GE2025: Standing for elections is more about conviction than credentials, says WP new face and Harvard grad
The 36-year-old entrepreneur wants to help younger Singaporeans find their footing earlier in life.
In putting himself out there for the General Election in 2025, Workers’ Party member Michael Thng (pictured) is prepared to leave his startup if he were elected and circumstances made it necessary to do so. (Photo: CNA/Lim Li Ting)
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In almost every news article written about Mr Michael Thng’s potential candidacy for the Workers' Party (WP) so far, he has been given the same primary label: Harvard graduate.
The 36-year-old entrepreneur spent two years at the Harvard University’s John F Kennedy School of Government pursuing a master’s degree in public policy after completing his undergraduate studies at New York University's Stern School of Business, all in the United States.
WP's chief Pritam Singh highlighted Mr Thng's academic history, among other accolades in his curriculum vitae, during an event to introduce the opposition party's new faces last Sunday (Apr 20).
Notably, though, Mr Thng chose not to repeat that accomplishment in his own introduction.
The first question I posed to the political newcomer in his maiden sit-down interview with the news media was: What do you think of that label?
“It's kind of funny that all that matters in the coverage is where I happened to go to school for two years of my life,” he said.
“Ultimately, I'm someone who thinks deeply about the problems that we are facing in the country. I'm someone who has innovative ideas about how to solve them.
“I just have to prove that I'm more than that label and have people judge for themselves.”
During the course of our two-hour-long conversation while walking along East Coast Park in between rain bouts and sitting at pavilions, he spoke of how he spent large parts of his childhood cycling with his father, eating fast food and walking by the shore.
He also recalled how almost two decades ago, he was first exposed to WP's events as an Anglo-Chinese School junior college student.
Before he went to a WP rally at Serangoon Stadium in 2006 when he was 17, his perception was that there were "a couple of troublemakers who were giving the People’s Action Party (PAP) some pain", but generally speaking, everyone in the population was "very happy".
Then, "to go to the stadium and see throngs, thousands of people", it showed him that there were reasons why people were responding to the opposition.
That election, WP leader Low Thia Kiang retained his Hougang Single-Member Constituency seat and WP made its first bid for Aljunied Group Representation Constituency (GRC) but lost to PAP.
However, as the best losers that election, party chair Sylvia Lim got a Non-Constituency Member of Parliament spot.
At the next General Election in 2011, Mr Thng took the chance to volunteer for the party after he found out that the father of a friend was a WP candidate for East Coast GRC, though he declined to reveal who the candidate was.
The roles he took on within WP then continued to evolve gradually over time.
Even while he was living in the US – where he studied, worked for management consulting firm Boston Consulting Group and co-founded his tech startup Showdrop in Chicago – Mr Thng's interest in the political scene here was never far from his mind, he said.
He continued helping out with policy and parliamentary work remotely over the years.
