'I have never left': Yee Jenn Jong on why he returned to join the WP team in East Coast

Former Non-Constituency MP Yee Jenn Jong has stepped into the political ring for the fourth time in a general election, for what he says is his final charge.

- Wong Pei Ting

The 60-year-old, who is part of the WP team contesting in East Coast GRC, lost in Joo Chiat SMC by 388 votes in the watershed 2011 election. He describes his 2025 bid as an "old soldier" returning to the battleground. He had publicly announced his retirement from electoral politics in 2021.

He drew a parallel to the late American general Douglas MacArthur who had to retire twice, after being recalled to active duty in 1941 when the US was dragged into war again. Quoting a saying by the US general that goes "Old soldiers never die. They simply fade away", Mr Yee said: "I have never left. I stepped up when called upon."

He was part of the WP team that contested in Marine Parade GRC in the last general election and lost, with 42.26 per cent of the vote. While the four-time candidate was not entrenched in the WP's outreach efforts there following its 2020 defeat, he said he "remained a soldier with fire still burning".

Two years ago, when WP chief Pritam Singh asked if he could help prepare the ground in Punggol West SMC, and possibly the whole of Punggol, for the 2025 General Election, Mr Yee said yes.

But he also made it known to the party that he need not run as a candidate.