We met Education Minister Ong Ye Kung during the rare times in Singapore history when Parliament has been dissolved, the polls are ahead, and everything is just a little bit chaotic.

We go through this every five years or so, and while it's very likely that the People's Action Party (PAP) will be returned to power and form the next government, that tiny frisson of uncertainty in staid Singapore means protocol goes out the window.

Instead of a plush meeting room in a large office, we found ourselves in Canberra Park playground, in the far north.

A few kids played basketball off to one side, while a couple of joggers glanced curiously at our cameras and recording equipment.

After a short wait, Ong appeared, wearing a white polo tee and a black facemask. He was alone, without any minders or assistants. It was fascinating to meet a Cabinet Minister under such circumstances.

Then again, if there was one such member of that body you'd bet to do so, it would be Ong.

Whether his family ties (father was a former Barisan Sosialis MP), or his public fronting of "radical" policies like the phasing out of the streaming system (which he mentioned was a "tougher" and "much more significant" decision than his decisions during Covid-19), he's always had a slightly maverick air.

The new main man in Sembawang

A light drizzle began to fall and we decamped to a gazebo for shelter. But renewal, not the weather, is on Ong's mind.

Long-serving Transport Minister and Coordinating Minister for Infrastructure Khaw Boon Wan has retired and will not be standing in the upcoming general election.

Ong's touching tribute "Thank you Titan Minister" video to Khaw, whom Ong credited to changing his own civil service and political career, deeply touched Khaw.

In one of his last interviews as a transport minister, Khaw broke into tears when he recalled Ong's video, saying that "it've very kind of him (Ong) to acknowledge the small role I played in his career". Khaw added that this is the way one ought to behave as supervisors or bosses or managers.

So how will Ong lead his team as the new anchor minister of Sembawang GRC?

Ong said he leaves not just "big shoes to fill", but a legacy to continue. "So I think we must always look forward. But I don't think we can look forward without understanding how far we've come."

That was Khaw's advice to him, stemming from his own experience in taking over from Tony Tan, our former President and Deputy Prime Minister.

Ong shared that Tan was responsible for preserving much of the heritage in the area. The kampung mosque, the only one in Singapore. The unique hot springs. And he managed to do so even while bringing in new projects.

"So I think for me is to make sure we preserve the characteristic and then build on it," he said.

Sembawang's heritage

Sembawang's heritage was something Ong frequently mentioned while he spoke to us. Sure, new projects are arriving, which will surely be tempting to voters in the area, like the North-East Line that will allow Sembawang residents to connect to the rest of Singapore.

But Ong believes that Sembawang residents, some of whom have lived in the area since there were kampungs and plantations, want this to be a place where their children can grow up in more natural surroundings.

"I don't think they want this to be another town with a lot of concrete. I think their aspirations are a little bit different," he said.

He spoke of an "exciting development", Bukit Canberra.

It was a forested hill, with Admiralty House at the top, where the British admiral lived when Singapore was a colony. The plan is to build a community hub, but not to flatten the hill and cut down all the trees.

Instead, the new facilities will be inserted into the forest, like a hawker centre, a polyclinic and a swimming pool, with a forest trek for people to explore, while preserving three-quarters of the forest.

"To build, as I said, to build concrete is easy. How do you build upon the character? And as you build more facilities, how do you keep the character of the place, and that is when you need to really put in tender loving care. It's an heirloom, Sembawang feels like an heirloom that's been passed from generations of ministers, now it's in my hands. I'm going to treasure this heirloom, and beyond that, what do you do?"

"Everything we do, we reflect the fact that we understand the place and understand the people," he added.

One of the few PAP MPs who have suffered an electoral loss

Ong has also proven himself popular with the cadres that make up the PAP.

In 2017, he had to be co-opted into the party's central executive committee (CEC), and was given a role as Organising Secretary.

But in 2018, he was elected to the CEC on the first go, and given a new role as Assistant Treasurer.

This is despite the fact that he was not one of the first seven in the ballot paper that was nominated by the CEC.

However, Ong demurred when he asked him how he had gotten so popular so fast, instead speaking of the values of the PAP he identified with, like integrity and meritocracy.

Ong may be a rising star of the party, but his debut on the political stage couldn't have been rockier. He was part of the PAP team led by Foreign Minister George Yeo that was famously defeated in Aljunied in GE 2011, resulting in the first time ever that the PAP had lost an entire GRC to the opposition.

Ong's setback and comeback have been covered elsewhere, but we wanted to know whether that gruelling experience has imparted a unique experience that he could share with the rest of his Sembawang team during the campaigning, in contrast to the other PAP politicians who have never tasted defeat.

He pointed out that he's joined by Koh Poh Koon (Ang Mo Kio GRC MP and now Tampines GRC candidate who lost in Punggol East SMC by-election); Murali Pillai (Bukit Batok MP who lost in Aljunied GRC in 2015); and Sitoh Yih Pin (Potong Pasir MP who won and lost in the ward), but said it made him a "better person" to have encountered a career setback.

"You don't take anything for granted," he said. "Wherever you go, people tell you this one's a safe seat. You never believe. Once you lost once, you'll never believe. No such thing."

Ong did say that the defeat allowed him to go into the private sector, which was something he always wanted to do, in a door-closed-window-open scenario.

New Sembawang team, and the challenge ahead

The voters of Sembawang will get to see some female representation in the PAP team, with Changi Airport Group executive Poh Li San and Mariam Jaafar, Managing Director and Partner of Boston Consulting Group joining up.

In 2015, the Sembawang GRC team was an all-men's group.

Ong drew a comparison to ABBA, the Swedish pop group, with two women (Poh and Mariam), two men (Vikram Nair and Lim Wee Kiak), with himself as the "manager" of the band.

He spoke warmly about his new teammates, mentioning Poh being an advocate for women in the STEM fields, and that Mariam as a champion for social mobility.

But storm clouds loom ahead, if the team does manage to get elected to Parliament.

Covid-19 has changed things forever

It's tempting to dismiss the scale of the Covid-19 threat, but with other, bigger and more resourceful countries struggling to contain the virus, Singapore has to pull out all the stops.

The unprecedented four Budgets passed by Parliament committed the eye-watering sum of over S$90 billion just to help fight the virus and support the economy.

Ong himself believes that the impact of the virus may be larger than we think. He even likened it to the introduction of the car into daily life, with our entire lives reshaped by it.

"Socially, our behaviour and life will change, will have to change. And we all have to adjust to it. Some things, we just can't imagine we can continue doing because there may be super-spreader events, and we have to adjust to this way of life."

A whole system of checks, regulations and enforcement of self-adjustment, so that the damage and loss of life can be minimised.

"This is not a steady state. I hope we don't go backwards to a Circuit Breaker if we have outbreaks. I hope we can move forward," he said.

PAP has changed too

Given the monumental changes, we asked Ong what the PAP has done in the past that it will have to change moving forward, if everything else will change too.

He pointed out that one thing that has already changed was that the PAP government had given out cash grants, something they had "never done." But under the Self-Employed Person Income Relief Scheme, and the Covid-19 Support Grant, people were able to receive funds to help tide them through the unprecedented crisis.

After we finished, the drizzle finally stopped, and we were able to emerge from the shelter of the gazebo.

Ong left us as low-key as he arrived, walking off on his own, stopping to speak to a couple of residents, very much the picture of calm before the storm of the campaign.

Top image by Angela Lim.