SINGAPORE, July 11 — In the wee hours of this morning, as the final tally of votes in Sengkang Group Representation Constituency (GRC) was announced, cheers rang out from the new Housing Development Board flats in the young neighbourhood.
Residents whom TODAY spoke to voiced their hope for a new brand of politics to take root in Singapore starting from their neighbourhood, where the Workers’ Party (WP) seized a historic win.
While several of them expressed surprise over the election results, which saw WP wresting 52.13 per cent of the votes, others said they had expected the opposition party’s victory, given Sengkang’s large pool of young voters and WP’s commendable performance in the hustings.
The Straits Times has previously reported that according to official data from last year, more than 60 per cent of Sengkang residents are aged below 45, while more than one in 20 is younger than five. Both figures are above the national rates.
Sengkang is also a relatively new town, with its first HDB blocks having been completed in 1997.
The WP team consisted of three new faces — Raeesah Khan, 26, Associate Professor Jamus Lim, 44 and Louis Chua, 33 — and two-time election candidate He Ting Ru, 37.
They faced formidable opponents in the People’s Action Party (PAP) team, which consisted of three political officeholders — labour chief Ng Chee Meng, 51; Dr Lam Pin Min, 50, the former Senior Minister of State for Health and Transport; Amrin Amin, 42, the former Senior Parliamentary Secretary for Home Affairs and Health — and new candidate Raymond Lye, 54.
Impressed by WP’s poise, authenticity
Lynn Tan, a 26-year-old marketing manager who has lived in Sengkang for 21 years, said that after these results, she hopes the Government will pay more heed to the hopes and concerns of younger voters.
“I hope that the incumbent party can hear the voice of younger audiences and that we hope to see positive change in the future with a more balanced government. I can hope for a better future now.”
Another resident who stayed up late to watch the results was Victor Ng, a private-hire driver who was watching the live telecast on his mobile phone at the coffee shop located at Block 267 Compassvale Link with three other fellow drivers.
While not exactly young himself, the 51-year-old said that he understood the WP candidates’ popularity with younger Singaporeans, including his three children.
“I hope (the PAP) can hand over the town council properly, so that things can continue functioning like they have been,” he said, adding that he hopes in future elections, the WP will be able to widen its margin of victory in the constituency.
Others who live in the Rivervale area, which used to be located within the former Punggol East Single Member Constituency, similarly said that they hope the town council handover will proceed smoothly.
Sengkang GRC comprises the former single seats of Sengkang West and Punggol East, as well as the Sengkang Central ward, which was carved out of Pasir Ris-Punggol GRC.
Nevertheless, residents said they were confident of the change WP can bring, not just to their neighbourhood but to the country.
Dudley Lin, 29, a data analyst who has lived most of his life in Sengkang, said that he was impressed with how WP handled setbacks during the campaign period.
“I would say I was very impressed with their poise and how they tackled issues… with authenticity and tact,” he said.
Midway through the hustings, Khan was embroiled in a controversy when two police reports were made over comments which she had made on social media.
The police said on July 5 that her social media posts, which resurfaced during the hustings, were being investigated over allegedly promoting “enmity between different groups on grounds of religion or race”.
She apologised for the posts, which were made in February 2018 and May this year.
Lin said: “I really look forward to them providing a stronger voice for the unheard masses, bringing up more pertinent national issues besides just about bread and butter, enhancing my GRC, and with what they have proposed in their manifesto.”
‘Tomorrow, we start work’
At a media briefing after the results were announced, He thanked voters for the “leap of faith” they had taken.
In a short speech from the WP headquarters, she said: “We will work hard to make sure that this trust is not misplaced… The number of young people who have come out to walk with us to volunteer, who have actually expressed their interests and their hope for a better future for Singapore, has really touched me.”
She added: “To the residents of Sengkang, we work for all of you. Tomorrow, we start work.”
He also thanked her PAP opponents, saying that the WP team had “very interesting conversations” with them and that she looks forward to further engagements with them.
WP win a ‘watershed victory’: analysts
During a briefing after all the election results were announced, Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong said he was disappointed to have lost Sengkang and described it as a “major loss”.
“I’ve spoken to Chee Meng and his GRC team to thank them and to encourage them to continue to serve the party and Singapore in different ways. PAP will strive to win back Sengkang GRC,” Lee said.
Ng, meanwhile, told reporters during an interview at Anchorvale Link that while the results did not go the way the PAP wanted, his team was grateful to all who had helped and voted for them.
“My team and I will have to evaluate and regroup and see how we can do better in the days to come. We will spend some time looking at what is the plan for the future,” he added.
Political analyst Bilveer Singh, from the National University of Singapore’s political science department, told TODAY that the win was a “significant development” and that WP had secured a “watershed victory” overall in this election.
Voters had “chosen to reject” three office-holders, including Ng, a former Pasir-Ris Punggol MP, Assoc Prof Singh noted.
“(Former WP chief Low Thia Khiang) told me once that they do not focus on specific constituencies. They work on geographical concentrations. This is the reward for geographical concentration… I think it signals something, that they have a strategy to counter electoral boundary change,” Assoc Prof Singh added. — TODAY
