GE2025: 3 new faces to be part of PAP’s Sengkang GRC team
SINGAPORE – Three new faces will be fielded as part of the PAP’s slate for the four-member Sengkang GRC in the upcoming general election, said former senior minister of state Lam Pin Min.
“I sincerely hope that Sengkang residents can give us a chance to serve them as their elected representatives. A vote for our team means experienced leadership, renewed energy and the steadfast commitment to Sengkang’s progress,” the ophthalmologist said at a press conference on April 13 in Anchorvale, which was once his ward of Sengkang West.
Dr Lam, 56, will lead three political newcomers in attempting to win back the WP-held group representation constituency. They are Ms Theodora Lai, 39, a principal at private equity firm Tembusu Partners; Associate Professor Elmie Nekmat, 43, who teaches communications and new media at the National University of Singapore; and Mrs Bernadette Giam, 38, a director at local food and beverage enterprise Creative Eateries.
All four are PAP branch chairpersons for Sengkang.
Dr Lam is the only member retained from PAP’s 2020 slate, which was helmed by then Cabinet minister Ng Chee Meng.
“Though we come from different professional backgrounds, we share the same passion to serve Sengkang residents and to win back their trust,” Dr Lam said about the 2025 team.
In a major upset, the 2020 team that had three political office-holders lost the newly formed constituency to a fresh-faced WP slate comprising lawyer He Ting Ru, financial analyst Louis Chua, economics professor Jamus Lim and social enterprise founder Raeesah Khan. The WP team secured 52.12 per cent of the vote at the 2020 election, making it only the second time the WP had won in a GRC, after it triumphed in Aljunied in 2011.
Dr Lam said the refreshed PAP slate is one of the outcomes from a post-mortem that had been conducted after the defeat of the PAP’s all-male slate, which also included then Senior Parliamentary Secretary for Home Affairs and Health Amrin Amin and lawyer Raymond Lye.
Unlike the previous line-up, the new team is younger, with an average age of 43, and has two working mothers.
Addressing the concern that the latest slate does not feature a political heavyweight, Dr Lam said the 2020 election loss had showed that it was not about the presence of political office-holders. Rather, he said, it was about sending “the right person with the right heart and passion”, adding that his decision to face WP in Sengkang again stems from his experience serving the area for the past 20 years.
He said: “We have a right mix of different candidates from different backgrounds, and we also have very young candidates, who can best represent the aspirations and the needs of the young families.”
Two of the new faces were introduced at the earliest possible time when Covid-19 restrictions were lifted, added Dr Lam. This was so they could have the opportunity to build rapport with residents. In 2022, Ms Lai replaced Mr Ng as PAP branch chairperson of Sengkang North, and Prof Elmie took over Sengkang Central from Mr Amrin.
But they had already begun walking the ground as volunteers even before their formal appointments, and spoke of some residents’ concerns that they have heard over the past four years.
Said Prof Elmie: “I have had a very concerned father, during one of my house visits, exclaiming very loudly to me that the Government must do more to protect our children from social media.
“I have also had parents sharing with me how their children are undergoing depression due to being bullied or harassed on social media.”
Like Dr Lam, Ms Lai and Prof Elmie have conducted house visits and grassroots events as advisers to Sengkang grassroots organisations, appointed by the People’s Association.
However, Mrs Giam was appointed chairwoman of Sengkang East, which covers the estates of Rivervale, only in end-January, making her the PAP’s third branch chairperson for the area in three years. But she has worked hard to build rapport by walking the ground on an almost daily basis, so much so that she could risk missing the experience of her children growing up, said Dr Lam.
This is a familiar concern for Mrs Giam, who has fielded questions about her decision to enter politics despite being the mother of a seven-year-old girl and a toddler. She said: “My children are young, but it is exactly because of this that I can better represent Sengkang parents.”
The team is under no illusions that winning Sengkang GRC will be easy, said Dr Lam, noting that the PAP has never won back a GRC in Singapore’s brief political history.
But he thinks there is a case to be made against those who vote for the opposition on the assumption that they will still be served by the losing PAP candidates who stay on to serve as grassroots advisers and branch chairs, resulting in a “one plus one” situation where residents are cared for by two parties.
Dr Lam said: “One plus one can be less than one… Because in an opposition ward where there are two different party representatives working together, where there is actually conflict in policies, not working in coordination, there will be a drop in the efficiency, and the outcome may be poorer.”
Prior to their political debut, the slate’s three new faces contributed to initiatives in the party and various communities in Singapore.
Prof Elmie, who has been a party activist since 2016, serves in several media policy groups, including the Media Literacy Council, and advocates for the Malay language and community in public bodies, including the Education Ministry’s Malay Language Learning and Promotion Committee.
Ms Lai was a founding member and chairwoman of the Young Women’s Leadership Connection, a network for young women mooted by Singapore’s first female Cabinet minister Lim Hwee Hua. She has been active in the party since 2009, starting off as a writer at Meet-the-People Sessions before eventually chairing the PAP Policy Forum between 2018 and 2020.
Mrs Giam has been involved in community volunteer work, including with the PAP Women’s Wing, for more than a decade, leading projects like a pre-school outreach across Pasir Ris-Punggol GRC.
On social media, the battle for Sengkang has already begun, with both the WP and PAP teams posting regularly about their engagements with residents under the same hashtags of Team Sengkang and Sengkang GRC.
The WP has yet to announce its Sengkang slate, although senior property manager at Aljunied-Hougang Town Council Abdul Muhaimin Abdul Malik has been tipped to fill the slot vacated by Ms Khan, who resigned in 2021 after lying in Parliament.
Join ST’s WhatsApp Channel and get the latest news and must-reads.
