Singapore — Workers’ Party (WP) politician Nicole Seah took to Facebook on Sunday (Nov 8) to provide an update of the party’s on-ground activities in East Coast GRC.
She said the party’s privately-funded food distribution exercise had been expanded to 90 households and that the party had also extended legal assistance in one case.
In October, when the WP team in the GRC began the initiative, it started with 40 households.
Ms Seah called the expansion “not a small feat”, given the “extensive logistic coordination and backend operations involved in delivering all of these items door to door with personalisation of some items, and ensuring the socially distanced safety of our volunteers”.
However, she expressed the hope that the team would revert to having the beneficiaries collect the donations in person after restrictions imposed due to the Covid-19 pandemic are lifted, as this would enable the team to reach more residents.
Ms Seah added that the WP team in the GRC has been able to identify some concerns that some residents have, including “appeal letters which were returned with bureaucratic template responses to some of the residents affected”.
She said: “The red tape can sometimes be incredibly frustrating for one who isn’t familiar with the right avenues to pursue in order to receive help.”
One such case needed legal help and this was provided pro bono by WP MP Muhamad Faisal Abdul Manap (Aljunied GRC).
Ms Seah noted that she had been “really glad to walk alongside” Mr Kenneth Foo and Mr Terence Tan on Saturday afternoon (Nov 7). The two men were part of the WP team in the GRC in the General Election this year.
“Here’s to more opportunities!,” wrote Ms Seah, who has been active on the ground at East Coast, along with other WP politicians and volunteers.
She recently suffered from a sprained back and an injury to her achilles tendon but, after a short rest, went right back to assisting residents, including providing advice concerning government agencies and offices where people may go for help, as well as distributing food and houseplants.
In a Sept 20 Facebook post, she had said: “While we might not be able to provide the full spectrum of assistance in terms of meeting medical needs, or the full scale of monetary assistance, where the WP East Coast team will and continue to help is to provide the heartware. The gotong royong spirit, stopping to take a breather to listen and empathise, and take the time to fully understand residents will help in ensuring that we get to the root of chronic or deep seated issues.”
Ms Seah, Mr Foo, Mr Tan, together with Mr Abdul Shariff Aboo Kassim and Mr Dylan Ng, gave the ruling People’s Action Party (PAP) team a serious run for their money in the elections.
The PAP team, anchored by Deputy Prime Minister Heng Swee Keat, together with incumbents Dr Maliki Osman and Ms Jessica Tan, plus Ms Cheryl Chan and Mr Tan Kiat How, won the GRC with 53.39 per cent of the vote. /TISG
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