Daniel Goh

Daniel Goh Pei Siong ( zh, s=吴佩松, p=Wú Pèisōng; born 1973) is a Singaporean sociologist and former Workers' Party politician. Goh was previously a Non-Constituency Member of Parliament between 2015 and 2020.

A sociologist by profession, Goh's research interests focuses on political sociology, urban sociology, cultural studies, sociology of religion, and sociology of ethnic and multicultural relations.

Goh was expelled from the Workers' Party in 2023 after publicly questioning the leadership of their handling of Raeesah Khan's lies in the Parliament incident.

Education

Goh studied at St Joseph's Institution and completed his undergraduate and graduate studies in Sociology at the National University of Singapore. He was then awarded the International Institute Fellowship, Department of Sociology Teaching Fellowship and the Rackham Graduate Fellowship to pursue his doctoral study in sociology at the University of Michigan in Ann Arbor from 2000 to 2005.

Academic career

On his return to the National University of Singapore in 2005, he was appointed assistant professor at the Department of Sociology. In 2012, he was awarded tenure and promoted to associate professor. He is currently the Associate Provost of Undergraduate Education. He is previously deputy head of the Department of Sociology and the convener of the Cultural Studies Minor and Cultural Studies in Asia PhD Programme.

Political career

Goh has been a supporter of the Workers' Party since 1988, when he attended his first political rally at Eunos. He started volunteering with the Workers' Party in the 2011 General Election and joined as a member in 2013. He began his formal political career when he contested in the four-member team of the Workers' Party with team members, Gerald Giam,
Leon Perera and Mohamed Fairoz Bin Shariff contesting in East Coast Group Representation Constituency in the 2015 General Election. Although his team lost with 39.27% of the votes as the best performing defeated team, he filled the NCMP seat that was offered to but turned down by former Punggol East Member of Parliament Lee Li Lian. He was a Non-constituency Member of Parliament (NCMP) of the 13th Parliament of Singapore from 29 February 2016 to 22 June 2020.

During a parliamentary debate on 26 February 2019, Goh asked for the retirement age to be removed so that workers can age with dignity and independence. He added that this move helps "to reform the system so that Singaporeans do not have to worry about their finances and can retire in their 60s if they want to, but they can also continue to work if they want to."

On 21 April 2020, the Workers' Party announced that due to a health condition, Goh would not run in the upcoming general election and would resign from various party posts except from the central executive council. On 27 December 2020, Goh's term in the CEC expired when a new CEC was chosen.

In 2021, Workers' Party Member of Parliament Raeesah Khan, in a parliamentary debate, had lied on three occasions, alleging a sexual assault case was mishandled by the police. After admitting to the lies and making apologies, Khan subsequently resigned in November 2021. Goh made several Facebook posts with questions over her resignation and requested the party leadership to take some responsibility for "allowing the transgression to persist". A party's disciplinary committee was formed to look into his Facebook posts in September 2022. On 26 May 2023, the party formally expelled Goh over the Facebook posts.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Goh, Daniel
1973 births
Singaporean Non-constituency Members of Parliament
Members of the Parliament of Singapore
Workers' Party (Singapore) politicians
National University of Singapore alumni
Living people
University of Michigan alumni