Dr Tan Cheng Bock debunks allusion that he said the police is delaying permits for party launch

Progress Singapore Party (PSP) chief Dr Tan Cheng Bock has debunked the allusion that he said the police is causing a “delay” in granting permits for his party launch, that had been scheduled for 15 June.

On Monday (3 June), Dr Tan updated that “the party will have to postpone the launch date as the Police Permit for the event and other related permits such as the Public Entertainment Licence are still pending.”

Expressing his disappointment over the postponement of the event, Dr Tan wrote on social media: “I have told my organising Team that we should comply with all the permits required for the event, no matter how many there are. We are currently looking at a new launch date of end June or sometime in July.”

In a subsequent statement released to the media, the Singapore Police Force (SPF) said that there was no delay in the granting of permits and that the party postponed the event on their own.

SPF said that PSP chairman Wang Swee Chuang applied for a police permit on 3 May. The police requested more information from Mr Wang on the same day and reminded him to provide the information on 7 May.

Revealing the party wanted to play recorded music and screen a video at the event, the police said that it advised the party to apply for a Public Entertainment Licence (PEL), and submit the video to the Info-communications Media Development Authority (IMDA) for classification, as per the usual protocol.

Mr Wang submitted the PEL application upon receiving a reminder on 27 May and was informed that the application would be processed within the next 12 working days. The police said that on 29 May, Mr Wang was reminded to submit the video to IMDA and IMDA shared the video submission process with him.

Asserting that it worked with IMDA to “proactively” engage the party “with the intention of facilitating their approval before the planned event date,” the SPF said: “PSP has since postponed the event, without further contacting Police.”

Dr Tan has since asserted that he never said that the police caused a “delay” in granting permits for a party launch. In a Facebook post published yesterday (5 June), the veteran politician said:

“…some mainstream press reports published on 3 June may have given readers the wrong impression that my previous FB post alleged the Police is causing “delay” in granting permits for our party launch. That’s not the case.

“I clearly stated the approvals were “pending”, meaning “ongoing” or “still in process”. So stay tuned for updates. My young team is working very hard for this exciting launch and I look forward to meeting you there.”

Dr Tan also wished all Muslim friends happiness, peace and blessing on the occasion of Hari Raya Aidilfitri, in the same post. Read his post in full here: