Presidential election candidate Mdm Halimah Yacob unveiled her election slogan and her team of nominators and election agents on 29 August 2017 at NTUC Centre.
Two of her four nominators come from the Labour Movement. They are NTUC President Mary Liew and the General Secretary of the Amalgamated Union of Public Daily Rated Workers (AUPDRW) G Muthukumarasamy.
She had earlier revealed that the Chairman of the Singapore Business Federation and community leader Teo Siong Seng will be her proposer.
Mdm Halimah’s election slogan is “Do Good, Do Together.”
Nominators from Labour Movement
Mdm Halimah told a media conference that her campaign team comprised volunteers, friends and her former colleagues from the Labour Movement where she had served for over three decades.
Mdm Halimah described NTUC President Mary Liew as a well-known and outstanding trade unionist.
Mr G Muthukumarasamy from AUPDRW is known for fighting for the causes of daily-rated and low income workers.
Asked for her reason to have two representatives from the Labour Movement as her nominators, Mdm Halimah explained: “I have very strong feelings for workers and our Labour Movement and therefore it is only natural that I have two representatives. Both are not just trade unionists of calibre, they are also my personal friends. I have known Mary for many years and she is the president of NTUC and a female president, that’s important. Kumar is also my very good friend. I feel very strongly for his passion and commitment as he never gives up talking about the low income workers, which is also something I empathise with. I have worked very closely with him in order to look at how we can improve the lives of low wage workers and daily-rated workers.”
Thoughts From the LM Nominators
Both Ms Liew and Mr Muthukumarasamy also shared their thoughts during the media conference.
Ms Liew reiterated that the Labour Movement is fully behind Mdm Halimah’s candidacy for the elected presidency.
“She has not only inspired my life but that of union leaders and members. She committed her life totally to the cause of our workers. No problem is too small for her whether you are a rank and file worker or a professional, manager or executive. She is there for us,” said Ms Liew.
Mr Muthukumarasamy, who spoke emotionally in both Tamil and English, shared an episode when Mdm Halimah had come forth to help raise funds for the AUPDRW at a time when he was recovering from a heart by-pass operation.
Calling Mdm Halimah a mother, he urged Singaporeans to give a female a chance to be the president of the nation.
“I am confident she will do a great job,” said Mr Muthukumarasamy.
The Motivation
Speaking to NTUC This Week, Madam Halimah explained that her decision to contest in the upcoming Presidential Election was an extension of her public service of nearly 40 years.
She was in NTUC for 33 years in various capacities, with her last being deputy secretary-general.
“I cut my teeth in the Labour Movement. One of the things you learn is the importance of building trust, building confidence and these are not things people give you on a platter,” she explained.
NTUC’s Back to Work programme for women, which began in 2007, has been close to her heart.
“We had a great deal of problems. The women who had left the workforce to take care of their family couldn’t get back to work… I was in charge of the NTUC Women’s Committee at that time. We managed to have thousands of women retrained and get them jobs,” she added.
Starting the Singapore Institute of Labour Studies in 1990 and now renamed the Ong Teng Cheong Labour Leadership Instit... was another milestone she remembers well.
The late Mr Ong Teng Cheong, who was then NTUC Secretary-General, had approached Mdm Halimah and the former Director of the Institute Evelyn Wong to set it up.
“The reason he wanted the Institute set up was very inspiring. He said our union leaders did not have much education and he wanted to make sure they could progress. Both of us cracked our heads and we decided to set it up, have a Board and develop a programme. That was to me very inspiring because from nothing we created something,” said Mdm Halimah.
The Road to the Istana
Mdm Halimah will be the fourth candidate to come from the Labour Movement to contest for the highest office of the land.
If elected, Mdm Halimah considers her role as one of unifying Singaporeans.
“I hope I will be a good president if elected, someone who helps to unite people,” she emphasised.
She hopes voters will look beyond gender and focus on the person’s abilities to contribute to the values of the society.
“We have progressed for 52 years. Women have had the chance to be well-educated, we see women in all professions. When I became Speaker, a lot of young women from all races came to me and said ‘Madam Speaker, we are so inspired by you being a woman and you becoming the first female Speaker of Parliament’. So if that is an incidental part of being elected as a first female president, that is a bonus point,” concluded Mdm Halimah.
Source: NTUC This Week.
