Singapore GE2025: Banners, banter and ballots – a tale of four constituencies

The Star

30-04-2025

SINGAPORE: The people of East Coast GRC are used to choice.
Daily, they have their pick of the 'big three' hawker centres in Bedok – at blocks 16, 58 and 216 – and soignee Joo Chiat cafes, newly drawn into the GRC. Nightly, cocktails at modish bar Santai or supper in the noirish light of Simpang Bedok.
So, too, politically. Since 2006, the eastern idyll has flirted with the opposition in a near quarter-century game of 'will they, won't they' – always returning a credible result, but no prize, for the WP.
Leaning against a BMW coupe in Siglap, a resident considers his options: White or blue, 'it's a win-win for us'.
The project manager in his 40s, who gives his name as Lim, is undecided on his vote. His dilemma is personal.
A Joo Chiat resident, he is part of the 40,675 electors hived off from the old Marine Parade GRC, familiar with the rival leaders of the PAP and WP teams.
'For Edwin Tong, he's done a lot. The cleanliness of the roads, the infrastructure, the new Siglap Community Club,' says Lim. 'But I also like Yee Jenn Jong. He's humble, present. I always see him.'
Culture, Community and Youth Minister Edwin Tong (second from right) with (from left) PAP's East Coast GRC candidate Hazlina Abdul Halim and retired PAP MP Cheryl Chan greeting residents during a walkabout at 85 Fengshan Centre on April 25. - ST
The Culture, Community and Youth Minister, Tong, has for a decade been the MP for the comfortable suburb, while the WP man has run in Joo Chiat since 2011. Yee lost by a hair of 388 votes that year, when it was a single seat.
And he 'never left' the turf, says Lim.
It is ground the two brand name parties seem to think sweet.
The WP withdrew from the recast Marine Parade GRC once the ward was split from it. The PAP is likely hoping it will tip East Coast a touch whiter after its bruising narrow win in 2020.
The tree-lined streets of Telok Kurau give little away.
Here on a Saturday in mid-April, pampered pooches – some in strollers – have compelled their owners into a community pet walk.
The 'guest of honour' is Tong, whom a spiffy-looking resident calls 'Edwin' as he goes in for a handshake. The minister is in jeans and breezy short sleeves, relaxed attire that puts him right at home with his friendly constituents.
Then, four attendees interviewed confess indecision.
Voters in the silk-stockinged enclave say Yee, who came out of retirement to run, is a strong contender, but lifelong Simei resident Sea, 27, says WP has fielded its second string.
Go farther east, it seems, and the talk gets louder, positions firmer.
At the smoking corner of a Bedok coffee shop, two men, both around 60, have flipped their colours. One, a retired sales and marketing man, will vote PAP, sensing a drift into two-party politics.
'I have never voted for them, but I'm very worried they will lose the two-thirds,' he says, referring to the parliamentary supermajority that gives a ruling government the ability to amend the Constitution.
'The world is in a very challenging time and I realised the opposition is being very populist.' Besides, he says, Tong brought in Coldplay.
The other, forced into entrepreneurship after losing his job, will go blue for the first time. 'When Lee Kuan Yew was in power, I would vote PAP any time,' he says.
In usually mealy-mouthed Singapore, East Coast residents seem to need no prodding to talk politics.
At a pub in Simpang Bedok – where the waitress still calls you 'sayang' – an 80-year-old retired businessman lets forth in Hokkien on the ills of the group representation constituency system.
One week from Polling Day, at the Block 58 marketplace, the WP team is on an early morning walkabout. In under five minutes, four people approach Mr Yee to pump his hand and wish him luck. He dips his head to listen to them, revealing a sparse combover.
His younger associate, Jasper Kuan, talks policy with two attentive middle-aged women. They bow and thank each other after – 'for listening', 'for trying'.
Still, there are quieter declarations. At the wet market, a cosmetics store displays a small PAP flag.
End to end, the temperament of each neighbourhood differs, first subtly, then starkly. In Simei, residents keep to themselves and the coffee shops have no need for banners, ubiquitous in Bedok, exhorting diners to keep it down.
But as any 'Eastie' worth his salt, like Simei native and musician Lim, will tell you: 'I'm a bit irritated that it's the PAP slogan, but east side really best side.'
While East Coast voters thrive on the thrill of contest and the luxury of political choice, just a short distance away in Marine Parade, the mood could not be more different.
On a Saturday morning in the middle of April, residents file into Marine Terrace Market, trailed by the brassy chords of a busker's harmonica. Above the ambient chatter, hawkers dish out bowls of lontong and plates of chee cheong fun.
