission.
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“Remember, income was built on the back of Singaporeans like you and me. It was meant to serve a social mission to our communities, to provide affordable insurance to those who could not get it elsewhere,” he added, pointing out that NTUC had been prepared to accept the “troubling” deal.
“The situation was so serious we had to pass emergency legislation to block the deal, a deal that the NTUC publicly endorsed just two months before that,” Mr Low said, adding that this is one of the reasons for the need for “strong opposition voices in Parliament.”
“Because without proper checks and balances, without proper oversight, without people willing to challenge those in power, these kinds of decisions can be done behind closed doors,” he added.
The 34-year-old Mr Low is a former disputes lawyer who worked under Davinder Singh at Drew & Napier. He has since moved to the tech field and is currently a staff product manager at a global fintech company.
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Having joined the WP in 2020, his work as a Secretarial Assistant to Sengkang Member of Parliament (MP) Louis Chua during the Covid-19 pandemic prompted him to build an Meet-the-People Sessions solution that maintained residents’ lines to their MP, which is still being used today.
Netizens who wrote about the WP rally said they found Mr Low, together with new candidate Jackson Au, Mr Singh and Sengkang MP Louis Chua to have been standouts at the rally.
One Reddit user called Mr Low’s speech “the best one of the evening.”
“I was worried about Andre, whether he has what it takes to take on Ng Chee Meng. Turns out he’s really good! Happy for Kayu SMC folks that they have a valid reason to vote WP,” another chimed in.
A commenter wrote that in his speech, Mr Low “took the approach of a balanced MP. One that can quickly go for the jugular (calling out NCM’s NTUC mess) but also speaking directly to the concerns without sounding too heated… He speaks with the cadence of someone highly educated, someone who can relate to the average person, yet doesn’t come across as too academically nerdy.” /TISG
Read also: GE2025: Andre Low confirmed as WP pick for Jalan Kayu
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