GE2025: WP Tampines team says it has experience handling residents’ needs, town council if elected

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SINGAPORE – The opposition WP team in Tampines will work to ensure that ongoing projects in the town will carry on should it be voted into Parliament, the party’s vice-chairman Faisal Manap said on April 30.

The party’s Tampines candidates also sought to assure voters on the penultimate day of the election campaign that they would draw on their experiences to take care of residents’ needs and town council matters.

Mr Faisal, who

moved out of Aljunied GRC to lead WP’s Tampines GRC team

, said he will draw on his 14 years of experience as an MP, and his team will work hard with government agencies to ensure that ongoing projects will continue.

He was speaking to the media outside the Tampines 1 shopping centre in Tampines Central, flanked by the party’s candidates contesting Tampines GRC and Tampines Changkat SMC.

Community activities will also remain, said Mr Faisal, who oversaw the Kaki Bukit ward of Aljunied GRC, and he hopes to take a more communal approach to planning them.

“We will continue any projects in the town that are already under way, and we’ll work hard alongside government agencies to ensure they are completed,” Mr Faisal told reporters in Malay.

Mr Kenneth Foo, WP’s candidate in Tampines Changkat, said the team will also consider the progress of the town’s projects, and if some are falling behind, it will work to resolve the problems that arise.

“We will also continue talking to residents, and understand their situation and wishes, and see which areas we can continue to advance,” he added in Mandarin.

Mr Faisal said each of his team members has unique strengths.

For example, Tampines GRC candidate and technology start-up co-founder Michael Thng was a former consultant at Boston Consulting Group, is a seasoned negotiator, and can use his skills to ensure that residents in Tampines are well taken care of, said Mr Faisal.

Fellow candidate Jimmy Tan also has a wealth of knowledge that he can tap as the co-founder of industrial equipment supply firm Immanuel Engineering, a small and medium-sized enterprise, he said.

On Mr Foo, Mr Faisal said the Tampines Changkat candidate has experience with municipal issues, having been involved in town council work in Aljunied and Hougang.

At the interview on April 30, Mr Faisal was also asked for his thoughts on Senior Minister Lee Hsien Loong’s walkabout in Tampines with the PAP team on April 29, as well as Prime Minister Lawrence Wong’s visit to the town on April 30.

Mr Faisal said the team was “humbled” by their presence.

“It shows that our presence does bring some form of competition. That is what we want,” he said.

Mr Faisal borrowed an analogy from former WP chief Low Thia Khiang. In 2011, Mr Low said WP’s role in Parliament was akin to being the co-driver of a bus driven by the ruling PAP and slapping the driver if he goes off course, falls asleep or drives dangerously.

Mr Faisal said that was the purpose for which WP was contesting in Tampines.

“We want to give competition to the incumbents so that they will do better and perform better.”

WP Tampines GRC candidate and former diplomat Eileen Chong added that the team believes competition will bring improvements.

“We welcome Senior Minister Lee and Prime Minister Wong coming to Tampines (to support their party’s candidates). We also had our secretary-general Pritam Singh and former secretary-general Low Thia Khiang come to show us support,” she said in Mandarin.

With the campaign entering its last stretch, Dr Ong Lue Ping, a Tampines GRC candidate for WP, said that although the team was tired, it felt very encouraged by Tampines residents.

The senior principal clinical psychologist at the Institute of Mental Health added: “Because of their warmth and their enthusiasm for us, I think that gives us additional energy, and we really look forward to serving them if we do have the opportunity.”

Mr Faisal was later asked to respond to comments

made the day before by Social and Family Development Minister Masagos Zulkifli

, who leads PAP’s Tampines GRC team.

Mr Masagos, who is also the Minister-in-charge of Muslim Affairs, had said several residents whom he met during house visits were worried about the mixing of race and religion with politics.

In response, Mr Faisal said he had pledged in front of attendees at WP’s rally on April 26 that he would serve everyone “fairly and equally, regardless of race, language and religion”.

His comments came after the authorities directed social media giant Meta to

block access to posts by foreigners

attempting to interfere in the May 3 General Election.

Government leaders have denounced the posts, which called on voters to select candidates along racial and religious lines.

Mr Faisal was also asked about the four-cornered contest in Tampines GRC. Apart from WP and PAP, the National Solidarity Party and People’s Power Party are also gunning for the constituency.

He said WP’s focus is on what it can do for Tampines.

“Every party has the right to come in and contest... The focus right now is on what we can do for the community and for the voters.”