The People’s Action Party
(PAP) second assistant secretary-general Teo Chee Hean says its
election line-up will include about 25 new faces.
These new candidates will come from a range of occupations, some
with grassroots experience and some from the public and private
sector.
Mr Teo said in an interview with the Straits Times
(ST), “For every election we bring in about 25 new candidates.
I think you can see from our record from the last few elections
that we’ve always put an emphasis on making sure we get good people
in, renew (the ranks of) MPs and leadership. That’s important for
us.”
“You can expect the same sort of proportions in the coming
elections,” he added.
The PAP typically replaces up to a third of its MPs for the
elections. The party replaced 24 in 2006, 23 in 2001 and 18 in
1997.
When asked if the party is finalising its line-up of candidates,
he said, “You can assume that’s so.”
Mr Teo also gave an idea of when the next General Elections, due
by February 2012, will be.
He told ST, the Electoral Boundaries
Review Committee was only convened last Saturday, when
Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong made the announcement.
The committees take at least two months to map changes, and
polling day comes after some 17 days to six months from the release
of the committee reports.
When it is time to contest, Mr Teo said, the PAP will do so on
the basis of having people and programmes to “take Singapore well
into the future – 10 to 20 years ahead”.
Adding his thoughts on Senior Minster Goh Chok Tong’s comment
last week, that the next elections would be a watershed, he said,
“We need to start bringing in new people who will be ready to take
over in the future. They will do so with the others we’ve brought
in at previous elections. We do need to focus on them too.”
Mr Teo said the party would have to continue bringing in people
from the post-65 generation to have “a good solid group of
people”.
What about the larger role the new media is expected to play in
this elections?
Said Mr Teo: “The more noise you make on the Internet doesn’t
mean that you have better programmes or better solution. Focus on
the substance of what you can actually do for people. Sincerity,
honesty, what you can actually do for people.”
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i'm guessing 2 from the public
sector, current asst sec-gen of NTUC, ong ye kung, and LG desmond
kuek, former CDF and current perm sec for MEWR.
