Photos by Mindy Tan, Sean Yeo and Rachel Chew for Mothership.sg

If Low is the maestro of Teochew speeches, then he has found a maestro of Hokkien speeches in his apprentice. With his fluent command of the dialect, Dylan Ng captivates the crowd with analogies like “Dao PAP eh lang si zheng hu eh dua bor, dao fan diu dang eh lang si zheng hu eh sui bor.” (Voters of PAP are the legitimate wife of the government while voters of opposition parties are the mistresses.)

The son of a factory worker, the 40 year old grew up with kiam ngn and pui mueh on his lunch and dinner table everyday. “You don’t look forward to eating because eating was never a joy,” he said. “You just go there, finish your porridge, take the kiam and then you go: that’s life.”

His is a story of a poor boy made good. Today, the father of two is a wealth manager for RHB Bank, owing his success to his parents who worked hard diligently saved for his education although money was tight sometimes.

The University of Western Australia graduate credits his political awakening to the sudden death of his best friend in 2009.

“During the five-day wake, I received a wake-up call: I’ve been pursuing my personal dream, working in the corporate world for 15 years,” he said. “I realised I needed to give back and I started not through the political arena, instead, I first became a Christian.”

“I only joined politics in 2012. Why politics, and why wait till three years later? This is because I realised a good policy can reach out to critical mass and impact people’s life positively,” he said.

He will be contesting in Marine Parade GRC under the Workers’ Party (WP) flag against Minister Tan Chuan-Jin and his team.

Overshadowed by his teammates (*cough* He Ting Ru *cough*), Dylan is not as well known amongst Singaporeans. But if there are five things you should know about him, they are:

1. He loves his family

Especially his wife. Throughout the interview, he could not help but share with us how thankful he is for his wife’s support throughout the whole campaign:

"My wife followed me for three years when I was volunteering at WP. She knew she would support me if I was told to step forward. Now, she’s helping to handle all the logistics while taking care of the kids… She may say that all this is going to be over soon but it has not been easy; you can see the stress on her face. I’m tired but she is just as much tired as me."

He feels bad for spending less time with his kids, aged 10 and 6, who understand that their daddy is “undertaking a project until mid-September”:

"For the past two to three months I have not spent much time with them but my wife already pre-empted them so they have adjusted pretty fast. Now, they are always shouting, ‘Worker’s Party, Worker’s Party!’ which they learnt from watching YouTube videos of the rallies... But, they made me promise to take them to places after this project is done."

2. A banker joining the opposition? What!?

Conventionally, most bankers who go into politics joined the ruling party, like Foo Mee Har, Chua Eng Leong and Saktiandi Supaat. But Ng has chosen the “path less travelled” by joining the opposition camp.

In fact, when the Workers' Party unveiled him together with his Marine Parade teammates, the newly-minted political candidate immediately got a text from his friends saying: “Are you sure?”

Bankers may be afraid to join politics but they are not too scared to show their support:

"Now the Whatsapp from the same person has turned to, ‘Respect’. A group of my banking friends (including some who have left the industry) have now formed a group chat, and there are 30 to 40 of them there. They call it GEWP (General Elections Workers’ Party). In there, I kept them posted on the campaign trails by texting them on latest developments, but they have brought it to the next level.

They're posting pictures, sharing latest news from "other camps" and some of them even volunteered to help me in my walkabout over the weekend. It is heartening to see friends coming together to play their parts, overcoming their initial shock when they heard me stepping forward to join politics. I believe this is good for the nation as we accept different viewpoints to strive in a single society."

3. Why not the PAP?

When asked if he ever considered, he gave a resounding no. His reason: "Elites."

"I feel the PAP is elite as most of their candidates are parachuted from top civil service or the Army. I am not too sure they can truly understand the people's needs at the ground, their concern, their struggles. Their approach is top-down and not from bottom-up and my feel is that they expect people to work with them, and not they work with the people, a paternalistic approach."

4. About his mentor, Low Thia Khiang

Why he respects him:

"He walks the ground a lot and always lends a listening ear, so he understands the problem bottom-up. I remember after one MPS when we were walking back to his car, along the way, he saw that one of the lamp posts was not working so he actually got his legislative assistant to call the town council. Also, if there is any rubbish, he would be sure to pick it up."

Also, he is not a man of many words and lets you find your own way:

"He doesn’t advise me what to do. He’ll tell me, ‘Dylan, there’s an issue here,’ and lets me figure it out myself. I understand he is busy, so I will just work with the legislative assistant to fix it."

5. If he were a hawker dish…

He said he will be vegetarian beehoon with a lot of green chilli. Why?

"It’s simple and economical."

Why not kiam ngn and pui mueh?

"After so many years of eating porridge and giam I've had enough. But it doesn’t mean I’ve forgotten about my past because your past is always here; it’s in your memory."

**Editor's note: This article previously reported that Ng's wife volunteered with him in the party. This is not true, and the quote has been corrected.

Top photo by Mindy Tan.

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