22-07-2025
WP's Sylvia Lim to publish memoir in 2027
Workers' Party chairwoman and MP for Aljunied GRC Sylvia Lim will publish her memoir with Epigram Books. It is expected to hit major bookstores in the second half of 2027.
The agreement between Ms Lim and the home-grown publisher - an imprint of the newly formed non-profit Epigram Literary Foundation - was signed in recent weeks.
There is no book title yet, with writing still in its preliminary stages. But the surprise memoir is expected to offer a rare glimpse into the mind of one of Singapore's pioneer women in opposition politics - a police inspector and lawyer turned self-professed proud "Mama Bear" heading a slate of WP female candidates at the recent general election.
On her decision to ink the deal, Ms Lim said: "There has been interest from several quarters about the paths I have walked and the places I have been, as well as the people who made me whole.
"As I turn 60 this year, it feels right to start to reflect on my experiences of life, vocation and love which, hopefully, will be meaningful not just now, but also for posterity."
The 14-year MP has struck a more mellow note of late, brandishing her PAssion Silver Concession Card at a WP rally in April to cheers - "The last time I stood on this stage, I still had black hair."
To a question on WP's party leadership succession during a press conference in the same month, she had expressed a readiness to pass the baton on. "I would say that when the time comes for me, personally, to step down as chairperson, I won't be sorry."
Mr Edmund Wee, founder of Epigram Books, said he also specifically requested that Ms Lim include her relationship with former national footballer Quah Kim Song, whom she had dated for 12 years before their church wedding in January.
The publisher got in touch with Ms Lim through a mutual friend and had tried cajoling her for the project as early as 2021 during the coronavirus lockdown period, with satisfaction delayed till now.
Mr Wee said: "Sylvia Lim's achievements and life should be an inspiration to Singaporeans, especially to all the young women out there."
Few senior leaders from WP, Singapore's most successful opposition party post-independence, have put their thoughts to the page.
Former secretary-general of WP J.B Jeyaretnam hawked his own books on the streets after being declared bankrupt and losing his seat, including The Hatchet Man Of Singapore, published in 2003.
The most recent and probably most well-known is WP member and former Non-Constituency MP Yee Jenn Jong's Journey In Blue: A Peek Into The Workers' Party Of Singapore (2020). Among other revelations, it disclosed that former WP chief Low Thia Khiang had begun planning to step down as early as 2016 following an intra-party leadership challenge, rather than in 2020 after a fall at home as commonly assumed.
Ms Lim was a law lecturer at Temasek Polytechnic specialising in civil and criminal procedures when she was elected WP's first woman chairperson in 2003 and led a team to become the "best losers" in the contest for Aljunied GRC in 2006.
After a stint as NCMP from 2006 to 2011, she was part of the team that won Aljunied GRC for WP in 2011. She will begin her fourth term when Parliament reconvenes on Sept 5.
