Latest news with #SitiAlia
AsiaOne
6 days ago
- Politics
- AsiaOne
'Our role is to make ourselves obsolete': First-time WP candidates reflect on GE2025 and whether they'll run again, Singapore News
Workers' Party (WP) candidates said that their decision to contest in Singapore's next general election will not depend on personal choice, but on whether the party attracts more qualified candidates. WP candidates Siti Alia Abdul Rahim Mattar and Sufyan Mikhail Putra sat down with fellow party members and hosts of This Side of the House, Eileen Chong and Andre Low. In a 42-minute-long debut episode uploaded to the party's social media channels on Monday (Aug 11), the first-time candidates reflected on GE2025 and their personal experiences stepping into Singapore's political arena as newbies. When asked about their plans to run again at the next election in five years, Siti Alia said that it would depend on what is best for the party. "It's always a question of if there are better candidates, more experienced candidates, more trained candidates — people that the party feels would be a better fit," she said. Siti Alia said it may not be necessary to field the same candidates, but that it might be more important for the party to continue contesting in the same constituencies. "I feel like when people say 'don't give up', I think they're telling the party: 'Don't give up on our constituency'," she said, giving the example of Punggol GRC where she contested. Chong agreed, adding that the decision to contest again would be reliant on what the party believes the Singapore electorate is looking for. She also recalled being teary-eyed on the team's perambulating vehicle the day after election results were out, where residents ran up to thank her for contesting and asked her to try again in five years. "It's hard to turn your back on what we're all building together," said Chong, who said she felt encouraged by the support shown throughout the nine days of campaigning. Low also agreed with Siti Alia's perspective, reflecting that the longer term goal as an opposition party is to "to make ourselves obsolete". "I hadn't thought about it that way, but if we zoom out a little bit, our role as opposition politicians is really to make ourselves obsolete. "We want to push and forward the opposition cause in Singapore to a point where there are so many qualified people who feel like they should step up and contribute," he explained, adding that there will be no guarantee that the four of them will still contest in the next election, should there be more qualified people for the job. "The moment we become replaceable, that's actually brilliant for Singapore," he said. Chiming in, Sufyan said that WP has had various people joining their outreach efforts in all the constituencies after GE2025, and that "the talent that [they've] seen is very encouraging". Singapore's 15th parliament to open on Sept 5 Siti Alia was part of the four-person team that contested in Punggol GRC. The team received 44.83 per cent of votes, losing to the People's Action Party (PAP) team led by Deputy Prime Minister Gan Kim Yong. Sufyan contested in the five-member East Coast GRC team led by Yee Jenn Jong. The team received 41.24 per cent of votes and ceded defeat to the incumbent PAP team led by current Minister for Law, Edwin Tong. Low contested in Jalan Kayu SMC and received the highest percentage of votes (48.53 per cent) among the unelected opposition candidates, and was chosen as the first Non-Constituency Member of Parliament (NCMP) following the conclusion of GE2025. Chong had contested Tampines GRC alongside Faisal Manap, Michael Thng, Ong Lue Ping and Jimmy Tan in a four-way fight, losing to a People's Action Party (PAP) team led by Masagos Zulkifli. Chong's team received the second highest percentage of votes (47.37 per cent) among the unelected opposition candidates, and Chong was subsequently elected NCMP. The first session of Singapore's 15th parliament will open next month on Sept 5, with Low and Chong to appear alongside WP's 10 MPs from Aljunied GRC, Sengkang GRC and Hougang SMC. [[nid:720962]]
Yahoo
05-05-2025
- Politics
- Yahoo
Singaporean opposition candidate misquoted online ahead of polls
"Are you voting for someone to speak for Palestinians in Parliament? Or are you voting for a voice to speak for YOU on the bread and butter issues that are so close to your heart?" reads the caption of a graphic shared May 1, 2025 on Facebook. The graphic features a photo of opposition Workers' Party candidate Siti Alia Abdul Rahim Mattar, who was standing in the newly created Punggol constituency, and a quote attributed to her. "The deciding factor for me joining the election was the Israel-Palestine conflict," it reads. "The Israel-Palestine conflict is more important than bread and butter issues." The graphic surfaced a day before Singapore's mandated "cooling-off period" when election campaigning must be halted (archived link). The May 3 elections saw voters hand Prime Minister Lawrence Wong's ruling People's Action Party (PAP) a landslide victory in which they took all but 10 seats in the wealthy island state's 97-seat unicameral legislature (archived link). The PAP, which has steered the country to prosperity during its decades in power while being criticised for suppressing dissent, was always expected to easily retain a clear majority in the legislature. Siti Alia's party could not claim the Punggol constituency, with Deputy Prime Minister Gan Kim Yong leading his PAP team to victory with 55.17 percent of the vote (archived link). The graphic spread elsewhere on Facebook in posts criticising Siti Alia. However, it mischaracterises her comments. A keyword search on Google led to a video of the candidate giving a speech on April 24. The Workers' Party uploaded it to YouTube the following day (archived link). Siti Alia begins the speech by saying: "The concern for the humanitarian crisis in Palestine crosses the boundaries of race and religion." She goes on to question why the Singaporean Ministry of Education had added a course on the conflict without consulting parents, which prompted many to raise the issue with members of parliament. "To have our voices heard is important to us as Singaporeans, ranging from local issues such as lift upgrading in the neighbourhood, to more major issues that affect Singaporeans as global citizens. "We meet our MPs to discuss bread and butter issues, yes, but we would also like to meet our MPs to discuss the effects of certain laws or the government's positions on certain global issues." At no point does she say the conflict is "more important" than local Singapore issues. AFP could find no other evidence of such a statement from Siti Alia. Singaporean online media outlet AsiaOne also covered the claim and ensuing online debate (archived link).
