SINGAPORE: In a rebuttal of remarks by Prime Minister Lawrence Wong, Workers’ Party (WP) chief Pritam Singh said in a rally speech on Tuesday (Apr 29) that the People’s Action Party’s (PAP) “crippling” of opposition town councils over the years showed how it was the ruling party that had negative politics in its “DNA”.
Speaking in East Coast GRC at the WP’s fourth rally leading up to Singapore’s May 3 polls, Mr Singh cited examples such as how opposition Members of Parliament (MPs) are denied access to community clubs in their wards, and not invited to attend citizenship ceremonies which are instead presided over by losing PAP candidates.
Earlier in the day, Mr Wong had said it was “rather disappointing” that the WP had launched “negative attacks” on Deputy Prime Minister Gan Kim Yong and the rest of the PAP team in Punggol GRC.
This was after a WP rally on Monday that saw several speakers singling out Mr Gan for criticism.
Mr Wong said: “Let’s reject this kind of negative politics. You should be better than this.”
In response, Mr Singh on Tuesday night raised the issue of how Housing Board upgrading plans in opposition-held wards used to be de-prioritised by the government.
He noted that this has changed, with upgrading plans in both PAP and opposition wards now being carried out “at the same time”. In some cases, upgrading projects such as the Home Improvement Programme are carried out in opposition wards “earlier”, said Mr Singh.
“As far as I can see, priority is based on objective criteria across all town councils, which should have been the case all along.”
Mr Singh said the PAP had “changed its strategy because their bullying sticks and disrespectful carrots did not work”, adding that it had cost the ruling party votes and “backlash” in other constituencies.
The opposition leader went on to say that the PAP “tried other policies designed to cripple town councils and elected town councillors in opposition wards”, citing CIPC or Community Improvement Projects Committee funds.
