Singapore’s Youngest Female Parliamentarian, Tin Pei Ling: A Life-Altering Election

Summary

Chief Change Officer Podcast Summary
Episode: Singapore’s Youngest Female Parliamentarian, Tin Pei Ling: A Life-Altering Election
Host: Vince Chan
Release Date: December 2, 2024

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Introduction

In this compelling episode of Chief Change Officer, host Vince Chen delves into the inspiring journey of Tin Pei Ling, Singapore’s youngest female parliamentarian. Bringing his wealth of personal experience from 18 career transitions, Vince sets the stage for a conversation that explores resilience, overcoming biases, and the transformative power of embracing change.

Pei Ling’s Background and Initial Pursuits

[02:07] Vince Chen Introduction:
Vince begins by sharing his own career transitions, highlighting his encounter with Pei Ling during his time at Chicago Booth. Describing her as an embodiment of change, he underscores the significance of her journey from psychology to politics.

[05:38] Tin Pei Ling:
Grateful for the opportunity to reconnect, Pei Ling provides insight into her early aspirations. She pursued a degree in psychology, driven by a passion for mental health—a path uncommon among her peers who typically leaned towards engineering or science.

Transition from Psychology to Business Consulting

[05:46] Tin Pei Ling:
Pei Ling explains a pivotal shift caused by personal circumstances. When her father suffered a mild heart attack, she assumed responsibility for the family’s coffee business. This interruption led to her decision to abandon clinical psychology, as her father's early retirement made it untenable to continue pursuing the required clinical program in Singapore.

[08:01] Tin Pei Ling:
Facing this unexpected change, Pei Ling pivoted to business consulting, joining Ernst and Young Advisory. She reflects, “It forces you to pick up things and learn different concepts along the way. That is exhilarating because it helps you to gain breadth.” Through this role, she developed essential skills in project management and framework thinking, which later became invaluable in her political career.

Entry into Politics and Facing Challenges

[09:14] Tin Pei Ling:
In 2011, Pei Ling took a monumental step by running in the general election under the ruling party, PAP. As the youngest and a female candidate, she encountered significant challenges. She candidly describes this period as “the darkest period of my life,” marked by intense doubts, criticisms, and the immense pressure of campaigning.

[10:38] Tin Pei Ling:
Reflecting on her psychology background, Pei Ling shares how her prior volunteer work provided some preparation, but the reality of politics demanded a complete transformation. She made the difficult decision to quit her job at Ernst and Young to dedicate herself fully to her role as an MP, emphasizing the sacred duty she felt towards her voters.

Overcoming Bias, Ageism, and Online Harassment

[13:57] Tin Pei Ling:
Pei Ling addresses the intersection of age and gender biases she faced. Despite her seven years of grassroots experience, many doubted her capabilities, questioning, “Do you really understand my problems? Are you able to solve it?” Additionally, online harassment and fabricated personal stories added to her emotional strain, leading her to often end her days in tears.

[15:51] Tin Pei Ling:
Confronting false rumors about her personal life was particularly overwhelming. Despite these challenges, Pei Ling emphasized the importance of maintaining her focus and commitment to serving her constituents.

Building Trust and Resilience

[17:34] Tin Pei Ling:
To combat skepticism and build trust, Pei Ling relied on constant engagement and genuine actions. She states, “Show my sincerity and my work through real actions I think is the main critical success factor in that sense that help to convince them that hey, you can trust me, I'm here for you.” This approach allowed her to forge strong bonds with her constituents, viewing each interaction as a step towards mutual trust and understanding.

[20:49] Tin Pei Ling:
Emerging from these experiences, Pei Ling acknowledges significant personal growth and increased resilience. “Today I'm probably a lot more resilient. Looking back, even though that was the darkest period for me personally, I'm actually thankful for having gone through that experience because it really helped me grow.” She hopes her story serves as a source of strength for others facing their own battles.

Lessons on Ageism and the Power of Actions

[19:06] Vince Chen:
Vince shares his perspective on ageism, noting that it affects not only the older population but also younger individuals in the workplace. He relates this to Pei Ling’s experience with social media pressures, highlighting the importance of discerning relevant feedback from mere noise.

[22:50] Vince Chen:
Summarizing the conversation, Vince emphasizes the theme that actions speak louder than words. He notes, “As a public figure, you can, of course, spend your time responding to every single comment. That obviously is a waste of time because a lot of comments may not be relevant at the same time. Silence is golden.” This reinforces the idea of focusing on meaningful actions to effect change and build trust over time.

Conclusion and Takeaways

Throughout the episode, Tin Pei Ling exemplifies how embracing change, coupled with resilience and genuine action, can overcome systemic biases and personal challenges. Her journey from psychology to politics underscores the importance of adapting to unforeseen circumstances and leveraging one’s strengths to serve the community effectively.