AFP
05-05-2025
- Politics
- AFP
Singaporean opposition candidate misquoted online ahead of polls
"Are you voting for someone to speak for Palestinians in Parliament? Or are you voting for a voice to speak for YOU on the bread and butter issues that are so close to your heart?" reads the caption of a graphic shared May 1, 2025 on Facebook. The graphic features a photo of opposition Workers' Party candidate Siti Alia Abdul Rahim Mattar, who was standing in the newly created Punggol constituency, and a quote attributed to her. "The deciding factor for me joining the election was the Israel-Palestine conflict," it reads. "The Israel-Palestine conflict is more important than bread and butter issues." The graphic surfaced a day before Singapore's mandated "cooling-off period" when election campaigning must be halted (archived link). Image Screenshot of the Facebook post captured May 5, 2025 The May 3 elections saw voters hand Prime Minister Lawrence Wong's ruling People's Action Party (PAP) a landslide victory in which they took all but 10 seats in the wealthy island state's 97-seat unicameral legislature (archived link). The PAP, which has steered the country to prosperity during its decades in power while being criticised for suppressing dissent, was always expected to easily retain a clear majority in the legislature. Siti Alia's party could not claim the Punggol constituency, with Deputy Prime Minister Gan Kim Yong leading his PAP team to victory with 55.17 percent of the vote (archived link). The graphic spread elsewhere on Facebook in posts criticising Siti Alia. However, it mischaracterises her comments. A keyword search on Google led to a video of the candidate giving a speech on April 24. The Workers' Party uploaded it to YouTube the following day (archived link). Siti Alia begins the speech by saying: "The concern for the humanitarian crisis in Palestine crosses the boundaries of race and religion." She goes on to question why the Singaporean Ministry of Education had added a course on the conflict without consulting parents, which prompted many to raise the issue with members of parliament. "To have our voices heard is important to us as Singaporeans, ranging from local issues such as lift upgrading in the neighbourhood, to more major issues that affect Singaporeans as global citizens. "We meet our MPs to discuss bread and butter issues, yes, but we would also like to meet our MPs to discuss the effects of certain laws or the government's positions on certain global issues." At no point does she say the conflict is "more important" than local Singapore issues. AFP could find no other evidence of such a statement from Siti Alia. Singaporean online media outlet AsiaOne also covered the claim and ensuing online debate (archived link).
