Singapore—On Tuesday (Dec 31), lawyer and opposition politician Lim Tean declared in a Facebook post that the political party that he founded, People’s Voice, is the party that ruling People’s Action Party (PAP) most fears.
Mr Lim began his post with the premise that PAP’s “propaganda broadsheets, the MSM” (mainstream media) do not carry news items that pertain to the People’s Voice in the hopes that “the lack of publicity will make us invisible to the Singapore public.”
He went on to say that this has been an established practice, citing how Napoleon would never mention the generals whom he “admired or feared.”
The People’s Voice, Mr Lim claimed, has spoken out on a number of controversial issues over the year, including “CECA, immigration, foreign talent, 10 million population, scholarships and grants for foreign students,” which the ruling party has not responded to.
However, he suggests a correlation between these issues and the fact that actions have been initiated after his party called the government out, writing, “after we spoke out continuously against the outrageous grants and scholarships given to foreign students, the Government increased bursaries for Singaporean students!”
He also wrote that Trade and Industry Minister Chan Chun Sing will be holding a dialogue concerning “POFMA, CECA and other issues,” which the People’s Voice has been “speaking on non-stop for the past 2-3 months”.
Mr Lim added that “the icing on the cake” is that when People’s Voice mentioned that 2019 “has been a very wasted Bicentennial year when it should have been a historic opportunity for Singapore to show the World how we have matured as a People and a Nation over the last 200 years… What did we see today? Lee Hsien Loong delivers his New Year message from the Bicentennial exhibition at Fort Canning!
We are not beating our own drums, but you have to admit PV are effective!”
https://www.facebook.com/PeoplesVoiceSingapore/photos/a.2078282232439972/2449256822009176/?type=3&theater
Mr Lim’s post claiming that Peoples Voice is the most feared opponent of the PAP has been widely shared and commented on, with many netizens agreeing with Mr Lim and expressing support for both him and the party.
Mr Lim started People’s Voice late in 2018, when it became the 11th political party in Singapore. He had said earlier in the year that it would not follow the traditional forms of other political parties. TODAY quotes him as saying then, “I am the party leader, but we do not have the secretary-general position in the party. We are doing things differently.”
Some of the issues that he promised to deal with were the salaries of ministers and water prices.
Previous to the founding of People’s Voice, Mr Lim had been the Secretary-General of the National Solidarity Party from 30 August 2015 to 18 May 2017.
As a lawyer, he was thrust into national prominence when he represented Leong Sze Hian, a blogger, in the case brought against him by Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong. -/TISG
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