SINGAPORE: A People’s Association event celebrating senior citizens in the Aljunied Cluster, comprising Aljunied GRC and Hougang SMC, was held on Saturday (Nov 15) evening.
Speaker of Parliament Halimah Yacob graced the event, alongside former PAP leaders Lim Boon Heng and Zainul Abidin Rasheed.
News faces touted as potential PAP candidates for Aljunied and Hougang were also present.
They include:
- Banker Chua Eng Leong, who is chairman of Eunos PAP branch
- K Muralidharan Pillai in Paya Lebar; he is a lawyer by profession
- Chan Hui Yuh in Serangoon, who works in a family business
- Victor Lye in Bedok Reservoir-Punggol
- Kahar Hassan, who took over the Kaki Bukit branch chairmanship from Ong Ye Kung
- Lee Hong Chuang, who took over as chairman of the Hougang branch, replacing Desmond Choo
Former PAP Chairman Mr Lim said it is still early to say if the new faces will be fielded as candidates as this depends on how they can work the ground. He said two key factors the party is looking out for are the ability to understand people and resolving problems.
“Any lesson that I would learn from the past or the trend in the past few elections is that people want to have representatives in Parliament who are close to them. In terms of ability, of course it’s good if a person can make it beyond an MP to become an office holder,” said Mr Lim. “But what is more important to residents is: ‘Is he close to me, does he understand me? Can he effectively bring my issues before the government and get those issues redressed?’”
Source: www.channelnewsasia.com
