SINGAPORE: In an Apr 25 article in the PAP newsletter, Senior Minister of State Chee Hong Tat took issue with remarks made by Workers’ Party MPs Leon Perera (Aljunied GRC) and Louis Chua (Sengkang GRC) in Parliament concerning the GST and affordable housing, respectively.
The WP responded to the piece in a Wednesday morning (Apr 26) media advisory, saying that it was surprised that Mr Chee “did not rise to debate in Parliament if he was unsatisfied with the replies from Mr Perera and Mr Chua.”
Writing in petir.sg, the political newsletter of the People’s Action Party, Mr Chee said that the WP had opposed the Goods & Services Tax as far back as 1994 and was therefore surprised when Mr Perera said that it was only the most recent increase from 7 to 9 per cent that the WP is opposing.
He also wrote that a January 2023 Credit Suisse report Mr Chua had co-authored that public housing in Singapore is “affordable”. However, the following month, he and other WP MPs criticized the government for the lack of affordable public housing.
In its statement concerning Mr Chee’s piece, the WP wrote:
As Leader of the Opposition Pritam Singh pointed out in Parliament, the government’s raising the issue of the WP’s stance on the GST serves to distract the attention of Singaporeans. If the government believed that the WP stance on accepting a GST level of 7% was vague or unclear, why did the government not clarify this in the Parliamentary debates in 2018, or at any time since, including the Budget debate in 2023? Why bring it up now?
It is troubling that the government could make such an assertion, one that smacks of political opportunism, something DPM Wong ironically warned voters about at the recent Parliamentary debate.
It added that should the WP, in the future, accept a 9 per cent GST, as Mr Chee pointed out, in the same token, the government has also adopted many positions that the WP has proposed, for example, a large bill mandatory hospitalisation insurance proposed in 2006.
The WP added that Mr Chua already responded to comments in Parliament about the research paper he wrote in January 2023 in his capacity as a commercial research analyst, adding that Mr Chee or any other PAP MP expressed dissatisfaction with his reply and asked for clarifications.
Mr Chua clarified that the research paper had been aimed at advising investors on where they can make profits in the housing market. It had been “from the standpoint of prices not curbing sales transactions and not resulting in mass mortgage defaults, considerations relevant to investors when making commercial decisions.”
“Going forward, we hope Mr Chee is prepared to debate the Workers’ Party in Parliament when he disagrees with our positions. This would not be an unreasonable expectation of any serious government, anywhere in the world,” wrote The Workers’ Party.
Mr Chee’s piece may be read here. /TISG