Leon Perera

Leon Perera (born 28 September 1970) is a former Singaporean politician. A former member of the opposition Workers' Party (WP), he was previously a Non-Constituency Member of Parliament between 2015 and 2020. Perera was the Member of Parliament (MP) representing the Serangoon division of Aljunied GRC between 2020 and 2023.

Perera resigned as a member of Workers' Party (WP) and his seat as Member of Parliament (MP) on 19 July 2023 due to an extramarital affair with party member Nicole Seah.

Education
Perera is of Indian origin and was educated at the Anglo-Chinese School and Hwa Chong Junior College before graduating from Exeter College, Oxford at the University of Oxford with a Bachelor of Arts with double first class honours (later promoted to Master of Arts by seniority) degree in philosophy, politics and economics (PPE).

Career
Perera began his career as a senior officer at the International Business Development Division of the Economic Development Board (EDB). He went on to serve as Assistant Head in the Enterprise Development Division, where he assisted in the growth of large Singaporean companies in the service sector.

Perera was the co-founder and chief executive officer of Spire Research and Consulting, an international business research and consulting agency. He is also a member of the Economic Society of Singapore, the Economic Development Board Society and the Singapore Institute of Directors.

He was active in civil society before joining politics. He served on the committee of local human rights organisation Maruah, was the Vice-President of migrant worker rights organisation HOME, and was an adviser to alternative news website The Independent.

Political career


Before running as a candidate, Perera was a Workers' Party grassroots activist in the Paya Lebar ward of Aljunied GRC.

2015–20 Non-constituency Member of Parliament
During the 2015 general election, Perera contested in a four-member team of the Worker's Party with team members, Daniel Goh, Gerald Giam and Mohamed Fairoz Bin Shariff contesting in East Coast GRC. His team received 39.27% of the votes cast, with the governing People's Action Party garnering 60.73% of votes to win the GRC. The Workers' Party team was the best performing opposition team, so one of the team members was eligible to take up a Non-constituency Member of Parliament (NCMP) seat. The Workers' Party thus nominated Perera to be a NCMP in the 13th Parliament.

Following the Hepatitis C outbreak at Singapore General Hospital in October 2015 which led to the deaths of five patients, Perera called on the government to convene a Committee of Inquiry to help "restore confidence" in Singapore's public health institutions. He also requested that the names of Singapore General Hospital and Ministry of Health staff responsible for the outbreak be released, and questioned what penalties or warnings were imposed on these staff.

In 2018, Perera apologised to Parliament and withdrew an inaccurate example given in the House in response to a question of parliamentary footage access the previous year.

2020–23 Member of Parliament
During the 2020 general election, Perera joined the five-member Workers' Party team contesting in Aljunied GRC with team members, Pritam Singh, Sylvia Lim, Gerald Giam and Muhamad Faisal Manap and they won with 59.95% of the vote, so Perera became an elected Member of Parliament representing the Serangoon ward of Aljunied GRC in the 14th Parliament.

Perera served as the Media Team Head of the Workers' Party and was appointed as the Vice-Chairman of the Aljunied—Hougang Town Council till 2023 serving alongside with Gerald Giam.

On 19 July 2023, the Workers' Party announced Perera had resigned his seat in Parliament and membership of the party, after a video was published on Facebook showing him and senior party leader Nicole Seah behaving intimately with one another. Seah resigned from the party at the same time. Party leader Pritam Singh told the press that he would have sacked both of them had they not offered their resignations, as they had initially been untruthful when they were first asked about rumours of an affair between them following the 2020 general election.

Policies and views
Perera's maiden speech as elected MP called for social safety nets to be strengthened, widened, and made easier to access. He highlighted the need to respect the role of civil society and for the government to be less resistant to a more plural political landscape, so as to foster a more antifragile society. He also called for greater support for entrepreneurs.

In 2021, Perera raised a motion on gender equality with Sengkang MP He Ting Ru.

In the same year, Perera filed an adjournment motion on hawker policy reform.

Perera also frequently focused on public accountability issues in his speeches. In 2019, he participated in the debate on the Protection from Online Falsehoods and Manipulation Act (POFMA), highlighting how the proposed tool "is a cure worse than the disease" as too much power is given to individual Ministers. Additionally, he highlighted the potential for the law to stifle free speech. The law was eventually passed on 8 May 2019.

During the debate on the Foreign Interference (Countermeasures) Act 2021, he moved amendments he argued were needed to boost transparency and tackle the likelihood of elite capture resulting from the powers granted by the bill.

On healthcare, Perera raised an adjournment motion on preventive health reform in 2022, responding to Singapore's poor track record on chronic diseases such as diabetes, by calling on the Government to adopt a highly targeted, outcome-based approach with regular reviews. Other proposals were to nudge target groups through subsidies and leverage the large amount of data available to flag health issues out to patients at visits to the doctor.

On climate change and the environment, Perera raised an adjournment motion in 2016 calling on the Government to boost support for new industries with non-economic benefits, including renewable energy and environmental technology.

During the 2022 debate on the Carbon Pricing (Amendment) Bill, Perera and He Ting Ru also filed amendments to the bill placing limitations on how allowances may be granted to taxable facilities, as well as the introduction of a registry requiring Ministers to disclose decisions to grant allowances and the use of international carbon credits.

Personal life
Perera is married with a daughter and a son.

In July 2023, a video surfaced that allegedly showed Perera holding hands intimately with fellow WP member Nicole Seah.

On 19 July, WP secretary-general Pritam Singh revealed that Perera and Seah began an affair some time after the 2020 general elections, which had ended before the video surfaced.

Perera resigned as a member of Workers' Party (WP) and his seat as Member of Parliament (MP) for Aljunied GRC on 19 July 2023 due to an extramarital affair with party member Nicole Seah.