Photos by Pandora Wong unless otherwise stated. Videos by Gerald Chan.

The People’s Action Party (PAP) unveiled its candidates for Tampines GRC on Saturday (August 22) at the void deck of Blk 842 Tampines Street 82.

Replacing the two retiring MPs Mah Bow Tan and Irene Ng, are two new candidates 39-year-old Cheng Li Hui and 37-year-old Desmond "Always Here for You" Choo.

The team is led by Education Minister Heng Swee Keat, with Minister in Prime Minister's Office Masagos Zulkifli and Baey Yam Keng making up the rest of the team.

Here are Mothership.sg's signature five observations.

1. Tampines GRC is a "young" team.

The PAP's leadership renewal policy will see two most experienced MPs of Tampines GRC– Mah Bow Tan and Irene Ng – retiring from politics. Mah has been a Tampines MP for some 27 years since entering politics in 1988 and Ng entered politics since 2001.

That's around 41 years of MP experience gone.

To put it in context, the next most experienced MPs are Minister in Prime Minister's Office Masagos Zulkifli and Baey Yam Keng (9 years). Education Minister Heng has four years of experience as an MP.

And together with two newbies, the combined total number of years of experience are just 22 years.

2. The two newcomers cover the opposite end of the age spectrum.

Desmond Choo, who is expecting his first child (a baby girl) in early October, touched on improving policies to help young families.

"As any young parents, we believe very much in shared parenting and we try to do as much as we can. I also started to understand a lot more about the issues that new families face. Young families certainly go through a lot of pressures in trying to raise a family, trying to balance career aspirations, work demands and family commitments.

[...]

" On the policy front, we must continue to look at how can we improve family care leave policies so that families and their extended families can all play a part in the raising of a child... We should also look at more pro family work places, especially greater adoption of flexible work arrangement."

The NTUC Director of Youth Development also spoke of empowering young Singaporeans to adopt causes such as helping the less privileged.

On the other hand, Deputy CEO of Hai Leck Holdings, an engineering company, Cheng Li Hui spoke of her experience interacting with the senior citizens in Tampines:

"When we are done with work lives in our 60s, we are likely to be looking at another 20 plus years in society. Through my interactions (with senior residents) I feel that our seniors would like to continue to be active participants in society and have much to contribute. If we can enable society to provide opportunities for our retirees, to contribute as they can, this will give them meaning and ultimately benefit everyone. This is something I hope to continue to promote and drive."

3. Desmond Choo answers the hard questions

Having spent three and a half years in Hougang, it was inevitable that Hougang-related hard questions were thrown at Choo.

Reporter A: "Some people have pointed out that in the by-election, your campaign slogan was "Always Here for You" in Hougang but you are here in Tampines. Would you like to respond to this?"

His response:

[video width="1280" height="720" mp4="https://cdn.mothership.sg/1/2015/08/desmond-choo-1.mp4"][/video]

Reporter B: "How would you respond to comments that this could be a safer route for you to enter politics?

His response:

[video width="1280" height="720" mp4="https://cdn.mothership.sg/1/2015/08/desmond-choo-2.mp4"][/video]

However, Choo certainly knows where the good food is in Tampines. He pointed out that Tampines Round Market "is the one place you have to go" and the Sarawak Kolo Mee stall is a standout despite the long queue.

4. Cheng Li Hui is a little nervous.

As this was her first time speaking to the media officially as a new candidate, Cheng had a few butterflies in her stomach.

Here's her answer to reporters when she didn't answer a Chinese news reporter question in Chinese during the press conference. She explained that she can speak Chinese and used English only because sometimes she's nervous and couldn't come up with the correct phrases.

[video width="640" height="368" mp4="https://cdn.mothership.sg/1/2015/08/cheng-li-hui-chinese.mp4"][/video]

She took time off the door stop interview and rehearsed with her minders before re-entering the scrum.

Choo, however, was much more experienced in facing the media scrum. After all, he contested and lost twice in Hougang SMC – first in 2011 to Workers' Party's Yaw Shin Leong and Png Eng Huat in the 2012 by-election.

5. Heng Swee Keat does a Superman

The press conference didn't start until 9.15am but Minister Heng was already mingling with residents of his Tampines Central ward an hour before.

When it was time for the press conference, Heng did a Superman as he changed from this:

To PAP white:

Mad skills right there.

Heng also spoke about the different infrastructural enhancements to Tampines.

"The starting point of all these infrastructure work is not to build hardware but to build a sense of home. The sense of this is my home,this my neighbourhood, these are my neighbours, these are my friends. I think by building this sense of togetherness, this sense of community, we contribute to greater cohesion in Singapore."

He added that the future developments and more information of the Tampines town hub will be unveiled on August 30.

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