Former Hougang candidate Mr Choo and first-timer Ms Cheng are the new faces in the People’s Action Party’s Tampines slate. MPs Mah Bow Tan and Irene Ng will not contest the coming polls.
The People’s Action Party (PAP) on Saturday (Aug 22) officially named its new candidates for the Tampines Group Representation Constituency (GRC) for the coming General Election (GE).
Joining the five-member GRC are Ms Cheng Li Hui, a first-time candidate, and Mr Desmond Choo, who lost his bid for the single seat of Hougang in the 2011 GE to the Workers’ Party’s (WP) Yaw Shin Leong.
In a by-election held in 2012 after Mr Yaw was expelled from the WP over an extramarital affair, Mr Choo lost again, this time to WP candidate Png Eng Huat.
Mr Choo and Ms Cheng will replace current Tampines GRC Members of Parliament (MPs) Mah Bow Tan and Irene Ng, who are stepping down from politics.
Mr Mah and Ms Ng were on the team along with Mr Heng Swee Keat, Mr Baey Yam Keng and Mr Masagos Zulkifli that contested Tampines GRC in 2011, beating the National Solidarity Party (NSP) with 57.22 per cent of the vote share.
That NSP team had featured Mr Goh Meng Seng and Mr Syafarin Syarif, who have since left to form the People’s Power Party. Nevertheless, the NSP has said it will contest Tampines again this year.
The five PAP candidates for Tampines GRC are:
Mr Heng Swee Keat, 54, Minister for Education
Mr Heng has been Education Minister and an elected MP for Tampines GRC since 2011. He was the Principal Private Secretary to then-Senior Minister Lee Kuan Yew from 1997 to 2000, before becoming the Permanent Secretary at the Ministry of Trade and Industry in 2001. From 2005 to 2011, Mr Heng worked as the managing director of the Monetary Authority of Singapore.
Mr Baey Yam Keng, 44, Member of Parliament
Mr Baey served as an MP for Tanjong Pagar GRC from 2006 to 2011 before moving to Tampines GRC for the 2011 GE. He chairs the Government Parliamentary Committee for Culture, Community and Youth. He was a managing director at a large public relations firm before resigning in 2012 to focus on politics.
Mr Masagos Zulkifli, 52, Minister in the Prime Minister’s Office
Mr Masagos is also the Second Minister for both Home Affairs and Foreign Affairs. He has been an MP for Tampines GRC since 2006. Mr Masagos was formerly the Senior Parliamentary Secretary and then Minister of State for Education from 2006 to 2011. Prior to entering politics, he worked for SingTel from 1988 to 2006, rising to the position of CEO of SingTel Global Offices.
Ms Cheng Li Hui, 39, deputy CEO, Hai Leck Holdings
Ms Cheng has been a Councillor in the Northwest CDC since 2004. She is also vice-chairman of the Citizens Consultative Committee in Tampines East.
Mr Desmond Choo, 37, director of youth development, National Trades Union Congress
Mr Choo is concurrently NTUC’s deputy director of industrial relations, a post he had previously held up to May 2013 when he left for the private sector after standing in Hougang in the 2011 GE and 2012 by-election. He rejoined the union in April this year, after serving as Senior Vice President of investments at Kestrel Capital.
Mr Choo started his career in the Singapore police force. He was appointed second adviser to Changkat grassroots organisations in February this year.
DEPARTING CANDIDATES
The two new candidates will replace Mr Mah Bow Tan, 66, and Ms Irene Ng, 51, who will not be running in the coming elections.
Mr Mah has served as MP for Tampines GRC for 27 years, since 1988. He was the Minister for National Development from 1999 to 2011, the Minister for Environment from 1993 to 1995, and the Minister for Communications from 1991 to 1999. He first entered politics at the 1984 GE, where he lost to Opposition veteran Chiam See Tong in a contest for the Potong Pasir single seat.
Ms Ng has served as MP for Tampines GRC since 2001. She is a writer-in-residence at the Institute of Southeast Asian Studies, and spent much of her pre-politics career as a journalist. She was also a director at the National Trades Union Congress from 2006 to 2008.
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