GE2025: Academic Charlene Chen, former army chief David Neo join PAP Tampines GRC team
Incumbent Desmond Choo may face WP in newly carved-out Tampines Changkat SMC
[SINGAPORE] Academic Charlene Chen is joining the People’s Action Party (PAP) slate for Tampines Group Representation Constituency (GRC), alongside former chief of army David Neo, whose addition was announced on Saturday (Apr 12).
The five-member team was introduced on Wednesday morning. Minister for Social and Family Development Masagos Zulkifli remains as anchor minister, alongside two incumbents: Senior Minister of State for Manpower Koh Poh Koon and Senior Parliamentary Secretary for Transport Baey Yam Keng.
With Tampines Changkat ward carved out of the GRC, the ward’s incumbent Member of Parliament Desmond Choo will contest that newly formed Single-Member Constituency (SMC).
Asked how confident he would be against a Workers’ Party (WP) candidate, Choo – who lost to the WP in Hougang SMC in 2011 and a 2012 by-election – replied: “There were setbacks in the earlier years when I did not win in Hougang. But that has been a source of motivation.”
“I brought these lessons learnt, these experiences, to serving my residents,” he said, expressing hope that he has earned their trust. He has been in Tampines Changkat since the 2015 General Election, where he was part of the winning PAP team for Tampines GRC.
Both Choo and Masagos said that even as Tampines Changkat becomes an SMC, its collaboration with Tampines GRC will remain.
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Sustainable living will be a focus for the PAP team, said Masagos. “The foundation of Tampines as an eco-town will continue.”
The last member of the original Tampines GRC team, Cheng Li Hui, resigned in July 2023 over an extramarital affair with former Speaker of Parliament Tan Chuan-Jin.
Asked what impact Cheng’s departure might have on residents’ perceptions, Masagos said it was not the first time that the team lost a member during an electoral term, citing Deputy Prime Minister Heng Swee Keat’s absence in 2016 after suffering a stroke.
Even before Dr Chen joined, the Tampines team “doubled up” on its work and was present for residents, he added. “Fortunately, with Charlene coming on board, she could spend more time with residents building rapport.”
She is now “steering Tampines East on her own” and has rolled out initiatives such as a child-minding pilot programme and a new senior care centre in “the short span of one year”, he added.
New faces
Dr Chen, an assistant professor of marketing at Nanyang Technological University, was introduced to Tampines East residents in June 2024.
She was then named as second adviser to grassroots organisations in Tampines GRC, and has helmed meet-the-people sessions in Tampines East since late 2024.
Dr Chen, 43, acknowledged that her “classic baby face” has prompted some residents to ask how this “little girl” will understand their financial pressures or fix lift breakdowns.
“That baby face, turns out it’s a bit of a superpower,” she said, explaining that it makes it easier to connect with young people on issues such as mental health.
Neo, 47, stepped down as army chief in March, after three years in the role. He was also previously programme director of the Pioneer Generation Office and founding group chief of the Silver Generation Office, under the Agency for Integrated Care.
While in the latter, he had a policy of visiting elderly citizens on Wednesdays to “better understand their problems and advocate for tweaks to government policies to serve them”.
Four-way fight?
In the 2020 General Election, the PAP won Tampines GRC with 66.41 per cent of the vote, against the National Solidarity Party (NSP).
Under the latest electoral boundaries, parts of WP stronghold Aljunied GRC have been absorbed into Tampines GRC. There is speculation of a four-way fight brewing, with the PAP potentially facing the WP, the NSP and the People’s Power Party (PPP).
On Apr 13, the PPP introduced two new faces at a Tampines walkabout: Martinn Ho and Peter Soh.
Potential NSP candidates were spotted walking the ground in March, including Reno Fong and Mohd Ridzwan Mohammad, who both contested there in 2020.
Asked if the PAP team is preparing for a multi-cornered fight, Masagos said the election was “always going to be a hotly contested one”, adding that the team has been prepared since five years ago.
Tampines GRC was formed in 1988 when the GRC system began. It has the largest Malay population among the GRCs, at 23.6 per cent, and an expanding population thanks to new housing projects.
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