Winning a constituency would help PSP attract young talent: Hazel Poa (2025)

SINGAPORE – Among the political aspirants that have been introduced to voters ahead of the May 3 General Election, those from the opposition PSP stand out for being older than those in the PAP and WP.

Just one new potential Progress Singapore Party candidate is under 40 years old.

PSP vice-chairperson Hazel Poa said the party has trouble finding young blood to stand as its candidates.

“Facts are facts. We have been trying to reach out to younger voters and also to recruit younger candidates, but the problem that we have been facing is that they’re usually more hesitant,” said Ms Poa.

“A lot of them actually worry about their career prospects if they are seen to be opposition candidates.”

Winning a constituency in the upcoming election would help the party overcome this hurdle and persuade more to become candidates in future, she said.

Ms Poa was speaking on The Straits Times’ current affairs podcast The Usual Place on April 22, during which she was asked what the party was doing to shake off its image that it was composed of mostly older members.

The discussion with ST correspondent and podcast host Natasha Ann Zachariah also featured Ms Poa’s husband, potential PSP candidate Tony Tan, who is likely to run in Kebun Baru SMC.

The PSP’s only candidate under the age of 40 is Ms Stephanie Tan, a 37-year-old homemaker with a law degree who will likely be contesting Pioneer SMC.

Meanwhile, political pundits say the other two political parties with a parliamentary presence are entering this general election with party renewal high on the agenda.

Almost half of the PAP’s 32 new faces are in their 30s, and eight out of 14 of the WP’s new candidates are under 40.

Asked for PSP’s pitch to young voters, Mr Tan urged these people to get involved in politics and not be afraid of speaking up.

“If they feel that certain things are not working, they must have the courage to speak up... If there are certain things that they want, they ought to push for it,” he said.

Ms Poa added that the PSP is open to new ideas and this should appeal to young voters.

“Age is just a number. (What’s) more important is the mindset. I feel that to be young in your mindset means that you must be open-minded to new ideas and willing to test out new ideas and think of new ways of doing things,” she said.

“In PSP, I think we have been rather forthcoming in challenging the norms and bringing forth new ideas.”

Ms Poa said people initially joined the party because of founder and chairman Tan Cheng Bock, but the more recent joiners said they could relate to the issues that she and party secretary-general Leong Mun Wai have raised in Parliament.

Both Ms Poa and Mr Leong are outgoing Non-Constituency MPs (NCMPs). In the 2020 General Election, they were part of the PSP’s West Coast GRC team that narrowly lost to the PAP.

This general election, they will be part of the party’s A-team, led by Dr Tan, that will contest the newly formed West Coast-Jurong West GRC.

Asked whether this is akin to putting all the party’s eggs in one basket, Ms Poa replied that the PSP had considered spreading risk.

“At one stage, the party did agree that I can go to (an) SMC, but subsequently... they felt that it is best for the three of us to be in the same team in West Coast-Jurong West GRC. I’ve had to change my plans on quite short notice, actually,” she said.

“Eventually, I think we feel that because it was the West Coast residents who sent me and Mun Wai into Parliament as NCMPs... we should stay (in West Coast).”

Electoral boundary changes have moved some 41,000 voters from the Taman Jurong and Jurong Spring wards of the old Jurong GRC to the new West Coast-Jurong West GRC.

Ms Poa noted that the changes have made it more challenging for the team and “moved the bar higher” for them, but said the party is undaunted.

“Over the past 4½ years, we have maintained our interactions with the West Coast residents,” said Ms Poa, adding that reception has been “fairly warm”.

She added that the responses from the residents in Taman Jurong and Jurong Spring have been “quite encouraging”.

Meanwhile, Mr Tony Tan is running under the PSP banner for the first time, but it will not be his first time contesting an election.

He contested the 2011 General Election with the National Solidarity Party.

Mr Tan pointed out that Kebun Baru has “quite a lot of elderly folk” – he hopes to come up with programmes to support them – and young couples who have to juggle looking after elderly parents and children.

“(These families) remind me of when I was younger... My mum had to be on her own when I went overseas to study,” said Mr Tan, who was raised by a single mother.

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