Singaporeans First

SingFirst: Election about future, not past

Seven political parties delivered their second party messages on television and radio last night. The time allocated was based on the number of contesting candidates. We reproduce the messages that were delivered in English.

TAN JEE SAY Secretary- General

TAN JEE SAY, SINGFIRST SECRETARY-GENERAL:

Good evening, fellow Singaporeans.

An election is about the future, not the past. But the PAP talks day in day out about the past 50 years as one past.

Actually, we have two pasts, the first 40 years and the last 10 years under the current PM.

The first 40 years were relatively good years.

But beginning from 2004 when Lee Hsien Loong took over, Singapore has been going down the drain.

First casinos, then one million foreign workers, riots, workers' strike and frequent breakdowns of trains. Do you still want this Government to mess up your lives for five more years?

PM claimed that PAP has delivered on all its promises. He has conveniently forgotten the 5 "Cs", career, car, condominium, cash and country club which they have not delivered.

They invested your CPF money, achieved average return of 6 per cent a year, but give you only 2.5 per cent and keep the excess return of 3.5 per cent.

This amounts to as much as $8.75 billion in 2014 alone.

This is your money that they have short-changed you. That's why more than half of Singaporeans do not have adequate savings for retirement.

PM said this election is about choosing the next leadership team.

The fact that he has asked Goh Chok Tong to stay shows that leadership succession has failed. Will the new candidates be any better? Are they just yes-men from the civil service and the military?

Have earlier batches shown that they could run key agencies in public transport and shipping? Or will they bring Singapore further down the road of decline?

PAP leaders talk unashamedly about honouring the late Mr Lee Kuan Yew. They are just opportunistic. They make use of his name for their own political ends.

In fact, they have betrayed his ideals on foreign workers, trust and meritocracy.

Today, Singapore has five times more foreign workers than what he implied Singapore could tolerate.

Secondly, trust in PAP is so low that in an international survey, only 26 per cent of Singaporeans trust their government leaders to tell the truth.

Thirdly, an international magazine has ranked Singapore as the top 5 country in the world where "politically connected businessmen are most likely to prosper". This is the opposite of meritocracy which allows people to succeed on the basis of capability, not connections.

So LKY's ideals have been betrayed under his son's watch as PM. If Singaporeans vote out of gratitude to the father, they will end in servitude to the son.

Fellow Singaporeans, do you want five more years of the unhappiness and misery of the past 10 years under PAP?

Or do you want to take back our country, our jobs, our space, our pride?

We ask you to vote Singaporeans First to restore our nation.

Vote for change. Vote SingFirst.

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A version of this article appeared in the print edition of The Straits Times on September 11, 2015, with the headline SingFirst: Election about future, not past. Subscribe