Ang Mong Seng: How I recaptured Bukit Gombak
By Andrea Ong
WHEN the People's Action Party (PAP) introduced its line-up of new faces for the 1997 General Election (GE), one of them had already been assigned a make-or-break mission.
Despite being a rookie, Mr Ang Mong Seng was sent to Bukit Gombak as second adviser to the PAP branch in early 1996 with one goal: to win back the opposition-held single ward.
The MP for the ward was the Singapore Democratic Party's Ling How Doong, who beat Dr Seet Ai Mee with 51.4 per cent of the vote in the 1991 election.
With no time to lose as the polls could be called at any time, Mr Ang embarked on a year-long election campaign.
'My plan then was to think big. Create a big change in Bukit Gombak and get people talking,' he says.
He set himself a target of visiting all 10,000 households within three months. He would call on residents, introduce himself and ask for feedback on improvements they wished to see in the ward.
This meant going down to the ground up to four times a week.
But with a dedicated team of supporters, Mr Ang succeeded.
He then acted swiftly on their feedback.
Hillview Estate residents complained that it was impossible to get on bus service 176 in the morning, even though Trans-Island Bus Services (Tibs) said the buses were arriving on schedule every 12 minutes.
For several days, Mr Ang and grassroots leaders turned up at the bus stop at 6.30am to observe the situation.
'The buses came but did not stop as they were all full. Meanwhile, there were 100 people waiting at the bus stop,' he recalls.
The problem, he found, was that service 176 travelled a long route, all the way from Bukit Panjang.
He then got the staff of Tibs, which ran the bus service until it was taken over by SMRT, to observe the situation for themselves.
Tibs introduced four additional bus trips travelling a shorter route every morning so there would be more space for Hillview commuters.
Within a week, the problem was solved.
Acting on other feedback that he received, Mr Ang lobbied government agencies to clear space for a temporary heavy vehicle parking area and build covered linkways and bridges.
'People started to feel that we could help them and solve their problems very quickly,' he says.
He introduced a slew of community activities that also acted as a massive branding campaign for him.
He rallied residents to sponsor the material for four footpaths and construct the paths themselves in the spirit of gotong royong (Malay for community spirit). He made sure he was there beside the residents, lifting stones and sweating it out.
Every month, Mr Ang made it a point to celebrate the birthdays of children attending the PAP Community Foundation preschools in Bukit Gombak.
Besides singing birthday songs and cutting the cake, he would pose for a photo with each child celebrating his or her birthday that month.
The child would get to take home the neatly framed photo bearing Mr Ang's signature as a souvenir.
'The parents thought the framed photo was a nice touch and would display it on top of their television sets,' he says.
When then Prime Minister Goh Chok Tong visited Bukit Gombak during the 1997 hustings, he received a pleasant surprise.
'Little children in the crowd were shouting 'Ang Mong Seng! Ang Mong Seng!',' Mr Ang recalls.
It was evidence that he had succeeded in becoming a familiar face around the neighbourhood.
'I wanted to let residents see that I was different from the opposition MP,' he says.
Come GE time in 1997, he was able to present a sterling report card to residents.
His five-year plan, distributed to every household, listed improvements that Mr Ang could bring to the estate if he were elected MP.
Mr Ang's strategy paid off. That GE, he won a decisive victory of 65.1 per cent, an improvement of 16.5 percentage points from 1991.
As all four PAP MPs tell Insight, this is the party's winning card: its tried-and-tested ability to bring efficient improvements to both infrastructure and social programmes within the community.
By Andrea Ong
WHEN the People's Action Party (PAP) introduced its line-up of new faces for the 1997 General Election (GE), one of them had already been assigned a make-or-break mission.
Despite being a rookie, Mr Ang Mong Seng was sent to Bukit Gombak as second adviser to the PAP branch in early 1996 with one goal: to win back the opposition-held single ward.
The MP for the ward was the Singapore Democratic Party's Ling How Doong, who beat Dr Seet Ai Mee with 51.4 per cent of the vote in the 1991 election.
With no time to lose as the polls could be called at any time, Mr Ang embarked on a year-long election campaign.
'My plan then was to think big. Create a big change in Bukit Gombak and get people talking,' he says.
He set himself a target of visiting all 10,000 households within three months. He would call on residents, introduce himself and ask for feedback on improvements they wished to see in the ward.
This meant going down to the ground up to four times a week.
But with a dedicated team of supporters, Mr Ang succeeded.
He then acted swiftly on their feedback.
Hillview Estate residents complained that it was impossible to get on bus service 176 in the morning, even though Trans-Island Bus Services (Tibs) said the buses were arriving on schedule every 12 minutes.
For several days, Mr Ang and grassroots leaders turned up at the bus stop at 6.30am to observe the situation.
'The buses came but did not stop as they were all full. Meanwhile, there were 100 people waiting at the bus stop,' he recalls.
The problem, he found, was that service 176 travelled a long route, all the way from Bukit Panjang.
He then got the staff of Tibs, which ran the bus service until it was taken over by SMRT, to observe the situation for themselves.
Tibs introduced four additional bus trips travelling a shorter route every morning so there would be more space for Hillview commuters.
Within a week, the problem was solved.
Acting on other feedback that he received, Mr Ang lobbied government agencies to clear space for a temporary heavy vehicle parking area and build covered linkways and bridges.
'People started to feel that we could help them and solve their problems very quickly,' he says.
He introduced a slew of community activities that also acted as a massive branding campaign for him.
He rallied residents to sponsor the material for four footpaths and construct the paths themselves in the spirit of gotong royong (Malay for community spirit). He made sure he was there beside the residents, lifting stones and sweating it out.
Every month, Mr Ang made it a point to celebrate the birthdays of children attending the PAP Community Foundation preschools in Bukit Gombak.
Besides singing birthday songs and cutting the cake, he would pose for a photo with each child celebrating his or her birthday that month.
The child would get to take home the neatly framed photo bearing Mr Ang's signature as a souvenir.
'The parents thought the framed photo was a nice touch and would display it on top of their television sets,' he says.
When then Prime Minister Goh Chok Tong visited Bukit Gombak during the 1997 hustings, he received a pleasant surprise.
'Little children in the crowd were shouting 'Ang Mong Seng! Ang Mong Seng!',' Mr Ang recalls.
It was evidence that he had succeeded in becoming a familiar face around the neighbourhood.
'I wanted to let residents see that I was different from the opposition MP,' he says.
Come GE time in 1997, he was able to present a sterling report card to residents.
His five-year plan, distributed to every household, listed improvements that Mr Ang could bring to the estate if he were elected MP.
Mr Ang's strategy paid off. That GE, he won a decisive victory of 65.1 per cent, an improvement of 16.5 percentage points from 1991.
As all four PAP MPs tell Insight, this is the party's winning card: its tried-and-tested ability to bring efficient improvements to both infrastructure and social programmes within the community.
