COVERSTORY
HE RT
Serving
with
You might know him as
the PAP candidate who
challenged the leading
opposition party and lost.
Twice. But, there is more to
Desmond Choo than what
you read in the papers or
see in the videos.
It’s hard not to like Desmond
Choo. The soft-spoken 36-year-old
possesses that rare ability – one
much sought after by numerous
politicians – to put you at ease with an
imperceptible nod of his head and a
sincere, welcoming smile. The rimless
glasses that perch precariously on
his nose accentuate his kindly eyes
while the rest of his features tells the
story of a typical Singaporean boy who
grew up in an environment just like
you and me, studying hard, working
harder and finally making good. His
face is tailor-made for kissing babies
and shaking voters’ hands, for the
cauldron of politics.
And yet, despite being backed by the
might and extensive resources of the
country’s dominant political party,
Desmond lost in two successive
elections – the 2010 General Elections
followed by the 2011 by-election – in
the same constituency. Granted, he
was contesting in the Hougang ward,
a stronghold of the leading opposition
party for more than two decades.
But that fact did little to soothe his
wounds. The former civil servant
admits that the defeats were tough to
deal with. As if failure was not a bitter
enough pill to swallow, it was made
more difficult because the aftertaste
of the first had barely left his tongue
when he had to down another.
Desmond shares with me how he
wrestled with his internal demons
when news of his loss finally reached
him. “It’s not easy,” he says quietly.
“That it could be some of the
same people whom you
tirelessly served who
decided to tell you with
their votes that you
are not the one
they want makes
it worse.” He started questioning
whether he should return to the
ground of his defeat, to continue
helping the same people who had
turned their backs on him. As he
surveyed the group of volunteers
working alongside him, the answer
soon became clear. “I asked myself:
was I there to genuinely help or to
merely canvass for votes? If I’m there
to really make a difference to the
people, then I had to return. It is only
right,” says Desmond.
Between 2011 and 2014, Desmond
and his team still diligently helped
the people of Hougang with their
everyday struggles. Along the way,
he’s happy to have made many new
friends, a large majority of whom, he
shares with a laugh, viewed him with
suspicion when he first walked the
ground. “A few years back, I had gone
to a coffee shop when three middleaged folks called me over and asked
me to sit down with them because
they wanted to order coffee for me
and chat with me,” recalls Desmond.
Hot coffee in hand, the three of them
told Desmond that they could never
vote for him out of principle. However,
they were more than happy to advise
him on how to improve in the political
field. Now, whenever Desmond pops
by that coffee shop and spots the
three of them, he happily sits down
for a chat. Sometimes, they talk about
politics but most of the time, they talk
about everything else under the sun.
After all, that’s what friends do. Don’t
forget the coffee.
CONVERSATIONS ABOUT
THE FUTURE
A year ago, Desmond left the labour
movement and headed to the private
sector, becoming one of the righthand men of Singaporean tycoon
Peter Lim.
Remember the much-publicised deal
that Lim agreed with the Valencia
CF Foundation to buy over Valencia
CF, the Spanish football club, a few
months ago? Desmond was part of
the team working behind the scenes
to broker the multi-million Euro
agreement. Theirs was not the only
offer on the table. There were a few
other groups looking to take over the
storied football club with the centuryold history that had fallen on hard
times. They promised more money
or a rosier future, yet the trustees of
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Family & Life • Sep 2014