Speaking to the media on the sidelines of a Tampines GRC walkabout, Workers' Party (WP) chief Pritam Singh rebutted Senior Minister Lee Hsien Loong's remarks made at the Jalan Kayu SMC rally on Sunday night (April 28).
SM Lee said that voting in more opposition comes at a cost of effective governance of Singapore. In response, Singh said that this is a "weak argument." He also questioned if the Ministry of Foreign Affairs had lost its bearings after then-Foreign Minister George Yeo's loss in the 2011 General Election.
SM Lee said that voting in more opposition comes at a cost of effective governance of Singapore. In response, Singh said that this is a "weak argument." He also questioned if the Ministry of Foreign Affairs had lost its bearings after then-Foreign Minister George Yeo's loss in the 2011 General Election.
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00:00On that note, though, you know, SMB also said that voting in more opposition and peace could
00:08mean losing key ministers, which he said would affect Singapore's ability to handle crisis
00:13managed economy.
00:14One example is, of course, DPM Gun that he says is valuable to you.
00:18You've positioned it as workers' party backbenchers versus PAP's backbenchers.
00:23Why is your response to this argument that a stronger opposition comes at the cost of
00:27effective governance of Singapore and the positioning that Mr Lee has put forth in particular?
00:31I think it's a weak argument.
00:33It's a weak argument because precedent informs us otherwise.
00:37Let's look at Georgiou.
00:39I remember in 2011, I think it was senior minister, sorry, ESM Goh who said, you know, he's a core
00:47member of the cabinet, not just a cabinet member, but within cabinet, there's a group of core
00:53members and he was in the core membership.
00:57So, and I remember at that point also, a reporter asked him, is Mr. Tharman in the core membership?
01:04And he said, no, Mr. Tharman is not in the core membership yet.
01:07So we know within cabinet, there's a smaller group of people.
01:10And so I think that argument one step further, actually, Giorgio did not succeed in the 2011
01:17elections.
01:18Did suddenly our foreign ministry lose its bearings?
01:21It did not.
01:22It did not.
01:23Because there's so much debt in parliament, even though you may have one third of parliament
01:28in opposition hands.
01:29So I'm very surprised to hear these arguments.
01:32In fact, if you think a little bit harder about it, it just reflects on the PAP.
01:36With respect, I think Mr. Giorgio held a significant number of portfolios and issues under his belt.
01:44Look, his influence is even felt till today.
01:47He's got incredible links all over the world.
01:49And I'm sure Mr. Gan Kim Yong will retain these links all over the world.
01:53And I'm sure there's no difficulty in the PAP government, including Mr. Gan Kim Yong, even
01:58if he is not elected, in some of these discussions, if they deem him to be so critical and important.