NSP unveils Tampines, Whampoa and Pioneer GE teams
-
NSP unveils Tampines, Whampoa and Pioneer GE teams
By Faris Mokhtar | SingaporeScene – Thu, Apr 14, 2011 4:22 PM SGT
NSP unveils seven new candidates, with two of them contesting in the single seats of Whampoa and Pioneer (Yahoo! …
The National Solidarity Party (NSP) on Thursday unveiled seven new candidates who will be contesting in the Tampines group representation constituency (GRC) and the single member constituencies (SMCs) of Whampoa and Pioneer for the upcoming general election.
The new candidates were introduced at a press conference held at the party's headquarters in Jalan Besar.
Five of those candidates will be contesting in Tampines GRC with the party's secretary-general Goh Meng Seng leading the charge.
The other four members are company director and NSP's assistant secretary-general Fong Chin Leong, 42; regional project manager Syafarin Sarif, 35; career counsellor Gilbert Goh, 49; and the party's youngest candidate and former Young PAP member Raymond Lim Peng Ann, 27.
Apart from Goh Meng Seng and Fong Chin Leong, the other three candidates will be contesting in their first election.
On the other hand, Ken Sun, 64 - one of the party's founders - will contest in the single-seat ward of Whampoa.
Mr Sun has contested in the area back in 1988 when it was an SMC. After the 1988 polls, the area was merged to form part of the Jalan Besar GRC but has now reverted back to a single-seat ward for the upcoming election.
Meanwhile, party treasurer Steve Chia, 40, will stand in Pioneer SMC. The former Non-Constituency Member of Parliament (NCMP) has been contesting in every election since 1997.
The area could potentially see a three-corner fight as Reform Party's (RP) chief Kenneth Jeyaretnam had also expressed his intention to contest there. The third candidate will be from the People's Action Party (PAP).
Commenting on the party’s slate of candidates, Mr Goh said, “All these people have been activists in one aspect or another. We do not have generals, we do not have high-level civil servants. But I believe we have the passion in all different aspect.”
For the party’s youngest candidate Raymond Lim, age is just a number and said that one needs to also have the “political acumen” and “look at the needs of the residents”. This is despite the fact that he could also be seen as politically immature or inexperienced.
This comes after PAP candidate, Tin Pei Ling also 27-years-old was heavily scrutinized by the public for what was seen as a candidate who is inexperienced to serve the needs of the residents due to her young age.
Apart from the “conflict in ideology” as the main reason for his departure from the Young PAP where he was a member for seven years, Lim said that it was “tougher” to create a change from within the party which prompted to him to switch alliance to NSP.
At the press conference, the candidates’ also highlighted some issues that will be addressed in its yet-to-be-released manifesto which include immigration policy, housing prices, rising cost of living and underemployment among younger and educated workforce.
While the party is not against foreign workers, Mr Goh said that “there must be a certain control of how foreign talents have been introduced into the system”. He added that the foreign worker levy does not act as a control mechanism but rather a revenue mechanism.
“If you are talking about control mechanism, the country in perspective must prove that it has tried its best to employ the local (workers) before it is allowed to employ foreigners,” said Mr Goh.
This introduction brings the party's candidates to eighteen in the upcoming general election. It has introduced candidates who will be standing in the single-seats of Radin Mas and Mountbatten as well as Moulmein-Kallang and Jurong GRCs.
While NSP has previously said that it would field at least 20 candidates for the next polls, it looks likely to exceed that number.
The party has been eyeing two more constituencies, Chua Chu Kang and Marine Parade GRCs. Just last Sunday, NSP members were seen doing a walkabout at a food market in Marine Parade.
When asked to confirm whether it will be fielding candidates to stand in the five-member Marine Parade GRC, Goh Meng Seng refused to reveal the party's intentions but said that it is "seriously looking into it".
However, he declined that the party will be sending a "suicide squad" to test the ground which is helmed by Senior Minister Goh Chok Tong.
More on the first-time candidates:
Syafarin Sarif, 35
Qualifications: BA (Merit) in Political Science and Malay Studies, NUS
Profession: Regional Project Manager (Asia Pacific)
Marital Status: Single
Languages Spoken: Malay, English, Conversational Mandarin, Elementary Tamil
Political Experience: NSP central executive council member, NSP malay bureau secretary, election agent for the Singapore Democratic Alliance in Jalan Besar GRC (GE 2006)
Raymond Lim, 27
Qualification: Master of Commerce (Applied Finance)
Profession: Management Consultant
Marital Status: Single
Language Spoken: English, Mandarin and Hokkien
Political Experience: NSP central executive council member
Gilbert Goh, 49
Qualification: Graduate Diploma in Counselling
Profession: President, Transitioning.org (support site for the unemployed)
Marital Status: Married with one daughter
Languages Spoken: English, Mandarin and Cantonese
Source:
http://sg.news.yahoo.com/blogs/singaporescene/nsp-unveils-tampines-whampoa-pioneer-teams-20110414-012254-181.html -
Existing thread found... Moderators, pls help lock or delete this thread. Thank you!
Existing thread...
http://www.sgforums.com/forums/3518/topics/427814 -
nsp are not suitable for my needs.
-
NSP now confirmed it's gonna stand in CCK GRC. They backed out of Moulmein-Kallang after WP announced its intention to move in.
-
go fot it !!!!
-
Originally posted by iveco:
NSP now confirmed it's gonna stand in CCK GRC. They backed out of Moulmein-Kallang after WP announced its intention to move in.
Nope. Both WP and NSP have initially decided to contest there and there was a possibility of a three way fight earlier on.
But then again, I think NSP's move to CCK GRC is a good move, especially if the 2 scholars are going for CCK GRC. CCK GRC has a young population and the 2 scholars would definitely be attractive to the younger voters. =) -
Originally posted by iveco:
NSP now confirmed it's gonna stand in CCK GRC. They backed out of Moulmein-Kallang after WP announced its intention to move in.
Good move by NSP to back out of Moulmein-Kallang. Let the stronger WP field their "A team" there to fight the "I don't know what to do when flood comes" minister. -
Originally posted by Junyang700:
Nope. Both WP and NSP have initially decided to contest there and there was a possibility of a three way fight earlier on.
But then again, I think NSP's move to CCK GRC is a good move, especially if the 2 scholars are going for CCK GRC. CCK GRC has a young population and the 2 scholars would definitely be attractive to the younger voters. =)
Now possibly becomes 3 cornered fights in CCK, as RP has not pull out of CCK. -
i'm concerned about joo chiat. There's andrew kuan contesting as an independent. He's going to dilute the votes.
-
This must be the election with the highest % seats being contested by the opposition.
They are almost everythwere.
-
They are everywhere. I reckon it is indeed a good thing, giving more singaporeans the opportunity to vote, in their lifetime.
-
Originally posted by ditzy:
They are everywhere. I reckon it is indeed a good thing, giving more singaporeans the opportunity to vote, in their lifetime.
Voting is one thing but not too sure whether the opposition % of votes will increase.
They increased quite a fair bit of new citizens over the last few years.
-
Think they can get around 40% of the votes.
-
Originally posted by charlize:
Voting is one thing but not too sure whether the opposition % of votes will increase.
They increased quite a fair bit of new citizens over the last few years.
I honestly don't care how much mandate the incumbent party obtains but hopefully it would still stay above 55%.
I would just like to remind everybody this is the last year you all will see potong pasir standing as an SMC.