GE2025: PAP new face Hamid Razak wants to do more for families on the margins in Jurong

SINGAPORE – After nearly two years leading PAP efforts on the ground in Jurong Spring, new face Hamid Razak wants to do more for those on the margins of society – particularly those in what he calls “no-buffer households”.

The orthopaedic surgeon – who was on April 15 revealed to be part of the PAP’s slate for West Coast-Jurong West GRC – said these are residents who are not technically low-income, but can easily be thrown off course by single catastrophic events. 

“If the sole breadwinner of the household gets a medical complication or health issue, they lose the income,” he said in a media interview at the party’s branch in West Coast on April 14.

“That might take them over and affect the whole family, including the children, the students, or even the elderly who may be staying there.”

Dr Hamid, 39, said that if elected, he wants to push for more attention to such families.

He added: “We want to be able to uplift them so that they have some buffer for them to be able to withstand some of these events.”

Dr Hamid, who is married with three children, said he also wants to champion programmes for seniors. 

“Many (Jurong) residents are seniors, and we are very aware that some of them will be living alone, and therefore we want to ensure that we have many touch points in the community so that we know how they’re doing consistently,” he said. 

Migrant worker healthcare issues are also of interest to him, said Dr Hamid, who had volunteered at low-cost clinics and worked on migrant worker health, particularly during the Covid-19 pandemic. 

“Post-Covid-19, I realised that the health advocacy for migrant brothers needs to continue, and I do visit some of the dormitories on a monthly basis with some friends to be able to do health advocacy, linguistic-based support for some of our migrant brothers,” said Dr Hamid. He is an Indian Muslim who speaks all of Singapore’s official languages – Tamil, Malay, Mandarin and English. 

Dr Hamid will be part of the PAP’s slate for West Coast-Jurong West GRC, which will be anchored by Minister for National Development Desmond Lee. 

Rounding up the five-member team are lawyer Cassandra Lee, a political newcomer, Senior Parliamentary Secretary for Finance and Education Shawn Huang, and three-term MP Ang Wei Neng.

It is the first time Dr Hamid will stand as a candidate for the party, after becoming a member in 2017. He did not disclose when he was asked to stand, but was designated as second grassroots adviser in Jurong Spring in August 2023 – a position that has been occupied by the PAP’s prospective candidates, like Chua Chu Kang GRC candidate Choo Pei Ling.

Dr Hamid, who is also an adjunct associate professor at Duke-NUS Medical School, has been volunteering for 17 years, starting as a student living in Taman Jurong with his parents. 

It began when his then MP – now President – Tharman Shanmugaratnam came to visit. 

He said: “They found out I was a medical student, and said, ‘We have many seniors living here who could do with your expertise.’”

The volunteers called him a few weeks later, and he started going to Meet-the-People Sessions and helping out with case work.

On the value of community work, Dr Hamid gave an example of a case he worked on while volunteering in Taman Jurong. 

A woman had come to the community centre seeking financial assistance several times, and turned up at Meet-the-People Sessions almost weekly to ask for vouchers and support. 

One day, Dr Hamid decided to visit her in her home to try and understand her struggles better.

“I found out that she had almost very little understanding of what her health conditions were and how she could seek help, she thought that there was nothing that she could do,” he said. “And then I realised all she had was chronic back pain from really poor posture, and that she didn’t seek the necessary medical help. She thought that no one would help her.”

He went on to write a letter for her and got a volunteer to accompany her to a polyclinic, and finally she got to a specialist who treated her.

Dr Hamid said: “That really cemented to me that it just takes a little effort to do the simple things, but these simple things can have a profound effect on someone’s life.”

When asked why he wants to join politics instead of continuing to volunteer in the community, Dr Hamid said politics is “a very powerful vehicle” that could allow him to represent the voices of his constituents in Parliament, if he is elected.

It could also help him bring about meaningful change in policies that affects not just the individual, but also large groups of people, he added. 

On making the decision to stand, Dr Hamid said: “It took years of reflecting upon the work that I’ve done and to be able to appreciate that this platform is something that is very profound and comes with a very deep responsibility, and one that, given the mandate, I will be happy to take on.”