Davis Polk Deal Lawyer Chen Makes Initial Offering in Singapore Elections
<cite class="byline"> By Andrea Tan - May 4, 2011 9:35 AM GMT+0800 </cite>
Chen Show-Mao, head of law firm Davis Polk & Wardwell LLP's Beijing office, standing for a photograph during an election campaign in the Aljunied district of Singapore. Photographer: Munshi Ahmed/Bloomberg
Chen Show-Mao, head of law firm Davis Polk & Wardwell LLP's Beijing office, speaking to residents during an election campaign in the Aljunied district of Singapore. Photographer: Munshi Ahmed/Bloomberg
Chen Show-Mao, head of law firm Davis Polk & Wardwell LLP's Beijing office, speaking to residents during an election campaign in the Aljunied district of Singapore. Photographer: Munshi Ahmed/Bloomberg
Campaign posters for the ruling People's Action Party, top, and the opposition Workers' Party, bottom, displayed ahead of the May 7 general elections in the Aljunied district of Singapore. Photographer: Munshi Ahmed/Bloomberg
Chen Show-Mao, after years of advising on deals like Agricultural Bank of China Ltd. (1288)’s $22.1 billion initial share sale, has a new type of offering in the works: His opposition-party candidacy to join Singapore’s parliament.
“We want to help you to ask the serious questions that will make our democratic system of government work better,” the head of Davis Polk & Wardwell LLP’s Beijing office told more than 20,000 people in a suburban Singapore sports stadium in his first campaign speech last week before the May 7 elections.
A victory by Chen, who is contesting as part of a Workers’ Party team in a district that elects five representatives as a group, would more than double the number of opposition seats in parliament. It would also oust Singapore’s Foreign Minister George Yeo, who is leading the People’s Action Party candidates in the constituency.
PAP co-founder Lee Kuan Yew has dubbed the 50-year-old lawyer a “celebrity” who hasn't lived in the country for decades and said voters will “repent” if they don’t elect the ruling party. The PAP’s 52-year stretch in government has made the country Asia’s richest per capita.
Opposition parties, which previously haven’t run enough candidates to prevent the PAP from returning to power on nomination day, are challenging 82 of 87 seats this year.
While analysts including Lim Jit Soon, Nomura Securities’ Singapore research head, said they expect another clear victory for the PAP, which won 67 percent of the vote in the 2006 poll and all but 2 of the seats in parliament, they said a reduced popular vote could see some policy changes.
Reviewed Policies
“If the PAP achieves a significantly reduced popular vote it may look to review some of its policies like immigration,” Lim said in a strategy note titled ‘Times they are a-changin.’
Foreigners make up 36 percent of Singapore’s 5.1 million population, up from 14 percent in 1990, boosting the economy and creating jobs for Singaporeans, the government says.
Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong said last month that investments such as a new $3 billion memory chip plant built by Intel Corp. and Micron Technology Inc. wouldn’t have been possible without foreign workers. Opposition parties have questioned if growth is being pursued at too high a cost by letting too many foreigners in.
“How many hundreds of thousands of foreign workers to bring in every year is enough?” Chen asked in his April 28 rally speech to roars of approval. He declined to be interviewed for this story.
<cite class="byline"> By Andrea Tan - May 4, 2011 9:35 AM GMT+0800 </cite>
Chen Show-Mao, head of law firm Davis Polk & Wardwell LLP's Beijing office, standing for a photograph during an election campaign in the Aljunied district of Singapore. Photographer: Munshi Ahmed/Bloomberg
Chen Show-Mao, head of law firm Davis Polk & Wardwell LLP's Beijing office, speaking to residents during an election campaign in the Aljunied district of Singapore. Photographer: Munshi Ahmed/Bloomberg
Chen Show-Mao, head of law firm Davis Polk & Wardwell LLP's Beijing office, speaking to residents during an election campaign in the Aljunied district of Singapore. Photographer: Munshi Ahmed/Bloomberg
Campaign posters for the ruling People's Action Party, top, and the opposition Workers' Party, bottom, displayed ahead of the May 7 general elections in the Aljunied district of Singapore. Photographer: Munshi Ahmed/Bloomberg
Chen Show-Mao, after years of advising on deals like Agricultural Bank of China Ltd. (1288)’s $22.1 billion initial share sale, has a new type of offering in the works: His opposition-party candidacy to join Singapore’s parliament.
“We want to help you to ask the serious questions that will make our democratic system of government work better,” the head of Davis Polk & Wardwell LLP’s Beijing office told more than 20,000 people in a suburban Singapore sports stadium in his first campaign speech last week before the May 7 elections.
A victory by Chen, who is contesting as part of a Workers’ Party team in a district that elects five representatives as a group, would more than double the number of opposition seats in parliament. It would also oust Singapore’s Foreign Minister George Yeo, who is leading the People’s Action Party candidates in the constituency.
PAP co-founder Lee Kuan Yew has dubbed the 50-year-old lawyer a “celebrity” who hasn't lived in the country for decades and said voters will “repent” if they don’t elect the ruling party. The PAP’s 52-year stretch in government has made the country Asia’s richest per capita.
Opposition parties, which previously haven’t run enough candidates to prevent the PAP from returning to power on nomination day, are challenging 82 of 87 seats this year.
While analysts including Lim Jit Soon, Nomura Securities’ Singapore research head, said they expect another clear victory for the PAP, which won 67 percent of the vote in the 2006 poll and all but 2 of the seats in parliament, they said a reduced popular vote could see some policy changes.
Reviewed Policies
“If the PAP achieves a significantly reduced popular vote it may look to review some of its policies like immigration,” Lim said in a strategy note titled ‘Times they are a-changin.’
Foreigners make up 36 percent of Singapore’s 5.1 million population, up from 14 percent in 1990, boosting the economy and creating jobs for Singaporeans, the government says.
Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong said last month that investments such as a new $3 billion memory chip plant built by Intel Corp. and Micron Technology Inc. wouldn’t have been possible without foreign workers. Opposition parties have questioned if growth is being pursued at too high a cost by letting too many foreigners in.
“How many hundreds of thousands of foreign workers to bring in every year is enough?” Chen asked in his April 28 rally speech to roars of approval. He declined to be interviewed for this story.
