GE2025: Tough fight not just for PAP’s Sengkang team, but everywhere, says Lam Pin Min (2025)

SINGAPORE – The fight for Sengkang GRC will be an uphill battle, given the incumbent advantage that the WP has, but the PAP team there is hopeful it will put up a good fight, said former senior minister of state Lam Pin Min.

“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 do not want to take anything for granted,” he told themedia on April 20 before a walkabout with PAP’s Sengkang team at Kopitiam Square in Compassvale.

Dr Lam, the only candidate retained from PAP’s Sengkang 2020 team, was responding to WP chief Pritam Singh’s remark a day earlier that the opposition expects “a very difficult fight” in Sengkang, citing the narrow margin of its last victory over the ruling party.

In 2020, the WP team of new faces took 52.12 per cent of the vote, beating the PAP’s slate made up of then Cabinet ministerNg Chee Meng, Dr Lam, then Senior Parliamentary Secretary for Home Affairs and Health Amrin Amin and lawyer Raymond Lye.

Dr Lam, who has walked the ground at all of Sengkang’s coffee shops following his previous loss, was with his team members, who will be making their political debut in the upcoming election.

They are Ms Theodora Lai, 39, co-founder of deep tech venture capital firm Moringa Ventures; Associate Professor Elmie Nekmat, 43, who teaches communications and new media at the National University of Singapore; and Mrs Bernadette Giam, 38, the director of Creative Eateries, a local food and beverage company.

The 56-year-old said the team will face more challenges in the rematch against the WP’s 2025 line-up featuring the incumbent Sengkang GRC MPs, Mr Louis Chua, Ms He Ting Ru and Associate Professor Jamus Lim, and Aljunied-Hougang Town Council senior property manager Abdul Muhaimin Abdul Malik.

Dr Lam said: “If we talk about Sengkang GRC, we are not the incumbent. We do not have the resources of the town council, and we find that as a challenger, we are always facing more challenges compared to somebody who is an incumbent in a GRC.”

Nevertheless, the ophthalmologist said he was very happy to know that the team from the WP will be contesting again.

He said: “We have seen how they have served the residents in Sengkang, but we are also under no delusion that it is going to be very easy for us.

“We will do our best to give them a good fight, with the hope that we can win the hearts and minds of our Sengkang voters and to be able to wrest back Sengkang from the WP.”

Asked by The Straits Times about what the PAP team could contribute, Dr Lam said they have been walking the ground for the past four to five years, and added that his experience as former chairman of Ang Mo Kio Town Council puts him in the position to address some municipal issues that residents face.

On his team’s odds, given that three membersare new faces compared with the WP’s team of just one political newcomer, Dr Lam said his slate comes with a fresh perspective, as well as a lower average age of 43 years, compared with the PAP’s previous line-up.

“With our three new team members, we are able to bring a new perspective to the team and to address some of the concerns of the younger families.”

Mrs Giam said a key focus for the PAP Sengkang team is to address local issues such as the demand for more elderly-friendly infrastructure, which directly impacts residents’ lives.

She pointed out that both she and Ms Lai are members of the business community who believe that they can create opportunities for youth.

Another trait of Sengkang that has stood out to the team is the multi-generational nature of its residents, which it hopes to address as well.

Dr Elmie said many families they have met on their visits often have grandparents living nearby.

“So, one of the concerns... is that they want to have improved connectivity, improved amenities and facilities that are not only well maintained, but also purposeful and meaningful,” he said.

This is especially so for amenities and facilities that can cater to many generations, including more ease of travel, particularly for seniors who want to travel and see their families, he added.

In a Facebook post on the evening of April 20, Mr Singh disputed Dr Lam’s claim that the PAP team was disadvantaged without the backing of a town council.

He said: “I was a little surprised to read this one-dimensional perspective of the ‘resources’ available to losing PAP candidates who are commonly appointed as grassroots advisers by the People’s Association, or who work hand in glove with the appointed grassroots adviser as PAP branch chairmen.”

He pointed to an article he wrote for the WP newsletter in 2024, where he had said that if developments in Sengkang GRC were anything to go by, voting for a WP candidate as an MP means that a voter has three representatives to look out for their interests: a grassroots adviser, a PAP branch chairman and a WP MP.

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