RP's "dragon slayers" lost to PM Lee's team in Ang Mo Kio. (Yahoo! photo/ Ewen Boey)
In the end, it was no surprise the "dragon slayers" were slain instead of the "dragon".
Alex Tan, Arthero Lim, Lim Zi Rui, Mansor Rahman, Osman Sulaiman and Vigneswari Ramachandran of the Reform Party (RP) -- labelled as "dragon slayers" entering a "dragon's den" -- were handily defeated by Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong and his People's Action Party team in Ang Mo Kio group representation constituency (GRC) in the General Election_ on Saturday.
RP has steadfastly refused to call their team a "suicide squad", referring to the name given to the team that from Workers' Party (WP) that dared challenged PM Lee's slate in the 2006 election.
PM Lee's group comprising Ang Hin Kee, Inderjit Singh, Intan Mokhtar, Seng Han Thong and Yeo Guat Kwang, successfully defended their seats in Ang Mo Kio GRC by winning a mandate of 69.3 percent.
In West Coast GRC, the only other ward contested by RP, the opposition party lost to a PAP team comprising Lim Hng Kiang, S. Iswaran, Arthur Fong, Foo Mee Har and Lawrence Wong, grabbing 36,395 votes or 33.4 percent of votes.
Party chief Kenneth Jeyaretnam said, "We are the first new party set up in over 20 years, and this was our first election. I am proud of the 34 percent that we won in this contest."
Jeyaretnam's wife, Amanda, added that the RP chief's late father, J.B. Jeyaretnam would have been very proud of his son's achievements at this election.
After his loss in the election, users on Twitter provided their own statements of encouragement.
@perculiarpy said, "Work towards next elections Mr_Kenneth Jeyaretnam. Your dad was a good man and your brother wrote a novel i cannot forget."
@Larissa_SG added, "Kenneth Jeyaretnam, please come back stronger with better, more competent candidates and contest Ang Mo Kio GRC."
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