PAP - THE WEAKEST LINK

IDENTIFY PAP'S WEAKEST LINK IN PASIR RIS-PUNGGOL GRC - VOTE NOW!

Deputy Prime Minister and Minister for Defence Teo Chee Hean fronts the PAP team at Pasir Ris-Punggol GRC. However the team he heads now is very different from the one that won comfortably in 2006.

Gone are Dr Ahmad Mohd Magad (retired), Charles Chong and Michael Palmer (both contesting in SMCs), and in theirs are three newbies Gan Thiam Poh, Zainal Sapari and Janil Puthucheary. The two incumbents who remain, Teo Ser Luck and Penny Low are not exactly household favourites. Given a credible Opposition, the PAP team in Pasir-Ris Punggol may well be given a run for its money even with the guard of the Rear Admiral.

After all with the GRC system, it is not a one-man show that runs the well-being of residents but the efforts of an entire team. Who amongst them do you wish least to represent you in Parliament. Who is The Weakest Link? You decide.

Candidate 1: Penny Low

Goh Chok Tong once divided Singaporeans into globe-trotting “cosmopolitans” and immobile “heartlanders”. If this is true, Low definitely belongs to the former label. Her profile claims she has “traversed more than 60 countries”, one of the 34 founding members of the New Asian Leaders by the Geneva-based World Economic Forum and honored as one of the 237 (out of 8,000 worldwide) founding members of the prestigious The Forum of Global Young Leaders (YGL). Not only so, she is a founding advocate of the global Earth Love Movement, a member of the Board of JetLi One Foundation and sits on the Board of Global Advisors of Operation Hope and the Larta Global Advisory Council (both based in the US), etc, etc.


Back home she runs two financial planning consultancies founded a Social Innovation Park, and sits on the Governing Council of the Singapore Institute of Management. Not forgetting her official duties as Vice-Chairperson of the North East Community Development Council, and the Pasir Ris-Punggol Town Council, she is also a Labour Union Advisor and active on several national committees and inter-nation parliamentary friendship groups. All these responsibilities did not hold her back from taking half a year off in 2007 to pursue a Yale World Fellow Program, Yale University. She took further leave in 2009 to attend a Global Leadership and Public Policy program at Harvard University. Low is indeed a pa si tio zao (definitely must go!) cosmopolitan. Oh, did we mention she is a MP for Singaporeans as well?

Highest Education Qualifications

Scholar, Yale World Fellow Program, Yale University

Global Leadership and Public Policy for the 21st Century program, Kennedy School of Government, Harvard University

Career

1990	Executive Officer, NUSSU
1990-1993	Programme Reseacher / Producer, Current Affairs Division, Singapore Broadcasting Corporation
1995-Present	Financial Consultant and Trainer, IPP Capital Planning Pte Ltd
1999-2002	Lecturer (Adjunct), Singapore Institute of Management-Royal Melbourne Institute of Technology (SIM-RMIT)
2000-Present	Managing Director, Planners-Hub Consultancy
2006-Present	President & Founder, Social Innovation Park Ltd

Other Key Appointments

Founding member, New Asian Leaders by World Economic Forum

Founding member, The Forum of Global Young Leaders (YGL)

Official link, YGL and the Schwab Foundation for Social Entrepreneurs

Founding advocate, Earth Love Movement

Board member, JetLi One Foundation

Board of Global Advisors, Operation Hope

Member, Larta Global Advisory Council

Member, Global Advisory Council, Oath Project

Member, Global Voice Editorial Advisory Board of Financial Planning Association (USA)

Member, ISO/TC222 Taskforce on Personal Financial Planning.

Vice-Chairperson, North East Community Development Council,

Vice-Chairperson, Pasir Ris-Punggol Town Council

Member, Governing Council, Singapore Institute of Management

Vice-President of Consumers Association of Singapore

Chairperson of CaseTrust Advisory Council

Advisor, Natsteel Employees Union

Advisor, Small and Medium Enterprise Outreach Group

Candidate 2: Gan Thiam Poh

Gan has since 2002 been the Senior Vice-President of the Institutional Banking Group of DBS. He is also the Lead Independent Director and a shareholder of a PRC S-Chip company. Despite Potong Pasir being an Opposition ward, Gan is the vice-chairman of both its Citizens' Consultative Committee and the Community Club Management Committee.

Highest Education Qualifications

Bachelor of Science (Economics and Mathematics) degree, National University of Singapore

Career

1989-2000	Senior Manager, Commercial Banking, Maybank
2001	Vice President, Corporate Banking, United Overseas Bank
2002 - Present	Senior Vice President, Institutional Banking Group, DBS Bank

Board Directorships
Non-Executive Lead Independent Director of Ouhua Energy Holdings Limited

Other Key Appointments

Council member; Finance Committee member, South East CDC

Candidate 3:  Teo Ser Luck

Teo was tipped for the big stage when he entered politics in 2006. As an avid sportsman, who takes part in the Ironman Triathlon, he was the natural choice to head Singapore 2010 Youth Olympics Games (YOG) Bid Committee. The successful bid was about as far as he went. As Singaporeans may scantly remember, the Games itself was a mega-budget flop, and Teo, who as a Panel Advisor to the Singapore Youth Olympic Games Organising Committee (SYOGOC), has since kept a low profile. Teo was further beleaguered when Danny Soo, a Young PAP leader talent-spotted by him, was sentenced to jail for taking upskirt photos of hundreds of women.

Highest Education Qualifications

Degree (Nanyang Technological University)

Post Grad Diploma (Temasek Polytechnic)

Career

1992	Nike Singapore & Coopers & Lybrand
1995	Regional Vice President/Managing Director, Menlo Worldwide (Parent company of Emery Worldwide/Vector SCM)
2005	Country Manager, General Manager, DHL Express Singapore

Government Office

May .2006	Parliamentary Secretary, Ministry of Community Development, Youth and Sports
Apr 2008-Present	Senior Parliamentary Secretary, Ministry of Community Development, Youth and Sports; Senior Parliamentary Secretary,  Ministry of Transport
May 2009-Present	Mayor, North East District

Candidate 4: Zainal Bin Sapari

Unlike his high-achieving team-mates, Zainal spent most of his working life in the local neighbourhood schools as teacher and principal. For about one he served as a superintendent with the Education Ministry. After the decision for him to enter politics, Zainal follows in March 2011 a train of PAP MPs parked with a salary-drawing job with the NTUC. His job title - Director (Special Duty), Industrial Relations, whatever that entails.


Highest Education Qualifications

Master of Arts in Educational Management, Nanyang Technological University

Career

1991	Teacher, Tampines Secondary Shool
2001	Vice Principal, East Spring Primary School
2003	Principal, Mayflower Primary School
2010	Superintendent, Ministry of Education
Mar 2011	Director (Special Duty), Industrial Relations, NTUC

Other Key Appointments

Member, Joint Madrasah Education Panel

Member, Censorship Review Committee, Ministry of Information, Communications and the Arts (MICA)

Candidate 5: Janil Puthucheary

Janil is a new citizen, who received his pink IC only in 2008. Along with Khaw Boon Wan, Lee Bee Wah, Irene Ng and Foo Mee Har, Janil is part of the growing ex-Malaysian brigade in the PAP, although he left for the UK soon after primary school. In response to criticism that he did not serve national service, the paediatrician said rebutted stoutly that: 'I've spent the last 10 years saving kids' lives". A foreign talent with a “saviour” mentality – maybe that’s the PAP’s prescription for ailing Singaporeans.


Highest Education Qualifications

Faculty of Medicine at The Queen's University, Belfast, Northern Ireland

Post graduate training in Belfast, London and Sydney

Career

Present	Senior consultant, Children's Intensive Care Unit, KK Women's and Children's Hospital
	Medical director for faculty development and assistant professor, Duke-NUS Graduate Medical School.

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