PAP candidate Koh Poh Koon is a ‘nobody’?

The People’s Action Party’s (PAP) candidate for Punggol East SMC, colorectal surgeon Koh Poh Koon is a ‘nobody’, according to an article on SingaPolitics.

The colorectal surgeon reportedly joined the PAP only 3 weeks ago and even grassroot leaders were not familiar with him at all.

Dr Koh, who joined the party only three weeks ago, is an unknown to the PAP rank-and-file. Some senior party cadres in Telok Blangah, where he lives and volunteers with the residents’ committee, have never even met him. 

He is not a particularly prominent nor active grassroots leader, was not involved in 2011’s General Election, and prior to his entry into politics this week, had next to no ground experience.

However, Deputy Prime Minister (DPM) Teo Chee Hean explained that Dr Koh was in the pipeline to be fielded in the next General Election (to be held by 2016), but the resignation of Michael Palmer accelerated his ascension.

The compressed timeline has robbed Dr Koh of time to familiarise himself with party activists, said DPM Teo, but on all other fronts, he is the sort of well-credentialled and committed candidate that the PAP, with a few notable exceptions, usually fields.

So is Dr Koh really a ‘nobody’? Obviously not.

Apparently Dr Koh is an extremely busy and “well-credentialled” man, according to information TR Emeritus received from its readers.

1 ) Director & Consultant Surgeon, Capstone Colorectal Surgery Centre.
2 ) Adjunct Assistant Professor, DUKE-NUS Graduate Medical School, Singapore.
3 ) Consultant Surgeon, Department of Colorectal Surgery, Singapore General Hospital (SGH).
4 ) Visiting Consultant, Department of General Surgery, Changi General Hospital.
5 ) Acting Director, Colorectal Cancer Molecular Genetics Research Laboratory, SGH.
6 ) Acting Director, Colorectal Cancer Genomic Health Service, SGH.
7 ) Clinical Lecturer, Yong Loo Lin School of Medicine, National University of Singapore (NUS).
8 ) Co-Supervisor (PhD Program), Department of Pharmacy, Faculty of Science, NUS.
9 ) Adjunct Clinician Scientist, Institute of Bioengineering & Nanotechnology (IBN), A*Star.
10 ) Active in clinical and molecular research and has published widely in both clinical and basic science peer-reviewed journals.
11 ) Reviewer for the Journal of Cancer Research and Therapeutics as well as Diseases of the Colon and Rectum.
12 ) Reviewer for the SGH Research Grant.
13 ) Ad-hoc grant reviewer for the NMRC (National Medical Research Council) Grant.
14 ) Committee Member of the Gastroenterological Society of Singapore (GESS).
15 ) Council Member of the International Council of Coloproctology.
16 ) Member of the American Society of Colon and Rectal Surgeons (ASCRS).
17 ) Commanding Officer (CO) of a Combat Service Support Battalion (CSSB).
18 ) Committee Member in the SingHealth Sub-committee on Leadership and Succession Planning.
19 ) Executive Committee Member at the Telok Blangah Dover Crescent Resident’s Committee since 2002.
20 ) Member of the Community Emergency Response Team (CERT).
21 ) Assistant Liaison Officer (Singapore Police Force) for Telok Blangah Dover Crescent Neighborhood Watch Zone since 2002.

As above, Dr Koh who claims to be from a humble family certainly is not short of ‘humble credentials’ to boast of. Common Singaporeans would take years just to have 1/4 of his above ‘humble credentials’ added to their name.

‘Humble credentials’ aside, the main question voters in Punggol east SMC would probably be asking is:

With all the above appointments, does he have time for the residents should he be elected?

What do you think?