RALLY ROUNDUP: DAY ONE

RALLY ROUNDUP (DAY ONE)

 

The election campaign kicked off in earnest with five parties holding rallies. The WP’s Hougang rally drew the biggest crowd, with an estimated 60,000 to 70,000 people turning up. The party has chosen to kick off its campaign in Hougang for symbolic reasons – it was there that its leader Low Thia Khiang first gained election to Parliament in 1991.

 

Meanwhile, the newly-formed Reform Party held its first-ever election rally in West Coast GRC, and attracted a modest but respectable crowd that was estimated at being between 5,000 to 8,000.

 

The ruling PAP kicked off its campaign at Pasir Ris-Punggol GRC – the stronghold of Deputy Prime Minister Teo Chee Hean, while the NSP and SDP held their rallies in Marine Parade GRC and Holland-Bukit Timah GRC respectively.

 

 

 

 

PAP: GROWTH & SHARE PACKAGE THE BEST WAY TO HELP THE NEEDY

 

The PAP’s first rally of the 2011 campaign attracted a crowd of between 2,000 to 3,000 and featured speeches from candidates Teo Ser Luck, Michael Palmer, Gan Thiam Poh, Zainal Sapari and Janil Puthucheary, amongst others, but the highest-profile speaker of the night was Deputy Prime Minister Teo Chee Hean. Mr Teo heads the party’s team of six candidates for Pasir-Ris Punggol GRC.

 

Mr Teo spoke in Malay, Mandarin and English, and spent a good part of his speech dealing with the topic of inflation. He said that the PAP was aware of concerns relating to the increasing cost of living, and said that the Growth And Share Package was the best way to help all groups of Singaporeans, especially the poor and needy. He said that this was a much better strategy than “raiding the reserves” by implementing subsidies for HDB flats.

 

DPM Teo said that most lower-income families would have received between $3,000 to $4,000 this year to help them cope with the rising cost of living. The other PAP candidates touched mostly on local and municipal improvements, such as parks, playgrounds, childcare centres, covered walkways and senior citizens’ corners.

 

 

WP: CO-DRIVER’S ROLE IS TO SLAP THE DRIVER IF HE FALLS ASLEEP OR DRIVES DANGEROUSLY

 

The WP’s rally at Hougang SMC drew a massive crowd of between 60,000 to 80,000. The party’s leader, Low Thia Khiang, spoke in English, Mandarin and Teochew, and thanked the residents of Hougang for supporting him for the last 20 years despite repeated “carrots and threats” from the PAP. He introduced his successor, Yaw Shin Leong, and said that he had confidence in Mr Yaw.

 

Both Mr Low and WP chairperson Sylvia Lim then took issue with PAP minister K Shanmugam’s assertion that the “WP wants to take over the wheel”. Mr Low and Ms Lim both said that if the driver was driving safely, then the role of the co-driver would only be to “talk to him and make sure he stays awake.” But if the driver “falls asleep or drives dangerously”, Mr Low said that the co-driver should slap him – a comment that was met with raucous cheers from the crowd.

 

The WP’s highest-profile new candidate, Chen Show Mao, called on Singaporeans to vote with courage. He said that with no checks and balances in Parliament, the PAP was free to pass whatever legislation it wanted, without regard for what the electorate thinks and feels.

 

Speaking in dialect, he asked whether the PAP had consulted the people when it decided to allow hundreds of thousands of foreign workers into Singapore, and when it decided to increase the salaries of ministers. Both questions were met with a resounding “no” from the crowd.

 

Another new candidate, Gerald Giam, also impressed with a rousing speech. He said that he had previously bought into PAP spin and propaganda, but came to his senses before it was too late, and urged Singaporeans to do the same. He said that everything in Singapore was rising, from the cost of living to the GST to the ministers’ salaries, before cheekily adding that “even the flood waters are rising”. He lambasted the PAP government for being arrogant and out of touch, saying that it was imperative for an effective opposition in Parliament to keep the ruling party on its toes.

