WP warns against return to pre-2011 ‘dark ages’
SINGAPORE — The Government has made some policy “U-turns” to improve Singaporeans’ lives, but Workers’ Party (WP) leaders last night warned voters not to take this as a cue to return to a system that is dominated by one party.
At its third rally of the election campaign — a pace only surpassed by the People’s Action Party (PAP) — WP leaders kept hammering home one message to the assembled throng: Do not choose a return to the “dark ages” of a system dominated by one party by not letting up in the push to entrench the Opposition’s voice in Parliament.
Rebutting the message put out by several PAP leaders that policy changes made over the past four years were in the works before the previous election, WP chair Sylvia Lim said: “The PAP has been trying in this election to convince you that many changes we see around us started before 2011. They are afraid that the WP will take credit for the changes. But the credit … belongs to the voters.”
These changes, she said, including moving from a for-profit model for the public transport system, which saw overcrowded buses, to one that saw the Government spending S$1.1 billion to buy 1,000 state-owned buses. The slowing of the inflow of foreigners after 2011 was another example.
The vote for the Opposition had “forced the PAP to wake up”, she said, urging voters to “keep up the pressure on the PAP and make the PAP work harder”. Ms Lim also said the PAP’s MPs would not be an effective check on a PAP Government, repeating a charge made by another WP MP, Mr Pritam Singh, on Wednesday. Citing the 2013 Population White Paper, she said the WP MPs had voted against it, but even though PAP MPs made speeches critiquing the paper, not one voted against it.
She then took a jibe at PAP chief Lee Hsien Loong, who called the Opposition a “mouse in the House” for its performance in Parliament.
“A PAP MP may think he roars like a tiger in Parliament, but the PAP MP is a real mouse in the House, a little white mouse,” said Ms Lim.
Party chief Low Thia Khiang, who followed Ms Lim to the lectern, took up the drumbeat. Saying that the PAP Government of today is no longer like the foresighted one of the past, he added that the country should not have a Government that flip-flops in policy and only makes last-minute adjustments when problems arise.
Going back to one-party rule might mean that policies can change at the Government’s whim and fancy, he said, adding: “If you vote in all the PAP MPs into Parliament, the PAP will think that you are giving them your mandate and supporting whatever they have done.” He added: “The future of Singapore needs a strong Opposition presence in Parliament to hear the people’s voices and avoid taking wrong policy approaches.”
Mr Low also charged that, contrary to the PAP’s statements that it has always delivered on its promises, it has gone back on its word after dangling certain carrots before the electorate during election season.
For instance, the PAP had said it had not considered raising the Goods and Services Tax before the 2006 election, he said, but did so in July the following year, and the explanation by then Senior Minister Goh Chok Tong was that the PAP would choose unpopular policies that were good for Singapore in the long term, and that it was part of politics. “I urge voters to be careful. During the election, the PAP is like a cat, but after being elected, it will be like a ferocious lion”, said Mr Low.
Ms Lim also questioned the sincerity of the PAP. She pointed to a comment made by Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong in 2006 — which he subsequently apologised for — that if there were more Opposition members, he would have to spend time thinking of how to “fix” the Opposition, instead of running the country.
She asked: “Is the PAP being nicer to you now because they really care about you? Or is the PAP doing what PM Lee said what it would do when the Opposition number reaches 10, buy your vote? Is this why the PAP is spending so much to fix the WP?” she said.
Quoting a resident, she ended her plea for votes with a resident’s anecdote. She said the resident likened the PAP to the white clouds and the WP to the blue sky, and said: “The white clouds can be blown here and there … (and) can turn grey and even black, but the blue sky will always be there”.
Another speaker at the rally, Hougang candidate Png Eng Huat, said that even after the watershed events of 2011, the Opposition was outnumbered in the House, and its objections to policies were inevitably overruled.
Calling on voters to increase the number of Opposition MPs in Parliament, and thus their effectiveness, he said: “(The Government) can pass many Bills in the House, even with half of the (PAP MPs) on holiday or eating orh luak in Fengshan.”
