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SINGAPORE – Voters in Punggol GRC who choose the WP at the ballot box will be doing so to the benefit of all Singaporeans who want a more balanced Parliament, and a fair and accountable electoral boundary review process, said WP chief Pritam Singh.
In a pitch to voters in the new constituency on April 28, Mr Singh called on them to send a strong message to the PAP, and show the ruling party “the limits and futility” of redrawing electoral boundaries and announcing them only a month or two before the polls.
“This is not Mission Impossible. It is Mission Possible,” Mr Singh told spectators at a rally at Yusof Ishak Secondary School in Sumang Walk. There are 123,820 registered electors in Punggol GRC.
“Your role in this election is very significant… If you vote (for) the Workers’ Party, you will be doing an incredible service to the nation,” he added.
“The PAP Government’s Electoral Boundaries Review Committee cannot merge Punggol GRC into Johor,” Mr Singh quipped.
He added: “Punggol, you can send a strong message to the PAP. You can change some electoral boundaries every year. But don’t mess with Punggol. Don’t mess with Singaporeans.”
Speaking at WP’s third election rally, Mr Singh and other WP candidates also took swipes at the PAP’s team in Punggol led by Deputy Prime Minister Gan Kim Yong and criticised again the timing of the GST hike.
The Leader of the Opposition said WP had done all it could in Parliament to stop the ruling party from raising the goods and services tax when inflation was raging.
But the PAP was able to get away with making such decisions as it does not face enough political pressure from elected WP MPs, he argued.
“When the PAP loses votes and seats to the Workers’ Party, it has to take corrective action,” said Mr Singh.
“It will think twice, or even three times, before further raising the GST or implementing other policies that people object to. Or, at the very least, the PAP will consider the timing of their policies much more carefully,” he added.
Mr Singh said having WP MPs in Parliament also means the PAP has no choice but to justify its actions, as opposition backbenchers “ask the questions that Singaporeans want to ask”.
Noting that three of the four PAP candidates in Punggol – DPM Gan, Senior Minister of State Janil Puthucheary and Minister of State Sun Xueling – are political office-holders, Mr Singh added: “Do you think they can question the Government? They are the Government.”
He took aim at Dr Janil, the PAP’s party Whip, and how he did not ensure there were enough PAP MPs to vote for a constitutional amendment for a new legal framework to combat new psychoactive substances in March 2023, which required the support of 63 out of the 93 elected MPs.
“Lucky for them, there were Workers’ Party MPs around,” Mr Singh added.
On DPM Gan, Mr Singh said it was “very strange” that the Cabinet minister was not elected into the PAP’s latest central executive committee in 2024.
“Could it be that he was ready to retire and did not plan to run in this election? If so, can he be so critical to the PM’s plans?” he asked.
“You mean the PM has no one else in his Cabinet that can negotiate with the United States on tariffs? If this is true, to quote Senior Minister Lee Hsien Loong, si liao lah (die already).”
Mr Singh also took a jab at DPM Gan’s comments at an earlier PAP rally in Punggol, where the Deputy Prime Minister said he would “talk to his good friend”, Prime Minister Lawrence Wong, to get funds for infrastructure in the town.
“Do I need to be his friend for taxpayer funding to be allocated to Punggol? No,” Mr Singh said.
“As a Singaporean, I expect fair allocation of taxpayer resources to all our people,” he added, noting that despite WP winning Aljunied GRC, his Eunos ward will have a new polyclinic and a new general hospital.
Added Mr Singh: “The PAP has learnt through the years that putting opposition wards last for upgrading and last for national projects creates a backlash against them in all constituencies in Singapore. So I have every confidence Punggol will be well served.”
WP’s Punggol candidate Alexis Dang said statements such as that made by DPM Gan about being good friends with PM Wong reflect a troubling reality about Singapore’s politics today.
She also called on voters to reject the use of key government figures as political pawns.
Mr Harpreet Singh, who leads the WP’s Punggol team, sought to deal with three main concerns he had heard from Punggol residents during the hustings.
He assured voters that national plans, such as the Punggol Digital District, will carry on regardless of the party that is voted in, and the WP team will conduct town hall meetings to get views from residents to drive town improvements.
If elected, the team will take over the town council and run it effectively, said Mr Harpreet Singh.
“You can ask your friends and family in Sengkang. Has the condition of Sengkang gone down after the Workers’ Party took over? Absolutely not,” he said.
He promised to pare down his legal work and “give practically all of (his) time” to Punggol voters, if elected.
The senior counsel also called on DPM Gan, who chairs the Monetary Authority of Singapore, to respond to an open letter by Mr Tan Suee Chieh, former chief executive of NTUC Income Insurance, about Mr Gan’s role in the scuppered deal to sell a majority stake of the home-grown insurer to German multinational Allianz.
Mr Harpreet Singh said Punggol GRC residents are ultimately not voting just for Punggol, but for Singapore’s future direction.
“You’ll be voting not just for present generations, but generations unborn.”
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