New Zealand Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern made history over the weekend as she became the first-ever Kiwi leader to win an outright majority under the Mixed Member Proportional parliamentary system.
Mr Ardern’s centre-left Labour Party won a landslide victory in the country’s General Election on Saturday (17 Oct) after securing 64 seats in the 120-member Parliament with 49 per cent of the vote.
Following this remarkable feat by the 40-year-old charismatic leader and her Party, Singapore Democratic Party (SDP) member Tan Jee Say took to his Facebook on Monday (19 Oct) to call out the People’s Action Party (PAP) for its unsporting actions during Singapore’s recent General Election (GE).
In his post, Mr Tan, who contested in Holland-Bukit Timah GRC in GE2020, listed down what the ruling party need not have done during the election period so as to secure a solid victory in an honourable fashion – just like Ms Ardern and her Party did.
The SDP member started off by saying that there is “no need [for] gerrymandering, no need to use mainstream media for unfair advantage, no need to fix the opposition, no need to give handouts like free porridge and free food during election, no need to use POFMA, no need to amend the electoral boundaries”.
“No need to disguise election speeches as ‘ministerial messages of a post-covid Singapore’ just 2 weeks before the election was even called, no need to magically come up with not one, not two, not three, but FOUR budgets before and during the election worth $100 billion,” he continued.
Mr Tan went on to say that there is no need for the PAP for perform the following: to play the race card; to investigate opposition candidates for posts made years earlier; to dogwhistle its fanatical base to go dig up more dirt on a rookie opposition female candidate; to smear; to blame others for the dormitory infections; to ignore advice against holding an election while a virus is spreading nationwide; and to continuously spit out an ambiguous “East Coast Plan” at the eleventh hour.
“No need to pamper your MPs and ministers when they break pandemic safety rules. No need to sell voters snake oil through a fake MP scheme called the NCMP. No need to cry on TV or in Parliament. NO NEED TO BE PAID OBSCENE & MINDBOGGLING MULTI-MILLION DOLLAR SALARIES!” he added.
Concluding his post, Mr Tan asserted that the PAP should have just done its job unequivocally, and let the people decide the outcome. He also congratulated Ms Ardern and her Labour Party for their victory.