Key Takeaways:

• Adaptability: Embracing unexpected changes can open new pathways and opportunities.
• Resilience: Overcoming personal and professional challenges fosters growth and strength.
• Trust Building: Consistent, sincere actions are crucial for earning and maintaining trust.
• Combating Bias: Actively addressing and overcoming age and gender biases is essential for personal and professional success.
• Mental Health: Prioritizing mental well-being is vital, especially in high-pressure roles.

Notable Quotes

• Tin Pei Ling [05:46]: "I had to rethink. So there's the resource part of it. For about a year, I had to think very hard. If I can't continue to pursue this, then what could I do?"
• Tin Pei Ling [09:14]: "The 2011 general election was the darkest period of my life."
• Tin Pei Ling [13:57]: "A lot of people will be thinking, who are you? Do you really understand my problems? Are you able to, you know, solve it?"
• Vince Chen [22:50]: "Actions speak louder than words. Time would give you the benefit of doubt. Eventually you grow and people see it."

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For those inspired by Tin Pei Ling’s story and keen on harnessing change as a superpower, Chief Change Officer continues to offer valuable insights and role models to guide your career and life transformations. Subscribe, leave a top-rated review, and join the conversation on LinkedIn, Apple Podcasts, Spotify, and YouTube.

Transcript

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[Vince Chen]

Hi everyone. Welcome to our show. Chief Change Officer, I'm Vince Chen, your ambitious human host. Our show is a modernist Humility for Change, progressives in organizational and human transformation from around the world. Speaking of change, I've made my fair share. 18, to be exact. One major moment was back in 2013, when I was 40 years old. I turned down a promising government job to take a leap of faith. I published my first book and joined Chicago Booth for my second mba. That's where I met Pei Ling, our class had a meaningful mix of personalities. Pei Ling was among the youngest in our class. I was one of the most experienced, but by then I already have over 15 years of work experience in the business world and a seasoned MBA graduate from Yale. Yet we all came together to be part of something special and monumental. We are the legacy class graduating in Singapore in the History of Chicago booth which was prepared to move its campus to Hong Kong. Pelin and I were part of a six person committee organizing all sorts of special activities and graduation events. We spent time inside and outside the classroom in Singapore as well as in Chicago over the last 10 years. As a classmate, as an alum, as a friend, I've observed her growth. In my eyes, Pei Ling is someone who embodies the core essence of change. All the things I've mentioned earlier, her story is a powerful reminder of what it means to own the change, to face the pain and to emerge more resilient on the other side. In this episode, Pei Ling is going to share her incredible journey from psychology to politics. Why did she give up on pursuing clinical psychology? The year 2011 was a life changing year for her, but in her own words, it was also the darkest period in her life, facing in person and social media attacks dealing with biases relating to her age and gender. More importantly, how did she navigate through those challenges, make peace with them and take control of her life post election, becoming the Chief Change Officer of her own story? Let's dive in and find out. Welcome Pei Ling, thank you for joining me on this podcast.

[Pei Ling]

Well, thank you Vince. It's really nice to reconnect.

[Vince Chen]

Before you got into politics, you were in psychology. Why did you give up on that?

[Pei Ling]

I was the youngest elected member of parliament for two terms, so I'm in my third term now. I majored in psychology in university. That would be out of the norm amongst my classmates from high school or what we call junior college. Actually, most of my classmates would have gone to engineer or science, probably would have chosen, but somehow I got really passionate about mental health and I wanted to do something about it. So I chose to major in psychology. And so for the large part of my time in college, in university, I was solely focused on trying to achieve this aspiration to become a clinical psychologist. Whether it's from the internship that I sought out, forums that I organized, so on and so forth, it was with that goal in mind. But then a few things in that sense compelled me to have to change paths. One was that my father had a mild heart attack and as the only child, I had to take over this small coffee business that was sustaining the family. So I had to run it for some time. So I had to take some time off college in between. And even after my father recovered, the stamina was just not the same. And so he had to retire earlier than expected. And so that meant that I could not continue to pursue a clinical program which is actually required to practice in Singapore. So I had to rethink. So there's the resource part of it. For about a year, I had to think very hard. If I can't continue to pursue this, then what could I do? In the end, I distilled into two points. One is what do I look for in a career? And two is how can I continue to pursue my passion? For the passion part, because I've already been in the grassroots, I've been already volunteering in the community for a few years. By then I realised that for mental health, I could continue to pursue this course within the community as a volunteer and still create a hopefully positive impact on others in the community by raising awareness, by availing channels.

[Vince Chen]

But then how did you get into business consulting?

