I have lived in Pasir Ris for most of my life (17/24 years). My seconday school, JC, and even my church is in Pasir Ris, so you might say I'm a pasir-risan (for lack of a better term) through and through. Everytime people unfamilar with the geography of Singapore (namely my foreign uni classmates) ask me where I live, I just tell them I live at the easternmost MRT station on the green line.

Living in Pasir Ris is fun! I remember hanging out with friends at white sands after school simply because it was the biggest shopping centre with a direct bus from school, skipping remedial classes to go play at the Downtown East arcade (I racked up so much points on my tapz card that I became a VIP member), taking MCs from the polyclinic, going to Elias Mall or West Plaza when we had 6 hour breaks between classes (my JC timetable was pretty messed up), and even cycling at Pasir Ris park in the middle of the night (just because it's just there).

Me and my fellow pasir-risans are the ones friends call when they have chalets at downtown east or costa sands, and they do not know how to get there from the MRT station, or when they are lost in Pasir Ris park trying to find their friends' BBQ pit.

I have a friend that lives in Ponggol. The first time that he set foot in Pasir Ris was when he had to report for BMT. When I go to his place, I have to take a 15min bus ride. It takes me 15 mins to walk from Elias Mall to Downtown East. It takes me 15 mins to cycle from one end of pasir ris to the other. It takes me half and hour or more to cycle from the westernmost part of Pasir Ris to Ponggol (via old Tampines road as we are unable to cycle on the TPE).

So this is the question I really want to ask; why are we in the same GRC? There is no common identity, and are separated by geography (by comparison I take 30 mins to walk to Tampines MRT from White Sands, so Ponggol to me is really far away). My Ponggol friends and my Pasir Ris friends have never felt like the lived in the same area.

Forgive my ignorance for I'm just a simple student that don't really follow Singapore politics, or understand how the electoral boundaries review committee work, but won't it be better to create a Sengkang-Ponggol GRC and a Pasir Ris GRC, instead of this Pasir Ris-Ponggol GRC, Ponggol East SMC & Sengkang West SMC? People from ponggol; east, west, north, south or central are more likely to have a common identity and share the same public facilities & ammenities than any Ponggolites (again for lack of a better word) than pasir-risans. I would find it weird if I lived at Ponggol east, and suddenly my neighbours across the street from me are no longer in my constituency, but belonged to a constituency with people several km away.

Even if Pasir Ris was too big to be a SMC and too small to be a four-membered GRC, or if Ponggol and Sengkang was too large to be a six-membered GRC, I still feel it would be better (and would make more sense) to have a four-membered Ponggol GRC, a four-membered Sengkang GRC, a Pasir Ris East SMC & a Pasir Ris West SMC. Don't this configuration seem more logical?