People's Action Party's (PAP) former Marine Parade-Braddell Heights GRC leader Tan See Leng is insistent that he did not abandon the ward to move to Chua Chu Kang GRC given that it ended up as a walkover.

On Nomination Day, the Minister for Manpower surprised many with his late trip to the west of Singapore.

Just days prior, he had been announced as part of the PAP slate for the redrawn Marine Parade-Braddell Heights.

Speaking to media today (April 26) at a walkabout in Teck Whye, Dr Tan said: "I don't think I have ever abandoned Marine Parade.

"It was a walkover. It was a walkover. It was a walkover. I said it three times.

"There's no abandonment here."

He added: "We had a solid team there. And the fact is that because of the initiatives, I think that the opposition has chosen to redeploy their own talents elsewhere."

Since there was going to be a walkover in his previous GRC, he felt that he had to stand up "when called upon to go to anywhere" that the party and the country think they need him to go. 

"I think that, to me, is what is uniquely Singaporean. That we will go wherever we are called upon. So as far as we are concerned, there is no abandonment here." 

On the morning of Nomination Day, Dr Tan, 60, had appeared at PAP's Mountbatten branch.

However, much to the surprise of observers, he later showed up at the Jurong Pioneer Junior College nomination centre, where his candidacy for Chua Chu Kang was confirmed.

"On the first day, when I came straight from the nomination centre itself, I think most of the [Chua Chu Kang] residents were wondering who I was," recounted Dr Tan today.

"Then, as the day went on, to the evening, and then moving on to the second day, the third day, people started to recognise me.

"I guess, finally, because of my round face and I'm a bit taller."  

He added that there is "a sense of warmth" in Chua Chu Kang GRC.

Dr Tan was also asked about the corrective directions issued by the Infocomm Media Development Authority against Facebook posts by two Malaysian politicians and a former Internal Security Act detainee.

They had criticised Singapore's government's handling of sensitive religious issues and encouraged Singaporeans to vote along religious lines.

Dr Tan said it was "a worrying trend".

"Our election should be entirely a domestic effort. And I hope that all foreign players, regardless of where they are, should take the cue that Singapore's politics is entirely for Singaporeans.

"And for us, it is our existence, it is our survival, it is our ability to come together, to be united, to reject all these foreign influences and interference, because we want to chart our own path ourselves for a better and a more united Singapore."

Dr Tan's Chua Chu Kang teammates include one-term MP and lawyer Zhulkarnain Abdul Rahim, 44, and two first-time candidates — neuroscientist Choo Pei Ling, 38, and former top civil servant Jeffrey Siow, 46.

The Progress Singapore Party (PSP) team comprises former Singapore Manufacturing Federation secretary-general Lawrence Pek, 55, technology lawyer Wendy Low, 48, training consultant A'bas Kasmani, 71, and investment specialist S. Nallakaruppan, 60. 

In the 2020 General Election, PAP won Chua Chu Kang with 58.64 per cent of the vote against PSP.

melissateo@asiaone.com

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