GE2025: PAP team in Jalan Besar taking nothing for granted, says Josephine Teo

SINGAPORE - The PAP team contesting Jalan Besar GRC might have won with about two-thirds of the vote in the past two general elections, but the current team is taking nothing for granted for the May 3 election.

“We take every GE on its own terms. The past record, I think, is only important in so far as what we have been able to do for our residents,” Minister for Digital Development and Information Josephine Teo said on April 20.

Mrs Teo, who is leading the PAP team in the group representation constituency again for this general election, added that voters there are entitled to assess the candidates on their merits, as well as their track record and plans for the area moving forward.

“We always take the past results as... history, and going forward, you don’t start off thinking that you have that already secured,” Mrs Teo, 56, said in an interview at Kolam Ayer Bridge, near Bendemeer Primary School.

“You always start from the basis that you fight for every vote from the first one. And so it starts from zero, and you build from there.”

The PAP slate, led by Mrs Teo, secured 65.37 per cent of the vote

against a team from the Peoples Voice (PV) in the 2020 election, while then Cabinet minister Yaacob Ibrahim’s team won 67.7 per cent of the vote against a Workers’ Party team in the 2015 edition.

Since the constituency’s formation in the 1980s, the PAP has mostly won it in general elections by at least 60 per cent of the vote. However, the vote share dropped to 58.56 per cent in the 2011 GE for the ruling party’s team in the

now-defunct Moulmein-Kallang GRC

, which took in parts of Jalan Besar GRC.

Other than Mrs Teo, incumbent Jalan Besar GRC MPs Denise Phua and Wan Rizal Wan Zakariah are part of the PAP’s team in this area for the May 3 election, along with new face Shawn Loh, who takes over from veteran Heng Chee How in the Whampoa ward.

The National Solidarity Party and the

People’s Alliance for Reform,

which includes PV, have so far indicated their interest in contesting the constituency, potentially setting up a three-cornered fight with the PAP.

When asked about the prospect of a multi-cornered contest in the constituency, Mrs Teo said voters “have always shown a very strong ability to look at candidates”.

She added that the voters would assess the manifestos of the candidates’ parties, the candidates’ track record in helping the residents in the area, and plans ahead, such as for estate improvement and social support schemes.

Speaking at the same event, Dr Wan Rizal – a first-term MP who entered Parliament at the height of Covid-19 – said that residents in the area wanted to get connected after the pandemic, as well as emphasise sustainability and mental health.

To those ends, the 46-year-old chairman of the Jalan Besar Town Council said that there have been improvements to the connectivity in the constituency in the past five years, such as the refurbished Kolam Ayer Bridge.

Over 60 solar panels have been installed on the blocks in the constituency, while more than 600 blocks there have been refurbished and repainted.

Referring to the PAP team’s masterplan for Jalan Besar, Dr Wan Rizal said residents there can look forward to upgrades such as the conversion of vacant spaces into green spaces for activities suitable for the young and old.

“Jalan Besar has lots of heritage, so our main idea moving forward is to blend heritage with sustainability, innovative ideas,” he said.