WP, PAP trade barbs over Punggol East accounts
Outside the Aljunied-Hougang Punggol East Town Council. Photo: Don Wong
SINGAPORE — It was a night of back and forth between the Workers’ Party (WP) and the People’s Action Party (PAP) that began with a forceful statement from WP chairperson Sylvia Lim.
Speaking at a rally in East Coast on the last day of campaigning, Ms Lim said that if the PAP did not have a “good answer” for its accusations against Aljunied-Hougang-Punggol East Town Council (AHPETC), it would be “finished”.
Less than an hour after she spoke about comments made by Mr Charles Chong, the PAP’s candidate for Punggol East, that there was a town council surplus of more than S$1 million when Punggol East was merged with AHPETC, Mr Chong replied in a press release.
The surplus “was clearly a reference to Pasir Ris-Punggol Town Council (there being no entity known as ‘Punggol East Town Council’)”.
“The WP has deliberately misquoted me to give the impression that I said that Punggol East had a surplus of S$1 million when it was handed over to them. This is a very regrettable move on the part of the WP,” he said.
“For the record, Pasir Ris-Punggol Town Council ended its 2012/2013 financial year with a surplus for the year of approximately S$1.7 million.”
This prompted the WP to respond shortly before midnight in a press statement highlighting an Aug 28 article in Lianhe Zaobao. Mr Chong, however, referred to his interview with Lianhe Wanbao, published on Aug 25.
The latter read: In the interview with Charles Chong, he pointed out that when the WP took over Punggol East, the town council had more than S$1 million in surplus. But barely two years after it became part of AHPETC, the entire town council was in the red, leading him to feel unjust for Punggol East residents.
This emerged as an issue during the WP’s rally in Punggol East last Saturday, when WP chief Low Thia Khiang flashed a page of Pasir Ris-Punggol Town Council’s financial statements for Punggol East, dated April 30, 2013, and said it showed an accumulated deficit of S$282,000.
The next day, PAP organising secretary Ng Eng Hen said the party would issue a “definitive clarification” of what Punggol East’s financial position was, while Pasir-Ris Punggol Town Council chairman Zainal Sapari disclosed that there was a S$21,000 surplus once a reimbursement was claimed.
Deputy Prime Minister Teo Chee Hean and Prime Minister Lee Hsien Long had also “accused the WP of selective reading” when it referred to only one page of the accounts, noted Ms Lim yesterday.
Mentioning that AHPETC had published the 25-page Pasir Ris-Punggol Town Council — Punggol East SMC financial statements on Tuesday, she asked which page the WP should look at to find the S$1 million surplus mentioned by Mr Chong.
“Or could it be that the PAP has tried to mislead the public and damage AHPETC again?” said Ms Lim. “If the PAP has no good answer, it is not the WP that is finished, it is the PAP that is finished.”
It was an accusation Mr Chong also levelled at the WP: “This ... has served to further confuse and mislead the public and also distract voters from the main issue — that of the WP being unable to provide a set of unqualified accounts for AHPETC.”
The last word went to AHPETC vice-chairman Png Eng Huat, who signed off on the WP’s reply.
He said: “The facts are clearly in contrary to the statements made by the PAP. We hope that the PAP will issue a correction to their misleading statements.”
