Thank you Singaporeans for participating in this year’s General Elections. I know the people have spoken and they’ve decided that they’d give the People’s Action Party another shot.

I respect that.

For the record, I voted for the Progress Singapore Party in the area I live in. In all the elections I’ve taken part, I have always voted for the alternative candidate(s).

But that does not mean I am against the incumbent. In fact, I do really like the Prime Minister, Lawrence Wong – or I’d like to call him Larry. I think Larry is a decent and honest Singaporean striving to do what’s right for Singapore, even if it is not popular. I respect that. I might have to do the same. What’s right for the country is a pillar that we must all strive for.

Congratulations, Ms Low Yen Ling.

Three times, during the campaign, I asked for a debate with her. But she did not reply.

That was also the situation, when in October 2020, I had sent her an email after the general elections, about the Southwest Community Development Council and her role as the “Mayor”. Five years on, she has not replied. So I am not surprised that she did not take up the offer to debate.

You might ask, “Harish, what would the debate be about?”.

Well, pretty much anything, but to decide on what, first Ms Low needs to respond that she’ll participate, then we can come up with a list of topics. She has chosen not to respond.

I would speculate that she did not respond because one of the topics I’d want to debate would be about the alleged “slapping” incident in January between her supporters from the PAP and PSP members and supporters.

She posted this in the walled garden FB (sreenshot here in case it disappears):

She alleged that one of my PSP colleagues “slapped” her volunteers. She did also go on to say that they will not file a police report.

I did my full-time NS in the SPF. If someone told me “I was assaulted but I am not filing a report”, I would ask why are you telling me that? If one claims to be assaulted (in this case an alleged “slap”), it justifies a report to find out what happened and to find a resolution. Unless the person being slapped thinks it is of no big deal and wants to move on or it was not actually true but said it anyway to throw doubt.

When we did our own internal checks, we decided that the allegation was indeed false and we filed a report. The police investigated and upon conclusion of the investigations, sent their final report to the Attorney General Chambers. It is the day after the elections and the AGC has yet to release the report despite repeated calls to do it.

Let’s speculate here: If the report found that the PSP member was at fault and had indeed “slapped” the PAP member, I am quite certain that the report would have been published immediately. That would vindicate Ms Low on her allegation. But since it has not been released, what can we collectively conclude? I would postulate that the whole “slapping” incident was untrue and Ms Low did not do evidence checking. Does the Mayor/MP/Senior-Minister-of-State (side comment: that’s over $1m in annual salary btw. I am sure you will correct me if I am wrong, Ms Low.) not have people to verify?

The PSP has asked repeatedly to release it but the AGC has not. Draw your own conclusions.

During the 9 days (and 3 years preceding) of visits with the HDB residents, the residents in the landed properties along Hillview Avenue, I did get a sense of warm welcome (no pun intended even though the sun and humidity made it really hot but the people were warm). Many people said that they are fed-up with the unaccountable nature of the MP on issues brought up.

Let me highlight one that I experienced myself.

On Tuesday afternoon, 29 April 2025, a very heavy downpour showed up some infrastructural challenges at a very high footfall location just across from the Bt Gombak MRT station.

From the video, the rain is seen pouring and causing puddles at the traffic-light crossing. This is not unexpected and probably caused by insufficient capacity and choked drainage points along the road side curbs – remember “ponding“?.

However, the head scratcher is the covered walkway. Most people who cross over from the train station are going to the shops and markets – a straight stride from the traffic-light crossing.

But the covered shelter does not go straight from the crossing to the shops. Instead, as you can see in the video, the sheltered path goes a roundabout way. Why is it that way?

My engineer mind says that the fix is trivial.

I hope that the newly elected MP for Bt Gombak will do what is needed to rectify this and on behalf of Bt Gombak residents who have been complaining about that, I say thank you.

Bt Gombak voters. I respect your vote and I am glad that we met and chatted. As always, please do reach out to me here if you find that your newly elected MP is not responding to issues you’ve raised. I can’t promise that I can solve it, but at least I can point her to the requests and track their responses.

Thank you to all my colleagues and volunteers in PSP who walked the ground and met and greeted residents. Your work is meaningful and I am grateful. Let’s keep our heads high as what matters is the good future of our fellow Singaporeans.

Thank you all!

Majulah Singapura!