[Pei Ling]

In terms of career? I hope it's dynamic, it's people facing new challenges all the time, then that really opens up a lot of options. So shortly after graduation, I'm thankful and I think I was fortunate to have made it into Ernst and Young Advisory. So basically that's business consulting. I never thought that I would pursue this, but I guess after joining I learned to like it. It was a very good first job because there's a lot of fundamentals that you learn in a role like this, from project management to discipline. Because of the nature of the work, you really have to develop framework thinking. One of my bosses used to say, from zero to hero in no time. So it forces you to pick up things and learn different concepts along the way. That is exhilarating because it helps you to gain breath. It always kept me on my toes.

[Vince Chen]

So you got into business consulting. Sounds like a good first job in your life. But then what happened when you decided to get into politics?

[Pei Ling]

I was in this for a. A few years and then I was asked whether I would be open to running in the general election. I was eventually fielded under the ruling party in the general election of 2011. That was quite a pivotal year for me, to be honest. It was my first time participating as a candidate in the general election. The overall political atmosphere was electrifying, but also very tough for us because there were a few issues that had to be addressed. As the youngest candidate from the ruling party as a female, as a newbie. In that sense, there were considerable challenges personally. For me, that probably was the darkest period of my life, for me personally, because there were a lot of doubts and criticisms and it was really very challenging, very, very trying just even to go through the campaigning period, even after the election itself, it was life changing.

[Vince Chen]

Would you say the move into politics was a big move for you and you were a student in psychology, so let me flip the table to ask you about your own psychology. How did you feel about this?

[Pei Ling]

Change really depends on how you see it. I actually was a volunteer in the grassroots and political party member since second year of university. So I had some exposure to what being an MP is like in Singapore. So in that sense, I didn't have a root shock. I do have some inkling of what the demands would be. But having gone through the general election itself, having gone through what some described as baptism of fire, for me, that was quite a tremendous change at that point because I was still considered fairly junior and young, career wise. I was also new to the constituency that I was fielded in. I had to choose between my career development, my professional development and doing a good job, at least to be responsible enough to build up within the constituencies professionally. At that point in time, I wasn't a senior, so I couldn't quite delegate. I would have to do most of the work and fairly so, fairly so. But if I had to take time away from work and focus on serving the people, then that wouldn't be fair to my colleagues or my bosses or to the clients. So in the end, I realised that being elected is a very sacred duty. I owe it to the voters who voted for me. At that point, I decided to quit my job at Ence NIA and just focus on my duties as a parliamentarian because I was a newbie, right? So I was new to the constituency, I was new to the role as an MP and I really wanted to devote myself to that. I spent the time to understand the constituency, to understand the issues that my constituents faced, from bread and butter to municipal to aspirational type of issues. Honestly, looking back, the most precious asset to me in the past 12 years as a parliamentarian would be the bonds that I've forged with the people within macpherson. Every time when I see our elderly, them smiling at me, we ask about each other, them hugging me, it feels like family and that's precious. And I've also watched kids grow up and that's precious. And so these are to me, invaluable So I think that the change, partly because of circumstances, partly due to my own choice, there were adjustments. The nature of work is different. I have to spend a lot of time on the ground as a parliamentarian, to be honest. There is no so called official working hours. It's 24, 7 every day.

[Vince Chen]

You're always on call. Always.

[Pei Ling]

Always. Yeah. So it's either you're on the ground in Parliament or on emails. So it's really super, super stretchy in that sense. But I think it's fulfilling. It's fulfilling.

[Vince Chen]

You touch upon a bit about re election and after you being the youngest, also being a woman. So when you look back about your experience, how did you try to make peace with them but at the same time overcome these issues in order to do your job, also to take good care of your own mental health.

[Pei Ling]

Yeah. The fact that the political party, in this case our ruling party, PAP, decided to feel me. I was in my 20s and I was a female and that they decided to field me in the election to show that they are progressive enough to create opportunities and the space for someone young and a young female to rise up and be a representative for the people. Because it is an important responsibility when you are elected as a parliamentarian. So I think that's one at that point in time. It's also managing certain, certain preconceived notions or stereotypes that people may have of certain gender and age. So to me, the big challenge that I faced was age. I was only in my twenties and even though I already had seven years of grassroots experienced by then, I guess track record wise people still do not have a clear grasp of what I have to offer to them. I'm young, I'm new, and I think a lot of people will be thinking, who are you? Do you really understand my problems? Are you able to, you know, solve it, even if you do understand? And some also felt that I was riding on the coattail of former Prime Minister Mr. Goh Chok Tong. He's emeritus Vidna. So there were all these criticisms and I think this was the main doubt about me. So online, anything that I post on my own social media, I get thousands of responses, not so nice comments. And then on other platforms, other online forums, etc. And there are people who will fabricate stories about me. For example, they said that I have this boyfriend and I dumped him because he was fat, all sorts of things.

