GE2025: PSP urges release of findings on volunteer harassment allegations before polls
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PSP's candidates for West Coast-Jurong West GRC, (from left) Dr Tan Cheng Bock, Mr Sumarleki Amjah, Mr Leong Mun Wai, Mr Sani Ismail and Ms Hazel Poa, at Jurong West on April 30.
ST PHOTO: KELVIN CHNG
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SINGAPORE – The results of the police investigation into PAP and PSP volunteers’ allegations of harassment that each party made of the other in January should be released to the public within the campaign period so voters can decide on who is right, PSP chairman Tan Cheng Bock said on April 30.
Dr Tan, who is contesting West Coast-Jurong West GRC, said during a walkabout in Jurong West: “We are a country of very educated people. We must behave ourselves. And they know I’m very strict because I don’t like people to shout and fight each other.”
He was referring to a Jan 4 incident between PSP and PAP volunteers at a walkabout
Each side had made allegations of harassment against the other, and offered different accounts of what happened. Police reports were also lodged.
With just two days of campaigning left before Singapore goes to the polls on May 3, PSP first vice-chair Hazel Poa brought up the January incident, saying she had raised it before but has yet to receive a response from the Government.
“These are very serious allegations,” she said. “We urge the outcomes of the investigations to be released to the public so they can know the truth.”
The Straits Times has contacted the police for comment.
The PSP’s Mr Harish Pillay is facing incumbent PAP MP Low Yen Ling in Bukit Gombak SMC.
In West Coast-Jurong West GRC, the PSP team, which includes Dr Tan, Ms Poa and party chief Leong Mun Wai, is up against a team from the PAP led by National Development Minister Desmond Lee.
Mr Leong also responded to several issues which have emerged during the hustings, including the GST and government spending.
On April 29, Law and Home Affairs Minister K. Shanmugam had during a rally
Mr Leong said: “GST is a regressive tax. You cannot run away from that, right? What the Government has done is that they give GST vouchers to the lowest-income Singaporeans, but it doesn’t alter the fact that GST is a regressive tax.”
He added that middle-class Singaporeans are being squeezed by such taxes, calling them a “sandwiched class”.
He added that Singapore does not need the additional revenue from the GST increase, saying the Government should choose instead to forgo spending on infrastructure – such as upgrades to Changi Airport – to improve the welfare and standard of living for Singaporeans.
“This Government has buckets of excess resources on their hands, and they still continue to raise the taxes,” he said. “It (the excess revenue) is just locked up in some funds and will be spent over the long term.”
Citing the $5 billion top-up to the Changi Airport Development Fund,
He added that other expenses that can be cut include public funding for SPH Media Trust, SkillsFuture and the People’s Association.
Mr Leong added that the Government, including Mr Lee, have not responded to the PSP’s proposals during the hustings.
He reiterated the PSP’s concerns about the rising cost of Housing Board flats, and said the party has proposals to ensure affordable housing.
Mr Leong said: “The Government is totally distorting the original purpose of public housing, and PSP strongly invites Minister Desmond Lee to debate that point.”
He also spoke about municipal issues faced by residents in West Coast-Jurong West GRC, saying the lifts in Jurong Spring are due for upgrades.
He said: “The size of the lift is only (large) enough for one wheelchair to go in and then take one more person.
“How come? Over the last 20 years, the Government didn’t upgrade all of these lifts in Jurong Spring? I demand, I request, Minister Desmond Lee to give a definitive answer.”
The cost of healthcare is another issue that has been raised by opposition parties on the campaign trail.
Weighing in on this topic, Dr Tan, a former general practitioner, said that the PSP has ideas on how to manage healthcare costs.
The party will champion these ideas if elected into Parliament, he said, pointing to the concept of “home care” as being a critical lever to alleviating healthcare costs.
He said: “My belief is that the healthcare delivery system we created is too expensive.
“I suggest that we must go back to outside hospital care because outside hospital care, I think, is so much cheaper.”
The future of healthcare is “home care”, Dr Tan said.
He added: “If we don’t have a home care delivery system, a system which involves all ordinary Singaporeans to participate and families to take part, we are going to have a big, big problem on health costs.”
The Government should learn to accept other ideas, he added.
He said: “They don’t have the monopoly of ideas. We want to give them some of our ideas.”
