EXCHANGE FOLLOWED PODCAST APPEARANCE
The exchange comes after Mr Singh said on a local current affairs podcast that it was not wrong for political parties to take positions on foreign policy matters.
Mr Singh was answering a question on how he felt about party members expressing their views on “contentious” issues that arise outside of Singapore, including on the Palestine issue and the humanitarian crisis in Gaza.
“The lenses that we’re seeing it through is not through the lenses of race, not through the lenses of religion, but we’re seeing the issue through the lenses of humanity as Singaporeans, and I don’t think we are worse off or weakened by that sort of view on a particular international issue,” said Mr Singh in an episode of the Yah Lah But podcast released on Monday.
“I’m not going to fetter the right of the party to have an opinion on these things. But if people think that the WP is using this to appeal to certain communities. I think that’s a very mistaken view,” he added.
In his Facebook post, Mr Cheng agreed that political parties have a right to take a stance on foreign policy and said that Mr Singh was “absolutely correct” in saying that the WP should have a stance on the matter.
“But I do not believe that the WP did not cynically take a stronger position (on) Palestine just before the elections,” said Mr Cheng, adding that the WP “should be honest about its tactics and not be disingenuous”.
He said that, as racial and religious politics are “taboo” in Singapore, the WP “dresses” up its position as being “pro-humanity”. “Nobody should fall for this,” he added.
In his comment on Mr Cheng’s post, Mr Singh said: “On the ground … the humanity-focused concerns are realer than you think.”
In a reply to Mr Singh’s comment, Mr Cheng countered his assertion on demographic numbers, saying that they “do add up”, and that a 15 per cent to 20 per cent voting bloc is “enough to swing any constituency”.
“The humanity-focused concerns, of course, are real. In all countries. Nobody wants to see civilians suffer,” Mr Cheng added.
“But whether these more general concerns, rather than religious affinity, are strong enough during an election to affect votes is a separate question. But agree to disagree.”
