Meet the People’s Action Party’s (PAP) new faces in Sengkang GRC – Associate Professor Elmie Nekmat and Bernadette Giam, and find out a little more about them with us!
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00:00Hello, I'm Elmy. I'm part of Team PAP in Sengkang, running in this election for Sengkang GRC.
00:06And here's my teammate.
00:08Hi everyone, I'm Bernie and I'm also part of Team PAP Sengkang.
00:20The reason why we need to focus on digital safety for children as well as for seniors is because in Sengkang,
00:25I've been receiving a lot of feedback from young families who are taking care of children as well,
00:31who are taking care of our ageing parents.
00:33So, for example, there was this case when an ageing parent got scammed out of his life saving.
00:39So imagine if your parent got scammed, the kind of pressures it would put on you as a dual working income family
00:45and then it will affect how you are going to able, better able to support your child.
00:50For example, my daughter has faced cyberbullying and I have seen firsthand a child as young as in primary school,
00:58when they were bullied or when they faced cyber harassment, it can really affect their study.
01:04It can really affect their potential to do well.
01:06And as a parent, when our child undergoes such situation, we feel very worried.
01:11When I first became a mother seven years ago, I actually had a very unexpected change in caregiving circumstances for my newborn
01:18and I had to return to work about one month, you know, after my delivery.
01:23So it was really, you know, a personal crisis for me because my parents were very, very engaged in caring for both my ill grandparents at that time.
01:31So they couldn't really help me with my newborn.
01:34As a result, I realized, you know, that it really does take so much, you know, in terms of support to really run a household.
01:41And unless you're actually doing it yourself and you have that experience, you may not be able to understand the complexity of that.
01:47So I believe that that's what I bring to the table as part of PAP Team Sengkang, to be there for the working parents and especially the mothers.
01:58One of the ways that I know that I've been close or residents have been close to me is that they have given me names.
02:05For example, they call me the one with the four daughters.
02:08And they also call me the expert of digital communication and social media or social media laoshi or to that extent.
02:15The runway has been very short for me.
02:18But nonetheless, because I have been a community volunteer for more than a decade, I've really been able to bring that skill set into PAP Team Sengkang.
02:26And I've been working the ground very hard almost on a daily basis for this last couple of months.
02:32And so I think it's really a balance because when you put in the work, you convince people that you're committed enough to be able to take the difficult aspects, you know, of this role.
02:42And then after that, you know, when you are able to command a little bit of trust and respect, you know, then you can really be more effective at leading the teams and winning the hearts and minds of our residents.
02:52I have a quiet corner in Wangkok Hawker Center where I will eat my mi goreng from Rizkia.
03:01I have this quiet corner so I can reflect and think about the activities that I've done in Sengkang.
03:06I think my quiet corner will not be so quiet anymore, but I will continue to eat my mi goreng at that corner in Wangkok Hawker Center.
03:13I love cultures and I love languages.
03:15When I was in the NUS Faculty of Arts, I actually picked up French as a third language.
03:26And I worked very hard, you know, to actually spend about two semesters overseas and studying in Paris.
03:32Well, the French, you know, was very, very handy because in my first role in the Ministry of Foreign Affairs,
03:38I actually translated letters for the Vatican and it was really something that made me very, very happy to do, you know, apart from my day-to-day work.