Gerald Giam

In this Chinese name, the family name is Giam.
The Honourable
Gerald Giam
严燕松
Official portrait, 2021
Member of the Singapore Parliament
for Aljunied GRC
Incumbent
Assumed office
10 July 2020
Preceded byWP held
Majority2020: 28,485 (19.90%)
2025: 25,783 (19.42%)
Non-Constituency Member of the
12th Parliament of Singapore
In office
10 October 2011 – 25 August 2015
Serving with Yee Jenn Jong
Preceded bySylvia Lim
Succeeded byDaniel Goh
Dennis Tan
Leon Perera
Personal details
BornGerald Giam Yean Song
(1977-11-22) 22 November 1977[1][2]
United Kingdom[2]
PartyWorkers' Party
Children2
Alma materUniversity of Southern California (BS)
Nanyang Technological University (MS)
OccupationPolitician

Gerald Giam Yean Song[a] (born 22 November 1977)[1][2] is a Singaporean politician. A member of the Workers' Party (WP), Giam has been the Non-Constituency Member of Parliament (NCMP) between 2011 and 2015. He has been the Member of Parliament (MP) for the Bedok Reservoir–Punggol division of Aljunied Group Representation Constituency (GRC) since 2020.

Education

Giam was educated at Anglo-Chinese School (Independent) and Anglo-Chinese Junior College. He holds a Bachelor of Science in electrical engineering from the University of Southern California and a Master of Science in international political economy from Nanyang Technological University.[3]

Career

Giam has worked in various roles in the information technology industry, including as a senior consultant at Avanade and a project manager at MSC Consulting.[3] He was also a foreign service officer at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and a volunteer youth leader in the South West Community Development Council (CDC).[4] He was previously a deputy editor at The Online Citizen (TOC).[5][6]

Giam is the chief technology officer of an information technology solutions company which he co-founded. He is a Registered Management Consultant certified by the Institute of Management Consultants (Singapore).[3]

Political career

Following the 2011 general election, Giam first entered politics in a five-member Workers' Party with team members, Png Eng Huat, Mohd Fazli Talip, Eric Tan and Glenda Han contesting in the East Coast GRC against the People's Action Party (PAP). The Workers' Party team lost with 45.2% of the votes.

As the best performing defeated team, Giam was offered a Non-constituency Member of Parliament (NCMP) seat in Parliament.[7] On 13 May 2011, the Workers' Party confirmed that Giam would take up the NCMP seat.[8][9]

With Giam taking up the NCMP position together with Yee Jenn Jong, the Workers' Party set a new record in Singapore's electoral history by becoming the first opposition party to have eight (six elected and two NCMP) seats in Parliament.[10]

Giam served as a NCMP in the 12th Parliament from 10 October 2011 to 25 August 2015.[11]

During the 2015 general election, Giam contested in East Coast GRC alongside, Daniel Goh, Leon Perera and Mohamed Fairoz Bin Shariff going against the People's Action Party (PAP) team. The Workers' Party team lost with 39.27% of the votes.[12]

As the opposition team with third highest percentage of votes among losing candidates, Giam's team was offered one NCMP seat which the team decided to let Perera to take up the seat.[13] After Lee Li Lian, another WP member who had unsuccessfully run for reelection in Punggol East Single Member Constituency (SMC), refused the NCMP seat offered to her,[14] Lee's seat was offered to another member of Giam's team which was decided that Goh was to take up the last NCMP seat.[15]

During the 2020 general election, Giam was in a five-member WP team and contested in Aljunied GRC with Pritam Singh, Sylvia Lim, Leon Perera and Muhamad Faisal Manap and won the GRC with 59.95% of the votes. Giam was elected as Member of Parliament representing Aljunied GRC in the 14th Parliament.[16]

Giam was elected as Head, Policy Research of the Workers' Party Central Executive Committee since 2022.[17][18][19]

During the 2025 general election, Giam was in a five-member WP team and contested in Aljunied GRC with Pritam Singh, Sylvia Lim, Kenneth Tiong and Fadli Fawzi and won the GRC with 59.71% of the votes. Giam was elected as Member of Parliament representing Aljunied GRC in the 15th Parliament.[20]