 

 

 

NSP: HEAT IS ON SM GOH, NOT TIN PEI LING

 

The NSP’s rally in Geylang was attended by between 10,000 to 15,000. All eyes were on Nicole Seah, the party’s star candidate. The 24 year old advertising executive was the last speaker of the evening, and delivered a passionate speech that attacked government policies. She said that every time Singaporeans take the MRT to work, they are made to feel as if they are in a foreign country. She also said that the NSP would advocate for the lowering of GST from 7 to 5%. The crowd was chanting her name sporadically during her speech and gave her a huge round of applause.

 

The party’s leader, Goh Meng Seng, took to the stage despite the demise of his brother just one day earlier. Mr Goh said that the battle in Marine Parade was not about heavily-criticised PAP candidate Tin Pei Ling. Rather, he said that Senior Minister Goh Chok Tong was the real target, because he had “eroded Singapore’s social morals” with the policies that he put in place while serving as Prime Minister. He said that Mr Goh Chok Tong had turned Singapore into a company.

 

He asked: “When the country becomes a company, what will happen? The company will have to make money. The company will have to pay the salary of the CEO at a profit margin, and that is what we are having right now. The focus of this government is no longer you or me.”

 

 

 

 

SDP: THE PAP GOVERNMENT HAS LOST ITS MORAL COMPASS

 

With an estimated crowd of 15,000 to 20,000, the SDP kicked off its campaign in Holland-Bukit Timah GRC. New candidate Tan Jee Say hammered the PAP government for losing its moral compass and said that it was no longer the PAP of old. He said that government ministers were just “drinking coffee” at Cabinet meetings, while “listening to the dialogue between father and son”.

 

Sembawang GRC James Gomez took swipes at Health Minister Khaw Boon Wan, who had previously suggested that Singaporeans send their elderly parents to care homes in Johor Bahru, Bintan and Batam. Dr Gomez added that the SDP was initiating “Operation Johor Bahru, where we send Mr Khaw and his team to Johor Bahru”.

 

Vincent Wijeysingha, who was the victim of a smear campaign by PAP minister Vivian Balakrishnan, gave what was perhaps the most impressive speech of the night.

 

Dr Wijeysingha said that he forgave Dr Balakrishnan because “he may have miscalculated” in the heat of the moment, since politics was a “stressful activity”, particularly for those who have never had to contest their seat.

 

He also skewered Dr Balakrishnan for overspending the Youth Olympics Budget by close to three times, as well as not doing more to support those on public assistance. He also took the opportunity to clarify that he had no “hidden agenda”, and that the only agenda of the SDP was to fight for the unprivileged.

 

 

 

 

RP: BUILD ON THE LEGACY OF JBJ

 

The Reform Party’s first-ever election rally drew a crowd of between 5,000 to 8,000. All of the party’s candidates for West Coast GRC asked the supporters to build on the legacy of the party’s founder, the late J B Jeyaretnam. Ho Soak Harn compared the late Mr Jeyaretnam to the current party header, eldest son Kenneth Jeyaretnam. She said: “Just as JBJ believed, Kenneth Jeyaretnam knows that democracy is the birthright of all Singaporeans.”

 

Mr Jeyaretnam himself highlighted that his father had stood for elections twice in Telok Blangah, and that he was seeking to represent the same residents who had supported the late JBJ. He then devoted a significant part of his speech to attacking the high property prices, saying that housing was fast becoming unaffordable for Singaporeans thanks to flawed government policies.

 

The party’s candidates in Ang Mo Kio, including 24 year-old Lim Zi Rui, referred to themselves as “dragon slayers”, referring to the ward’s incumbent MP, Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong (“Loong” is Chinese for dragon). Other speakers also hit out at the government’s liberal immigration policies, arguing that they were causing wages of Singaporean workers to be depressed.

 

 

 

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RELATED VIDEOS

VINCENT WIJEYSINGHA, SDP (HOLLAND-BUKIT TIMAH)

LOW THIA KHIANG, WP (ALJUNIED)

 

NICOLE SEAH, NSP (MARINE PARADE)

 

CHEN SHOW MAO, WP (ALJUNIED)

 

TEO SER LUCK, PAP (PASIR RIS-PUNGGOL)

 

KENNETH JEYARETNAM, RP (WEST COAST)

 

 

 

 

 

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