GE2025: Pritam Singh says WP does not engage in negative politics

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SINGAPORE – WP chief Pritam Singh has rejected Prime Minister Lawrence Wong’s statement that the opposition party engages in “negative politics”, saying it was the PAP that had done so for years.

Speaking at a rally on April 29, he listed as examples the PAP’s initial treatment of residents in opposition wards, and the lack of access for opposition MPs to People’s Association resources.

Noting that Hougang and Potong Pasir voters were told in the past that their wards would be last in line for estate upgrades if they voted for the opposition, he said this had left a bad taste in his mouth during his youth.

“My peers and I didn’t feel like this was a Singapore we can be proud of. We didn’t feel such affinity to a country ruled by people with such small hearts,” he said at the rally in Bedok Stadium, located in East Coast GRC.

For the fifth time, WP is going head-to-head with the PAP in the constituency. It lost narrowly to the ruling party in 2020, with 46.61 per cent of the vote.

At the rally on the seventh day of hustings, the Leader of the Opposition laid out what he considers examples of negative politics by the PAP.

During the Covid-19 pandemic, the People’s Association had given grassroots advisers – including unelected ones – information on which residents were recovering from the infection, so that they could deliver care packs. But WP MPs did not get such access, he noted.

Elected opposition MPs were also kept away when new citizens were welcomed to the community at citizenship ceremonies, while losing PAP candidates presided over them, Mr Singh said.

“With immigration and integration being such a big part of our social landscape in Singapore, I am taken aback by how the PAP does not walk the talk when it speaks of a united Singapore to deal with the challenges of tomorrow,” he said.

Calling on PM Wong to change this policy, Mr Singh said: “In the long run, Singapore will lose with such a mentality from PAP political leaders. Even if the PAP cannot, Singapore can do much better than that.”

The Prime Minister earlier rebuked WP for its negative tone and attacks on Deputy Prime Minister Gan Kim Yong and his team. “Let’s reject this kind of negative politics. You should be better than this,” said PM Wong.

During his 20-minute speech, Mr Singh asked the PAP if it would allow elected WP MPs to use community clubs for food donation or distribution drives for low-income households.

“Please say yes or no before Polling Day. Let me know, so I can go and debate with PM Lawrence Wong in Parliament what is the real meaning of negative politics,” said Mr Singh.

“But if you say ‘no, cannot – you cannot come into the CCs, let things be the way they are’, it is okay. The spirit of Hougang lives in our people, and the Workers’ Party will find a way to help those people in need.”

Mr Singh said WP MPs have not been given access to use community clubs since 1981.

He also invited PAP’s East Coast GRC candidates to clarify which programmes they would halt, should they lose the electoral contest.

“Be upfront with our people, so voters can decide if the PAP really cares about East Coast or if there is no ‘together’ in their East Coast Plan,” he said.

Mr Singh argued that the PAP changed strategy over the years by allowing opposition-held estates to get public housing upgrades at the same time as, or in some cases earlier than, PAP-run estates, because the ruling party realised that its “bullying sticks and disrespectful carrots” did not work.

He said this changed because the policy lost votes for the PAP, and that the ruling party “only listens when it loses vote share and parliamentary seats to the Workers’ Party”.

“Why do you think Lee Hsien Loong and Lawrence Wong are going to Tampines, going to Punggol?” he asked.

On April 29, Senior Minister Lee Hsien Loong joined the party’s Tampines GRC team on a walkabout in the town, while PM Wong did the same with the PAP’s team in Punggol GRC.

The WP is contesting these constituencies.

Added Mr Singh: “No political pressure in Parliament against the PAP, no results on the ground, no fairness, no justice on the ground.”

Mr Singh also said: “A previous prime minister said that he would have to spend his time fixing the opposition if it gains five, 10 or 20 seats. And he said this when the opposition only had two seats in Parliament.

“This is the PAP DNA. I wonder what Prime Minister Lawrence Wong would say about this – is this negative politics?”

Mr Singh, meanwhile, said that if WP wins East Coast GRC, it will not label its banners with words like “WP-run town council” – what the PAP has done with its town council banners in the last few years.

“Communities and towns are about the people who live in them,” he said, adding that the green ratings of WP town councils speak for themselves.

Town councils here are rated green, amber or red based on their estate cleanliness, estate maintenance, lift performance, management of service and conservancy charge arrears, and corporate governance. Green is the highest score.

Ultimately, Mr Singh appealed to East Coast GRC residents to vote with this in mind: “Our little red dot will shine bright when our hearts are large.”

New way forward for East Coast

Several speakers at the rally also spoke about how East Coast voters have been let down by the PAP.

Mr Yee Jenn Jong, who helms the WP’s East Coast GRC team, and incumbent Hougang MP Dennis Tan pointed to how constituencies had disappeared whenever the PAP did not do well.

Describing the boundary changes in East Coast as repeated instances of gerrymandering, Mr Tan urged voters to put a stop to them by voting in the WP.

Echoing the sentiment, Mr Sufyan Mikhail Putra, an East Coast GRC candidate, said: “Maybe this is our final chance to turn East Coast blue.” 

Meanwhile, his teammate Nathaniel Koh reminded voters of the “promise” made in the 2020 General Election when Deputy Prime Minister Heng Swee Keat was moved from Tampines GRC to helm East Coast GRC.

“Five years ago, you were promised a future prime minister. Some of you might have voted for them because of that promise. But what happened? It became an empty promise,” said Mr Koh, asking voters to “choose another way forward”.

The WP East Coast GRC candidates also took aim at their PAP opponents, led by Minister for Culture, Community and Youth Edwin Tong.

Noting that Mr Tong had called for policy suggestions to go beyond rhetoric and sound bites at a rally, Mr Yee said: “Mr Edwin Tong must have a very practical and sensible plan to bring Singapore to the World Cup finals in 2034.”

He was referring to the goal for the Lions to play in the 2034 World Cup, which has drawn comparisons with the original aim to do so by 2010.

“After all, Mr Sitoh Yih Pin... said that we are so lucky to have (Mr Tong) because he is like the Lionel Messi of Singapore,” he added.

Mr Sitoh, the incumbent MP for Potong Pasir who is retiring from politics, had said at a rally that Mr Tong was as important to Singapore as the Argentinian footballer is to his national team.

Mr Sufyan, meanwhile, noted that PAP East Coast GRC candidate Hazlina Abdul Halim had apologised at an April 26 rally about life having become tougher for some young people.

Citing this, he said: “Do you want your MP to apologise to you because your lives are tougher or do you want your MP to find solutions to make your lives better?”

Ms Paris V. Parameswari, also on WP’s East Coast slate, spoke about how the Government had “lost touch”, citing the mishandling of private data when NRIC data was leaked on the Accounting and Corporate Regulatory Authority website, among other things.

She also called for Thaipusam to be reinstated as a public holiday, noting that the festival has become a “spiritually significant affair for many Hindus in Singapore”. 

Promising to do her best if elected, she said: “I can be caring and passionate, like Mother Teresa. But if the need arises to be a voice in Parliament, to ask questions fearlessly, I can be like Margaret Thatcher, the Iron Lady.”