PAP - THE WEAKEST LINK

IDENTIFY PAP'S WEAKEST LINK IN NEE SOON GRC - VOTE NOW!

The new Nee Soon GRC is birthed from the PAP gerrymandering tactics. It is put together from the former Nee Soon East and Nee Soon Central SMCs, vacated by the retirement of old-timers Ho Peng Kee Ong Ah Heng respectively, and parts of Sembawang and Ang Mo Kio GRCs.

K Shanmugam, the hardman of PAP who is concurrently Minister of Home Affairs and Law, heads the Nee Soon GRC. Joining him from the Sembawang GRC is Dr Lim Wee Kiak, Ang Mo Kio’s Lee Bee Wah, Marine Parade’s Assoc Prof Muhammad Faishal Ibrahim and newcomer Patrick Tay.

Interestingly the PAP lost Nee Soon Central to the Singapore Democratic Party (SDP) in 1991.  The Nee Soon GRC team does not seem all that strong and not all the PAP candidates here look equally capable. Can a repeat of history be on the cards? Will a single candidate be responsible for bringing down the team?

Who is The Weakest Link? Singaporeans, the answer lies with you.  

Candidate 1:  Lee Bee Wah

Lee is amongst a handful of Malaysia-born PAP candidates. Belying the fact that she holds a Master of Science (Engineering) from the UK, Lee has succeeded in bringing public discourse in Singapore to new lows. Following a call in parliament by the Workers’ Party for the government to delay a GST increase, Lee rebutted crudely in Hokkien that “My mother always tells me that when you want to pass motion, you have to find a toilet first”. Her mismanagement of the Singapore Table Tennis Association (STTA), which included a highly publicised bust-up with the team manager and coaches at the Beijing Olympics, led to an open petition for her removal as President. In line with the ruling party’s principle of belittling all public opinion, Lee turned a complete deaf ear to the call and remains squatting in her post.

Highest Education Qualifications

Master of Science (Engineering), University of Liverpool (United Kingdom)

Career

1985	Senior Engineer, St Construction Pte Ltd
1994	Asst. Project Manager, Wing Tai Property Management Pte Ltd
1996-Present	Principal Partner, LBW Consultants / LBW Consultants LLP

Board Directorships

Director, LBW Engineering Pte Ltd

Director, Merseyside International Pte Ltd

Director, Nanyang Learning House Pte Ltd

Director, Trailblazer Foundation Ltd

Independent and Non-Executive Director, Tee International Ltd

Other Key Appointments

Fellow Member, Institution of Engineers Singapore 

Board member, Professional Engineers Board, Singapore

President, Singapore Table Tennis Association

Candidate 2: Dr Lim Wee Kiak

A leading eye doctor in Singapore. The normally non-controversial Dr Lim recently attracted public criticism when he was asked by the press to comment on a report that the Ministry of Manpower is spending $271,400 on designer ergonomic chairs for its staff. A member of the Public Accounts Committee, Dr Lim defended the decision, saying, “if the employer thinks the workers need to protect their backs from injuries in the long term, then fair enough”.


Highest Education Qualifications

Masters of Medicine (National University of Singapore)

Career

1992	Medical Officer, Ministry of Health
1994	Medical Officer, MINDEF
2001	Registrar, SINGHEALTH
2003	Consultant, SNEC
2006-Present	Consultant Eye Surgeon, Singapore National Eye Centre
2007-Present	Deputy Director, The Eye Institute, National Healthcare Group
2007-Present	Head of Ocular Inflammation and Uveitis, Tan Tock Seng Hospital
2007-Present	CEO of Eagle Eye Centre, Mount Alvernia Hospital

Other Key Appointments

Chairman, Uveitis and ocular inflammation subspecialty committee, College of Ophthalmologists, Singapore

Chairman, Ngee Ann Polytechnic's Optometry Advisory Committee (OAC)

Candidate 3:  Patrick Tay Teck Guan

Tay is an ex-cop with the SPF’s elite Special Tactics and Rescue team. He is amongst the cluster of PAP-NTUC candidates, albeit a unionist who appears to be on the ground rather than on the heights of upper management. Putting to good use his police experience, he managed to round-up private security officers in the country to join the Union of Security Employees, which saw its membership explode from 500 in 2004 to 12,000 today. Better unionization or are we merely seeing more poor Singaporeans becoming “jagas” to eke out a livelihood?


Highest Education Qualifications

Master of Laws (honours), NUS

Career

Past	Singapore Police Force's Special Tactics and Rescue (STAR)
2002	Industrial relations officer; chief IRO of Shipbuilding and Marine engineering Employees Union, NTUC
2004-2005	Executive secretary, Union of Security Employees
2006-Present	Executive secretary, Healthcare Services Employees' Union; Advisor/Senior Consult, Union of Security Employees

Candidate 4: Assoc Prof Dr Muhammad Faishal Ibrahim

A/P Muhammad Faishal Ibrahim is Programme Director, MSc (Real Estate) at the Department of Real Estate in the NUS. However he is practically nondescript as a politician. Entered parliament via a walkover in the Marine Parade GRC five years ago.


Highest Education Qualifications

PhD (Management Sciences), University of Manchester Institute of Science and Technology

Career

1993	Valuer, Inland Revenue Authority of Singapore
1996	Senior Tutor, National University of Singapore
2000-Present	Assistant Professor, National University of Singapore

(Note: As you are participating in a free and open forum, you would agree to take full personal responsibility for the contents of your contribution. Defamatory statements, unsubstantiated allegations, unwarranted vulgarities, racist comments, denigration of other contributors and other posts of no relevance will be removed.)