Singapore—Dr Jamus Lim, Member of Parliament for Sengkang GRC, penned a thoughtful post looking back at the past year, noting that it’s been “a significant learning experience” for him as a newcomer to the country’s political arena.
The Workers’ Party’s Dr Lim, an assistant professor in Economics at ESSEC Business School, arguably had the most stellar rise to fame among all the new politicians this year. Many Singaporeans paid attention to Dr Lim during July’s General Election, especially after his performance in a televised debate.
Despite coming face to face with candidates from different parties who were older and had far more experience than he did, including longtime PAP MP and Foreign Affairs Minister Dr Vivian Balakrishnan, Dr Lim’s intelligence shone through.
On Tuesday, Dec 29, he wrote about the last meet-the-people session (MPS) at Anchorvale, which had been held on the previous night, underlining how important these sessions are.
He said that the MPS is “the surest opportunity to represent the residents that have placed their trust in us. It is a responsibility that we all take very seriously, and I hope that I have offered an empathetic ear, as you’ve entrusted me with your problems, concerns, and appeals.”
And, as a newbie to public service, he has also called these sessions “a significant learning experience,” and pledged to do even better in the year to come.
“I promise I will continue to listen, to understand, and to offer the best advice that I can. If I have fallen short in any way, I will do my best to improve. And I hope that the people of #SengkangGRC will continue to exercise patience as we strive to be your champions, even if an inadvertent mistake or oversight occasionally creeps in.”
The best reward as a politician, he added, is discovering that “we have been able to successfully help our residents in their times of need.”
He thanked the team of volunteers who have made the MPS in Sengkang possible, making special mention of his “core gang—Vic, Cat, and Choong Yong—without whose collective experience, dedication, and support I would never have seen it through the past six months.”
Speculation that Dr Lim would contest in this year’s election first came about in March, when he was featured in a Facebook post of Ms Lee Li Lian, the WP’s deputy-treasurer.
Ms Lee is also a former MP who represented the Punggol East SMC, which is now part of Sengkang GRC.
Dr Lim studied at Harvard University, London School of Economics, University of Southern Queensland, and the University of California, Santa Cruz, as well as Raffles Junior College and Raffles Institution.
Furthermore, he also worked at the World Bank and JP Morgan.
In the same month, Dr Lim was featured in AsiaOne, in an article entitled, “WP’s potential GE candidate is an RI, Harvard and LSE grad.” The following day, Mothership put out an article, “Workers’ Party could field Jamus Lim, economics professor, Harvard grad & RI boy, in Sengkang GRC” about Mr Lim. The subtitle: ‘Big brain energy.’ —/TISG
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