GE2025: PAP new faces Jeffrey Siow, Choo Pei Ling in Chua Chu Kang team; Amy Khor to step down
DPM Gan Kim Yong will continue to lead the four-member GRC at the coming election
[SINGAPORE] Two new faces – former senior civil servant Jeffrey Siow and neuroscientist Dr Choo Pei Ling – will be part of the People’s Action Party (PAP) team for Chua Chu Kang group representation constituency (GRC) in the upcoming election.
The four-member team will continue to be anchored by Deputy Prime Minister Gan Kim Yong, with incumbent Member of Parliament Zhulkarnain Abdul Rahim rounding off the slate.
Siow has played an important role in supporting small and medium enterprises, and will bring a “wealth of experience” to the team, DPM Gan told reporters at the PAP’s Chua Chu Kang branch on Monday (Apr 14).
Siow was most recently the second permanent secretary at the Ministry of Manpower and the Ministry of Trade and Industry, before resigning on Apr 2.
He was principal private secretary to then-prime minister Lee Hsien Loong from 2017 to 2021, and was previously managing director of Enterprise Singapore.
Siow and Dr Choo replace current MPs Don Wee, who will not run in the upcoming election, and Senior Minister of State for Trade and Industry Low Yen Ling.
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Low will instead represent PAP in the newly formed Bukit Gombak single-member constituency (SMC). She currently serves the Bukit Gombak ward in Chua Chu Kang GRC, which has been carved out under the new electoral boundaries.
Separately, when asked about Hong Kah North SMC MP Amy Khor, DPM Gan said “she has decided to step down for personal reasons” and thanked her for her years of service.
Dr Khor is currently senior minister of state for transport and sustainability and the environment. She has been an MP since 2001, when she was elected as part of PAP’s team for then-Hong Kah GRC.
The PAP team for newly formed Jurong East-Bukit Batok GRC – into which Hong Kah North SMC was absorbed – was unveiled earlier on Monday, with Dr Khor not part of the team. Hong Kah North SMC was absorbed into that GRC in the latest electoral boundaries.
Dr Khor told The Business Times: “I am happy to make way for party renewal and hence will not be standing for this coming elections.”
Giving back, finding meaning
At Monday’s press conference, Siow said that receiving a government scholarship for university allowed him to “transcend circumstances”. His father worked in a coffeeshop and his mother was a part-time bank teller.
Public service is his way of giving back, he said. “I’m not sharing my life story to ask for sympathy… It is truly who I am and explains why I spent my career in the public service.”
DPM Gan said that Dr Choo, an assistant professor in the Singapore Institute of Technology’s health and social sciences cluster, “has a heart for helping people” and can reach out to vulnerable groups in the community.
Dr Choo said that she found meaning in helping people, such as those with loved ones suffering from dementia. She hopes to be a “community builder” in Chua Chu Kang.
Both Siow and Dr Choo were spotted with DPM Gan on Apr 5 at the launch of Chua Chu Kang Town Council’s five-year plan.
The PAP won Chua Chu Kang GRC in 2020 with 58.64 per cent of valid votes against the Progress Singapore Party (PSP).
The PSP plans to contest Chua Chu Kang GRC again. On Mar 30, several party members went on door-to-door visits in Keat Hong, including businessman Phang Yew Huat, stockbroker S Nallakaruppan and intellectual property lawyer Wendy Low.
For this year’s election, the GRC’s boundaries have been redrawn to absorb the Tengah estates, while Bukit Gombak and Hillview estates were carved out to form Bukit Gombak SMC.
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