Dr Lam Pin Min, Who Lost in Sengkang GRC, Going Back to His Previous Company as Its CEO

Remember Dr Lam Pin Min?

The former Sengkang MP isn’t just an MP: he was an officeholder, too,

The former regular medical officer in the RSAF had joined the private sector in 2003, and has worked as a paediatric ophthalmologist at KK Women’s and Children’s Hospital before moving to Singapore National Eye Centre and eventually Eagle Eye Centre. In 2006, he was part of the PAP team in Ang Mo Kio GRC.

By 2011, Sengkang West SMC was carved out from Ang Mo Kio GRC, and Dr Lam went out to contest in the SMC himself, winning with 58.11% against WP’s Koh Choong Yong.

Two years after his victory, he joined the public sector as a Minister of State in the Ministry of Health in 2014. Lest you’re not aware, a Minister of State is akin to a “junior minister”, and most new ministers would’ve been a Minister of State before becoming a full minister.

He won the Sengkang West SMC again in the 2015 General Elections, and in 2017, he was promoted to the Senior Minister of State for both the Ministry of Health and Ministry of Transport.

This explains why he was the one who announced the sudden ban of PMD even when the Transport Minister is Khaw Boon Wan.

You probably know by now that in the 2020 General Elections, Sengkang GRC was carved out from Sengkang West SMC and other areas, and Dr Lam, being part of the team, lost the battle.

As ministers need to be elected MPs, he suffered the fate of George Yeo back in 2011, and therefore “lost his job”.

But anyone in any high position would know that if you’re good enough, you never need to worry about being jobless because you don’t need to look for jobs: jobs look for you.

Former Minister of State Who Lost in Sengkang GRC Went Back to His Previous Company as Its CEO

So, our dear Dr Lam used to be a sign-on medical officer. Did he go back to being a regular officer?

Nope; instead, in an update on his Facebook, he said that he’ll be joining Eagle Eye Centre (EEC) as the Chief Executive Officer and Director of the Paediatric Ophthalmology and Adult Strabismus Service from 1 September 2020.

If you’ve been paying attention, you’d know that that was his last job before he became a Minister of State.

The 50-year-old said that he “last joined EEC more than 6 years ago in January 2014 but was called to serve in the Ministry from August 2014, after a short 7 months in private practice.  During this short but fulfilled period with EEC, I helped to set up the Paediatric Ophthalmology and Adult Strabismus Service. It is with great pleasure and much anticipation that I am now returning to full time clinical practice to continue with my initial passion of doctoring, especially treating young children with eye conditions.”

In case you’re wondering why he’s joined an eye clinic, it’s because he’s trained as an ophthalmologist, with a Master in Medicine in Ophthalmology from NUS.

The former MP also took the opportunity to plug his company, saying that “EEC is a multi-subspecialty eye centre founded in 2006.  From a modest clinic then, it has since grown into a comprehensive ophthalmic setup with 7 clinics, run by 16 professional eye surgeons and about 100 dedicated staff,  offering subspecialty services including corneal and refractive surgery, uveitis and ocular inflammation / immunology, medical retina and vitreoretinal surgery, glaucoma, paediatric ophthalmology and adult strabismus, oculoplastics surgery, neuro-ophthalmology and general ophthalmology.”

Here’s his post:

When he left the Ministry of Health, his team, which includes two very familiar faces, also held a “meaning tribute” to him.

Cats Lover

Food delivery riders might not like him, but the man’s the love of people that are equally important: cats.

Other than owning a cat that’s cuter than our host in our YouTube channel…

…he even “sacrificed” a human for a cat because a table can only sit five people:

 

 

Sengkang GRC is now helmed by WP that comprises team leader He Ting Ru, Jamus Lim, Raeesah Khan and Louis Chua. They had won with 52.12% of the votes last month.

Currently, the Ministers of State for the Ministry of Transport is Chee Hong Tat and Amy Khor, while the Ministers of State for the Ministry of Health is Koh Poh Koon and Janil Puthucheary.

Other than Dr Lam, Sengkang GRC has two other political officeholders who “lost” their jobs, too: Ex-Minister in the Prime Minister’s Office Ng Chee Meng (who’s still the NTUC head) and Ex-Senior Senior Parliamentary Secretary for the Ministry for Home Affairs and Ministry for Health, Amrin Amin.

Ng Chee Meng is still fighting for Singaporeans’ jobs and I bet he’s busier than ever.

So far, Armin, who was a lawyer before joining politics, hasn’t updated the public on what he’s doing, but he’s still having delicious food in Sengkang:

By the way, he highlighted that there were no cockles in his soup. Pretty sure that’s just a coincidence.