GE2025: ‘We hear you, I hear you’: PM Wong’s message to young S’poreans, first-time voters
[SINGAPORE] You have high standards for how life should be, you are not distracted or overly sensitive. You are paying attention.
That is what Prime Minister Lawrence Wong said to young Singaporeans and first-time voters, in a two-minute social media post released on Sunday (Apr 13).
Rebutting online remarks featured in the video that Gen Zs are “soft” and “full of themselves”, and that they “lack resilience”, PM Wong said such comments miss the full picture and fail to see something crucial about the generation.
“Your generation embodies a new desire to not settle for the status quo and with the way the world is moving. We hear you. I hear you,” PM Wong said.
“For many of you, this will be your first time voting, and it will be my first time standing for election for a chance to lead our nation.
“I take my role seriously. I want to be able to lead our country well.”
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PM Wong added that he wants to work with young people to take on challenges to come, and he sees many things that should be improved.
“I want to make life in Singapore one where everyone can be their best selves, where life can be rich with meaningful experiences and learning,” he said.
“Singapore should be a place where our dreams can be worked on, a place where we can find belonging, even though the world is starting to look uncertain.”
Nine PAP candidates set to contest the opposition-held constituencies of Aljunied, Hougang and Sengkang are featured in the video.
They come from different backgrounds and include working mothers, those from the private sector and those who had to overcome the odds while growing up.
At a separate event on Apr 13, PM Wong touched on diversity and minority representation.
Speaking at an evening dialogue with Indian youth that was organised by Tamil Murasu at Huone Singapore, he acknowledged the community’s outsized contributions to Singapore in areas from business to government, and promised that new PAP candidates in the upcoming general election will include those from the Indian community.
He also called on the community to continue building a distinctive Singaporean Indian identity.
“You can be proud of your ethnic roots and at the same time proud to be a Singaporean, that is what we mean by being Singaporean,” said PM Wong.
The call to come together as “one Singapore” and protect the nation’s multiracial and diverse society amid global troubles was also made at a Hari Raya celebration held in Bukit Panjang earlier in the day.
“We know that we are living in very difficult times globally. The recent developments have made for a very uncertain outlook in the world,” said PM Wong.
“But we will do everything we can to make sure, despite the turbulence, despite the uncertainties, that Singapore will always remain a beacon of stability and harmony.”
On Apr 12, PM Wong had said the PAP would field its largest number of new candidates in recent history – more than 30 faces – in its 2025 slate.
Introductions of the PAP slates for opposition-held areas were carried out on Apr 13. The candidates, who are mostly political newcomers, were unveiled at separate press conferences held in their respective constituencies.
They are criminal lawyer Marshall Lim, who will contest Hougang SMC; and marketing director Chan Hui Yuh, dentist Faisal Abdul Aziz, managing director Daniel Liu, business director Adrian Ang and trade unionist Jagathishwaran Rajo, who will contest Aljunied GRC.
The PAP team standing in Sengkang GRC comprises former senior minister of state Lam Pin Min, principal at a private equity firm Theodora Lai, communications and new media professor Elmie Nekmat and food and beverage director Bernadette Giam.
Hougang SMC is the constituency held longest by the opposition in Singapore’s electoral history, and has been in the hands of WP since former party chief Low Thia Khiang won it in 1991.
In 2011, Aljunied GRC was the first group representation constituency to be won by an opposition party since the GRC system was introduced.
A WP team then led by Low secured 54.72 per cent of the vote. After their vote share dropped to 50.96 per cent in 2015, WP managed a near 10-point swing in the polls during the Covid-19 pandemic in 2020 to win with 59.95 per cent.
Sengkang GRC was the latest GRC to fall to WP, with 52.13 per cent of the vote in 2020. THE STRAITS TIMES
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