Residents of East Coast GRC and Fengshan SMC, my fellow Singaporeans, good evening! Da Jia Wan Shang Hao! Salam Sejahtera! Vanakkam!
Please allow me to speak briefly in our national language Malay and then Chinese before I speak in English.
This is our last rally of this campaign. I want to start by thanking the PAP for all its contributions to Singapore, as I did in the TV debate where I represented the Workers’ Party 9 days ago.
And I want to say this even though I know that the PAP will never, ever thank any Opposition party for contributing anything to Singapore.
I say this to stress the Workers’ Party does not want to undermine what is good about Singapore. In Parliament we supported what they did that was good, like the Pioneer Generation Package, and we criticized what was bad, like the Population White Paper.
But my friends, Singapore’s success was not just due to the PAP. We should thank our pioneer generation Singaporeans. Many of them are still working hard to make ends meet, content in the hope that their children’s life will be better than theirs.
We should thank the philanthropists who built schools and hospitals – like Tan Kah Kee, Lee Kong Chian, Syed Omar bin Mohammed Alsagoff and P. Govindasamy Pillai.
We should thank civil society activists like Teresa Hsu.
We should thank our pioneering civil servants like Mr Ngiam Tong Dow, who said that Singapore is more than just the PAP.
Thanks to all their contributions, we are proud to be Singaporeans today. What is important is not only the relationship between the PAP and Singapore, but also our relationships as Singaporeans with one another.
My friends, it is said that Singapore is a country that works. But works at doing what? Is it what you want?
Singapore is rated top in the world in many things. But as you weigh up how to cast your precious vote, please ask this. Can you identify in your heart with all the policies of the government?
My friends, remember 2001. If a party campaigned for the general election in 2001 and promised to grow the population from 4 million to 5.5 million, under-investing in flats trains, buses and hospitals … if a party promised to do all that, would you have voted for them?
No. Yet the PAP secured 75% of the vote share in 2001. And with that mandate, they went on to do just that.
That did not happen because the PAP are bad people, that did not happen because they were corrupt… They’re not. It happened because the PAP just had different ideas about where country should go – different from you. Their policies no longer reflected the political character of Singapore. And they were able to win election after election thanks to their many advantages in this system.
The PAP started reversing course only after 2011, after your vote got them to do so. The Prime Minister called it a strategic shift. I call it a political shift. We supported it because it was a step in the right direction.
But we in the Workers’ Party did not reverse. We were always there. We are the party of David Marshall, founded in 1957. We always embraced rational, social-democratic principles that support, not undermine, economic competiveness. Our 2011 manifesto called for delinking HDB BTO prices from resale prices and for compulsory medical insurance for risk pooling. The PAP did both after 2011. We always sought a Singapore where everyone can fulfill their true potential, not only the so-called “natural aristocracy.”
The past four years stand as proof that Singapore works better with a strong, responsible opposition.
The credit goes not to the WP or the PAP. The PAP are not heroes for starting to fix the problems they themselves created. You are the heroes for making sure they did so. You are the heroes for asserting that this is OUR country. It does not belong to any party, either the PAP or the Workers’ Party.
My friends, there is still too much more to do.
We have to fix our retirement system, our transport system, our population policy, our housing prices, our social safety nets for the poorest.
What connects all of these problems together is a deeper problem.
The 2011 Asia Barometer Survey revealed that 58% of Singaporeans felt that they don’t have the power to influence government policy and actions. Is this healthy for Singapore?
The PAP have asked you for a stronger vote share in this election. They are using all the government machinery at their disposal to back them up. We know them, we know how they work.
Friends, we have been talking to many voters in East Cast and Fengshan. Why did they carve out Fengshan SMC from East Coast GRC? Do you want to reward their action?
And my friends, we know East Coast may be a close contest. In the last election WP NCMP Yee Jenn Jong lost in Joo Chiat by a few hundred votes. If the Workers’ Party loses East Coast by a few hundred votes, do you think that East Coast will remain intact for the next election?
In this election, we ask you not just to vote against the PAP but to vote for the Workers’ Party. We all think of the WP hammer as something to whack, to hantam. But the hammer is also a tool to build. The hammer knocks in the nails, joins the wood and helps build a new home.
In all the constituencies with WP MPs, our WP team has maintained town council services to the same standard as the PAP according to the HDB’s own TCMR report. We run vibrant grassroots activities for residents. We reach out to families and help solve problems. We work alongside the PA and PAP grassroots in doing so. And we do this in spite of not having even a tiny fraction of the resources the PAP has from the People’s Association. We work very hard to do so – that’s why we’re called the Workers’ Party, you know.
The backbone of this work is our wonderful WP volunteers. They will not get any national day medals or priority admission to choice schools for their kids. They do it because they love Singapore. They are the most awesome group of people I know, they are my heroes.
If you give us a chance to serve you, we will do the same in your constituencies. We’ll use our hammer to build.
Friends, you do not have the power to change the MRT system. You do not have the power to change the electoral boundaries. You do not have the power to retire when you want to.
But you have the power to decide how you vote. That one precious vote gives you the power to shape this country.
My friends, let Friday be your day of national service. Please vote for the Workers’ Party to empower your future and to empower your children’s future.
Merperkasakan masa depan anda!
Zhang wo ming chuen, ba wo wei lai!
Thank you.