'The PAP seems to have run out of ideas': Paul Tambyah at SDP event in Sembawang GRC

During their Apr. 6, 2025 event at Admiralty, SDP chairman Paul Tambyah spoke about the party's policy priorities and what the SDP team would be able to do for residents.

Tambyah emphasised that the team had been walking the ground in Sembawang and the neighbouring Marsling-Yew Tee GRC and Sembawang West GRC.

SDP Secretary-General Chee Soon Juan had announced that he would contest the Sembawang West SMC.

Tambyah said the SDP had declared their intention to contest in Sembawang GRC in 2022, as part of the party's "Northern strategy".

Main thrust: cost of living

The "main thrust" of the SDP's message was that Singaporeans, whether in Sembawang or elsewhere, face similar challenges such as the relentlessly-rising cost of living.

Tambyah said that the governing People Action's Party has seemingly "run out of ideas", and that "all they can do is give vouchers and rebates without addressing the structural issues".

He reiterated the SDP's opposition to the two per cent increase in GST over 2023 and 2024, saying it was "the last thing you really want to do" while there's global inflation.

He also claimed vendors saw the GST rise as a "license" to raise prices by more than the two per cent GST rate, taking advantage of the moment to hike prices higher.

He also said that the SDP would raise housing issues, saying that while housing prices are a global problem, it was "particularly exacerbated in Singapore" as the government was in control of the price of public housing, which most people lived in.

He said high housing prices had "significant downstream effects" as Singaporeans delay marriage or parenthood, lowering the nation's total fertility rate.

He noted HDB's complaint that it was losing money due to land sales, to which Tambyah said, "My statement is, why don't you go and bargain with the person who is charging you much for land sales and ask this person to give you a discount?"

The North... remembers?

Tambyah also discussed the SDP's "Northern strategy", where the party had been active in the Sembawang and Marsiling-Yew Tee areas since 2022, taking part in numerous walkabouts, even bumping into PAP MPs Mariam Jaffar and Ong Ye Kung.

Tambyah said that the party had requested a venue for a town hall, a type of debate format, where the SDP and possibly the incumbent PAP could discuss issues pertinent to residents.

He also spoke about the dual layers of responsibility for MPs at a national and local level; Singaporean MPs are unique in that they also run the town councils.

Tambyah addressed recently-announced upgrading plans, such as five-year plans for Chua Chu Kang and Marsiling-Yew Tee, saying that the plans were made by HDB and URA, not the PAP, and the SDP was happy to support those plans.

"We will help the URA to make these plans become a reality, and we will let the residents interact with the relevant government agencies, which are all non-partisan."

Tambyah noted the professionalism of Singapore's civil servants, the "vast majority" of which were non-partisan, barring "a handful who are aspiring PAP MPs".

The SDP would be different from the government by implementing such plans in a ground-up way rather than the "top-down" way the PAP handled it.

Poly crisis

The slate of SDP MPs contesting the GRC included political scientist and political veteran James Gomez and new face Surayah Akbar.

Gomez commented during the door stop that Singapore did not face a singular tariff crisis, referencing recent news about United States tariffs, but a "poly crisis" also involving global conflict, climate change, and tech disruption.

The impact of the crisis would affect Singapore PMETs and young people, and that was why Singapore needed a "multiparty parliament".

"Fearmongering to give them a blank check will not work," Gomez said.

There are currently three different parties in Parliament: the PAP, the Workers' Party, and the Progress Singapore Party which has Non-Constituency MPs.

Speaking up for Singaporeans

Speaking to Mothership after the walkabout, Gomez said that he was contesting in Sembawang at the party's request, adding that he was "grateful for the party's nomination".

He said he felt it an "opportunity" for him to return as the only SDP candidate from the SDP team that contested in Sembawang in 2011 to return.

He spoke about the people he had encountered during the walkabout, remarking that the concerns they raised with him were universal across Singapore, such as serious concerns about the cost of living.

He raised a few examples of more senior residents taking care of both elderly parents and young children, as well as an ill resident who felt unable to undergo the diagnostic tests recommended to determine her illness.

This commonality of concerns was also expressed by SDP's new face in the area, Surayah Akbar.

Akbar is the owner of a music publishing business, as well as a mother of three.

Speaking to Mothership after the walkabout, she said that she had been walking the ground in Marsiling-Yew Tee for the past five years and in Sembawang GRC for the past three, where she and the party had built a good rapport and relationship with residents,

She felt that it was "essential for me to speak up for Singaporeans" as a mother herself.

Top image via Mothership

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