Truth be told, Ms Jasmin Lau would rather recommend other candidates for this interview. Low-key by nature, she finds it “very difficult” to talk about herself.
When I asked her to introduce herself on camera during the 90-minute session at her home last Thursday (Apr 17), she quipped: “Hi, I’m Jasmin!”
I waited for her to add a pithy descriptor, such as “former civil servant” or “People’s Action Party (PAP) new face”. She simply smiled, anticipating my next question.
The 42-year-old was deputy secretary at the Ministry of Health (MOH) until Apr 1, when she resigned to contest in the coming General Election.
She has since been fielded in PAP’s slate for Ang Mo Kio GRC, alongside Senior Minister Lee Hsien Loong, elected MPs in 2020’s polls Darryl David and Nadia Samdin, and former Aljunied GRC candidate Victor Lye.
This interview was our third interaction, and I knew by then that garden-variety descriptions weren’t her style. Nonetheless, I prodded her to elaborate.
“Hi, I’m Jasmin! I’m the one seen playing basketball in the video,” she beamed.
She was referring to the video posted on Prime Minister Lawrence Wong’s social media channels on Apr 12 that introduced several PAP new faces, including herself.
She had decided on her video sequence – featuring her teammates from MacPherson Basketball Club – after the producers proposed scenarios she didn’t resonate with.
“You can take a walk in a Singapore landmark. You can walk through a park, jog if you want, meet elderly, meet children,” she recalled their suggestions.
“This goes back to who I am. I don’t walk randomly in the park; I hardly visit tourist attractions. So then I said, ‘Well, how about playing basketball?’”
STAYING AUTHENTIC
And staying true to herself is something she holds fast to. Since stepping into the public eye, some have suggested she draw her eyebrows or make her eyes look bigger. Others have advised her to don earrings for “a feminine touch”.
Well-meaning as they may be, makeup is “just something that’s not me”, she said, barefaced during our interview.
