SINGAPORE: While the coming General Election will be a tough fight for the People’s Action Party (PAP) across the country, it will be more so in wards where the party is not the incumbent, said Dr Lam Pin Min on Sunday (Apr 20).

Dr Lam, who will lead the PAP slate in Sengkang GRC into the May 3 polls, was speaking to the media before a team walkabout at Kopitiam Square.

“As a party, we understand that every election will be a tough fight, not only just in Sengkang alone. Every GRC, every SMC, will be a tough fight, and we will not want to take anything for granted,” he said.

“If we talk about Sengkang GRC, we are not an incumbent. We do not have the resources of the town council,” noted Dr Lam, who was a senior minister of state before losing in Sengkang GRC in 2020.

“And we find that as a challenger, you're always facing more challenges compared to somebody who is an incumbent in the GRC.”

Joining Dr Lam on the four-member line-up were new faces Bernadette Giam, Elmie Nekmat and Theodora Lai.

Dr Lam added that every candidate will have to “really put in their hearts and minds to make sure that we can win over the trust of our voters”.

He said his team has observed how the incumbent Workers’ Party team – currently comprising Ms He Ting Ru, Associate Professor Jamus Lim and Mr Louis Chua – have served in Sengkang.

“We are also in no delusion that it is going to be very easy for us. (We have) to do our best to give them a good fight, so that we can give the hope that we can win the hearts and minds of Sengkang voters, to be able to wrest back Sengkang from the Workers’ Party,” said Dr Lam.

LOCAL ISSUES

Dr Lam reiterated that his new-look team, with a lower average age of 43, brings fresh perspectives to address the concerns of younger families.

“In addition to the national policies, I think there are avenues for us to work on projects locally as well,” said team member Ms Lai.

The partner at a deep tech venture shared that in her experience working with youths that they have broken the common perception that “they are generally on devices”.

Citing the example of a session she organised bringing young women together for a conversation, Ms Lai said that participants managed to forge friendships that extended into real-world connections.

“They found that they could relate to each other and each of them had paths that were slightly different from theirs, and they were interested to find out more, and then they connected,” said Ms Lai. 

She said that there could be more of such efforts in Sengkang to pull youths out from their homes and get together in real life, whether through volunteering for a cause or simply having conversations.

“For our team, we are really going to be focusing on the local issues, because we believe that the local issues are the ones that make a very direct impact on the residents’ lives,” said Mrs Giam.

She shared that her Sengkang East branch previously organised a mentorship programme and also a personal branding and public speaking workshop for youths.

She added that residents on the other end of the age spectrum are also a focus area for the team.

“What I’m also seeing in the elderly residents in my visits is that there are a lot of wishes for more activities in their vicinity to keep them engaged and to give them healthy retirement lives,” said Mrs Giam.

These include more Active Ageing Centres, and spaces and infrastructure that the elderly can use to gather and mingle.

Ms Giam added that the PAP team hopes “to be able to work ahead of time to create this infrastructure” to help the ageing population in Sengkang.

Dr Elmie also called for better connectivity for multi-generational families living separately in Sengkang and the surrounding areas.

Dr Lam also noted that the Anchor Village Hawker Centre, which was planned many years ago after discussions with the authorities and was opened in mid-2024, is another amenity which has benefited residents there.

SENGKANG GRC 

The four-member constituency did not exist before the 2020 General Election. 

It was formed ahead of the polls by combining parts of the former Sengkang West Single Member Constituency (SMC), Punggol East SMC and parts of Pasir Ris–Punggol GRC.

WP won the constituency in 2020 with the team comprising Ms He, Mr Chua, Assoc Prof Lim and social activist Raeesah Khan. 

Ms Khan later resigned from the WP and her position as MP for Sengkang GRC in November 2021, after admitting to making unsubstantiated allegations in parliament on multiple occasions.

Sengkang has a relatively younger population compared with the national average. Over half of its residents are under 40 years old, while only 19.2 per cent are 60 and above, based on official data.

No changes were made to the constituency's boundaries in the latest Electoral Boundaries Review Committee report.