“My message is not that the PAP, this government, is 100 per cent bad, or that it is 100 per cent good. What I want to get across to you, is that the PAP is most certainly not the exceptional party that it says that it is,” Dr Chee said.
He added that ministers need to be “humble” and acknowledge that the country needs an opposition, like the SDP, in parliament to make the nation stronger.
“Most of all, acknowledge and accept the fact that the PAP needs meaningful opposition in parliament to govern Singapore better.”
On salaries of ministers, a topic that has been largely discussed by opposition parties, Dr Chee said ministers in the country are being paid “such astronomical salaries”.
He said that the reasoning was that if ministers are not paid “what they demand, then they might fall into the seductive hands of corruption”.
“We must educate our ministers that corruption is bad and that if they are caught, there are consequences, period. We don’t pay them exorbitant salaries to not be corrupt. We elect our leaders based on their moral rectitude. Anything less, and we are better off without them,” he said.
He urged the crowd that gathered on Tuesday afternoon to avoid giving “blind support” to the PAP.
“Blind faith allows society into thinking that things are fine when they are clearly not, and worse, that there is no alternative to the PAP,” Dr Chee said.
There were eight speakers at UOB Plaza on Tuesday afternoon, marking the first opposition lunchtime rally this election. It was the SDP’s sixth rally in as many days.
The SDP is fielding 11 candidates in four constituencies this General Election – Bukit Panjang SMC, Marsiling-Yew Tee GRC, Sembawang GRC and Sembawang West SMC.
