GE2025: Edwin Tong says East Coast GRC fight will be his toughest
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Culture, Community and Youth Minister Edwin Tong (third from left) with his team for East Coast GRC (from left) Ms Hazlina Abdul Halim, Senior Minister of State for National Development Tan Kiat How, Ms Jessica Tan and Mr Dinesh Vasu Dash during a press conference on April 23.
ST PHOTO: KEVIN LIM
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SINGAPORE – The PAP’s battle with WP for East Coast GRC will be Culture, Community and Youth Minister Edwin Tong’s toughest general election to date, he said on April 23.
At a press conference where he formally introduced PAP’s East Coast team, which he is leading, Mr Tong said that East Coast has always been a tough constituency to win.
Earlier in the day, it was confirmed that the PAP team contesting the constituency’s five seats comprises Mr Tong, 55; two East Coast incumbent MPs, Senior Minister of State for National Development Tan Kiat How, 47, and four-term MP Jessica Tan, 58; and new faces Hazlina Abdul Halim, 40, and Dinesh Vasu Dash, 50.
They are up against a team from the WP helmed by former Non-Constituency MP Yee Jenn Jong
Deputy Prime Minister Heng Swee Keat, 64 – who led the PAP team for the constituency in the last election after being moved there in a Nomination Day surprise – is not on the slate.
At the 2020 General Election, the five-member East Coast GRC saw the second-closest winning margin for the PAP.
It won with 53.39 per cent of the vote against the WP, which received 46.61 per cent.
Mr Tong said: “I think opposition presence has become a permanent feature of Singapore’s political landscape – more contestation, more diversity of representation, more voices – and I think this is here to stay.
“In particular, East Coast has always been a tough (constituency) for the PAP over the many decades of GEs that we have seen.”
Mr Tong entered politics in 2011 as an MP for Moulmein-Kallang GRC, and then served two terms in Marine Parade GRC – both times beating WP teams that Mr Yee was a part of.
He said the WP “is a good party” that has “a credible team”.
“I believe they will put up a good fight, and it’s something that we have to take very seriously, and that’s why I regard this as possibly my toughest GE amongst the four,” Mr Tong said.
He described Mr Yee as “a very seasoned operator”, noting that the entrepreneur has been part of the WP for many years and ran several elections – both in GRCs and single-seat constituencies.
“So he’s a very good operator, and I think he’s also very seasoned and experienced,” said Mr Tong.
“So that means that he’s someone who understands how elections work. He understands how to campaign, and I believe that he will make a good job of leading his team.”
Mr Tong is leading the PAP team in East Coast GRC, after the Joo Chiat ward that he had overseen since 2015 was absorbed into East Coast
As for the PAP’s East Coast slate, Mr Tong said it comprises “a diversity of different experiences” that bring together “different voices and different lived experiences”.
Mr Dinesh replaces DPM Heng in PAP’s East Coast line-up
Both DPM Heng and Dr Maliki have announced their retirement from politics.
“DPM’s retirement, no doubt, has left big shoes to fill, but I think amongst us – the diversity of this team – we do have some big feet, thankfully,” said Mr Tong, adding that the “freshness” and experience of his team put them in good stead to serve East Coast residents.
He pointed out that when fresh PAP candidates are fielded, they “don’t take over from ground zero”.
Mr Tong said that new candidates “build on and work off the work that has been done in preceding terms, by preceding teams”, and emphasised the “sheer continuity” of the work done by PAP East Coast teams that have “successively and successfully” contested the constituency.
“We want to assure our residents that despite the retirement of DPM, we will continue with work that he has started, and we will build on it, add to it, and make it even brighter for our residents at East Coast,” he said.
Mr Dinesh said that if elected, he will focus his efforts on supporting seniors and caregivers, helping young families, and uplifting minority communities and the vulnerable.
He said he takes inspiration from his parents-in-law, who had to take care of his wife’s grandmother for almost four decades because she had a mental illness and was confined to her home.
Madam Hazlina, a former journalist, said that she has the ability to “go deeper and peel the layers of the onion” when interacting with residents, which will help her to connect with and better understand them.
Addressing a question on whether Mr Dinesh and Madam Hazlina could potentially take up political office, Mr Tong said the PAP looks at the “fundamental quality of a new candidate, and in many ways, we expect – in some form or other – for the new candidate to rise up above and to do more than just be a backbencher”.
Noting that some political office holders such as himself and National Development Minister Desmond Lee did not take up such roles immediately upon being elected, Mr Tong said that “everyone has the potential to do so, and it really depends on when that can happen and what needs we might have in political office-holder spaces”.
Should his team win the trust and votes of the electorate, said Mr Tong, Mr Dinesh and Madam Hazlina “can go far”.
“They are good people, very well grounded, very much an expert in the areas that they look after. And more importantly, I think they have a strong heart for the people,” he said.
