Prime Minister (PM) Lawrence Wong attended the Tampines Learning Festival 2024 at Tampines East Community Center on Jun. 15, marking the first of many "listening visits" he will be making to spend time on the ground and connect with Singaporeans.

PM Wong assumed his new office on May 15.

He walked around various booths set up by agencies such as the Singapore Police Force, Traffic Police and Sparkletots, and also interacted with and took photos with the various attendees.

PM Wong then spoke with reporters after the event about how he plans on making more such visits around the country to engage directly with Singaporeans.

"Today’s visit to Tampines is really the start of constituency visits which I will be making over the coming months," he said.

Engaging and listening to Singaporeans

PM Wong explained that the purpose of the "listening visits" was to gather feedback and listen to Singaporeans.

He expressed:

"[If] you have feedback on policies and ideas on making your neighbourhood better I would like to hear these ideas from you and listen to you directly.

If you have ground up initiatives and projects to advance, I too would like to hear from you and we want to support you, cooperate, collaborate, and work together."

PM Wong also explained that the government has been regularly making ministerial and PM visits to constituencies in the past and throughout the year and that the visits are "not tied to a political calendar".

The only difference, he clarified, was that as a new PM, he felt he needed to "make the extra effort to spend more time on the ground".

"I will try to cover as many [constituencies] as I can, and as I said, I think it is important for me to do so to be able to engage and interact with Singaporeans directly, and also for Singaporeans to get a better sense of who I am as their new prime minister, and that is what I hope to achieve in the coming months," he elaborated.

Organic community interactions

PM Wong also shared that he is participating in a dialogue session with grassroots leaders, community volunteers and various organisations after the event.

The session would touch on a "whole range of issues" concerning "families, parents and children", but also "green issues", PM Wong said.

PM Wong said that he hopes to have similar engagements at future visits across the different constituencies as well.

At the same time, PM Wong explained that he would try to keep the engagements "organic" and spontaneous.

"I may visit a market, I may visit a hawker centre, I may engage different groups, I may make use of existing events that are already being organised in the constituency, like this Learning Festival here in Tampines. But we will also try to engage and curate dialogue sessions with different stakeholders so that we can have deeper conversations with one another," he enthused.

Life as a new PM

PM Wong also shared briefly about how his life has changed since becoming PM.

PM Wong explained that since becoming PM, he has had "more work, more stress, and less privacy," but added that he "will do [his] best to adapt and adjust to these new realities."

"Now, somehow, even when I put on a cap and even with a mask, people can recognise me and there are security everywhere, so I suppose they know that someone is around so that makes a difference."

Top photo by Zaki Azmi