The N is not the end
Susan Long |
The Straits Times |
Sun Mar 3 2013
SINGAPORE - New Workers' Party (WP) MP Lee Li Lian sees her life's meaning in toppling stereotypes.
She
hopes to eradicate "stigma" in many forms. She yearns to illustrate
that N-level students can make it, that joining the opposition is no
longer a career-killer, and that a woman of reproductive age is not a
workplace liability but, given support, can juggle it all.
Well, the 34-year-old certainly proved, in the recent Punggol
East by-election, that gender, youth and less lustrous credentials are
no impediments to clinching a single-seat ward.
The Jan 26,2013, polls
saw her trouncing the People's Action Party's candidate, colorectal
surgeon Koh Poh Koon (43.7 per cent), Reform Party's Mr Kenneth
Jeyaretnam (1.2 per cent) and Singapore Democratic Alliance's Mr Desmond
Lim (0.57 per cent), and sailing into Parliament with 54.5 per cent of
valid votes.
She hopes people's takeaway from Punggol East 2013 is the "power of unity".
"Together,
everyone can achieve more. I hope the takeaway for Singaporeans is the
power of their votes, that they do have a say in the future and
direction of their country," says the financial institution trainer in
her first one-on-one interview unchaperoned by party bigwigs. Her
answers are artless, served straight-up with folksy charm and toothy
grins.
Does she see this as the beginning of more "non-elite" candidates stepping up?
After
all, Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong has said that the ruling party
needs to field more personable candidates who can connect with the
ground to reclaim ground lost to the opposition.
More candidates
from different backgrounds who represent a broader swathe of Singaporean
concerns can only be "a good thing", she says. Then adds: "I think
Singaporeans also realise that there's no perfect and ideal candidate
who fits everything. What matters most, in my opinion, is to have
someone with the heart to serve and the ability to relate to
Singaporeans."
A month into her new role, the newly trim MP, who
lost some 4kg on the campaign trail, is busy building up her grassroots
team and getting to know residents. Most evenings, she is in Punggol
East attending wakes, holding Meet-the-People Sessions, briefing
volunteers.
Her Punggol East Town Council is currently being merged with the
Aljunied-Hougang Town Council, which will have seven wards under its
ambit.
After being sworn in as MP, she championed in her maiden
speech in Parliament better work-life balance in the Population White
Paper debate.
She is now perusing the Budget to prepare for next week's debate on it.
She
now sleeps five hours a night, juggling "immediate and long-term
priorities", acutely aware she has only half a term left to prove
herself. She's set herself the target of knocking on every door in her
31,649-voter-strong constituency by the next general election, due in
2016.
"I just need to get everything done faster," concludes the
MP who famously announced the venue and timing of her first
Meet-the-People-Session on victory night.
She is still on annual leave from her company but may quit to become a full-time MP.
She
says her plans to have a baby with her husband of three years,
telecommunications consultant Jacky Koh, 36, are continuing apace.
They
were derailed earlier by the 2011 GE, where she was fielded in Punggol
East and held her own against PAP's Michael Palmer and SDA's Desmond
Lim, garnering 41 per cent of the votes.
Mr Palmer became the Speaker of Parliament before he quit in December over an extramarital affair.
Meanwhile,
Ms Lee was made legislative assistant to Aljunied GRC MP Pritam Singh,
and helped him with Meet-the-People Sessions and volunteer recruitment.
She
has had plenty of time to think about the kind of Singapore she wants
her children - she hopes to have two - to grow up in. Having come from
the Normal (Academic) stream, where students are told they "can't do
well in life", she wants her progeny to walk tall and enjoy "equal
opportunities" in education and work.
"I hope for a Singapore they
are proud of, which takes care of its elderly and disadvantaged. Such
that when they go overseas, they will tell people: 'In my country,
elderly folks above 80 get free public transport'," she says, revisiting
a theme she pushed passionately on the stump.
Elbow grease years
If there is one thing she yearns to implement, it is flexi-work arrangements that help more housewives return to work.
For years, she watched her father slog long hours doing piling work as the family's sole breadwinner.
Her mother quit as a garment factory worker shortly after she was born in 1978.
Every month, pay day was accompanied by budgeting in hushed tones in their spartan three-room Lorong Lew Lian flat.
From a young age, she assumed a "da jie" (big sister) caretaker role.
