Tin Pei Ling

Tin Pei Ling (Template:Zh) is a Chinese Singaporean who is one of five Singapore People's Action Party (PAP) Members of Parliament for the Marine Parade Group Representation Constituency. She is in charge of the MacPherson ward.

Besides being the youngest MP in Parliament, she was also the PAP's youngest candidate in the Singapore general election, 2011. She is currently serving as the Chairperson of the Ulu Pandan Youth Executive Committee for the Young PAP (YPAP), the PAP's youth wing, and a member of the Community Development Welfare Fund Committee.

She is married to Ng How Yue, the Principal Private Secretary to the Prime Minister.

Grassroots background

Prior to the formation of the 17th Young PAP Executive Committee marked by the 2011 elections, she was formerly assistant treasurer for YoungPAP (YPAP) and a representative for the Ulu Pandan branch.

Nomination and election as MP

In the 2011 general election, Tin was selected as a candidate for the Marine Parade GRC alongside former prime minister Goh Chok Tong among others. Having been a member of the Ulu Pandan branch of the Young PAP for 7 years, she was fielded by the PAP as a candidate to attract the "unpredictable" youth vote through social networking sites.

On election day, the PAP took Marine Parade GRC with 56.65% of the votes, defeating National Solidarity Party's team led by Cheo Chai Chen Goh Chok Tong admitted after election that Tin Pei Ling's youth and negative image perceived by the public was a "factor" for the People's Action Party's weaker performance this elecion compared to their 72.9% win in 1992.

On 1 June 2011, she announced on her Facebook account that she had resigned from her business consultant job in Ernst & Young, where she had worked for 4 years. She said the decision was made in order to focus on her responsibilities as full time MP in her MacPherson ward and the Marine Parade GRC.

Online backlash

Her selection as a candidate for parliament in 2011 resulted in a large online backlash, especially amongst young Singaporeans. Throughout the campaign, Tin Pei Ling garnered negative attention due to her perceived immaturity to become an MP, and allusions were also raised as to how her husband's position had opened doors for her into politics.

A widely-circulated Facebook photo of her "act cute" pose with a Kate Spade-branded gift from her husband, also led to widespread accusations online of ignorance, materialism and privilege. When asked if there was a policy she would change, she replied that there were no policy that she felt strongly against. When asked what her "greatest regret" was, she said it was not having brought her (still living) parents to Universal Studios Singapore.

Some Singaporeans were concerned that as an "undeserving [candidate]," she had a high chance of being elected "not on [her] own merit, but rather on the back of established MPs" since the 5-member PAP team would be voted in or rejected as a group under Singapore's Group Representative Constituency system.

The public's online hostility towards her was so great that her team comrade Goh Chok Tong defended about his team member in the press. He said he had taken Tin Pei Ling in when Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong had offered her to be fielded as a candidate in his GRC. He had accepted her as he did not think Tin Pei Ling was a weak candidate. He dismissed the online criticisms as "distortion" and even though "some sound bites of her which pitted her as a rather light-weight person", it was just "a superficial view". He still believed that she "would work very hard", "[could] reach out to the young, and the not so young," that he "would like her to do more to help the old people in MacPherson," and that she would become "a good MP in due course".

Cooling-off day controversy

Nicole Seah from NSP team in Marine Parade GRC filed a complaint to the Elections Department on 6 May stating Tin Pei Ling had violated the state-mandated cooling-off period 24 hours before polls by posting a Facebook comment on Seah crying during her walkabout. When questioned, Tin replied that one of her administrators, Denise He, had posted the comment under her account and that Denise had meant to post in her own capacity from her phone, but had forgotten to log out of Tin's account. The NSP team was advised by the Elections Department to file a police report before the Elections Department could investigate. Investigators for independent Singaporean news blog Temasek Review noted that according to Tin Pei Ling's publicly available nomination forms on the Election Departments website, Tin Pei Ling was listed as the sole approved moderator/administrator of her Facebook profile. The Singapore Police have confirmed that a police report has been lodged against her. Under the Singapore Parliamentary Elections Act, canvassing on Polling Day and Cooling Off Day is prohibited and the offence carries a fine or imprisonment or both.