S’poreans giving the Gov’t “overwhelming power” would result in losing freedom, says PV chief Lim Tean

For People’s Voice (PV) After Work Facebook Live broadcast on Tuesday (29 June), the party chief Lim Tean explained that they had a “hectic and frantic” day because the next day (30 June) would be Nomination Day.

Mr Lim started out his evening broadcast by noting that the People’s Action Party (PAP) had announced their lineup for the upcoming General Election (GE). He expressed that this would be the first time the PAP did not announce their lineup “way in advance”.

“I see that the PAP have today started to finally announce their lineup and it’s incredible. It’s incredible because this is the first time in living memory, as far as I’m concerned, where I have seen the PAP not announce their lineup way in advance as they have done in the past.”

He went on to claim that the PAP was trying to find out where the alternative parties’ candidates will be contesting, and he believes that this is a “sign of weakness”.

“Obviously they were trying to suss out where the opposition candidates are going, it is a sign of weakness.”

“You are seeing a very weak PAP team being put up for GE2020.”

Ivan Lim’s withdrawal from GE and the hypocrisy behind it

Other than claiming that the PAP was unsure of their capabilities, the PV chief mentioned that there had been some “amazing turnaround” by the PAP.

He recalled how one of PAP’s candidates, Ivan Lim, withdrew from the GE, and it occurred because his sub-ordinates exposed and criticised his “arrogant, selfish and elitist” attitude on social media.

“I think that is a fair way of putting it one of their candidates Ivan withdrew Ivan limb, and that was because the netizens got hold of his past conduct through complaints made by his subordinates.

Seeing how the ruling party felt like the treatment Mr Lim had received was unfair, the PV chief pointed out the hypocrisy when PAP “loves to smear opposition candidates and leaders”, while they would not want that to occur to themselves.

The Prime Minister says we should investigate this, the rhetoric coming out of the PAP is that he treatment he received was unfair. The PAP loves to smear opposition candidates and opposition leaders, but they don’t like it when their own candidate are receiving that type of treatment.”

Indranee Rajah’s remarks on NCMP seats

Moving on, the lawyer talked about the issue where PAP’s Indranee Rajah made remarks about having “12 opposition seats in Parliament at a minimum” in addition to Non-Constituency Members of Parliament (NCMPs), and PAP can’t be “assumed to make a clean sweep” of the Parliamentary seats.

Her remarks implied that Singaporeans do not need to vote for the alternative parties since these parties have Parliamentary seats “guaranteed”.

Mr Lim urged people to not be “fooled” by the PAP member’s persuasion to influence Singaporeans to avoid voting for the alternative parties.

“Don’t ever allow Indranee Rajah to fool you.”

“That has been the narrative of the PAP for the better part of two decades now in order to persuade Singaporeans that there is no need to vote in the opposition.”

“The whole rationale is that they want and iron grip on power because when it comes to power it is the numbers in Parliament.

He slammed that it was a display of “selfish interest to cling on total power”.

Singaporeans losing freedom

By allowing a party to have “total power”, Mr Lim explained that Singaporeans would “lose total control” on their CPF, by pointing out the Government’s failure to keep their initial promise to return the CPF at 55 years old.

The party chief noted that this is a freedom issue, especially regarding how Singaporeans wish to retire and live their lives. He went on to stress that people should not be working into their 70s and 80s.

An observation he had also made was about how Singaporeans gave the ruling party “overwhelming power”. This resulted in shutting down people’s freedom of expression in this nation. He believes that this is “absolutely dangerous”.

Mr Lim asked fellow Singaporeans if this is what they want for their future generations where the nation is “increasingly constricted”, adding that many Singaporeans decided to leave the country due to the lack of freedom.

One of the viewers commented on how Singapore’s President was “installed”, not “elected”. The party chief emphasised on the issue with giving the ruling party “overwhelming power”, which in turn, would give them the rights to “change the constitution at will”.

“That affects your life. That affects your freedom. That affects your dignity.

And I know so many of you are so upset because you have come up to me and express those sentence to say you were so upset that you were not allowed to vote for your president in 2016.”

He suggested that Singaporeans can change that by “drastically redrawing the balance of power” in Parliament in the upcoming GE.

Mr Lim urged Singaporeans to “be brave” and not let fear overcome them.

“I ask you to be brave, not only for yourselves, friends and family. I ask you to be brave for the future of our next generation and the society we want to see emerge.”

Based on his observation on the ministers’ “arrogant” behaviour and attitude displayed by Grace Foo, Chan Chun Sing, Josephine Teo, and Teo Chee Hean, the PV chief stressed that a politician “is always the servant” and “never a master”.

Mr Lim wrapped up his live broadcast by encouraging Singaporeans to participate in voting.