Veteran activist not new to Bukit Batok

The PAP's candidate for the Bukit Batok by-election was not the "best kept secret," joked Deputy Prime Minister Tharman Shanmugaratnam.

Lawyer and long-time PAP activist K Muralidharan Pillai, 48, was unveiled as the party's choice at a press conference at PAP's Bukit Batok branch yesterday.

Mr Murali is not a new face to politics - he was the Aljunied GRC candidate in GE2015 and credited for the strong swing in votes in the Paya Lebar ward, where he was the branch chairman.

He is also a familiar face in Bukit Batok, where he got his first taste of grassroots work and has been serving in the community for 16 years.

He provided free legal advice to residents and was the branch secretary of the Bukit Batok branch under the late Dr Ong Chit Chung, who died in 2008.

Described by Mr Tharman as humble and self-effacing, Mr Murali said the needs of the elderly and the needy would be his focus.

Mr Murali shared an anecdote of a woman he met while offering legal advice to Bukit Batok residents. She was a mother of five and she asked him if her debts would be transferred to her children if she died.

He later realised that the woman was suicidal after she lost her husband and was worried about their finances. He managed to help her turn things around.

"This incident taught me the lesson of listening closely to my residents."

Mr Murali, who was away over the past week and returned to Singapore only yesterday, said he received a number of phone calls from activists and party leaders.

He said: "I think my phone bills will be quite high... I had some time to think through the issues. When the party leaders approached me, I accepted."

When asked about his chances in a two-way fight with seasoned opposition leader Chee Soon Juan, Mr Murali said he is confident of serving the needs of his residents with the support of fellow activists.

He added that he made his decision to run as a candidate irrespective of who his rival is.

"As far as I'm concerned, politics is really about serving the residents. I consider myself seasoned because I have put in quite a bit of time serving the residents," he said.

SINCERITY

On being a minority candidate in an area with a high proportion of Chinese residents, Mr Murali said he had to deal with the language barrier in Bukit Batok and Paya Lebar, but it was not a problem after he managed to prove his sincerity to the residents by solving their problems.

Mr Tharman acknowledged the by-election effect - where the opposition has an advantage because the ruling party is in no danger of losing power - and took that into account when choosing Mr Murali.

"We know what the competition will be, and we wanted to choose someone who will appeal to the residents."

tnp@sph.com.sg

This article was first published on March 22, 2016.
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