August 19, 07:19 AM 
514 Chai Chee Lane 03-16, Singapore 469029 Workers' Party (WP) chairwoman Sylvia Lim suddenly created an Instagram account on Aug. 12, 2015, after the emergence of a fake account by an imposter had initially tried to pass off as her.
Within a day, her very first post about eating fried oyster became the talk of the town after Deputy prime minister (DPM) Teo Chee Hean read too much significance into it.
And not that it is a bad thing.
Her first post received more than 700 Likes and the number of Instagram followers is breaching 3,000 within the span of seven days.
On hindsight, this sort of attention Lim has been getting should not be surprising.
Public curiosity about the WP's second-in-command has probably been unusually high to begin with, owing to the fact that her public persona has so far been shaped by people's (only) impression of her in parliament, where she is most frequently seen in action, looking and talking like this:
How Singaporeans typically remember Workers' Party's Sylvia Lim.
This is where she masquerades as a po-faced, no-nonsense disciplinarian type, who comes across as combative, fiercely independent and ultimately, a private individual, because she doesn't speak much to the media or maintain an active public presence online -- let alone have space and time to talk about herself.
Until now.
So far, owning and managing a personal Instagram account has made her lay bare her more authentic selves for public consumption and sharing.
Her "voice" has come across as more authentic and her image has softened significantly.
This is because Lim is not only posting about politics, but is offering the public a rare glimpse into her personal life that has so far been off-limits.
In response to Mothership.sg‘s previous query on how she intends to use Instagram, Lim replied that she was “experimenting with new ways to communicate”. She also let on that her account will be managed by herself, some friends and volunteers.
Here are Lim's first few posts so far that are setting the stage for more personal and witty posts to come:
She is using it to publicly declare her coupling with football legend Quah Kim Song:
Using it as a tool for riposte following the orh luak brouhaha:
To maintain a straight face while being sarcastic:
The very first post that kick started orh luak politics:
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