SINGAPORE: The new chairman of the People’s Action Party’s (PAP) Kaki Bukit Branch will be Mr Shamsul Kamar, currently the head of department for student management at Spectra Secondary School. He will take over from Mr Kahar Hassan, who stepped down on Friday (Jul 31).
Former PAP Member of Parliament and Cabinet Minister Lim Boon Heng announced this after a meeting with grassroots leaders at the Thye Hua Kwan Family Service Centre at Bedok North on Saturday afternoon.
Mr Lim told reporters after the meeting that the decision to move Mr Kahar was “not because he’s done anything criminal or there’s a scandal”.
“There’s nothing of the sort. In fact, he has worked very hard in the past 16 months in Kaki Bukit and given the assurance to the residents here that even though it is in Opposition hands, the PAP still looks after the residents in Kaki Bukit.”
The area is in Aljunied Group Representation Constituency (GRC), which is under The Workers’ Party.
The Thye Hua Kwan Family Service Centre at Bedok North where a closed-door meeting between the PAP’s Kaki Bukit Branch members and grassroots leaders was held (Photo: Loke Kok Fai)
Mr Lim explained that for the upcoming General Election, the PAP will deploy who it believes would be able to deliver the “best possible performance” on the ground, and that Mr Kahar could be “placed in a better role somewhere else”.
The party has been “introducing people to work on the ground to test how they relate to the residents and how they relate with the activists”, Mr Lim said. “This is the basic, fundamental reason PAP has made the change.”
He added that the decision as to who the party will be fielding in Aljunied GRC is not set in stone, and that it might be changed closer to the election date.
Mr Kahar, an SMRT deputy director, was present at Saturday’s meeting to hand over the reins.
As for Mr Shamsul, he has tendered his resignation with the Ministry of Education and is serving out his notice period, which expires on Aug 21. He was spotted at the closed-door meeting wearing a white polo t-shirt, but left shortly after it ended and did not take questions from the media.
Source: www.channelnewsasia.com
