Reporters quiz Dr Chee Soon Juan on the issue of not wanting to bring up former Bukit Batok MP David Ong who vacated his seat in parliament and resigned from the PAP due to an alleged extramarital affair.
One reported asked if he had read the statement by PM Lee Hsien Loong and proceeded to give Dr Chee a rundown of that statement, referring to how PM Lee said Dr Chee was hypocritical to claim that he would not kick a man when he is down but allow for other party members to talk about David Ong. Dr Chee replied that he did not want to comment until he has read the statement himself and understood the context of what was said.
Another reporter posed the question of whether Dr Chee found it hypocritical to have other speakers at the SDP rally mention David Ong even though Dr Chee had said previously that he did not wish to bring up the issue of why David Ong had to vacate his seat in parliament. Dr Chee replied that he had no intention of bringing up the matter and that he will speak to his party members to put a stop to it if necessary. Dr Chee replied that he wants to move away from that issue and contest on issues that matter to the well-being of the residents.
The reporter followed up to clarify whether the speakers at the rally were acting under his instructions or not. Dr Chee replied that he has yet to see the reports on what was said by others during the rally and thus could not comment directly. He pointed out that the team had immediately started with their rounds in Bukit Batok early in the morning and thus he had not been able to look through these reports. He assured that he will look into it.
Another reporter then asked whether he was aware of what other speakers at the rally were going to talk about. However, he replied again that he wanted to keep the issue off the table and specifically pointed out that as the candidate, this was his position on that matter. When asked again if he was normally aware of what speakers at his rallies are going to say, he replied that he did not know what was said and that he will have to look at the reports first before commenting.
