GE2025: PSP’s Leong Mun Wai says MPs are not estate managers interested only in local policies
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PSP chief Leong Mun Wai (centre) passing out PSP leaflets during a walkabout with Sani Ismail (far left) at Lakeside MRT on April 25.
ST PHOTO: KELVIN CHNG
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SINGAPORE – The main role of an MP is to debate national policies, and not be estate managers who are interested only in local issues, PSP chief Leong Mun Wai said on April 25.
He was responding to a comment by National Development Minister and incumbent West Coast GRC MP Desmond Lee that residents should ask contesting parties about their plans for the constituency.
The PAP team, led by Mr Lee, had earlier unveiled its plans for the newly minted West Coast-Jurong West GRC ahead of Polling Day on May 3.
The plans include helping households cope with the cost of living by supplementing national programmes with local support schemes, and ensuring good jobs for job seekers by organising more career and skills fairs in the community.
Mr Leong, who is one of five PSP candidates contesting the constituency, said: “Of course, we have to understand the needs of the residents, in terms of how that will translate into policies that we will debate at the national level.
“We have walked the ground in West Coast for the past few years... We have raised some of those problems in Parliament already, and will continue to do so if we are in Parliament the next round.”
PSP members Leong Mun Wai (centre) and Sani Ismail (left) interacting with a passerby near Lakeside MRT on April 25.
ST PHOTO: KELVIN CHNG
He added that many of the policies put up by the PAP team are “part and parcel of the job of the Government”.
He added: “Since we are not the government, we will not be able to put up a comprehensive plan like what the PAP team has put up.”
Mr Leong also said the biggest challenge for the opposition party is to engage residents from the Taman Jurong ward within the constituency.
Taman Jurong was one of the areas drawn into the new West Coast-Jurong West GRC
Mr Leong said the party has only been engaging residents there since the new boundaries were announced, unlike in other wards in the constituency where the party has been on the ground over the past few years.
He said: “We hope the residents of Taman Jurong have confidence in us that we can actually deliver what we promise.”
The constituency, under its old boundaries, saw the closest contest at the last election, with the PAP winning with 51.68 per cent of the vote against the PSP.
This result sent Mr Leong and Ms Hazel Poa into Parliament as NCMPs.
Both teams have returned with renewed slates, setting up a rematch.
Mr Leong, along with party chairman Tan Cheng Bock and Ms Poa, is contesting alongside new faces Sani Ismail and Sumarleki Amjah.
The PAP team is anchored by Mr Lee. Mr Ang Wei Neng returns, and the pair is joined by Senior Parliamentary Secretary for Finance and Education Shawn Huang, and new faces Hamid Razak and Cassandra Lee.
