SINGAPORE: The People's Action Party has introduced its first batch of new candidates for the coming General Election due by February 2012.
At the introduction session, PAP's Second Assistant Secretary-General and Deputy Prime Minister Teo Chee Hean said that in total, the PAP intends to introduce more than 20 new candidates from diverse backgrounds. Most of them are under 40 years old.
The three new candidates introduced on Monday are Mr Desmond Choo, Dr Janil Puthucheary and Mr Ong Ye Kung.
42-year-old Ong Ye Kung is an assistant secretary-general at NTUC. He is also the chairman of Employment and Employability Institute, executive secretary of National Transport Workers Union and of Singapore Manual Mercantile Workers' Union.
He oversees workers' upgrading and job placement projects in NTUC, and champions the welfare of workers in the unions under his purview.
Mr Ong was also the former CEO of the Workforce Development Agency (WDA) and was involved in the negotiations of the US-Singapore Free Trade Agreement.
Mr Ong said: "That was very hard work but I keep thinking to myself, we are a little red dot, they are a world superpower, why do they want to negotiate something like that with us? But at the end of the day we managed to seal a deal, a good deal to secure the economic future for Singapore for many years.
"We, as a small dot must always be fighting for international space, even the seemingly impossible, negotiating with a superpower with grit and determination, working together as a team, making sure we are capable, the impossible can be achieved."
Mr Ong is currently working with Foreign Affairs Minister George Yeo and his team at the Aljunied GRC, which saw the most-keenly fought battle in the 2006 General Election.
39-year-old Dr Janil Puthucheary is a senior consultant in the Children's Intensive Care Unit at the KK Women's and Children's Hospital.
He is also the medical director for faculty development and an assistant professor at the Duke-NUS Graduate Medical School.
Since January 2009, Dr Puthucheary has been helping at the Meet-the-People Sessions as well as several other grassroots activities in Radin Mas, Bedok and now Pasir-Ris Punggol GRC.
A former Malaysian, he became a Singapore citizen in 2008.
"Apart from our families, there are many other reasons why we chose to make Singapore our home. Major factors were the multi-culturalism and meritocracy. I am very grateful for what we have here; it is very rare and very precious and I am very excited to be involved in it," said Dr Puthucheary.
33-year-old Desmond Choo is a deputy director with the NTUC Youth Development Unit. He is also the executive secretary of the Union of Security Employees and serves with the Singapore Port Workers Union.
Before his appointment as the second adviser to Hougang Grassroots Organisations in February this year, he had worked extensively in the Marsiling and Tampines East constituencies.
Mr Choo has started programmes to help needy residents in Hougang. He said: "I have plans to help the underprivileged, especially those who stay in units that are fairly run down. I have seen a lot of old folks still using squatting toilets when they are 80 years old. That, I've got to change....put in place the schemes, as long as I will be there to see through those stuff.
"Till today what has gotten me through this process is that no one should be left behind, regardless of their financial situation; no one kid should be denied a good education because his family has no financial needs. And we must always be prepared to look out for people who may be plunged into sudden financial difficulties. There will always be cracks in the system; no one policy is perfect."
Mr Choo is widely tipped to face incumbent opposition MP Low Thia Khiang in Hougang in the coming election.
For Dr Puthucheary and Mr Ong, both their fathers were in the opposition in Singapore's political history. But that did not stop the PAP from courting them.
DPM Teo said: "There may be some people who may be a little more left and some people a little more right. But it's a broad range of views and we are quite willing to consider any ideas, suggestions, proposals, provided they work and stand the test of whether or not they bring better lives for Singaporeans. We are not ideological, we are logical. We are focused on what will benefit the people and how that benefit will extend to the long term."
Mr Teo also said that for every General Election, the party tries to have a combination of experienced as well as new candidates who are more youthful and have more energy.
"The other key reason why we bring in young candidates is because we need to make sure we renew parliament and we renew the leadership of the country. And for parliament, we want to have a fresh slate of candidates, and for the government, we want to make sure that we put in place the core team of the fourth generation," he said.
In each General Election, the PAP introduces about 24 new faces and political watchers say a similar number is expected this time round too.
More new candidates are expected to be introduced in the coming days.
Many of the likely candidates have been of late making their rounds during community events.
Singapore's new Parliament will have 87 wards, up from the current 84.
- CNA/ir
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