GE2025: This SDP candidate hopes voters can see beyond his defamation case with KKH

Mr Ariffin Sha was only 17 years old when he first met Dr Chee Soon Juan, leader of the Singapore Democratic Party (SDP), in 2014.

He was not yet of age to vote or to stand for the 2015 General Election, but he wanted to be involved – badly. 

Young people in Singapore wanted their voices to be heard and he saw himself as an amplifier of those voices, he told CNA TODAY. 

At the time, in SDP's old office along Jalan Gelenggang in the Upper Thomson district, Dr Chee had put an avuncular arm around the teenager and offered some words of advice. 

“Take it easy. Go and volunteer. Politics is not the only way to make a difference.” 

The year is now 2025 and I am face-to-face with the 28-year-old legal executive who is about to take part in his maiden election going against a team comprising the most formidable of political opponents – Prime Minister Lawrence Wong. 

The battleground is Marsiling-Yew Tee Group Representation Constituency (GRC), where Mr Wong of the People’s Action Party (PAP) has been an MP since 2015.

And there are no points for guessing which opposition party Mr Ariffin is representing. 

More than a decade has passed but Mr Ariffin’s eagerness to speak up for Singaporeans has not wavered in the slightest. We spoke for more than an hour at the SDP’s new two-storey office in Bukit Batok while he recounted the series of events that led him here today. 

“Back then, Dr Chee told me to go out there and just serve the community. He said I would still be very young in 10 years' time and if I still wanted to consider joining politics, I can,” he said. 

“And here you are,” I said. He replied with a chuckle: “Yeah.” 

WHY HE STARTED WAKE UP SINGAPORE

Even before he met Dr Chee in 2014, Mr Ariffin, at 16 years old, had already founded alternative news outlet Wake Up Singapore, which over the years has been known for its unabashed commentary and criticism of government policies. 

He should have been studying for his O-Level examinations, he admitted, but this was something he felt he needed to do.  

“Wake Up Singapore started because of my discomfort with the whole idea of streaming in schools. I remember my teachers saying things like, ‘If you don’t study hard, do you want to end up at ITE (Institute of Technical Education)?’”

It was not just the sting of the comment that struck him, but the underlying message that certain paths were inherently inferior.

That moment sparked a broader interrogation of societal norms, which would later continue during his time as a law undergraduate in New Zealand. 

There, he saw plumbers, electricians and other blue-collar workers treated with the same dignity as lawyers and bankers. 

It was a stark contrast to the social hierarchy he had observed growing up in Singapore.

“It was these things that made me realise that maybe we do need more alternative perspectives,” he said. 

Wake Up Singapore listed abolishing the practice as one of its “13 things we will advocate for” on its Instagram page in 2023. 

A news site openly performing advocacy?

“The unique thing about Wake Up Singapore is that we have never really pretended to be objective,” he said. 

“From day one, we’ve already said that the media playing field is not balanced. But in a sense, our presence provides the balance, right? It's not so much a question of whether we agree or disagree. In fact, if all of us come to an informed opinion at the end of the day, I think that's good.

“If tomorrow the PAP makes good moves … Wake Up Singapore would be the first to applaud that.”