SINGAPORE: At a doorstop interview with the media on Apr 25, the third day of the campaign for the May 3 polls, Workers’ Party (WP) chief Pritam Singh was asked to weigh in on a remark Prime Minister Lawrence Wong had made at the first People’s Action Party (PAP) rally the night before.
“Yes, look at the PAP candidates, consider them carefully, but I will also say, don’t give the opposition a free pass,” Mr Wong had said, before going on to remind rally goers that, “when the election is over, the real contest is not the PAP versus the opposition. It is Singapore versus the world. It is our little red dot versus a dangerous and troubled world.”
A journalist told Mr Singh that the context of PM Wong’s remark was the premise that there’s already a sizable opposition in Parliament. He also asked Mr Singh how he feels the WP candidates size up in comparison with the candidates from the ruling People’s Action Party (PAP).
“I can understand why the Prime Minister would have that view. He wants as many of his MPs in Parliament as possible, so I think it’s natural that he would say that. We’ve put out our vision of at least one-third of MPs in Parliament being opposition MPs, so we have a difference of opinion there as to what is sufficient at this point in terms of the evolution of our political systems.”
However, Mr Singh reminded voters that a comparison between the candidates from the WP and the PAP should be backbencher against backbencher, because the WP MPs would not take any political office and be in government.
“So, what my proposition to voters to consider is to understand that backbencher for backbencher, we’ve got a serious choice there,” he said, adding that the WP has put forward a group of candidates for Singaporeans to consider their choice carefully, but he would respect their choices.
In response to a question from another journalist, he said that Singaporeans have become more sophisticated and that Singapore is made stronger by a stronger opposition.
Mr Singh, together with party chair Sylvia Lim, were with the WP slate at East Coast GRC—Yee Jenn Jong, Nathaniel Koh, Sufyan Mikhail Putra, Jasper Kuan, and Paris V—on Friday.
The WP chief, who is looking to get voted into Parliament to represent the Eunos ward in Aljunied GRC for a fourth time, also talked about being Singapore’s loyal opposition at length at the party’s first rally in Sengkang the night before.
“The Workers’ Party has been stress-tested when Singapore was in crisis. The Workers’ Party is a force for good. We are a loyal opposition, not loyal to the PAP but to Singapore and the people of Singapore.
The reality is this: when you have an opposition in Parliament, your voice and your views are heard by the government. There is real pressure on the PAP to act, particularly if the views advanced by the Workers’ Party are shared by all Singaporeans.
We cannot be passive citizens, we must be active participants in our democracy. We have to be fighters when we need to be, just like what the people and Hougang have taught us,” he had said to an audience that reportedly numbered 10,000. /TISG
Read also: Sylvia Lim: ‘Every GE is a battle for hearts and minds’