“POSITIVE” RESPONSE FROM PM: PRITAM
On Thursday, Mr Pritam Singh, who was also present, was asked to respond to Mr Wong saying he was open to debating and adjusting policies.
The opposition leader said that was “probably one of the more positive responses” he had heard from the PAP “in a long time”.
As for the distinction between negative politics and policies, Mr Pritam Singh referred to what former Prime Minister Goh Chok Tong had said about former opposition Member of Parliament J B Jeyaretnam not being given access to community clubs or grassroot organisations.
Mr Jeyaretnam had won the Anson constituency in a by-election held in 1981.
“It was a clear decision, and … it was a political decision,” Mr Pritam Singh said.
The WP secretary-general added that he hoped to see change, referring to another point he made in a rally on Tuesday about opposition MPs not being invited to attend citizenship ceremonies, which are instead presided over by losing PAP candidates.
“Immigration is a big part of our society, and if we tell new citizens who come to Singapore that there is this distinction in politics, how are we ever going to become a united society?
“I think we can do much better as a society, as a country; and I hope to advance this in parliament if I am elected,” he said.
With the election coming to a conclusion, Mr Pritam Singh was also asked how he would measure success for his party, specific to parliamentary presence. There are 97 seats up for grabs; the WP has fielded 26 candidates this year.
The WP leader did not directly answer, instead pointing to the difficulty of each election.
“I unfortunately probably can’t shed much light at the moment, because it’s not so easy to read the ground sometimes and we have to respect that.
“Any election is a difficult election for the Workers’ Party because in many places we are not incumbent, and we are basically putting out a platform and encouraging voters to build, to evolve our political system to be more balanced,” he said.
“The reason we do so is we believe that Singapore and Singaporeans will be better off with this diversity in parliament.”
