Singapore — The opposition Reform Party (RP) joined other Singapore individuals and groups in congratulating Mr Joe Biden and Ms Kamala Harris on their inauguration as President and Vice-President of the United States on Thursday (Jan 21).
The party, which is led by Mr Kenneth Jeyaretnam, also criticised the Singapore Government in the same statement.
After congratulating Mr Biden and Ms Harris, it referred to the latter’s ethnicity and noted how she is making history as the US’ first female Vice-President, first African-American Vice-President and first Tamil-American Vice-President.
The party then drew a comparison to minority political leaders here and reminded Singaporeans about the Government’s stance that Singapore is not ready for a minority race Prime Minister. The party claimed as well that the Government “obviously do not think” Singapore is ready for a female Prime Minister.
Referring to the political tensions in the US, it said: “American democracy has been tested but has not broken and will emerge stronger than ever.
“Singaporeans have unfortunately never experienced democracy since most of the Opposition was detained and the remainder driven out of Parliament in the 1960s.”
It added that holding regular elections is not a sufficient marker of democracy since most institutions are controlled by the ruling party.
There were reactions to the RP statement. A number of people, including Singapore Democratic Party (SDP) chairman Paul Tambyah, liked the statement.
Some of those who commented on it felt that the party had a point.
Others online, however, said the party seemed to be twisting developments in foreign countries to suit its own political agenda. /TISG