What do Koh Poh Koon and Ong Ye Kung have in common?

One: both lost during the elections.

Two: both are trying to mount a comeback by rolling up their sleeves and getting themselves dirty.

In what was the latest trend, last week "Son of Punggol" Koh -in his Guards T-shirt and all - spent his day clearing a hoarder's flat, which was "stuffed to the brim". The colorectal surgeon, posted this update on Facebook:

And the mainstream media went to town with it.

One of the Chinese evening papers

The New Paper

Funny how a simple act of kindness can turn into a media circus.

Nevertheless, judging from the coverage he scored, Koh, who lost the Punggol East by-election to Worker's Party Lee Li Lian, is starting to stake his claim in the Punggol East Single Member Constituency (SMC).

The other PAP candidate who lost, Ong Ye Kung, has also started to make his move.

The 44-year-old was part of the PAP team that lost the Aljunied Group Representation Constituency (GRC) to the Workers' Party in the last election. Aljunied GRC became the first GRC to be won by the opposition - in this case, the Workers' Party team of Low Thia Khiang, Sylvia Lim, Muhd Faisal Abdul Manap, Chen Show Mao, and Pritam Singh - since the inception of GRC in 1988.

The Straits Times today reported that Ong cleaned and painted some rental flats in Marsiling Drive yesterday.

He was accompanied by other potential PAP candidates such as Amrin Amin, 35, and Cheng Li Hui,38.

His latest community work in Marsiling, coupled with him making his rounds at Sembawang GRC, reaffirm that the path to 2016 has already begun for him.

That said, does this mean that Desmond Choo, who lost the fight for Hougang SMC twice (first to Yaw Shin Leong in the 2011 GE and Png Eng Huat in the by-election in 2012), has to roll up his sleeves and start painting or clearing rubbish twice as hard as Koh and Ong?

The residents from his new Tampines East ward await his arrival from Spain.

Related articles:

This campaign video might be proof Koh Poh Koon doesn’t want to run for office again

Ex-Aljunied GRC PAP candidate Ong Ye Kung explains why he is making the rounds in Sembawang

PAP candidate Ong Ye Kung is not letting his funny name, stern face stop him

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