GE2025: PSP team in West Coast-Jurong West GRC challenges PAP team led by Desmond Lee to debate (2025)

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SINGAPORE – The opposition PSP team contesting West Coast-Jurong West GRC on April 23 challenged the incumbent PAP team led by Minister for National Development Desmond Lee to a debate on national policies.

This invitation to a debate was extended in speeches delivered by three PSP members – its chief Leong Mun Wai, first vice-chair Hazel Poa and Mr Sumarleki Amjah – at the Nan Hua High School nomination centre, after the party’s candidacy in the GRC was confirmed.

“We would like to invite minister Desmond Lee and his team to debate on policies. Let the voters decide who has better ideas,” said Mr Leong in his address to the crowd.

Later, at a separate media interview held at the Block 505 Jurong West Market & Food Centre, Mr Leong elaborated on why the party had issued this challenge.

“For a healthy election, we must debate policies, we don’t (just) criticise one another. There must be good policies, and we think that we have put up a very strong manifesto,” he said.

Mr Leong added that he and Ms Poa, who are both Non-Constituency MPs, have over the past five years suggested alternative policies in Parliament to improve the lives and livelihoods of Singaporeans.

“So we really wish that our opponent, minister Desmond Lee and his team, could actually debate us on the policies and then let the voters decide who has better ideas,” Mr Leong said. “So that’s the reason why we have put forward that invitation to them.”

He added that the party is willing to accept the debate in any form and on any topic.

In response to PSP’s invitation, Mr Lee said there are platforms during the election for political parties to debate policies.

He added that parties publish their policy ideas in their manifestos, and voters can scrutinise these plans during the election.

“Political parties who say they have walked the ground should also be able to put out detailed proposals and local plans to benefit residents. We have done so. We ask PSP to publish these local plans for residentstostudy,” said Mr Lee.

The PAP team had detailed its plans for the constituency in a press conference held after the Nomination Day proceedings.

On Nomination Day on April 23, the PSP’s A-team, which includes its top three leaders – Dr Tan Cheng Bock, 84, Mr Leong, 65, and Ms Poa, 54 – was confirmed to be contesting West Coast-Jurong West GRC.The other two PSP candidates are first-timers – Mr Sumarleki, 53, head of packaged food and business development at a food and beverage firm, and in-house legal counsel Sani Ismail, 49.

The PSP team is up against a PAP team that includes Mr Lee, 48, who is the anchor minister for the GRC, Senior Parliamentary Secretary for Finance and Education Shawn Huang, 42, and three-term MP Ang Wei Neng, 58. Rounding out the PAP’s slate are two first-time candidates – orthopaedic surgeon Hamid Razak, 39, and lawyer Cassandra Lee, 33.

In the 2020 General Election, PAP won the constituency in its previous form – West Coast GRC – with 51.68 per cent of the vote against a PSP team led by Dr Tan. It was the narrowest win for the ruling party in that election.

Ms Poa said that the role of an MP is primarily to debate policies in the Parliament.

“That should be the primary consideration for voters on who they think will better represent them,” she said.

She added that the concerns residents have raised include the rising cost of living and rising housing prices.

When asked what he thinks of his opponents, Dr Tan said they are “quite young”. He added: “I’m not too sure whether they are as knowledgeable about the constituency as us because we (have been) there for a pretty long time.”

Dr Tan had been a PAP MP for 26 years for the Ayer Rajah ward that is now part of West Coast-Jurong West GRC.

Asked if PSP is expecting to perform better this time around compared with the last election, Mr Leong said: “Yes, we are looking forward to better support from the residents, and we will strive to make a breakthrough this election.”

“We have to appeal to the residents and the voters, and the best way to do it is through policy recommendations,” he said.

On how the upcoming polls could be his last general election, Dr Tan said a key priority for him was to convince more young people to participate in politics.

“It is wrong of me (not to do so). If I know that something must be corrected, or if there are some improvements to be done, and I leave it to the generation, that will seem like I’m absconding (from) my job,” he said.

Commenting on how the battle was shaping up in other areas of Singapore, Mr Leong said the party found it “slightly disappointing” that there was a walkover in a group representation constituency.

In an unexpected turn of events, the PAP won its first constituency at the 2025 General Election when it stood uncontested for the five-member Marine Parade-Braddell Heights GRC on April 23.

The PAP team was expected to be challenged by a team from the WP, which had contested Marine Parade GRC in 2020 and garnered 42.26 per cent of the vote, losing to the PAP’s 57.74 per cent.

“PSP believes that we should give Singaporeans a chance to experience the democratic process, we should not have (a) walkover, so that is a bit disappointing, but I suppose there are valid reasons why that happened,” he said.

Other than West Coast-Jurong West GRC, the PSP is also contesting Chua Chu Kang GRC and four single seats – Marymount, Kebun Baru, Bukit Gombak and Pioneer.

Asked about his view on the PAP’s move to send Manpower Minister Tan See Leng to Chua Chu Kang GRC, replacing Deputy Prime Minister Gan Kim Yong who was deployed to Punggol GRC, Mr Leong said: “We don’t want to read too much into that. They are all worthy opponents, and we will do our best to appeal to the residents.

In the last general election, the PAP secured Chua Chu Kang GRC with 58.64 per cent of the vote against the PSP.

• Additional reporting by Zachary Lim

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