Why would he want to come back to the Cabinet since obviously he is getting a much higher remuneration as the bank chairman! Is he clinging to power? Why would he be since he could have fought for the prime ministership during the early days. Or why would he turned his back on the government and returned to the private sector in 1991? Whatever the reason, it does not matter much to us, does it? :)
The topic today is the electoral division of Sembanwang GRC! Who are the elected PAP members? There are:
(1) A/P Chin Tet Yung < CV>
(2) Mr Hawazi Daipi (Senior Parliamentary Secretary) <CV>
(3) Dr Warren Lee <CV>
(4) Dr Mohamad Maliki Bin Osman (Parliament Secretary) <CV>
(5) Mr K Shanmugam <CV>
(6) Dr Tony Tan Keng Yam (Deputy Prime Minister) <CV>
Truthfully, which of the MPs listed in this GRC have you hear of in a more frequent term, other than Dr Tony Tan himself. Frankly speaking I only hear of some parts of speeches of A/P Chin. Who is Dr Mohamad? I have never heard of him anyway. The rest? I am as ignorant as you are! More importantly, there is no other full Minister or at least a Senior Minister-Of-State in this GRC.
Therefore, there is no anchor man after Dr Tony! Is it a problem? I guess not since the PAP government has 20 full Ministers and above including Dr Tony Tan. What do we have for GRC? Right now we have 14 GRC of various sizes (assuming of course the boundaries stay constant):
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The table simply shows that there are more Ministers (and above) than GRC. Hence, it would be logical to deem that the PAP will move one of their 'big gun' to the Sembawang GRC during the coming General Election due by Oct 2006. It is not important to us whether the exisitng MPs of this GRC will still be standing in the coming elections. Changes are, of course, expected in the MPs rank-and-file too! But to win the GRC, which has been uncontested consecutively for 3? 4? 5? elections already, you need an anchor. Moreover, with the stepping down of Dr Tony Tan, nobody actually knows the support guage of the PAP after so long! Irregardless of what the government can claim, the only evidence of a support base is winning the GRC in an election with contest!
I have to assume that the set of 20 full Ministers will not change, which is very likely, before the General Election. The rationale behind is that it's 'easier' to win a GRC with 'well-known' face (from the current set of Ministers) than to try to win another GRC with a newly-promoted Minister! Changes and renewal can come after the election. Where are the Ministers distributed currently? They are: <Link>
(1) Mr Lee Hsien Loong
- Prime Minister
- Minister for Finance
(2) Mr Goh Chok Tong
- Senior Minister, PM's Office
(3) Mr Lee Kuan Yew
- Minister Mentor, PM's Office
(4) Dr Tony Tan Keng Yan
- Deputy Prime Minister, PM's Office
- Co-ordinating Minister for Security and Defence
(5) Prof. S. Jayakumar
- Deputy Prime Minister, PM's Office
- Minister for Law
(6) Mr Wong Kang Seng
- Minister for Home Affairs
(7) Mr Yeo Cheow Tong
- Minister for Transport
(8) BG (NS) George Yeo Yong-Boon
- Minister for Foreign Affairs
(9) Dr Lee Boon Yang
- Minister for Information, Communications and the Arts
(10) Mr Mah Bow Tan
- Minister for National Development
(11) Mr Lim Boon Heng
- Minister, PM's Office
(12) Mr Lim Hng Kiang
- Minister for Trade and Industry
(13) RDM (NS) Teo Chee Hean
- Minister for Defence
(14) Mr Lim Swee Say
- Minister, PM's Office
- 2nd Minister for National Development
(15) Dr Yaacob Ibrahim
- Minister for Environment and Water Resources
- Minister-in-charge of Muslim Affairs
(16) Mr Khaw Boon Wan
- Minister for Health
(17) Mr Tharman Shanmugaratnam
- Minister for Education
(18) Dr Ng Eng Hen
- Minister for Manpower
- 2nd Minister for Defence
(19) Dr Vivian Balakrishnan
- Minister for Community Development, Youth and Sports
- 2nd Minister for Trade and Industry
(20) Mr Raymond Lim Siang Keat
- Minister, PM's Office
- 2nd Minister for Finance
- 2nd Minister for Foreign Affairs
The mix and match of the GRC to the Ministers are: <Link>
(a) Aljunied GRC
- BG (NS) George Yeo Yong-Boon
(b) Ang Mo Kio GRC
- Mr Lee Hsien Loong
(c) Bishan-Toa Payoh GRC
- Mr Wong Kang Seng
- Dr Ng Eng Hen (new Minister promoted after election)
(d) East Coast GRC
- Prof. S. Jayakumar
- Mr Raymond Lim Siang Keat (new Minister promoted after election)
(e) Holland-Bukit Panjang GRC
- Mr Lim Swee Say
- Dr Vivian Balakrishnan (new Minister promoted after election)
(f) Hong Kah GRC
- Mr Yeo Cheow Tong
(g) Jalan Besar GRC
- Dr Lee Boon Yang
- Dr Yaacob Ibrahim
(h) Jurong GRC
- Mr Lim Boon Heng
- Mr Tharman Shanmugaratnam (new Minister promoted after election)
(i) Marine Parade GRC
- Mr Goh Chok Tong
(j) Pasir Ris-Punggol GRC
- RDM (NS) Teo Chee Hean
(k) Sembawang GRC
- Dr Tony Tan Keng Yam (to relinguish position)
(l) Tampines GRC
- Mr Mah Bow Tan
(m) Tanjong Pagar GRC
- Mr Lee Kuan Yew
- Mr Khaw Boon Wan (new Minister promoted after election)
(n) West Coast GRC
- Mr Lim Hng Kiang
The Sembawang GRC (183,883 registered electoral voters as compared to 166,137 in 2001, 6-man GRC) has 3 neighbouring GRC are AMK GRC (180,715m 166,644 in 2001, 6-man GRC), Hong Kah GRC (139,443, 129,073 in 2001, 5-man GRC
With the imminent departure of Dr Tony Tan, what do you think of the possibility of Sembawang GRC having 6-man team again? I bet the answer you are going to have is about the Sembawang GRC has outgrown its size (183k is too large?) and therefore some part of its GRC (a ward) will be cut off and give to - who? My bet in this case will be Holland-Bukit Panjang GRC. Why? There are 2 Ministers there and of course Mr Lim is the incoming Secretary-General of NTUC soon - perceived to have the support of the unions etc.
In that case, Sembawang GRC having 'out-grown' from its size will be reduced to a 5-man GRC. In simple terms, if they are going to lose the ward, lose less! But who will anchor the GRC?
Mr Raymond Lim is pretty low-profile as compared to the new Ministers. Therefore, I bet is on Mr Khaw Boon Wan, who has showed us his astute and firm stand during the SARS 2003 period, will anchor the new reduced Sembanwang GRC team! This is of my opinion!
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