On the campaign trail

Grace Fu says PAP is better able to add value to projects

Minister in the Prime Minister’s Office Grace Fu, who is contesting Yuhua SMC, greeting commuters at Chinese Garden MRT station yesterday. She later visited Yuhua Village Market and Food Centre. ST PHOTO: ONG WEE JIN

The People's Action Party (PAP) is better able to ensure that national projects are effectively implemented on the ground, Minister in the Prime Minister's Office Grace Fu said yesterday.

"We are the ones that understand the concerns, and we have the network to have dialogues with the people. We think that if we are involved, representing the people, it will result in better solutions for everybody," Ms Fu told reporters after unveiling Jurong Town Council's five-year plan for Yuhua SMC, where she is running in the Sept 11 polls. She has been the MP for Yuhua for two terms now. More projects are on the way in Yuhua, including playgrounds, cycling paths and covered walkways. These improvement works, said Ms Fu, have come about following feedback from residents over the years.

Major government-led projects will continue to transform the area, with booming development in the Jurong Lake District, which has seen a new hospital and a cluster of shopping malls. Her party, said Ms Fu, would be better able to add value to these projects. "We understand the needs of the people here. We are able to coordinate with the agencies better," she said.

She heads the Municipal Services Office, which coordinates government responses to municipal problems. Ms Fu added that with changes coming thick and fast in the Jurong Lake District, some residents worry about congestion and security, among other things.

The PAP, she said, will be "the party that will communicate and address the issues with the government agencies".

Yuhua was carved out of Jurong GRC in the 2011 General Election. Ms Fu defeated the Singapore Democratic Party's (SDP's) Teo Soh Lung, a former political detainee, clinching 66.9 per cent of the vote.

This time, the SDP is fielding sales director Jaslyn Go, 43. She was on a walkabout in Yuhua yesterday morning, and ran into Ms Fu, who was greeting commuters at the Chinese Garden MRT station.

"We both wish each other all the best and I told her I'm looking forward to a gracious contest," said Ms Go, in a Facebook post.

"We should be focusing on issues and policies that benefit the constituents we will be representing, and may the best woman win."

She said the polls would be about what each party could offer to residents in Yuhua. "We believe in doing actual implementation work, supporting the residents - whether in hardware improvement, software programming or even just community building," she said of her team. "This is what we believe really matters to residents, and this is how we are campaigning now."

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A version of this article appeared in the print edition of The Straits Times on September 05, 2015, with the headline Grace Fu says PAP is better able to add value to projects. Subscribe