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SINGAPORE: Singapore Democratic Party (SDP) chief Chee Soon Juan laid out a slew of “PAP scandals and screw-ups” during a lunchtime rally at UOB Plaza on Tuesday (April 29), as he pointed out how the quality of current ministers “leaves very much to be desired”.
Asserting that he has “no interest in conducting PAP bashing”, Dr Chee said that he had to list the scandals “only because our PAP ministers keep running the propaganda that they are exceptional and they don’t need an opposition to hold them accountable”.
Speaking about controversies such as the way then-Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong handled an affair between two MPs, the use of TraceTogether data, the NRIC number disclosures, he said:
“My message is not that the PAP, this government, is 100 per cent bad, or that it is 100 per cent good. What I want to get across to you, is that the PAP is most certainly not the exceptional party that it says that it is.”
Calling on ministers to be humble and recognise that Singapore needs an opposition, he added, “Most of all, acknowledge and accept the fact that the PAP needs meaningful opposition in parliament to govern Singapore better.”
He also criticised relying on “astronomical salaries” to prevent ministers from falling into “the seductive hands of corruption”. He said, “We must educate our ministers that corruption is bad and that if they are caught, there are consequences, period. We don’t pay them exorbitant salaries to not be corrupt. We elect our leaders based on their moral rectitude. Anything less, and we are better off without them.”
Calling on voters to refrain from having blind faith in the ruling party, he said, “Blind faith allows society into thinking that things are fine when they are clearly not, and worse, that there is no alternative to the PAP.”
He also appealed to voters to “be bold, be brave, be on the right side of history”, saying, “Let us lead not with fear, but with faith in our people. Let us lead not by clinging on to the past, but by focusing boldly in the future.”
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The veteran opposition figure who is mounting a one-on-one challenge at Sembawang West SMC added, “Times have changed, and the people want openness and transparency. They want to be reasoned with, not talked down to.
“They want and demand a more democratic system, one where the government censors less and listens more.”
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