PAP new face not concerned of opposition contest
New People's Action Party (PAP) candidate Ong Teng Koon says the Sembawang group representation constituency (GRC) team is more focused on serving the residents' needs and are not distracted on whether the opposition will contest the ward come Nomination Day.
Ong, 34, was responding to questions on a potential walkover at Sembawang GRC as no opposition party has shared their interests to contest in the area.
"For us, we are not so concerned. We prefer to just focus on what we are doing and to do it well which is serving the needs of the residents," the commodities trader told Yahoo! Singapore.
"We continue to do our walkabouts, we continue to do our Meet the People Sessions, and we continue to have events. So we prefer to focus on what we are doing instead of what the opposition is doing," he added.
Ong was speaking to the media on Saturday morning after the unveiling of the new PAP Community Foundation (PCF) branch in the Woodgrove division. He was also announced as the branch's first chairman.
Health Minister Khaw Boon Wan, who was the guest-of-honour at the event, said that following the recent electoral boundaries report, the PCF is expanding its branches from 84 to 87, which he said, reflects the population growth nationwide.
Upon announcing Ong's new appointment, Mr Khaw, who is also the anchor Minister for the ward said, "While he is a new candidate, he is not new to community work at all. He is a heartlander at heart."
Ong is widely tipped to contest in the GRC together with fellow new candidate, lawyer Vikram Nair, 33. The rest of the team are incumbent Member of Parliaments (MPs) Ellen Lee, Hawazi Daipi and Mr Khaw.
In the 2006 election, the PAP defeated the Singapore Democratic Party (SDP) by a large margin, winning 76.7 per cent of the votes in Sembawang.
However, despite the opposition revealing they will contest all of the 87 seats up for grabs in the coming General Election, none have expressed interest in Sembawang GRC.
MP Ellen Lee shared that the team will be "disappointed" if there is no challenge from the opposition.
"It means they are not giving voters a choice in that sense. Whereas for us we are anticipating a contest because we think that it will be good for voters and residents to have a choice," she said.
But she added that they are not taking any chances as the opposition could field a team on Nomination Day.
"Yes, in fact we are prepared for that eventuality, nothing is certain until nomination day itself so we'll wait to see what happens."