The morning's tranquillity is punctuated by the giddy roar of the nearby town carnival. Manpower Minister Tan See Leng, who many assumed before Nomination Day would lead the Marine Parade-Braddell Heights GRC team at the 2025 polls, ascends the stage to launch a new five-year masterplan for the town.
Dr Tan is no stranger here. In recent weeks, he seems to have redoubled efforts in the neighbourhood, going door to door to meet constituents every other day.
The message is clear: He is gearing up for a showdown. For weeks now, there have been signs.
Hawkers in Marine Terrace report an uptick in politician sightings. In MacPherson, the WP's new face, Harpreet Singh, was spotted walking the ground in March.
The sleepy district has stood staunchly behind the PAP's Tin Pei Ling since 2015, with 71.74 per cent of voters casting their ballots for her in the 2020 General Election. Still, a sense of restlessness hums in the air. In an ageing estate buffeted by rising prices, residents are hungry for change.
Down south, resident Christopher Lim, 34, is looking forward to a fight.
'Of course, as voters, we love a little bit of excitement, especially if it's in our backyard,' he says.
Then April 23 arrives. The PAP team turns up at the nomination centre at Kong Hwa School, but Dr Tan is missing from their ranks. And the WP is a no-show.
Retired freelance consultant Jane Goh, 63, is on a ferry back from Batam when she hears about the walkover. To her, it feels like a slap. 'It's the last-minute nature of the switch that shocks us.'
Lim feels Dr Tan should have stuck around longer to build a stronger rapport with residents.
'I think it's important to understand that our trust in the PAP MPs is derived from a longstanding political legacy that is rooted in consistent performance,' he says.
Some residents confront the WP's East Coast team during their walkabouts in the neighbouring ward. Others vent their frustrations online, with one comment reading: 'Don't nd to bother come back here. I will not vote for u (sic).'
'It's no good,' mutters 70-year-old retiree Ray Chang, shaking his head. 'No contest is like eating rice without fish.'
Food delivery man Noor Hidayat, 49, says he will be spending the weekend of May 3 in Kuala Lumpur and Melaka. 'Don't need to vote, that means can go on holiday already lah!'
By the end of Nomination Day, the rest of Singapore is draped in the relevant paraphernalia. In Still Road, a banner of the WP's East Coast GRC team has unfurled.
But on the other side of the border, the lamp posts remain bare.
As Marine Parade's political drama fades into anti-climax, the pulse of the election beats on in the heartland of the west.
Just before 8am on a Saturday morning, a small crowd is gathered at Teban Gardens Food Centre, waiting to celebrate the birthday of an 85-year-old man.
Sandwiched between Pandan Reservoir and the Ayer Rajah Expressway in Singapore's west coast, the estate feels a little off the beaten track – the nearest MRT station is a good 20-minute bus ride away in Jurong East.
Over at AJ Cooked Food Stall in the food centre, Choa Sian Choon, 58, watches the morning's unusual bustle with quiet curiosity.
'I've been working here six months, but I've never seen them before,' says the cook, nodding at the group of about 20 people clad in bright red PSP polo shirts.
'The other ones, I see them around once a week. They're familiar faces,' he says, referring to the PAP volunteers who make regular rounds.
When the stall's owner mentions that a birthday celebration is about to kick off, Choa perks up.
Teban Gardens is in the heart of Ayer Rajah, a constituency that Dr Tan Cheng Bock, now celebrating his 85th birthday, represented in Parliament for 26 years until 2006, when it was absorbed into West Coast GRC.
During the last general election, he led a team which contested West Coast and lost narrowly to the incumbent PAP team in the election's tightest race.
Five years later, he is back. But with constituency lines redrawn to rope in Jurong Spring and Taman Jurong, a new question hangs in the air: Will the 158,836 voters of the new West Coast-Jurong West GRC still remember the good doctor?
This Saturday morning, some clearly do.
One resident, Alfred Hong, has brought two pictures from the previous campaign for Dr Tan to sign. The 59-year-old has been living in the area for over two decades, and loves how quiet Teban Gardens is.
But what some call serenity, others see as isolation.
For a 46-year-old administrative assistant who prefers to be known only as Siti, construction works and a lack of easy access have made daily life harder, especially when taking her wheelchair-bound mother out. Getting to shopping malls in Clementi or Jurong can be inconvenient without a car, she says.
'Maybe it'll be better when the Jurong Region Line opens, but that's so long away.'
She remembers Dr Tan as her MP when she was growing up.
'It's nice that he's coming back here again after losing, unlike some others who keep jumping around. But I worry for him because he's already so old,' she says.
