GE2025: Polls a chance to elect more opposition to speak up for Singaporeans, says SPP
GE2025: Polls a chance to elect more opposition to speak up for Singaporeans, says SPP
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SINGAPORE - Voters can help opposition parties grow stronger at the coming polls and give them a chance to speak up for Singaporeans, said Singapore People's Party (SPP) secretary-general Steve Chia.
Speaking to reporters near Bishan Bus Interchange on May 1, Mr Chia said Singaporeans are now more receptive to opposition politicians. If the opposition can win one or two more GRCs, Singapore is on the road to full democracy, he added.
Mr Chia, 54, said: 'We are doing whatever we can to push for change, to push for a better standard of living, a better discussion of ideas for Singaporeans and for everybody. So, this is a moment of change.'
His team includes SPP chairman Melvyn Chiu, 45, and new faces Muhammad Norhakim, 31, and Lim Rui Xian, 37.
SPP is facing off in Bishan-Toa Payoh GRC against a PAP team comprising Transport Minister Chee Hong Tat, Mr Saktiandi Supaat, Ms Elysa Chen and Mr Cai Yinzhou.
Mr Chia, who contested his first general election in 1997, said there was a 'great fear' at the time, and people did not dare speak to opposition politicians.
This has changed, he added. Now, people come up to them and thank them for giving them a credible alternative to the ruling party, said Mr Chia, who was a Non-Constituency MP between 2001 and 2006.
When asked about his team's chances at the end of the nine-day campaign, he said he is unsure how people will vote, but added that SPP can only do its best, and reach out to Singaporeans with its message.
He said: 'We don't go around scolding the opponent. We have had a very fair campaign. We fight on ideas and policies. Whether we can cross the 50 per cent plus one vote, we don't know.
'We reach out to many people, but there are still many people we are not able to reach because it's only nine days. There's only so much we can do.
'We just hope that when they listen to the interviews... they will give the consideration that we are doing the best we can to bring up the standard of politics... and democracy in Singapore.'
At a PAP rally on May 1, Mr Chee said he will push to get a hawker centre up and running in Bishan.
When asked, Mr Chia responded that his party, too, would like to build a hawker centre in Bishan if it had access to funds like the ruling party.
He said: 'When we, the opposition, propose ideas, we get queried: 'Where are you going to get the money? Where to get the funding?''
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This is not in itself a problem – elite is after all just a word – though I find no easy replacement term that can immediately convey excellence to the same degree. But it incidentally comes at a time when there is a general reluctance to impose any kind of objective standard, supplemented by that compassionate but useless invention: the consolation prize. This applies to things: Is no one taste now better than another? As well as people, where so many takes on social media are considered equally valid, measured just by virality. It is the kind of ChatGPT mentality where how often something is repeated or the number of clicks on a website can influence results, with no regard to its truth value. The war against elitism may have come at the expense of standards and good sense. 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