—Breaking News—
The following is the latest statement by the Chairman of the Singapore Democratic Alliance, Mr Chiam See Tong:
“My feelings on the meeting between Singapore Democratic Alliance and The Reform Party are that the talks are still ongoing, and should not be construed as a deadlock between our parties. I believe that there is much constructive discussion ahead, which will demonstrate that common sense and goodwill amongst the Opposition parties will prevail. Ultimately, our objective is to unite the Opposition in Singapore.”
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The Reform Party (RP) has kicked into high gear by unveiling five new candidates who will be standing in the upcoming elections even as talks of an alliance with the Singapore Democratic Alliance (SDA) hit a roadbump.
At a press conference on Friday, the RP unveiled its slate which included former Singapore Armed Forces scholar Mr Tony Tan and wife former Public Service Commission Overseas Merit scholar and onetime Assistant Deputy Director at the Ministry of Finance Ms Hazel Poa.
In an earlier interview with TOC, Mr Tan told TOC that he went into politics to “make a difference to the people in the street however small it is” and that his views on the need for poverty reduction were shaped by being raised by a single mother with his three brothers and three sisters.
Also introduced at the press conference were Mr Alec Tok, artistic director for a New York-based theatre company and Mr Jeisilan Sivalingam, a process improvement manager at a multi-national company.
Mr Tok is a Master’s degree holder from Yale, while Mr Sivalingam holds a BSC from the University of Southern Australia.
A New York based actress who has worked with Alec before described him to TOC as “one of the most effectively bilingual people I’ve met…and someone who knows precisely what he wants from his actors on stage and sets very high standards while still managing to be understanding”.
Mr Abdul Rahim Bin Osman was the only opposition veteran to be unveiled as a candidate at the press conference on Friday. He has experience contesting two previous general elections.
The RP said that it aimed to contest in at least two Group Representation Constituencies and two Single Member Constituencies in the coming general elections, which will be confirmed when the electoral boundaries are released. The party has already been doing walkabouts in several constituencies in the last few months.
Alliance talks on hold
However, a proposed Reform Party-SDA alliance came to a temporary standstill.
In an interview with MediaCorp on Saturday evening after the Reform Party’s first annual conference, the party’s Secretary-General said that the proposed alliance “is off for now“. He also expressed dissatisfaction with a leak of negotiation proposals, saying that “we won’t be conducting any further negotiations … because we’re not entering into negotiations with an organisation that leaks confidential documents to the press“.
Mr Jeyaretnam was referring to a list of eleven conditions that the Reform Party wanted the SDA to accede to as part of the agreement for an alliance — a set of terms that was rejected by the SDA after a meeting of the SDA’s central executive committee on Friday night.
SDA’s rejection of the eleven conditions was confirmed by Mr Desmond Lim, Asst Secretary-General of the SPP and Secretary-General of the SDA, also in an interview with Mediacorp on Saturday.
Mr Jeyaretnam had wanted the alliance to be billed as a partnership of equals, and for himself to be installed as either chairman or secretary-general of the alliance.
Additionally, the terms included Mr Chiam See Tong contesting with Mr Jeyaretnam and at least two Reform Party candidates in the West Coast GRC, delegating the responsibility for writing and presenting the SDA’s televised political broadcast at the next election to Mr Jeyaretnam, and allowing the Reform Party to continue contesting under its own name in other wards of its choice.
It is understood that Mr Chiam and his wife, who is also a member of SDA’s central executive committee, had privately agreed to most of them.
In his comments to the press, Mr Jeyaretnam claimed that SDA’s rejection of the conditions indicate that “Chiam did not have the agreement of the SDA when he entered into negotiations“.
Talks not foreclosed
Despite the leak of the negotiation positions, Mr Jeyaretnam noted on the SDA Facebook page that talks were still possible on the condition that the source of the leak was identified and that a singular SDA negotiating position was achieved. The RP will be meeting this coming month to discuss whether, and if so, how to move ahead with talks.
As for the SDA, Mr Desmond Lim struck a philosophically optimistic note when interviewed by TOC about the question of opposition unity:
“Unity is about unconditional love-simply acceptance and compassion-If one knows that he is an object of someone else’s affection and love, it is bound to have an impact, and this will be much appreciated”.
By: Choo Zheng Xi and
Ng E-jay
what leak? why is ng ejay involved in this story?
:oIo:
