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GE: Don't call voters "secret weapons", says George Yeo
Posted: 28 April 2011 2226 hrs
SINGAPORE: Foreign Affairs Minister George Yeo said opposition parties should not use the voters to champion their own cause.
Mr Yeo, who is contesting Aljunied Group Representation Constituency (GRC), said the residents' needs and wishes should be top priority.
He was responding to his Workers' Party (WP) opponents' comments on voters being the Opposition's "secret weapon".
He said as a voter, it is important to examine the programmes the two political teams have to offer.
"I'll look at the individual characters, then I ask myself whom do I trust and you vote for the side whom you trust more, whom you believe will look after your interest and not use me for some national purpose," Mr Yeo said.
"I have mixed feelings about calling voters 'secret weapons' to be used and firing as cannon fodder.
"Voters' votes are what give us our right to be in Parliament. I think their needs, their wishes must come first. I won't use them as instruments to be chosen or discarded."
WP had said it wants to make a "breakthrough" in a GRC, to grow the opposition and teach the People's Action Party (PAP) a lesson.
Its chief, Mr Low Thia Khiang, said the party knows "there is a tiger in the mountain, but it's moving towards that mountain", to describe his contest with Mr Yeo.
Mr Yeo said: "We're rather mild, friendly people. I don't quite like the metaphor.
"I think what's important is not competition for power. I would rather we attend to real problems which people have on a daily basis.
"To me, that's how we're going to fight this campaign because it was on this basis that we become Members of Parliament (MPs).
"In the last five years, we've done a lot to raise living standards here and I believe most residents recognise that.
National issues are no doubt important but Mr Yeo said his team will not disregard the interest of the people in Aljunied because ultimately, their responsibilities lie in serving the residents here.
That is why earlier, the PAP team visited the area to court the support of more than 143,000 residents living in the area.
They also gave out little tokens to the residents.
Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong had said that if the PAP team in Aljunied loses, the ministers will not be protected because the party does not have a fall back position.
The team in Aljunied has three office holders: Mr Yeo, the Foreign Affairs Minister, Mrs Lim Hwee Hua, Minister in Prime Minister's Office and Mr Zainul Abidin Rasheed, Senior Minister of State for Foreign Affairs.
To that, Mr Yeo said the team respects the will and wishes of the voters in Aljunied GRC.
He said they need to be elected first in order to become ministers.
Mr Yeo said these are the rules of the game.
-CNA/wk
GE: Don't call voters "secret weapons", says George Yeo
Posted: 28 April 2011 2226 hrs
SINGAPORE: Foreign Affairs Minister George Yeo said opposition parties should not use the voters to champion their own cause.
Mr Yeo, who is contesting Aljunied Group Representation Constituency (GRC), said the residents' needs and wishes should be top priority.
He was responding to his Workers' Party (WP) opponents' comments on voters being the Opposition's "secret weapon".
He said as a voter, it is important to examine the programmes the two political teams have to offer.
"I'll look at the individual characters, then I ask myself whom do I trust and you vote for the side whom you trust more, whom you believe will look after your interest and not use me for some national purpose," Mr Yeo said.
"I have mixed feelings about calling voters 'secret weapons' to be used and firing as cannon fodder.
"Voters' votes are what give us our right to be in Parliament. I think their needs, their wishes must come first. I won't use them as instruments to be chosen or discarded."
WP had said it wants to make a "breakthrough" in a GRC, to grow the opposition and teach the People's Action Party (PAP) a lesson.
Its chief, Mr Low Thia Khiang, said the party knows "there is a tiger in the mountain, but it's moving towards that mountain", to describe his contest with Mr Yeo.
Mr Yeo said: "We're rather mild, friendly people. I don't quite like the metaphor.
"I think what's important is not competition for power. I would rather we attend to real problems which people have on a daily basis.
"To me, that's how we're going to fight this campaign because it was on this basis that we become Members of Parliament (MPs).
"In the last five years, we've done a lot to raise living standards here and I believe most residents recognise that.
National issues are no doubt important but Mr Yeo said his team will not disregard the interest of the people in Aljunied because ultimately, their responsibilities lie in serving the residents here.
That is why earlier, the PAP team visited the area to court the support of more than 143,000 residents living in the area.
They also gave out little tokens to the residents.
Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong had said that if the PAP team in Aljunied loses, the ministers will not be protected because the party does not have a fall back position.
The team in Aljunied has three office holders: Mr Yeo, the Foreign Affairs Minister, Mrs Lim Hwee Hua, Minister in Prime Minister's Office and Mr Zainul Abidin Rasheed, Senior Minister of State for Foreign Affairs.
To that, Mr Yeo said the team respects the will and wishes of the voters in Aljunied GRC.
He said they need to be elected first in order to become ministers.
Mr Yeo said these are the rules of the game.
-CNA/wk
