<TABLE border=0 cellSpacing=0 cellPadding=0 width="100%"><TBODY><TR>Sep 26, 2009
</TR><!-- headline one : start --><TR>Reform Party's new leaders <!--10 min-->
</TR><!-- headline one : end --><TR>Opposition party also releases manifesto </TR><!-- Author --><TR><TD class="padlrt8 georgia11 darkgrey bold" colSpan=2>By Kor Kian Beng & Jeremy Au Yong
</TD></TR><!-- show image if available --></TBODY></TABLE>
<!-- START OF : div id="storytext"-->THE opposition Reform Party unveiled a new central executive committee at a dinner last night which marked the party's birth just over a year ago.
<TABLE width=200 align=left valign="top"><TBODY><TR><TD class=padr8><!-- Vodcast --><!-- Background Story --><STYLE type=text/css> #related .quote {background-color:#E7F7FF; padding:8px;margin:0px 0px 5px 0px;} #related .quote .headline {font-family: Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size:10px;font-weight:bold; border-bottom:3px double #007BFF; color:#036; text-transform:uppercase; padding-bottom:5px;} #related .quote .text {font-size:11px;color:#036;padding:5px 0px;} </STYLE>The new CEC line-up
Chairman: Mr Edmund Ng, 36, a businessman. Was in a team of opposition candidates that lost in Tampines GRC in the 2006 election. He quit the National Solidarity Party (NSP) in June 2007.
Secretary-general: Mr Kenneth Jeyaretnam, 50. The hedge fund manager is the elder son of Reform Party founder, the late opposition politician J.B. Jeyaretnam. He worked in London's financial sector for many years before returning here with his family in April last year.
</TD></TR></TBODY></TABLE>It also released its manifesto and outlined its plans to attract more members and to contest the next election, which is due by early 2012.
The seven-member central executive committee is led by secretary-general Kenneth Jeyaretnam, 50. The hedge fund manager took over the reins in April.
He is the elder son of the late opposition politician J.B. Jeyaretnam, who registered the party in April last year but died last September.
Other key office holders named at a press conference ahead of its first anniversary dinner were chairman Edmund Ng, 36, and treasurer James Teo, 50.
Mr Jeyaretnam told reporters that the 30-strong Reform Party aims to recruit 60 more over the next year. It plans to do this through twice-weekly open house meetings at its Chinatown office and by boosting its online presence through new media tools such as social networking websites, he said.
The party is also awaiting approval from the Media Development Authority to publish a regular newsletter, said Mr Jeyaretnam.
The party, which also has plans for weekly walkabouts in constituencies islandwide, held its first one in Geylang Serai last weekend.
As for whether it is ready for the next election, he said: 'It has been only four months since I took over. We have recruited credible candidates.
'It is just a matter of focusing either on Group Representative Constituencies or Single Member Constituencies.'
Read the full story in Saturday's edition of The Straits Times. [email protected]
[email protected]
</TR><!-- headline one : start --><TR>Reform Party's new leaders <!--10 min-->
</TR><!-- headline one : end --><TR>Opposition party also releases manifesto </TR><!-- Author --><TR><TD class="padlrt8 georgia11 darkgrey bold" colSpan=2>By Kor Kian Beng & Jeremy Au Yong
</TD></TR><!-- show image if available --></TBODY></TABLE>
<!-- START OF : div id="storytext"-->THE opposition Reform Party unveiled a new central executive committee at a dinner last night which marked the party's birth just over a year ago.
<TABLE width=200 align=left valign="top"><TBODY><TR><TD class=padr8><!-- Vodcast --><!-- Background Story --><STYLE type=text/css> #related .quote {background-color:#E7F7FF; padding:8px;margin:0px 0px 5px 0px;} #related .quote .headline {font-family: Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size:10px;font-weight:bold; border-bottom:3px double #007BFF; color:#036; text-transform:uppercase; padding-bottom:5px;} #related .quote .text {font-size:11px;color:#036;padding:5px 0px;} </STYLE>The new CEC line-up
Chairman: Mr Edmund Ng, 36, a businessman. Was in a team of opposition candidates that lost in Tampines GRC in the 2006 election. He quit the National Solidarity Party (NSP) in June 2007.
Secretary-general: Mr Kenneth Jeyaretnam, 50. The hedge fund manager is the elder son of Reform Party founder, the late opposition politician J.B. Jeyaretnam. He worked in London's financial sector for many years before returning here with his family in April last year.
</TD></TR></TBODY></TABLE>It also released its manifesto and outlined its plans to attract more members and to contest the next election, which is due by early 2012.
The seven-member central executive committee is led by secretary-general Kenneth Jeyaretnam, 50. The hedge fund manager took over the reins in April.
He is the elder son of the late opposition politician J.B. Jeyaretnam, who registered the party in April last year but died last September.
Other key office holders named at a press conference ahead of its first anniversary dinner were chairman Edmund Ng, 36, and treasurer James Teo, 50.
Mr Jeyaretnam told reporters that the 30-strong Reform Party aims to recruit 60 more over the next year. It plans to do this through twice-weekly open house meetings at its Chinatown office and by boosting its online presence through new media tools such as social networking websites, he said.
The party is also awaiting approval from the Media Development Authority to publish a regular newsletter, said Mr Jeyaretnam.
The party, which also has plans for weekly walkabouts in constituencies islandwide, held its first one in Geylang Serai last weekend.
As for whether it is ready for the next election, he said: 'It has been only four months since I took over. We have recruited credible candidates.
'It is just a matter of focusing either on Group Representative Constituencies or Single Member Constituencies.'
Read the full story in Saturday's edition of The Straits Times. [email protected]
[email protected]
