SINGAPORE: Residents of Bangkit brought up a number of issues during the house visits held by Singapore Democratic Party chairman Dr Paul Tambayah earlier this week.
In a Wednesday (Mar 29) Facebook post, Dr Tambyah wrote that during the “good round of house visits” carried out the day before, he and the SDP team listened to “many municipal issues including LRT train capacity during rush hour and fire safety concerns,” adding that they “also heard about issues facing all Singaporeans including timely access to healthcare.”
Dr Tambyah, who is the President of the Asia Pacific Society of Clinical Microbiology and Infection, also invited others to join SDP’s outreach efforts “to help build a democratic Singapore based on justice and equality for all.”
Those who wish to do so may sign up here.
Aside from being a doctor, the SDP chair is also a professor of infectious disease. He became the assistant Dean of Yong Loo Lin School of Medicine at the National University of Singapore in 2015, and in 2020, became president of the International Society for Infectious Diseases, the first Singaporean to hold this position.
In October 2021, Dr Tambyah received the Distinguished Senior Clinician Award conferred by the Ministry of Health, one of the four eminent senior clinicians to be given this honour.
His involvement in the SDP started in 2010, and in the following year, he started speaking at the party’s rallies during GE2011. By 2013, he became a member of SDP’s Healthcare Advisory Panel.
Dr Tambyah first contested in GE2015 at Holland–Bukit Timah GRC, where he joined the slate comprised of SDP secretary-general Chee Soon Juan, Sidek Mallek, and Chong Wai Fung against the People Action Party’s (PAP) Vivian Balakrishnan, Sim Ann, Liang Eng Hwa, and Christopher de Souza, which won with 66.6 per cent of the vote.
In 2017, he was elected SDP chairman.
During GE 2020, he contested for the Bukit Panjang SMC, losing to PAP’s Liang Eng Hwa by only 2,509 votes.
“We’ve done a strong campaign considering the circumstances. As I said before, it would be a miracle if we get in, but unfortunately, the miracle did not happen. But we’re grateful for the experiences and as Dr Chee said, I’m sure we’ll do better the next time,” he said after the election results were published.
/TISG
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