In memory of my Brother, David.

3 years ago, on this day 28 April, my brother David died during the General Elections while helping me in my election campaign in Tampines. It is a painful loss to me and my family.

David was the eldest brother in my family. He was a quiet and soft spoken guy. However, he was also a man of convictions.

David was a warm hearted, compassionate and helpful person who would always ready to help friends and family members. He had learned how to fix computers and would always offer to help poor family to fix their computers for free when he deemed fit. He had also refurbished old computers from my shops and gave them away to poor families whenever he could.

When I first joined Workers Party in 2001, David was all excited, though a bit worried about me. But he was definitely very supportive of me all along my path in opposition politics. When I first gave him the Workers Party membership application form, he gladly signed it.

From then on, he had been consistently on the ground to sell WP newspaper Hammer and knocking doors with me prior to GE2006. He had done all these without any expectation nor expecting anything in return.

David became my election agent in GE2006 when I contested in Aljunied GRC under WP banner. Without David, our campaign in Aljunied GRC may just end up chaotic. He had gone around the whole constituency and practically counted the lamp posts to estimate the number of posters we need. He had worked overnight just to make sure the contractors have put up the respective posters on time for the campaign on the next morning after nomination day.

Resources were always lacking in opposition parties when elections come. But David had basically utilized every means to recruit people to do the job. Although he wasn’t the “Principal Election Agent” of the team but he had basically run the whole logistics needs for the team. I owed him for that good campaign run.

When I announced my resignation from Workers Party, David was shocked and disappointed but he didn’t question my decision at all. But he did express his wish that I should join back Workers Party without being assertive.

I know my departure from Workers Party has caused some pressure on David. He was caught in between his party and me, his brother. I told him that he didn’t need to resign from WP as we are all in the same cause, no matter which opposition parties we are in.

However, it seems that not everybody in his party thinks like us. Although David didn’t tell me but I knew from various sources, he had been subtly distanced or even ostracized by some of his party members. Suspicions and distrust against David grew after I have decided to join National Solidarity Party. There were some who thought David was my “spy” in Workers Party but they had really underestimated David’s integrity. I have avoided asking him about Workers Party matters and he had never volunteered any information of his party to me.

When I decided to run in Tampines, I requested David’s help to be my election agent again. I knew this would put David in a tight spot but we have the understanding that we were in the same cause, we could choose our party and platform but not our parents. We are Brothers of the same bloodline. We have come to this understanding very early (about 2008-2009) so that we can let his party to have time to prepare new people to replace his role as election agent. Of course, I have to approach WP to tell them of this arrangement.

Unfortunately, this has caused further tension and awkwardness for David in WP. But David didn’t complain at all. He has endured it quietly. I do not understand the mentality or sentiment of some of the WP members. I do not work to contest against them but PAP. But it seems that they do not understand that at all.

A couple of months before GE2011, Yaw Shin Leong has spoken to me with much aggression that they decided not to contest Tampines (in GE2011) but would do so in the next GE. I sensed the kind of aggressive attitude of wanting a fight from him and WP. The immense arrogance demonstrated was astonishing. I realized then that my brother David must have suffered greatly but quietly from his party comrades’ attitude.

David must have felt torn apart when his party, WP announced their intention to contest in Moulmein Kallang after NSP has announced its candidates for this GRC. But he has kept quiet about it and didn’t approach me nor try to persuade me to pull out our team. He had felt a sense of great relief after I told him I was going to pull out our team from Moulmein Kallang GRC. He trusted me and our mutual understanding that we are working towards the same cause. I didn’t fail him in keeping that focus dedication to fight in what we have believed in.

It wasn’t easy for David to be the brother of Goh Meng Seng. Even though David was the eldest brother while I am the youngest in the family, he had always respected me in all aspects and supported me in my political struggle for the whole decade. He has never used his Eldest Brother’s status to lecture me or pressure me in any ways but treated me as a leader instead.

I am really fortunate to have a brother like David, who has put in real effort and time to support me in my political cause. But I am also really unfortunate to lose a brother like David in the midst of this struggle. He has not only suffered quietly the unwarranted distrust, slander, pressure and such in his party, but also gave up his life in supporting me, his brother, in my political struggle. It is indeed my greatest loss in my life to lose a brother like David. I owe him for my political status this life and I really wish we can be brother again next life to repay him.

Goh Meng Seng