SINGAPORE: The finances of the Aljunied-Hougang Town Council (AHTC) are healthy and the Workers’ Party (WP) has produced a newsletter to explain its financial position to residents, said party chief Pritam Singh on Saturday (Jul 4).
Mr Singh said the party has produced a special edition of its town council newsletter Good Neighbours, which gives a “broad sweep” of what the town council’s financial position is.
On Friday night, Mr Singh said in a constituency political broadcast for Aljunied GRC that AHTC’s financial statements were given a clean and unqualified opinion last year, and it received a green banding for corporate governance from the Ministry of National Development.
READ: GE2020: Difficult journey to win one-third of seats but balanced Parliament is important, says WP’s Pritam Singh
WP leaders had been embroiled in a trial over the mismanagement of funds at the town council, and are appealing a judgment that found them liable in the landmark case involving more than S$33 million of town council funds.
“We are in a very healthy position, but I don’t want to get carried away with this. It wasn’t solely our efforts, it was also the efforts of a lot of our contractors who worked very hard … and residents of course, who were very cooperative with the town council in many, many ways,” Mr Singh said on Saturday.
The Workers’ Party’s (WP) candidates for Marine Parade GRC accompanied by Sylvia Lim during a walkabout at 50A Marine Terrace market on Jul 4, 2020. (Photo: Jo Yee Koo)
He was answering reporters’ questions while out on a walkabout with WP candidates for Marine Parade GRC – Mr Yee Jenn Jong, Mr Ron Tan, Mr Fadli Fawzi, Mr Nathaniel Koh and Mr Azhar Latip.
Along the way, they bumped into People’s Action Party’s (PAP) Goh Chok Tong and the party’s Marine Parade candidate Tan See Leng, who were also engaging residents near Marine Terrace Market on Saturday morning.
The Workers’ Party’s (WP) secretary-general, Pritam Singh, greeting Emeritus Senior Minister Goh Chok Tong during a walkabout at 50A Marine Terrace market on Jul 4, 2020. (Photo: Jo Yee Koo)
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POSSIBILITY OF OPPOSITION GOVERNMENT IS “FEAR MONGERING”
Mr Singh also said that comments by Trade and Industry Minister Chan Chun Sing at a Lianhe Zaobao dialogue session that the three biggest opposition parties could come together to form a government was “fear mongering”.
“I think it’s important to take a historical perspective to this. It took 16 years after our independence for the opposition to win even one elected seat and 23 years after 1988, when the GRC (Group Representation Constituency) system was introduced, for the opposition to win one GRC,” Mr Singh said.
“So let’s put this fear mongering in perspective, and I hope that historical look-back is helpful in terms of how realistic this prospect Min Chan thinks is possible – I don’t think it’s possible at all.”
The Workers’ Party’s (WP) secretary-general, Pritam Singh, speaking to the media during a walkabout at 50A Marine Terrace market on Jul 4, 2020. (Photo: Jo Yee Koo)
Mr Singh was also asked about earlier responses that he had made about Singapore increasing its population to 10 million – a statement raised by the Singapore Democratic Party, and which has been repeatedly denied as a falsehood by the PAP.
READ: GE2020: SDP erected a ‘bogeyman’ over 10m population claim, then declared success, says DPM Heng
A PAP statement on Friday night criticised other opposition leaders for having “opportunistically jumped into the fray”.
Mr Singh said he did not “jump into it” but had answered a question on the “hot button” issue when asked by the media earlier.
He pointed out that there was a line in the Population White Paper released in 2013 that the Government was going to review the population size at the end of the decade. When he asked in Parliament about this review, he was told that it was already done in 2018, he said.
“I’m not sure how many of you knew there was a review of the population policy in 2018,” he said, adding that it would be helpful if the public could better understand what the Government is thinking or what is its way forward.
READ: GE2020: WP chief Pritam Singh questions PAP’s ‘magnanimity’ over NCMP scheme
Mr Singh was also asked about the issue of jobs and whether he has received feedback from citizens he interacted with about it.
Singapore’s unemployment rate has risen since the COVID-19 outbreak began, but the Government has promised to create 100,000 new job opportunities and set up a National Jobs Council headed by Senior Minister Tharman Shanmugaratnam.
Mr Singh said he has heard questions on how many of the new jobs the Government has promised will be “low hanging fruit”.
“How many of them are those sort of jobs that are really going to propel Singapore into another league, where we can take on the challenges of the decades to come,” he said.
“Rather than challenge the PAP on that because they’ve got a very difficult job in that regard – they are going to form the Government – I think our role as opposition is to make sure that when we represent the people in Parliament, we are bringing their voices into Parliament on that front.”
He added: “Because people are suffering on the ground, I mean there are a lot of COVID-19 related issues involving jobs … we really need to come together to try and envisage good outcomes.”
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