PAP Punggol East chair may stand in Chua Chu Kang GRC

SINGAPORE — Banking executive Yee Chia Hsing, the People’s Action Party’s current point man in the Punggol East constituency, could move to Chua Chu Kang Group Representation Constituency (GRC) after he was spotted making house visits there yesterday afternoon.

Mr Yee, 44, told TODAY that he was appointed vice-chairman of the Nanyang Citizens’ Consultative Committee late last month, and has since been shadowing current Member of Parliament Alvin Yeo at community events and at walkabouts, including yesterday’s in Jurong West Street 91.

Mr Yeo, 53, a lawyer and two-term Member of Parliament, was coy when asked whether he was retiring from politics and making way for Mr Yee, who is head of Catalist at CIMB Bank.

Mr Yee was appointed chairman of the PAP Punggol East branch in November last year, taking over from Dr Koh Poh Koon, who lost in the 2013 by-election in the ward against The Workers’ Party’s Lee Li Lian.

Questions on Mr Yee’s status have been raised after long-serving MP Charles Chong recently emerged as the likely candidate for Punggol East, a Single Member Constituency, in the upcoming election.

Mr Yee’s new grassroots appointment in Nanyang appears to be the clearest indication yet that he could be a PAP candidate for the ward.

Yesterday, Mr Yee said serving the Nanyang ward felt like a “homecoming” because he lived in the area from age 11 to 36. The father of a 14-year-old girl and 12-year-old boy still visits the area once a week as his parents and sister live there. He also previously studied accounting at the nearby Nanyang Technological University.

He said he did not feel his work in Punggol East in the last nine months had gone to waste, and he was prepared to take up the challenge of contesting in Nanyang if fielded as a candidate.

“At the end of the day, it’s the party’s decision,” he said. “ ... (But) the work done (at Punggol East) is not lost, because it’s always a team effort. And (when) we go do our outreach efforts, it is as a party, it’s not centred around individuals.”

Mr Yeo described Mr Yee as an “upright character” who has the “interest to serve”.

“He has also accumulated a fair amount of volunteer experience ... I think that he will be a good MP if elected,” added Mr Yeo, referring to Mr Yee’s volunteer work with St Andrew’s Community Hospital and then with Ren Ci Hospital since 2008. Siau Ming En