[Vince Chen]

And then you were actually married at that point.

[Pei Ling]

Yeah. And all these things were like so untrue and various things. Right. It was very overwhelming, absolutely overwhelming. I remember every day I'll go home and cry at the end of the day. The next morning I have to like okay, I have to focus again, go down to the constituency, go listen to the residents constituents, understand their problems, try to help them, so on and so forth and this everyday. And let's just repeat for quite some time it was under quite a lot of stress then in terms of gender, actually less so. But I did have a handful, a very small number of more mature men, like we call them uncles. And then they actually asked me, you are a woman, what do you know of the problems we men face? So I got those comments before, but I don't think they were meant to be mean, but it was genuinely like do you really understand me? Fast forward. I would say that in the end there's no shortcut to addressing these concerns that constituents have or that people have of me. Back then it was really through constant engagement, listening, understanding, working alongside them, trying to help them over time, building up trust, building up chemistry, showing my sincerity and my work through real actions I think is the main critical success factor in that sense that help to convince them that hey, you can trust me, I'm here for you. And I think that's also the main reason why we have managed to forge bonds over the years.

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Mazda in today's world if you look at ageism at workplace, many media focus on so called the older end of the population spectrum. Especially when you talk about like tech company innovation over 40 or 50. According to a lot of media, these more mature, more experienced or so called older people, they are less tech savvy. Now that is one narrative. But I always believe that ageism is not limited to the mature people, it's darker or the so called younger which you just share your story with me. I recall in my days when I worked at finance in some of the biggest firms in the world, man dominated white guys, I'm being the Asian, I work overseas, I'm 20 something or early 30s. They may not say it in my face, but I can feel that they have their own inquiry reservation. Yeah, I can relate to when you say yeah, but then in my situation I have one less worry which is social media. Your political career actually started around the time that this social media thing got more and more popular. So that was. You got a lot of comments, responses like every day, every second. So that is the kind of pressure that an irregular human cannot just simply ignore it. You have to kind of deal with it and judge what is relevant, what's not relevant and what is actually noise, what is actually a sincere comments. I guess you learned the lessons along your way.

[Pei Ling]

Yeah, definitely, definitely coming out of that period it did accelerate my personal growth and even emotionally, psychologically I would say that today I'm probably a lot more resilient. Looking back, even though that was the darkest period for me personally, I'm actually thankful for having gone through that experience because it really helped me grow and it also gave me a story to tell which I hope would be useful for others who may have their own battles to fight. If it's of any consolation at all, hopefully it would be helpful for them. I must say, coming back to the bias that you mentioned earlier, a lot of people would assume that age correlates with maturity, but maybe I can just share one example. This was what happened in 2011. So that was the first general election that I took part in. I remember on polling day, that means the day that people goes down to vote, right? And then for us, we could actually go from polling station to polling station. We can't get involved. We can just monitor and inspect. Right. And so I stepped out of one of the polling stations with my election agent. And as we walked out, a pair of sisters walked in the opposite direction. And I remember they were, I think, in their 50s. As they walked past, they were heckling at me. They were chanting like something that was meant to mock at me. And I was thinking to myself, I mean, this felt a bit like high school. I didn't actually experience it in high school. As that happened, I was thinking to myself, wow, what just happened? I mean, hand over heart. I did not think that I did anything wrong. I did not hurt anyone. I did not commit a crime. Yeah, I was young. Maybe I wasn't very polished, but I don't think I did anything wrong. And all I wanted to do was to do something meaningful. And yes, it was quite a moment.

[Vince Chen]

I can definitely see this scene going back to some of the story you just shared. I guess over time, you change people's heart through your actions. Actions speak louder than words. As a public figure, you can, of course spend your time responding to every single comment. That obviously is a waste of time because a lot of comments may not be relevant at the same time. Silence is golden. Or I would say silence is equivalent to absence of noise. So if there's so much noise, you just learn to recognize what is noise, what is helpful to you and how you respond. And how you respond sometimes with words, sometimes through actions. Time would give you the benefit of doubt. Eventually you grow and people see it. That's the message you try to send to the world through the growth of your career.

[Pei Ling]

Yep, I totally agree.

[Vince Chen]

Thank you so much for joining us today. If you like what you heard, don't forget, subscribe to our show. Leave us top rated reviews, check out our website and follow me on social media. I'm Vince Chen, your ambitious human host. Until next time, take care.

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Sweetheart, what about this one?

[Pei Ling]

Um nah fam, that's a little sus.

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