Obama Had Once Praised a PAP Candidate Back in 2016

If it weren’t for Crazy Rich Asians, many people abroad probably wouldn’t know much about Singapore.

Singapore… yes. It’s a part of China, right?

And if you don’t know much about a country, you certainly won’t have any knowledge of its politics or politicians.

Yet, surprisingly, one former US president had praised a PAP candidate in the past, one who’s contesting in the 2020 general election.

And no, it isn’t PM Lee or Senior Minister Tharman Shanmugaratnam.

Obama Says Young Women Like PAP’s Carrie Tan “Give Him Hope”

On Tuesday morning (7 July), People’s Action Party’s (PAP) K. Shanmugan shared a video on his Facebook page that features former US president Barack Obama praising PAP newcomer Carrie Tan.

According to AsiaOne, the video included an excerpt from Obama’s state visit to Singapore in August 2016.

In it, Obama said that he first met Tan in Malaysia at a YSEALI summit, which is the Young Southeast Asian Leaders Initiative launched by the US government to strengthen leadership development and networking in Southeast Asia.

He described how impressed he was with her commitment to helping the underprivileged and building a better world.

“I’ll note that I had a chance to meet one of those young Singaporean leaders at a YSEALI summit in Kuala Lumpur last year, a remarkable young woman named Carrie Tan, who’s helping underprivileged women become financially self-sufficient.

“When Carrie talked about coming together with young people from across Southeast Asia, she said, ‘we bonded in our common endeavour to seek, to understand, and learn from one another in pursuit of our aspirations to a better world’. “Young people like Carrie give me hope”, Obama said.

Here’s the video of Tan’s opening introduction of Obama at the YSEALI summit in 2015:

Who is Carrie Tan?

For those that don’t know, Tan is the founder of Daughters of Tomorrow (DOT), a charity organisation that facilitates livelihood opportunities for underprivileged women in Singapore.

She has a BA in History from NUS and is currently obtaining a Master’s in Public Administration at the Lee Kuan Yew School of Public Policy under a scholarship from Li Ka Shing Foundation.

The 38-year-old was once featured in a CNA documentary called “A Singaporean Abroad”, that showcased her humanitarian work in India, where she trained women from villages who were rescued from sex-trafficking in cottage industry skills.

According to the documentary, Tan left her 10 thousand dollars per-month-job to focus on her social enterprise DOT.

Now, Tan is one of PAP’s new candidates who’ll be running for office in GE2020.

She is part of the PAP team contesting in Nee Soon GRC, including Derrick Goh, Faishal Ibrahim, Louis Ng, and K. Shanmugan.

They face Damien Tay, Taufik Supan, Kala Manickam, S Nallakaruppan, and Brad Bowyer from the Progress Singapore Party (PSP).

Obama once won the Nobel Peace Prize, so this is high praise coming from a man like him.

And on a side note, candidates have been talking about NCMP (Non-Constituency Member of Parliament) in recent days. So, what’s an NCMP? Do you know that it’s just like an MP but the allowance is much lower? Watch this video to find out more: