Empower Your Future – Vote WP for Blue Skies
Good evening, fellow Singaporeans and voters of Nee Soon GRC!
Lately, the PAP has been nicer to the people. It has finally remembered the pioneer generation who built Singapore. It has decided to invest in more hospitals, it has bought more buses. Does this mean you should now vote for the PAP? Tonight, I want to convince you why you should NOT vote for the PAP.
The PAP finds opposition MPs troublesome. After the last General Election, Singapore had 9 opposition MPs – six elected MPs from the Workers’ Party, and 3 Non-Constituency MPs. Singapore finally had 10 opposition MPs when the Workers’ Party won the Punggol East By-Election in 2013.
Some of you may recall that 9 years ago, during the 2006 General Election, Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong revealed his true feelings about the numbers of opposition MPs he prefers:
“Right now we have Low Thia Khiang, Chiam See Tong, Steve Chia. We can deal with them. Suppose you had 10, 15, 20 opposition members in Parliament. Instead of spending my time thinking what is the right policy for Singapore, I’m going to spend all my time thinking what’s the right way to fix them, to buy my supporters votes…“
Is the PAP being nicer to you now because they really care about you? Or is the PAP doing what PM Lee said they would do when the number of opposition MPs reaches 10 – buying your votes? And is this why the PAP is spending so much time trying to fix the Workers’ Party?
If you give the PAP a strong vote, the PAP leaders will claim that they have the clear mandate of the people. They will treat you badly, like in the bad old days.
The PAP also has MPs. Can they check the government? What can the PAP MPs do to stop the government from carrying out a policy that the people don’t support? Nothing. The PAP backbenchers can speak and criticise, but they cannot vote against the party. In 2013, Singaporeans expressed so much unhappiness against the Population White Paper to have 6.9 million people living here. The Workers’ Party MPs voted against the White Paper. But not a single PAP MP voted against it. Many speeches, but not one vote. A PAP MP may think that he roars like a tiger in Parliament. But when it comes to a vote, the PAP MP is the real mouse in the house. A little white mouse!
MPs who can vote against wrong policies are so important because the PAP does not have all the answers. The proof of this is in the U-turns that the PAP has made over the last few years.
Let me point out just three PAP U-turns that started after 2011.
First, public transport. The PAP policy is for public transport to be outsourced to Public Transport Operators who are profit-driven. Before 2011, former Transport Minister Raymond Lim said: “In Singapore, the operating costs of the public transport system are covered by the operating revenues. We must keep it this way so that our public transport operators continue to operate efficiently”. But commuters knew that the system was not working efficiently – due to the population explosion, buses were overcrowded and unable to cope with demand.
Poor public transport cost the PAP to lose votes in the last election. After 2011, a new Transport Minister acknowledged that if the PTOs were left on their own, they would not purchase the required number of buses fast enough to cope with demand. The PAP then made a U-turn with the BSEP (Bus Services Enhancement Programme) by injecting $1.1 billion of public funds to purchase 1,000 government-owned buses. After this election, we hope we will have a Transport Minister.
The second U-turn is in public housing. The previous Minster for National Development should have been concerned with making HDB flats available quickly to young couples and other buyers, but he was more worried about things like the holding cost of unoccupied flats. Because of that, the building of flats was slowed down. The cost of new flats was also linked to resale prices, leading the price of new flats to sky-rocket. This caused much unhappiness among Singaporeans. But your unhappiness was ignored.
Ever-rising prices of new flats cost the PAP votes at the last elections. They also cost the PAP to lose Aljunied GRC. After the election, the new Housing Minister made a U-turn by building more flats, and delinking the prices of new flats from resale prices. New flats are now more affordable.
The third U-turn is on the influx of foreigners.
The PAP allowed the population in Singapore to swell by 20% from 4 million in 2000 to 5 million by 2010, due to the liberal and huge influx of foreigners. Singapore was over-crowded and the quality of life of Singaporeans fell. People did not want to go out on weekends to packed malls and other public places. Buses and trains were packed to the seams. After 2011, another U-turn – the PAP now keeps reminding Singaporeans that the inflow of foreigners has been slowed.
The PAP has been trying during this election to convince you that many changes we see around us started before 2011. They are afraid that the Workers’ Party will take credit for the changes.
But we are not taking the credit. The credit belongs to You, the voters! Your votes allowed the Workers’ Party to win a GRC. Your votes forced the PAP to wake up and do something about some of their big mistakes in policy and planning.
People have suffered because of their mistakes. Yet they spend their time attacking the Workers’ Party, when they should focus on apologising to you!
The voters of Aljunied, Hougang and Punggol East have voted for Workers’ Party. We ask for the votes of Nee Soon residents. You must do this for the sake of Your Future. Keep up the pressure on the PAP. Make the PAP work harder!
Before I end, let me share with you something a voter told me this morning when I was with our East Coast and Fengshan candidates at Bedok North. The voter, Mr Tan, said: “If you ask me whether I prefer the Blue Sky, or the White Clouds, I will vote for the Blue Sky. Why? The White Clouds can be blown here and blown there, and change their shape, white clouds can turn grey and even black. But the Blue Sky will always be there.”
The Workers’ Party has always been here.
Empower Your Future. Vote for the Workers’ Party!