GE2025: Bringing jobs into West Coast-Jurong West GRC among priorities for PSP new face Sani Ismail (2025)

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SINGAPORE - Having worked overseas for close to two decades, PSP new face Sani Ismail, 49, now wants to tap that experience to improve the lives of residents of West Coast-Jurong West GRC, where he is contesting.

Mr Sani said that if he is elected, he hopes to bring new jobs into the constituency so residents can work near where they live.

He also hopes to rejuvenate the constituency, making it a socially and commercially vibrant one, he said.

“People talk about work-life balance. Wouldn’t it be convenient if you can get a good job, which is (near) where you live and everything else?” he said in an interview held at Block 43 Teban Gardens Road.

Such employment opportunities could come from local firms, or multinational corporations, said Mr Sani, who runs a strata management firm.

“It is down to the elected MPs of the constituency to create the conducive environment, to bring trade in,” he added.

Mr Sani said this idea to facilitate job creation for residents was sparked by his experience in the UK, where he worked for 17 years.

For example, in the UK, he was part of a task force to create a programme to provide training for workers and help them transition into relevant job placements.

“If I were to be elected in the constituency, I would certainly look into these ways,” he said.

Mr Sani is part of the PSP team, led by party chairman Tan Cheng Bock, contesting the newly formed West Coast-Jurong West GRC.

He will be running alongside PSP’s A-team, comprising the party’s top three leaders – party chair Tan Cheng Bock, 84; party chief Leong Mun Wai, 65; and vice-chair Hazel Poa, 54 – as well as fellow new face Sumarleki Amjah, 53.

As an employer, Mr Sani said he welcomes employee-centric proposals by PSP, such as increasing the minimum number of paid annual leave days from seven to 14, implementing a minimum living wage as well as increasing the number of public holidays.

“These are measures that will help to improve the well-being of the workforce and, in return, it could increase productivity,” he added. “Happy employees, happy employers.”

Married to a Polish woman, Mr Sani added that he would also like to study the issues faced by Singaporeans in transnational marriages and come up with proposals to help them.

While it may be his first time running in an election, Mr Sani has experience as a grassroots volunteer.

Mr Sani said his first foray into politics was when he joined the PAP youth wing when he was 17 and represented Singapore at The First East Asian Young Leaders Congress held in Kuala Lumpur in 1994.

After serving national service, Mr Sani left Singapore to read law in Britain and graduated from Thames Valley University, now known as University of West London. He later worked in Oxfordshire and Yorkshire in executive management positions in the private sector and in a regional development agency.

Even then, he kept tabs on the political scene here, Mr Sani said, adding that he came back to Singapore at least twice every year.

“I was exposed to a wide variety of cultural challenges, differences, language barriers and everything else, but they only hardened me up,” he said of his time abroad. “I hope to bring an international perspective to the political scene in Singapore as far as alternative voices are concerned.”

He returned to Singapore in 2013.

Upon his return, he said he started volunteering at People’s Association grassroots organisations, including residents’ committees, and worked with residents to help them, such as informing them of various government schemes that they could tap.

“It is a sufficiently good avenue to serve the community, but I felt I wanted to do more, and I do still feel that there is a desire in me that wants to do more,” he said.

Mr Sani said that, if elected, he also hopes to address municipal issues.

These include ensuring that communal spaces are safe and accessible. For example, this could be done by eliminating trip and slip hazards, he said.

“From condominiums to HDB flats, safety is not a luxury, it is a right. I will bring that same vigilance to our public housing estates,” he added.

Mr Sani said that he had been approached by a friend, who is a PSP member, to join the party in 2020, but he turned down the opportunity as he was not ready and had much on his plate.

“Last year, I felt that the time was right and, coincidentally, that same friend reached out to me again.” He joined the party in September 2024.

Mr Sani said he hopes to be able to create a Singapore which appreciates people of differing views, to discuss issues to enhance policies.

“We don’t expect one person to have the answers to the world’s problems but, collectively, we can work together, put our party affiliations aside and work for one Singapore. We can get there,” he said. “We have good policies, but they could be better.”