Newcomers Melvin Yong, Joan Pereira in PAP's Tanjong Pagar GRC team for coming GE
The People's Action Party announced its candidates contesting in Tanjong Pagar GRC and Radin Mas SMC on Aug 19, 2014. Photo: Raymond Tham
SINGAPORE – Less than a week after he officially retired from the Singapore Police Force, former senior police officer Melvin Yong will join the People’s Action Party’s (PAP) five-man Tanjong Pagar GRC team to contest the next election, together with fellow newcomer, former public servant Joan Pereira.
The two newcomers were introduced at a press conference held at a coffeeshop beside the PAP Tanjong Pagar Branch today (Aug 19) and round up the team comprising labour chief Chan Chun Sing, Senior Minister of State for Law and Education Indranee Rajah and backbencher Chia Shi-Lu – all incumbent Tanjong Pagar GRC MPs.
Meanwhile, incumbent MP for Radin Mas Sam Tan, who has served two terms, will be defending the SMC in the coming General Election.
Mr Yong, 43, will likely replace Transport Minister Lui Tuck Yew in overseeing his ward, which was in Moulmein-Kallang GRC and has largely been absorbed by Tanjong Pagar GRC under the redrawn electoral boundaries.
Mr Chan, who is the anchor minister for the team, said both Mr Yong and Ms Pereira are not new faces to the area.
Ms Pereira has introduced programmes for the elderly while Mr Yong has also helped the youth and took care of the security in the area, added Mr Chan, who is also Minister in the Prime Minister’s Office.
Mr Yong, who has two children, was spotted accompanying Mr Lui, who recently announced his exit from politics, on a walkabout over the weekend.
Ms Pereira, currently an assistant general manager at Temasek Cares, was introduced to residents during a walkabout at Bukit Merah View late last month. While the mother of two started official party work in May, she has been seen walking the ground with Ms Indranee since last year.
Asked for his views on the GRC facing a contest from the Opposition for the first time since 1991, Mr Chan said he believes that as long as they have done their job conscientiously, residents will "take care of the results" for them.
Tanjong Pagar GRC was also the only constituency that went uncontested in the 2011 General Election. Singapore’s first prime minister Lee Kuan Yew, who died in March, was a stalwart there since the pre-Independence 1955 Legislative Assembly General Elections.
Opposition Singaporeans First has indicated that they will be contesting in the ward.
