National Solidarity Party (NSP) has released a statement saying that the Bukit Batok by-election result revealed that there was no necessity for the Group Representation Constituency (GRC) system.
Pointing to the election wins of minorities, J B Jeyaretnam, Michael Palmer and now Murali Pillai, the opposition party said that Singaporeans were not averse to electing minority candidates. It asked Singaporeans to call on the Government to dismantle the system.
NSP said that the Tampines GRC is an example of a ward where three political unknowns entered Parliament hanging on to the coattails of the two anchor-Ministers in that constituency in the 2015 General Election (GE2015).
NSP fielded a team of five in Tampines GRC in GE2015 headed by its President, Mr Sebastian Teo. It won less than 28 percent of the votes cast.
An anonymous website revealed at the time of GE2015 that Mr Teo had been convicted of corruption charges 35 years ago while he was an employee of the Ministry of Defence, and that he had been declared bankrupt before. Mr Teo admitted the allegations but dismissed them as “gutter politics” of his opponents.
NSP also irked many opposition supporters last year when it decided to go for a three-way contest with Workers’ Party and the PAP in MacPherson single member constituency.
NSP in their recent statement said that Singaporeans had demonstrated that they will not accept “gutter politics which has become the hallmark of its (PAP’s) election strategy.” Character assassins do nothing to elevate political discourse, the political party said.
NSP dismissed the 2015 General Election results as an aberration caused by the SG50 celebrations and the death of Singapore’s first prime Minister, Mr Lee Kuan Yew. The People’s Action Party (PAP) made full use of the aberration for its unexpected victory last year, said NSP’s secretary-general Lim Tean in the party statement.
“It is clear that the policies of the PAP are rejected by at least 40% of Singaporeans,” said NSP in explaining how it has been energised by the Bukit Batok by-election results to step-up and engage Singaporeans again.
