[SINGAPORE] The People’s Action Party’s (PAP) decision to deploy candidates in the various constituencies is a decision which the party makes based on its overall political calculations, said Senior Minister Lee Hsien Loong on Saturday (Apr 19).
“When we field somebody as a candidate, we must make sure that we are completely convinced he is going to do his best for the residents, and is the right candidate for that place,” he said.
SM Lee was speaking at a press conference introducing the team that will contest Ang Mo Kio GRC at the May 3 general election.
The slate includes two new candidates – former civil servant Jasmin Lau and former Aljunied GRC candidate Victor Lye. The latter was part of the party’s Aljunied team that lost to the Workers’ Party (WP) in 2015 and 2020.
Labour chief Ng Chee Meng also announced that he will make his political comeback in the newly-formed Jalan Kayu single-seat ward. Five years ago, Ng had contested in Sengkang GRC but lost to a team from the WP.
SM Lee was responding to the view that the decision to field the 63-year-old Lye, and other PAP candidates who had unsuccessfully contested in opposition-held wards previously, was like giving them “consolation prizes”.
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Rejecting this characterisation, he replied that such candidates may be fielded in other constituencies as the party believes that they will make a “different contribution and something valuable”.
“I fully expect that (former Hougang SMC candidate Lee) Hong Chuang, Victor and Chee Meng for that matter, to be full members of the team, and to bring to my team not only their experience working the ground, but their experience having fought, not succeeded and having the grit to come back and fight again,” said SM Lee.
Giving his inputs, Ng said: “If I were to be elected back to Parliament, I would like to be my own candidate.”
He added that he did not want to contest in a GRC where it may appear that he was “parachuted into a safer test”.
“That is quite important. I would like it to be my own merit,” he said.
Lye responded that he goes where the party needs him. “I feel I need to speak up, not just for me, but for every PAP candidate that is in so-called existing opposition wards. No matter where we are, whether in politics or not, you can look at our track record. We are not new,” he added.
On renewal
SM Lee was also asked for his assessment on the 32 new candidates whom Prime Minister Lawrence Wong introduced on Thursday at the launch of the PAP’s manifesto.
The senior minister said that PM Wong has “worked very hard” on getting a good slate for the PAP.
This time, to reinforce his team, PM Wong also brought in some candidates who have the potential to be “more than backbenchers”, he added.
“We hope that in the long term, this will ensure that Singapore is willing to have high quality government,” said SM Lee. “That depends on them getting elected, them winning the trust of Singaporeans, and then showing what they are able to do.”
He added that the new candidates are “good people, diverse, committed, passionate, bringing many different backgrounds and experiences, personal histories and passions”.
“I have no doubt that they would do a good job,” he said.
This would be PAP’s largest slate of new candidates for an election, meaning that some current MPs and political office holders, such as Defence Minister Ng Eng Hen, will be stepping down and retiring from politics.
To this, SM Lee said: “Renewal is a necessary, essential process. Inevitabily, it has to be that as new people come in, some of the old people have to move on. That’s the way it happens… One day, all of us will have to go.”
Asked whether this will be his last time contesting in an election, SM Lee said: “I don’t know whether this is my last term, that’s up to the PM. But I will serve as long as I’m useful and as long as the PM decides that I’m useful.”
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