At age six, her mother found her trying to change the cloth nappies of a younger cousin.
She slept atop a double-decker bed shared with her two younger sisters, whose homework and whereabouts she supervised.
She even attended the youngest one's parent-teacher meetings as her mother spoke little English.
At home, they nattered in Mandarin, Cantonese and Hokkien.
She
picked up English from her largely Nepalese classmates at the
now-defunct Elling Primary, located next to a Gurkha camp in Bartley
Road. By nine, she was taking the public bus to school herself.
At 12, she was one of a few unaccompanied pupils who collected their
PSLE results on their own. She rated herself "slightly above average"
and was devastated to be posted to the Normal (Academic) stream in
secondary school.
Her first thought was for her parents - that it would "make them lose face".
Plus, studying one more year would be a further financial "burden" on them.
Sobbing
into the public phone, she called home and blurted out her news. Her
mother fell silent for a moment, then reassured her it was fine as she
had done her best.
"It made me feel even worse. I cried even louder," she recalls.
She entered Holy Innocents High in the last class, determined not to "feel inferior in any way" and disciplined to do better.
There, she met uplifting teachers, one of whom enlisted her and other students to decorate the chapel for her wedding day.
Ms
Lee, who had taken community centre art classes since she was four, was
roped in to illustrate the guest book, which the teacher later framed
and hung on her wall. "It meant a lot to us that she asked us to help in
the most important event in her life," she remembers.
Determined to improve her O-level English, she handed in a composition every other day to her teacher for marking.
In
return, she helped the teacher, who lived near her, carry her books
home. She also organised a group of N-level students to take private
tuition in Additional Mathematics and sit it at the O levels to "improve
our prospects".
Eventually, she did well enough to study business administration at Ngee Ann Polytechnic.
To finance that, she dabbled in all kinds of part-time work from age 15 to help out with family expenses.
She had little time for extra- curricular activities, joining only
the Art Club and Audio-Visual Club so she could help her father install
electronic items at home.
For years, she was a shoe salesgirl on a
"permanent part-time" contract, working four hours a day, then a
hospital receptionist and assistant nurse.
She witnessed many things, including Singaporeans who anguished over paying medical bills.
She
went on to complete a distance-learning degree in marketing with
Australia's Curtin University of Technology, largely paying her own way,
except for her fees which her parents helped out with.
At 23, she
graduated, while holding her first full-time job selling commercial
laundry equipment. She discovered her strength was in selling, building
rapport with people, hosting corporate events and giving presentations.
Two years later, she met her "introverted" husband at a sales seminar.
They
went out for seven years before tying the knot in 2010. He took her,
then a first-time voter, to her first WP rally during GE 2006.
She
says she was wowed by the hordes who came despite having to wipe mud
off their footwear later.
They both volunteered to be polling agents at
Aljunied GRC, and she joined WP as a member shortly after "to give back
to society because there are others who didn't get the opportunities I
was lucky enough to get".
"I also wanted to get rid of the stigma
that by associating with opposition, you cannot get your flat, your
children will be disadvantaged, your career will be over," says the
Upper Serangoon condominium dweller.
Two months later, in August 2006, she became the WP Youth Wing organising secretary.
In 2008, she was elected to its central executive committee and appointed deputy treasurer. WP chairman Sylvia Lim observes:
"What
strikes me most about her is her 'can-do' attitude, deep commitment to
own any task she is assigned and her unbridled sense of living life to
the fullest."
There was zero objection from her parents and sisters (one is an
auditor, the other a bank compliance officer) - "they knew I would be
responsible" - who help out with her grassroots events.
There were
no repercussions on the job front either. She has worked in financial
advisory, brokerage, recruitment and training with top companies here.
In
2008, she told her prospective employer, Great Eastern Life Assurance,
that she was a WP committee member. They made her an offer the very next
week.
She never missed a promotion. When she ran as a candidate
in GE 2011, her "very supportive" bosses and colleagues helpfully
covered her duties.
She now lives by this simple dictum, which
governs all her interactions:
"People don't care how much you know until
they know how much you care."
"I'm not someone very ambitious," she adds, half-apologetically.
"I
want to be remembered as a filial daughter to my parents, a supportive
partner to my husband and a loving mother to my children. Last but not
least, a friend people can count on." Lee Li Lian, Member of Parliament for Punggol East .
