Fresh from their groundbreaking victory at the 2020 General Elections, the newly elected Sengkang GRC MPs from the Worker’s Party have announced their plans for the local constituency:
There will be an independent town council governing the area of Sengkang, and team leader He Ting Ru will be serving as chairman of the new ‘order’.
But the question begets;
Has the plan been approved, and how complex will the takeover process prove to be?
Without further ado, let’s find out.
WP Is Going to Run an Independent Town Council & Will Be Chaired by He Ting Ru
According to The Straits Times, the newly elected Sengkang GRC MPs from the Workers’ Party have announced their plans for an independent Sengkang Town Council which will not merge with any other constituencies.
The revelation was disclosed to the public last Sunday (19 July), via a Facebook post by WP’s Sengkang team leader He Ting Ru.
In the social media update, she stated that her team had written in to both Ang Mo Kio Council (AMKTC) and Pasir Ris-Punggol Town Council (PRPTC) to request a preliminary meeting to discuss the handover.
They have also reiterated their request for copies of the necessary contracts and terms.
Senior Minister of State for Transport and Communications and Information Janil Puthucheary has since responded, saying that as soon as Sengkang Town Council (SKTC) is ready, both PRPTC and AMKTC will be on deck to carry out the handover process.
Currently, the Anchorvale ward in the new GRC is run by AMKTC while the PRPTC oversees the Punggol East and Sengkang Central areas.
Ms He has since indicated her intention to chair the new town council.
During the 2020 General Elections, Ms He led her team to victory in the new Sengkang GRC area.
They clinched 52.12 per cent of the vote, edging out a PAP team led by labour chief Ng Chee Meng.
Apart from Ms He, the team also comprises of economics professor Jamus Lim, 44, social enterprise founder Raeesah Khan, 26, and equity research analyst Louis Chua Kheng Wee, 33.
Different Slots
According to Ms He’s latest Facebook post, each member of the team will be allocated to a different division in the GRC.
Mr Lim will be in charge of Anchorvale, while Raeesah Khan will head to Compassvale. Rivervale will be overseen by Louis Chua, and Ms He will be taking Buangkok.
Louis Chua has worked as a research analyst at international banks and is currently a Vice President at a global bank.
Raeesah Khan is a young activist who founded the Reyna Movement, an organisation that operates in Singapore and Johor that aims to empower marginalised women and children through upskilling programs and community engagement. She also indirectly made the police much busier in recent days.
Ms Khan has also become the youngest MP to be elected into parliament at 26 years old, 2 years younger than Ms Tin Peiling.
Jamus Lim is the breakout star, master debater, and man who says “New Town Council” like no other politician.
Lim stole the hearts of many Singaporeans with his performance in the GE2020 live debate against seasoned veterans that included Foreign Affairs Minister Vivian Balakrishnan.
The team has since expressed its gratitude towards the supportive residents of Sengkang, and promised to make Singapore a better place for everyone.
Home To More Than 120,000 People
This young team of MPs with three fresh faces to Singapore politics will have their work cut out for them.
The GRC might be small but it has more than 120,000 voters.
Sengkang has a relatively young population with many young families. According to The Straits Times, more than 60 per cent of Sengkang’s residents are below the age of 45, while over 5 per cent are younger than five years old — figures which are above the national average.
All four WP candidates in the Sengkang GRC team, who have children under the age of four, said they were going through many of the issues that young parents in Singapore are facing at the moment.
Team leader He Ting Ru told Mothership that all the candidates in the team were “still dealing with teething and sleepless nights”.
“These are the issues or the problems that young Singaporeans, young families and young parents are facing,” added Lim.
“So we feel very strongly about this and we really want to come out here and we’ll make our views known and have a better future for our children.”
You can read a rough guide to what the new Sengkang GRC is all about, here.
Another Difficult Task Up Ahead
Meanwhile, another difficult task cropped up ahead of the Sengkang team.
If you remember, the Pasir Ris Punggol Town Council (PRPTC) has sued the Workers’ Party’s town councillors over the breaches of their fiduciary duties (read: mishandling money) during their term.
That court case is still ongoing as the councillors are appealing against the court’s decision.
However, with Punggol-East SMC (which was absorbed into Sengkang GRC for GE2020) returning to the WP, everyone’s now confused on how the case is going to proceed.
The likeliest way forward, according to Assistant Professor of Law Benjamin Ong from SMU, is that after 25 Jul 2020, Sengkang Town Council and Aljunied-Hougang Town Council will be the ones that the defendants are liable to.