Personal life

Giam is of Peranakan Chinese ancestry[21] and is a Christian.[22] He is married to a chartered accountant with two children.[17]

Notes

  1. ^ Chinese: 严燕松; Pe̍h-ōe-jī: Giâm Iàn-sông

References

  1. ^ a b "MP | Parliament of Singapore".
  2. ^ a b c "Parliament of Singapore : MP Gerald Giam Yean Song's CV". Parliament of Singapore. Archived from the original on 20 March 2012. Retrieved 7 August 2024.
  3. ^ a b c "20200714_cv---gerald-giam" (PDF). Parliament of Singapore. Retrieved 1 August 2020.
  4. ^ Giam, Gerald (23 January 2010). "Why I joined the Opposition – geraldgiam.sg". Retrieved 1 August 2020.
  5. ^ Sim, Walter (3 March 2016). "The Online Citizen now a one-man show". The Straits Times. Retrieved 1 August 2020.
  6. ^ "The Online Media: Untangling Singapore's web of politics". The Online Citizen. 15 October 2015. Archived from the original on 18 June 2021. Retrieved 1 August 2020.
  7. ^ "Gerald Giam offered Workers' Party's NCMP seat". www.asiaone.com. 13 May 2011. Retrieved 1 August 2020.
  8. ^ "Eric Tan quits Workers' Party over NCMP snub". www.asiaone.com. 14 May 2011. Retrieved 1 August 2020.
  9. ^ Wong, Alicia (13 May 2011). "Eric Tan quits Workers' Party over 'betrayal'". sg.news.yahoo.com. Retrieved 1 August 2020.
  10. ^ "Elections Department Singapore". www.eld.gov.sg. Retrieved 7 July 2020.
  11. ^ "MP | Parliament Of Singapore - Mr Gerald Giam Yean Song". www.parliament.gov.sg. Archived from the original on 15 July 2020. Retrieved 15 July 2020.
  12. ^ Chen, May (11 September 2015). "GE2015: PAP retains East Coast GRC with 60.7 per cent of votes | The Straits Times". www.straitstimes.com. Retrieved 1 January 2022.
  13. ^ "GE2015: WP's Lee Li Lian, Dennis Tan and Leon Perera declared Non-Constituency MPs". The Straits Times. 16 September 2015. ISSN 0585-3923. Retrieved 29 August 2025.
  14. ^ "GE2015: WP's Lee Li Lian, Dennis Tan and Leon Perera declared Non-Constituency MPs". The Straits Times. Archived from the original on 1 March 2025. Retrieved 8 October 2025.
  15. ^ "Workers' Party's East Coast GRC candidate Daniel Goh is 3rd NCMP". The Straits Times. 4 February 2016. Archived from the original on 23 May 2025. Retrieved 8 October 2025.
  16. ^ Mohan, Matthew; Phua, Rachel (11 July 2020). "GE2020: PAP wins with 61.24% of vote; WP claims two GRCs including new Sengkang GRC". CNA. Archived from the original on 3 December 2024. Retrieved 21 November 2024.
  17. ^ a b "Gerald Giam – The Workers' Party". www.wp.sg. 14 December 2015. Retrieved 12 December 2017.
  18. ^ Tan, Audrey; Kurohi, Rei (26 June 2020). "Singapore GE2020: Workers' Party confirms Aljunied GRC slate, introduces second batch of candidates". The Straits Times. Retrieved 26 June 2020.
  19. ^ Chew, Hui Min (11 July 2020). "GE2020: Workers' Party retains Aljunied GRC with wider margin against PAP". CNA. Retrieved 10 July 2020.
  20. ^ "WP wins Aljunied GRC with 59.68% of votes over PAP". AsiaOne. 4 May 2025. Archived from the original on 4 May 2025. Retrieved 4 May 2025.
  21. ^ "My struggle with Chinese". geraldgiam.sg. 18 November 2019. Retrieved 23 July 2025.
  22. ^ Sng, Edric (26 June 2020). "We must never abandon our values for the sake of political expediency: Gerald Giam". Salt&Light. Retrieved 1 May 2025.
This article is issued from Wikipedia. The text is available under Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 4.0 unless otherwise noted. Additional terms may apply for the media files.