Just a 15-minute drive from Teban Gardens is Boon Lay Place Market, home to the legendary Boon Lay Power Nasi Lemak, where snaking queues of hungry students and blue-collar workers line up daily for their spicy fix.
Nestled near the bustling Jurong industrial estate, Boon Lay is a blend of old and new – ageing HDB blocks sitting comfortably alongside newer housing projects that have sprung up in recent years.
Long-time residents remember when the older three-room flats got a major spruce-up nearly two decades ago, with utility rooms added to the back of their kitchens, giving these homes a second lease of life.
For people like 68-year-old homemaker Sally Ng, Boon Lay has everything she needs right at her doorstep.
'Just downstairs, I have a wet market, a supermarket for everything I need,' she says in Mandarin.
'If I want to meet my friends, the residents' network is just below. Everyone knows everyone here.'
She is confident that her incumbent MP, who leads the PAP team in West Coast GRC – National Development Minister Desmond Lee – will cruise to victory on Polling Day.
To her, the sheer turnout at every Meet-the-People Session says it all – residents trust him to get things done.
'The PAP takes such good care of us here, we're very content,' she says matter-of-factly. 'What has the other side offered, really – other than a lot of talk?'
But while Ng takes comfort in the familiar rhythms of the neighbourhood and the steady hand of her incumbent MP, a very different political energy is gathering momentum across the island in Punggol.
Ask around, and you will find more voters swaying than casuarina trees in a monsoon storm in this GRC. Just a week ago, the air here was subdued, with both the PAP and WP keeping their strategies close to their chest.
But on April 26, as a sweltering Saturday morning gives way to a sudden downpour, the mood shifts dramatically. The surprise entry of Deputy Prime Minister Gan Kim Yong and the WP's Harpreet Singh are the talk of the town, sparking animated conversations in markets and coffee shops.
For one educator who declined to give her name, the decision at the ballot is anything but straightforward. Having moved from Choa Chu Kang – where DPM Gan was once her MP – to Punggol four years ago, the 32-year-old now finds herself torn between 'a party with a proven track record and a party that offers hope'.
'I'm a Star Wars fan, so I always feel like you need hope to keep you going,' she says.
Polling Day may be around the corner but the mother of two – grimacing as she draws her children closer – admits her vote is 'still up in the air'.
Later, on their way to the library, her five-year-old daughter spots the WP's Alia Mattar at One Punggol Hawker Centre, recognising her from the banners in the neighbourhood. She tells her mother she wants a photo with Alia.
For Punggol voter Jeffrey Tan, 71, the sudden entry of DPM Gan in the race feels like deja vu. The part-time business consultant had spent 25 years in Aljunied GRC and still remembers the emotional roller coaster of 2011, when the Workers' Party clinched victory and Foreign Minister George Yeo lost his seat.
'When George Yeo lost, I cried. It was a waste because he's a fantastic guy. This could be a repeated tragedy,' he says.
But don't mistake his sentimentality for certainty. The surprise entries of senior counsel Harpreet Singh and DPM Gan have left him weighing his options anew.
With a wry grin, Tan sums up the mood of many in Punggol: 'You give the voters a headache, you know?'
This morning, he spends a long time chatting with Harpreet and fellow WP candidate Jackson Au, praising the WP for doing a 'good job with recruitment'.
Yet he also acknowledges that incumbent PAP MP Sun Xueling remains popular, and newcomer Yeo Wan Ling, despite being a first-term MP, has left an impression with her 'bubbly' energy.
Tan predicts a razor-thin race in Punggol GRC, with a recount dragging past midnight, possibly making it the last result to be called.
When asked about the odds, a 32-year-old media professional – who declined to give his name – shrugs and says: 'Flip a coin.'
Another unspoken question lingers: Could there be a spillover effect from the WP's surprise victory in Sengkang in 2020?
In fact, several young residents from the adjacent Sengkang GRC have come to the One Punggol community hub, eager for a personal moment with the WP team on a walkabout.
Among them is a 24-year-old first-time voter queueing for a bowl of the famous Botak Cantonese Porridge while clutching a copy of Journey In Blue (2020) by the WP's East Coast GRC candidate Yee Jenn Jong which he hopes to get signed.
Will the WP's 'eastern strategy' push its momentum all the way up to the north-eastern tip, reaching even Coney Island? Or will the PAP's campaign in Punggol get a decisive lift from DPM Gan, Singapore's 'Task Force Man', at a time of growing global tariff wars?
On the ground, residents say the same thing again and again: Municipal issues matter, but so do national ones.
Thrust into one of the fiercest political spotlights of this election, they are only too aware of the weight their decision carries. More than ever, their vote feels sacred. And they are taking it seriously. - The Straits Times/ANN