Leon Perera


Leon Perera is a Singaporean politician and a member of the Workers' Party. He is currently a Member of Parliament for Aljunied GRC. He was also elected as a Non-constituency Member of Parliament of the 13th Parliament of Singapore from 16 September 2015 to 22 June 2020.
Perera co-founded and was the CEO of Spire Research and Consulting, an international business research and consulting agency. He is a member of the Economic Society of Singapore, the EDB Society and the Singapore Institute of Directors.

Education and early career

Perera studied at Anglo-Chinese School, Hwa Chong Junior College, and obtained a Double First Class Honours degree in Philosophy, Politics and Economics from Oxford University.
Perera began his career as a Senior Officer with the Singapore Economic Development Board’s International Business Development Division, serving first in the policy planning function supporting Singapore’s regional investments. He later served as Assistant Head in the EDB’s Enterprise Development Division, assisting in the growth of large Singaporean companies in the service sector spanning logistics, education and health care, to information technology services, engineering and retail.

Political career

Prior to contesting in elections, Perera was a WP grassroots activist at Aljunied Group Representation Constituency's Paya Lebar division.
At the 2015 Singapore general election, Perera contested as a member of the WP team for the East Coast GRC alongside A/Prof Daniel Goh, Gerald Giam, and Mohamed Fairoz Bin Shariff. His team received 39.27% of the votes cast, with the People's Action Party garnering 60.73% of votes to win the GRC. The WP East Coast GRC team was the best performing opposition team among and one of the team members was thus eligible to take up the Non-Constituency Member of Parliament seat. The Workers' Party nominated Perera to be an NCMP for Singapore's 13th Parliament.

NCMP term

Following the Hepatitis C outbreak at Singapore General Hospital in October 2015 which contributed 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 SGH and Ministry of Health staff responsible for the outbreak be released, and questioned what penalties or warnings were imposed on these staff.
On the debate over the Protection from Online Falsehoods and Manipulation Act, Perera highlighted how the proposed tool "is a cure worse than the disease" as too much power is given to individual Ministers and the potential for the law to stifle free speech. The law was eventually passed on 8 May 2019.

2020 General Election

Perera contested in Aljunied GRC during the 2020 Singapore general election, taking over from Sylvia Lim, who would take the Paya Lebar division from Chen Show Mao.
The WP retained Aljunied GRC with an increased majority in the 2020 election, resulting in Perera being elected MP, together with Sylvia Lim, Pritam Singh, Gerald Giam and Muhamad Faisal Manap, all in Aljunied GRC.

Personal life

Perera is married, and has a daughter and a son.