Origins

Summer of 1994. Just finished my freshman year at university. Most of my fellow students (especially the politics majors) all had interesting internships lined up-- interning with this and this politician, this senator or this house of representative... and I didn't have anything lined up.

So I called back home to dad, and dad said sure, come back and he would help touch base with one of the MPs he knew-- Mr Heng Chiang Meng. Mr Heng asked me to meet up with him when I came back. At that point, Mr Heng was an MP for Jalan Kayu constituency, part of the Cheng San GRC. He told me to come down to meet up with his Senior Manager -- Ryal. Ryal was a rare breed of SM, trained as a lawyer in UK, nevertheless he took up this community work by joining PA. During the 2 months that I spent with him, I probably learnt more about politics then I ever did in Princeton.

Being trained overseas, he helped me see things in a different perspective and different light. He also helped me see how things worked behind the scene, introducing me to the world of grassroots, of the hard work and effort put in by people to serve the community. I would come in at 10am every other day... he would chat with me on some topic... we would then go out for field visits... to the various CCs within the constituency. In the evenings, I would attend various grassroots meetings, functions and gatherings. I still remembered attended a meeting on transport issues with SBS where the GRLs reflected the discontent of residents because a shuttle service was withdrawn and replaced by a main trunk service. It might have been only a difference of 10 cents, but it was certainly something that affected people a great deal.

It was because of this experience then that inspired me to choose to take up the CDC posting when it came time to choose where to go. Mind you, coming here to the CDC is not at all a popular choice. However, because of what I saw 12 years ago, I knew what to expect working with GRLs, I knew what to expect working with PA and I wanted an opportunity to work here.

I never would have made such a decision without such an experience 12 years back. This is one of the reasons why I really wanted to set up an internship programme to provide our youths such an opportunity. I believe that many of you will come back to help some way or another, whether it is like me, as a day job, or like many others as a volunteer as a night job.