AsiaOne
25-04-2025
- Politics
- AsiaOne
Post about WP new face Siti Alia's rally speech sparks online debate, Singapore News
A speech by The Workers' Party (WP) new face Siti Alia Abdul Rahim Mattar has resulted in online discourse regarding candidates speaking on global issues at election rallies. At the party's first rally for General Election (GE) 2025 on April 25, the 43-year-old lawyer said that while Singaporeans meet their MPs to discuss "bread and butter issues", they would also like to "discuss the effects of certain laws or the government's positions on certain global issues". "The concern for the humanitarian crisis in Palestine crosses the boundaries of race and religion. It is something that many Singaporeans, regardless of their ethnicity and beliefs, have expressed concern about," she said. Clips of Siti Alia making these statements were stitched together and shared on Reddit with the title "WP's Siti Alia declares Palestine is important global issue, more important than bread and butter Punggol issues?" This prompted a heated debate among netizens, some of whom criticised her for mentioning the topic during a GE rally. One such comment read: "We are talking about Singapore and Singapore's policies and government. Singapore is so small, what use would that have on Palestine, which is halfway across the world?" "We have matters that need to be fixed within Singapore borders and this topic being mentioned in a Singapore GE rally makes things very unappealing to me," read another comment. Netizens who claimed they were at the rally in person wrote that they saw people "turn around and walk off" upon Siti Alia's mention of the topic. Some other commenters, however, pointed out that she did not say the Israel-Hamas conflict took priority over local matters, adding that the post was misleading. One such netizen wrote: "She didn't say in verbatim that the Palestine cause is more important than bread and butter issues in the video. That was inferred by [the Reddit post]." "Her point is that such an important and sensitive global issue was inserted into the MOE curriculum without consulting parents. I don't think her intention was to express any stance on this issue," wrote another commenter. 'We want healthy discourse' Siti Alia, who is a candidate for Punggol GRC, had started her speech by addressing concerns regarding the humanitarian crisis in Palestine. She then brought up the Ministry of Education's (MOE) Character and Citizenship Education (CCE) lesson on the Israel-Hamas conflict, which sparked online discussion and parliament debate in 2024. MOE eventually revised the lesson to make it better scoped for students of different age groups and provided teachers delivering it with additional support. Siti Alia questioned why parents were not asked for consent before their children were taught that lesson. "I put forward this example to show how much it means to the average Singaporean to have their voices heard. After all, the elected officials are elected in order to be the voice of Singaporeans," she said. "This is where I hope that myself and my colleagues from The Workers' Party can help. No issue brought up by a constituent will be too trivial or unimportant to be raised. We want healthy discourse to take place," she added. She was addressing some 10,000 attendees at a field along Anchorvale Crescent on April 24, alongside 12 other WP election candidates. While it was the party's first physical rally since 2015, the long absence did not dampen the enthusiasm of rally-goers, who began trudging into the muddy field nearly two hours before the first speaker took to the stage. For our GE2025 microsite, visit here. [[nid:717197]] This article's headline has been edited for clarity.
AsiaOne
25-04-2025
- Politics
- AsiaOne
Misleading post about WP new face Siti Alia's rally speech sparks online debate, Singapore News
A speech by The Workers' Party (WP) new face Siti Alia Abdul Rahim Mattar has resulted in online discourse regarding candidates speaking on global issues at election rallies. At the party's first rally for General Election (GE) 2025 on April 25, the 43-year-old lawyer said that while Singaporeans meet their MPs to discuss "bread and butter issues", they would also like to "discuss the effects of certain laws or the government's positions on certain global issues". "The concern for the humanitarian crisis in Palestine crosses the boundaries of race and religion. It is something that many Singaporeans, regardless of their ethnicity and beliefs, have expressed concern about," she said. Clips of Siti Alia making these statements were stitched together and shared on Reddit with the title "WP's Siti Alia declares Palestine is important global issue, more important than bread and butter Punggol issues?" This prompted a heated debate among netizens, some of whom criticised her for mentioning the topic during a GE rally. One such comment read: "We are talking about Singapore and Singapore's policies and government. Singapore is so small, what use would that have on Palestine, which is halfway across the world?" "We have matters that need to be fixed within Singapore borders and this topic being mentioned in a Singapore GE rally makes things very unappealing to me," read another comment. Netizens who claimed they were at the rally in person wrote that they saw people "turn around and walk off" upon Siti Alia's mention of the topic. Some other commenters, however, pointed out that she did not say the Israel-Hamas conflict took priority over local matters, adding that the post was misleading. One such netizen wrote: "She didn't say in verbatim that the Palestine cause is more important than bread and butter issues in the video. That was inferred by [the Reddit post]." "Her point is that such an important and sensitive global issue was inserted into the MOE curriculum without consulting parents. I don't think her intention was to express any stance on this issue," wrote another commenter. 'We want healthy discourse' Siti Alia, who is a candidate for Punggol GRC, had started her speech by addressing concerns regarding the humanitarian crisis in Palestine. She then brought up the Ministry of Education's (MOE) Character and Citizenship Education (CCE) lesson on the Israel-Hamas conflict, which sparked online discussion and parliament debate in 2024. MOE eventually revised the lesson to make it better scoped for students of different age groups and provided teachers delivering it with additional support. Siti Alia questioned why parents were not asked for consent before their children were taught that lesson. "I put forward this example to show how much it means to the average Singaporean to have their voices heard. After all, the elected officials are elected in order to be the voice of Singaporeans," she said. "This is where I hope that myself and my colleagues from The Workers' Party can help. No issue brought up by a constituent will be too trivial or unimportant to be raised. We want healthy discourse to take place," she added. She was addressing some 10,000 attendees at a field along Anchorvale Crescent on April 24, alongside 12 other WP election candidates. While it was the party's first physical rally since 2015, the long absence did not dampen the enthusiasm of rally-goers, who began trudging into the muddy field nearly two hours before the first speaker took to the stage. For our GE2025 microsite, visit here. [[nid:717197]]
