Former NSP secretary-general steps into old role again
Ms Hazel Poa (right) in 2011. TODAY file photo
SINGAPORE — Former National Solidarity Party (NSP) secretary-general Hazel Poa Koon Koon will serve as the party’s acting secretary-general following the resignation of Mr Tan Lam Siong, NSP announced today (June 26).
Ms Poa, who became the first female secretary-general of a political party here in June 2011 and stepped down in September 2013 because of health reasons, said she agreed to step up after experiencing improvement in her health and receiving support from NSP’s central executive committee.
However, she was quick to add that “in NSP, the leader of the party is the president, not the secretary-general”.
“So in that sense, the leadership has been pretty stable,” she told TODAY via email.
While Mr Sebastian Teo has been the party’s president since 2006, NSP has had four secretary-generals since the last General Election — Mr Goh Meng Seng, Ms Poa, Mrs Jeannette Chong-Aruldoss and Mr Tan, who resigned this month to focus more on social and community work.
NSP’s central executive committee met yesterday and felt the time was not appropriate to call for a party congress to elect a new secretary-general, because of the need to focus on preparations for the next General Election, which must be held by January 2017.
At the meeting, the party’s top decision-making body appointed Ms Poa as acting secretary-general until a party congress is called.
Ms Poa, 45, who was at the meeting, said the party’s priorities going into the next General Election are clear.
“Working the ground and staying in touch with Singaporeans and their concerns are a must,” she said.
“We want to intensify our outreach and improve our accessibility to residents in the constituencies we contested in previously.”
The party also wants to ramp up its fundraising efforts and recruitment of volunteers.
Ms Poa said she had always intended to continue contributing to the party when her health allows.
She agreed to be co-opted into the new central executive committee in January and has participated in less physically demanding activities such as policy and manifesto discussions, and contributing articles for the party’s newsletter.
Ms Poa and her husband Tony Tan, both former high-flyers in the Civil Service, were seen by the Opposition as among the “star catches” in the lead-up to the last General Election in 2011.
They joined NSP after leaving the Reform Party and contested in Choa Chu Kang Group Representation Constituency, but lost to the ruling People’s Action Party, which got 61.2 per cent of the votes.
