GE2025: ‘Plain and simple’ electioneering to claim losing ministers won’t weaken Govt, says ESM Goh
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Emeritus Senior Minister Goh Chok Tong and Manpower Minister Tan See Leng greeting supporters before a PAP rally at Keat Hong Plaza on April 26.
ST PHOTO: KELVIN CHNG
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SINGAPORE - The opposition’s assertions that the PAP government will not be weakened if it loses ministers is “plain and simple” electioneering that misleads voters, said Emeritus Senior Minister Goh Chok Tong.
In a Facebook post on April 30, he used the analogy of a football team to refer to Singapore’s political office-holders.
“If four seasoned members of a football team’s starting 11 are absent, will the team be weaker? According to the opposition, the answer is ‘no’. Because you can use the reserves, they say,” the 83-year-old wrote.
“How can that be? Even with capable substitutes, nothing beats having your first team on the field.”
Throughout the hustings, various opposition parties have made the case that more opposition MPs in Parliament will not weaken the Government, and will instead result in more ideas and scrutiny of policies that would benefit Singaporeans.
In his post, ESM Goh painted the scenario of the WP winning all 26 seats it is contesting at the general election, and the PSP winning five seats in West Coast-Jurong West GRC.
This would result in a “scoreline” of 66 PAP MPs and 31 opposition MPs, noted ESM Goh, who was Singapore’s second prime minister from 1990 to 2004.
The WP is fielding 26 candidates in three SMCs and five GRCs, including East Coast GRC, Punggol GRC and Tampines GRC.
The PAP losing in these eight constituencies and West Coast-Jurong West would mean the loss of 10 political office-holders, ESM Goh said.
These include four seasoned ministers – Deputy Prime Minister Gan Kim Yong, who is contesting Punggol GRC; Minister for Culture, Community and Youth Edwin Tong in East Coast GRC; Social and Family Development Minister Masagos Zulkifli in Tampines GRC; and National Development Minister Desmond Lee in West Coast-Jurong West GRC.
“This will undeniably hamstring PM Wong for the upcoming term of government. He will find it difficult to play against other teams on the global stage,” he said.
“In a world at risk of becoming ‘might is right’, we need the strongest team for our little red dot.”
ESM Goh, in an April 25 Facebook post
On April 30, he said: “Singapore deserves the best team to lead us domestically and internationally. It also deserves honest political debate.”
In a separate Facebook post on May 1, ESM Goh said the real issue at the election is voting in the best team to be Singapore’s “national guardian”.
He urged voters to scrutinise each party’s manifesto and assess the competency, track record, character, trustworthiness and values of its candidates, adding that how they campaigned would have shed light on their character, motivation and ability.
ESM Goh wrote: “Do they (candidates) offer real solutions to problems or are they posturing only to win votes?”
He concluded the post by encouraging voters to give whichever party that passes muster a strong mandate to govern.
“I fully understand the desire of many to have diversity and checks in Parliament on the ruling party. But as all of us vote at the same time, we cannot calibrate our votes to have the ideal or desired balance of seats between the parties in Parliament,” he said.
