Restoring MND grants to Punggol East is PAP’s goal, says Charles Chong
Mr Charles Chong. Photo: Robin Choo
SINGAPORE — He declined to confirm whether he would be standing for the single-seat Punggol East ward in the coming election, but People’s Action Party (PAP) Member of Parliament (MP) Charles Chong (picture) was clear about what needs to be done for the constituency: To restore the Ministry of National Development’s grants for the area.
“The first thing is to make sure, if we are in charge of this area, that the town council accounts are in order, so we can do the work that we need to do and perhaps also get the Government to restore its grants. Now, it is holding back the grants because the accounts are not right,” said Mr Chong yesterday, before the start of his first Meet-the-People Session in Punggol East since he moved to contest in the single-seat ward of Joo Chiat in 2011.
The six-term MP also said he does not think that town council accounts are “difficult to do”, having handled them when he was the town council chairman for the area for two terms.
“I know that when we handed over this section, it was in relatively good shape. So, now we’re not quite sure whether the money used here has been diverted somewhere to help out maybe in Hougang or in Aljunied,” he added.
The Punggol East seat is currently held by the Workers’ Party’s Lee Li Lian, who won the 2013 by-election with 54.5 per cent of the vote.
Mr Chong fuelled speculation of being moved from Joo Chiat to Punggol East when he attended a National Day dinner in Punggol East earlier this month. He is also currently the chairman of the PAP Punggol East branch, a position he took up about two to three weeks ago.
He had managed parts of Punggol East when he was an MP in Pasir Ris-Punggol Group Representation Constituency from 2001 to 2011. Asked about the PAP’s strategy for the ward, Mr Chong said: “The general trend of things is that the strongest opposition will try to look for our weakest. If we send our weakest against the strongest, then it’s not quite right.”
As of 9pm last night, about 30 residents had turned up to see him, compared with the average turnout of five residents at the weekly resident engagement sessions held by PAP activists.
