Following the Progress Singapore Party (PSP)’s first walkabout today, Emeritus Senior Minister Goh Chok Tong said the party helmed by Dr Tan Cheng Bock was “eyeing Marine Parade”.
Members and volunteers of the PSP visited 29 constituencies across Singapore and received a warm welcome showing progress made by the party on the ground since its inception.
In a social media post, ESM Goh wrote, “PSP eyeing Marine Parade. ‘Et tu, Brute?” and shared images of PSP members and volunteers during the walkabout.
The phrase “Et tu, Brute?” is a Latin sentence meaning “Even you, Brutus?” from the Julius Caesar play by William Shakespeare. Caesar utters these words as he is being stabbed to death, having recognized his friend Brutus among the assassins.
Dr Tan Cheng Bock and ESM Goh were classmates back in Raffles Institution, knowing each other for over 60 years.
Dr Tan is one of the three visitors, apart from the immediate family, allowed to visit the former PM when he underwent surgery for prostate cancer five years ago.
In his quote, ESM Goh is probably referring to himself as Caesar, and Dr Tan as Brutus, his friend turned assassin.
In an earlier Facebook post, ESM Goh wrote that Dr Tan Cheng Bock has “lost his way”.
He likened Dr Tan to “Don Quixote tilting at windmills,” which means wasting energy while attacking imaginary enemies, based on an expression in the Spanish novel by Miguel de Cervantes.
Before the creation of Marine Parade GRC, Goh had been the Member of Parliament for the Marine Parade single-member constituency since was first elected in 1976.
Since the 1988 elections, until the present, ESM Goh is the Member of Parliament for Marine Parade GRC. /TISG