Hamid Razak wants to do more for families on the margins

After nearly two years leading PAP efforts on the ground in Jurong Spring, new face Hamid Razak wants to do more for those on the margins of society — particularly those in what he calls "no-buffer households".

-  Ng Wei Kai

The orthopaedic surgeon, who is running on the PAP ticket in the General Election, said these are residents who are not technically low-income, but can easily be thrown off course by single catastrophic events.

"If the sole breadwinner of the household gets a medical complication or health issue, they lose the income," he said in a media interview at the party's branch in West Coast on April 14.

"That might take them over and affect the whole family, including the children, the students, or even the elderly who may be staying there."

Dr Hamid, 39, said that if elected, he wants to push for more attention to such families.

He added: "We want to be able to uplift them so that they have some buffer for them to be able to withstand some of these events."

Dr Hamid, who is married with three children, said he also wants to champion programmes for seniors.

"Many (Jurong) residents are seniors, and we are very aware that some of them will be living alone, and therefore we want to ensure that we have many touch points in the community so that we know how they're doing consistently," he said.

Migrant worker healthcare issues are also of interest to him, said Dr Hamid, who had volunteered at low-cost clinics and worked on migrant worker health, particularly during the Covid-19 pandemic.