By People’s Voice (PV) party chief Lim Tean took to Facebook on Monday (5 July) to share a Singaporean’s disapproval and negative sentiment of the Singapore-Indian Economic Cooperation Agreement (CECA).
In the post, Mr Lim said that a netizen by the name Victor Tapoh, commented on his most recent Facebook post on Friday (3 July) regarding Health Minister Ong Ye Kung’s announcement of delivering a ministerial statement regarding CECA in the upcoming Parliament sitting.
Mr Tapoh’s comment has garnered more than 230 likes, and below is what he wrote in the post:
“No matter who supports the abolition of the CECA treaty, I will fully support him. Whether it is the PAP or the opposition party. Rice bowls are more important than anything else. The imbalance between supply and demand in the job market in the past few years has led to local PEMTs being forced to lay off, lose their jobs or downgrade their wages. This is all caused by the CECA treaty.”
In response to Mr Tapoh’s comment, Mr Lim expressed that ordinary Singaporeans have no time to entertain the “nonsense that is spewing from the People’s Action Party (PAP) about CECA”.
He added that Singaporeans can see for themselves the “disastrous impact” that the free trade agreement has brought upon on the lives of many Singaporeans.
“The social media revolution has enabled ordinary Singaporeans such as Victor Tapoh to have a voice in our Nation’s political discourse. No voice, no matter how small, can now be excluded. This is direct democracy at its best,” said Mr Lim.
He added, “Political parties ignore this phenomenon at their peril. More than a century ago, the British statesman Lord Bryce observed that public opinion has become the gant before which all tremble’”.
As such, Mr Lim noted that he will “encourage” Singaporeans to keep on expressing their views on social media as this will lead to changing Singapore for the better.
The alternative party leader also pointed out that PV is the only party who wants CECA to be abolished, adding that this is a position that the party had taken for the last three years and even included in its manifesto for GE2020.
Earlier on 2 July, Mr Ong revealed in a Facebook post that he, along with Manpower Minister Dr Tan See Leng, will be delivering Ministerial Statements in this month’s Parliament sitting to debate on CECA, as well as to discuss what is at stake for Singapore and “shine a light on untrue statements about CECA”.
Mr Ong also slammed Progress Singapore Party (PSP) for its “false allegations” on how CECA has allowed Indian professionals to come to here easily for work.
Responding to this, PSP released a statement refuting Mr Ong’s claims that the alternative party has made false allegations regarding CECA. The Party also urged Mr Ong to withdraw his statement and apologise to PSP.