By Workers’ Party’s (WP) Leon Perera took to his Facebook on Sunday (26 July) to explain to a People’s Action Party (PAP) supporter whom he met during a house visit recently at Serangoon on the alternative party’s aims for the people of Singapore.
In his post, he said that the ruling party supporter “does not want conflict and confrontation in Singapore”.
“Been busy with house visits, walkabouts and writing many appeals for Serangoon residents in need. On house visits, I met a lady who shared with us that she was a PAP supporter. She said that she does not want conflict and confrontation in Singapore,” Mr Perera wrote.
As a reply to her, the WP politician, who was the party’s former Non-Constituency Member of Parliament, said that he explained three things to her, starting by commending her for her honesty and political convictions.
“Firstly, I admitted her political convictions as well as her honesty. It’s a good thing to have political values and ideals. The most important role in a democracy is the role of citizen,” he said.
He then highlighted the importance of having political apathy so citizens can make a better choice.
“The greatest danger to the PAP and the WP is not one another but political apathy among Singaporeans; the kind of apathy that leads to voting for one party out of ignorance, fear or inertia, without making a well-informed, careful choice,” Mr Perera noted.
If that’s not all, Mr Perera also pointed out to the PAP supporter that WP’s aim is to put Singaporeans first, and not to oppose the ruling party for the sake of opposing.
“Secondly, the Workers’ Party is a responsible and moderate party that places Singapore’s interests first. We focus on improving life for Singaporeans. We don’t oppose for the sake of opposing,” he expressed.
He continued, “We treasure Singapore’s national unity, harmony and resolve. We seek to play our part in upholding all of these things through extracting governmental transparency and accountability; checking against any possible future governmental abuse of power; contributing alternative policy ideas to the dominant narrative, recognizing that the PAP has no monopoly in wisdom; and building an alternative to one party rule over the longer term, so that the future of Singapore is assured even if the PAP fails.”
The last point that the alternative party politician said to the woman was that WP will go all out to serve all the residents at its constituency equally, regardless of their political affiliation.
“Thirdly, I also explained that as the MP in Serangoon/Aljunied, my team and I serve all residents equally and to the very best of our ability, without any regard to political affiliation. The same is true to all WP MPs.
“We spent some time talking and I left her with my encouragement to contact me if there was anything she needed from me, at any time. Madam, I hope you’re reading this and I hope we can keep in touch. I’m wishing you good health and happiness.”
In GE2020, WP secured 59.93 percent of the votes at Aljunied GRC, beating PAP who garnered only 40.07 percent of the votes.