Admin manager, ex-Islamic college director in fourth crop of SDP candidates
Singapore Democratic Party candidates Bryan Lim (left) and Damanhuri Abas. Photo: Wee Teck Hian
SINGAPORE — The Singapore Democratic Party (SDP) introduced its seventh and eighth candidates for the General Election today (Aug 28), who alleged bias against Malays and spoke up on housing and childcare policies.
Mr Bryan Lim Boon Heng, 38, an administrative manager at a public hospital, contested with the SDP in Hong Kah Group Representation Constituency in 2001. Mr Damanhuri Abas, 45, is a new face and, until recently, was director of the Muhammadiyah Islamic College, an arm of Muhammadiyah Association, a voluntary socio-religious organisation.
Mr Damanhuri spoke passionately about what he called discrimination against Malays in the military and called for female Muslim nurses to be allowed to don tudungs while at work.
His family watched the National Day Parade on television, and during footage of the mobile column his six-year-old son said to him that he wanted to be a tank commander when he grew up. Noting that Malays appeared to have little chance of becoming tank commanders, Mr Damanhuri, a father of five, said: “(How have we shown) we are not trustworthy to ride a tank?”
Only lately has the community seen Malay-Muslim pilots in the air force, said Mr Damanhuri, who contributed to the SDP’s Malay policy paper.
Muslim women who want to don tudungs, or headscarves, when working as nurses in Government hospitals should also be allowed to do so, he said, citing Australia as a country where this was not an issue. “It’s hygienic,” he said, calling Singapore’s current policy “archaic” and “mind boggling”.
The issue of perceived bias against Malays in the military has been debated over the years, and the Government has stressed that there are many senior Malay leaders in the military.
At a forum at the National University of Singapore in February, Defence Minister Ng Eng Hen said Singapore Armed Forces personnel are deployed to sensitive units in the military based on their ability and beliefs to ensure that they do not pose a security risk. Race was not the issue, he said.
On childcare policies, Mr Damanhuri welcomed the doubling of paternity leave to two weeks announced at the National Day Rally, and said Singapore could consider six months of maternity leave for mothers.
Whereas the SDP candidates introduced yesterday were not fluent in their mother tongue, both candidates introduced today were comfortable speaking in Mandarin and Malay.
Mr Lim has helped in translation and ground operations at the SDP, and had preferred to be in the background as he established his career after contesting in 2001. Now “wiser”, Mr Lim said the political atmosphere today is better, with people openly associating themselves with political parties.
Back in 2001, “we’d stand on the perambulator and see people hiding behind walls and waving at us. The atmosphere then wasn’t that good without the presence of social media”, he said.
“I come from a humble family and stayed in a three-room flat with my parents and two younger siblings. Thus, I can relate to issues which the man-in-the-street grapples with every day, issues which I intend to bring with me to Parliament when I get elected,” said the business graduate from Monash University, who has a four-year-old daughter.
On housing policy, Mr Lim said the SDP believes land cost should be removed from the valuation of public flats. “The land belongs to the people, it doesn’t belong to the People’s Action Party,” he said.
The SDP champions a non-open-market scheme where participating home owners are able to sell their flats back to the Housing and Development Board, and those who convert their flats to the scheme will have the difference between the flat’s market valuation and its non-open-market cost returned in the form of Central Provident Fund savings for retirement and to pay off their housing loans.
A strong Opposition is needed in Parliament to ensure the ruling party delivers on its rhetoric, he added.
The SDP is expected to introduce its remaining three candidates today and its line-ups for various constituencies by Monday.
