GE2025: ‘I don’t want to be parachuted anywhere safe,’ says WP new face Harpreet Singh
WP new face Harpreet Singh Nehal said he entered politics to correct the course that Singapore is taking.ST PHOTO: KEVIN LIM
Tham Yuen-C and
Wong Pei Ting
Apr 14, 2025
SINGAPORE – If it were up to WP new face Harpreet Singh Nehal, he would not be “parachuted anywhere safe” in the upcoming election.
Ever since the senior counsel was spotted in 2023 on walkabouts and house visits in the opposition party’s blue polo shirt, speculation has been rife about whether he will contest the general election, and, if so, where he may be fielded.
The 59-year-old has been most visible in Marine Parade-Braddell Heights GRC, though there is also talk of him being fielded in East Coast GRC. Another possible scenario is that Mr Singh – regarded as a “star catch” for the WP – could stand in a single seat.
Asked about this at an interview on April 11, he said: “I made it very, very clear, I don’t want to be parachuted anywhere safe. That is not who I am.”
He did not want to be drawn into naming constituencies, but the WP is said to have a firm grip on Hougang SMC and Aljunied GRC.
The opposition party has held the single seat since 1991, and has successfully defended Aljunied since its win there in 2011. In the 2020 election, the WP also won the newly created Sengkang GRC.
Would he decline to run if asked to stand somewhere safe?
Replying, Mr Singh emphasised that he would “fight tooth and nail against it... I have made that absolutely clear”.
This stems from his belief that Singaporeans want to see politicians who are prepared to take risks, speak up and fight for every last vote, he said.
A managing partner at Audent Chambers, Mr Singh began volunteering with the WP in 2021 and
became a member in 2023.
Speaking to The Straits Times at his home in the east of Singapore, he said he entered politics to correct the course that Singapore is taking. “We are going in the very opposite direction of where Singapore needs to go,” he said.
Mr Singh listed several episodes that have troubled him: Several PAP leaders saying in 2019 that Singapore was not ready for a non-Chinese prime minister, the changes to the elected presidency in 2016, as well as the passing of “very broad, wide, sweeping laws” such as the fake news law – the Protection from Online Falsehoods and Manipulation Act – and the Foreign Interference (Countermeasures) Act.
These are all indicators that the system is clamping down at a time when it should be opening up, he said. “All that has had a huge impact on me and my decision to say, ‘Step up’.
“We need sensible people in the alternative parties, not people who are bitter or angry or who have got an axe to grind or who have got an agenda, but people who believe Singapore can be better and that we must change.”
Mr Singh listed three areas where he believes improvements need to be made.
The first is to “do a lot more to make affordability and financial security for citizens central to everything we do”, he said.
He also wants to see a more open society that supports innovation, creativity and risk-taking, as well as “fairer politics”, which he defines as having “stronger institutions” such as a “fully independent” People’s Association (PA).
The Government has reiterated repeatedly that the PA is not politicised, and executes directions of the government of the day.
It is to bring about these changes that he has entered politics at a stage in his life when he should “actually be taking it easy”, Mr Singh said.
Born to a watchman father and homemaker mother, he graduated from the National University of Singapore’s law school in 1991 and went on to get a Master of Law at Harvard University in 1993.
Mr Singh started out as a pupil under former PAP MP Davinder Singh at Drew & Napier, and was appointed senior counsel in 2007.
By the time he left to join Clifford Chance in 2012, he had risen the ranks to equity partner at Drew & Napier, and was known for handling complex commercial disputes and arbitration matters.
Mr Singh was not always in the opposition camp.
About 20 years ago, he went through the PAP recruitment sessions but was not selected. His application in 2007 to be a Nominated MP was also unsuccessful.
To cynics who have suggested it was these rejections that pushed him into opposition politics, he said: “Any right-thinking person will know that is not the case.”
He was just not a right fit, and it was nothing personal, he added.
Immensely proud to be associated with the WP, he said he has profound respect for Mr Low Thia Khiang, who became his MP in 1991 when he still lived with his parents in a three-room flat in Hougang.
Mr Singh said the former WP chief had worked tirelessly to build up the party, and bring in leaders such as current leader Pritam Singh and party chair Sylvia Lim.
With his academic credentials and illustrious career as a lawyer, Mr Harpreet Singh is viewed as one of the WP’s star catches.
“This is not about stars,” he said, downplaying this status attributed to him.
Throughout the interview, Mr Singh repeated several times that change will take more than one person, perhaps conscious about upstaging his other teammates.
He had initiated an “open conversation” with Mr Pritam Singh to pre-empt any talk of a potential power struggle within the party.
Mr Harpreet Singh Nehal began volunteering with the WP in 2021 and became a member in 2023.ST PHOTO: KEVIN LIM
“There is no doubt that, even as we speak, there are some people out there who are going to plant the idea that someone like me coming in is going to stir trouble within the party for all sorts of reasons,” he said.
He emphasised that he did not desire any titles or positions, and that he and Mr Pritam Singh “have profound respect and admiration for each other” and speak regularly.
“There is only one tiger,” Mr Harpreet Singh quipped, when asked if they were the two proverbial tigers that cannot be accommodated on one mountain.
“In my heart, there is absolutely no question that Pritam is the right leader for the Workers’ Party. And long may that continue.”
Since joining the WP, he has not asked for any role within the central executive committee, the party’s top decision-making body, he said. After all, why would he “want to be at the front line of what is going to be a constant barrage of attacks”, Mr Singh added.
He would know, since as a young lawyer, he had acted against opposition politicians in several lawsuits that government critics have said were politically motivated. They included a defamation case against current Singapore Democratic Party chief Chee Soon Juan and a bankruptcy application involving former WP chief J.B. Jeyaretnam.
Asked about this, he said he had been a relatively young lawyer then, part of a larger team.
“When colleagues ask you to help, you help, and I helped to the best of my ability,” he said.
Does he have any regrets?
“If I could go back and give advice to my younger self, I would say, if you feel discomfort in your heart, don’t be afraid to speak up,” he said. “It has taken me a long time to come to that place.”
He noted that he has also acted against the Government in other cases, such as when he launched a judicial review against the Public Service Commission for a civil servant, and when he acted on the same side as Mr Jeyaretnam in another case.
If he is elected into Parliament, he said, his constituents will get close to 100 per cent of his time.
Since joining WP, his bandwidth has practically been all consumed by preparation and groundwork, noted the divorcee with four adult children aged between 22 and 29.
Will he speak Teochew at the rallies?
Mr Singh, who grew up in a Teochew-speaking kampung, paused and said in the dialect: “My Teochew is not bad. I haven’t spoken it in 50 years.”
Switching back to English, he added: “Whatever I say at the rallies, whether it is in Teochew or Malay... or English, I will speak from my heart.”
