pls my dear beloved Mr Low Thia Kiang, pls send a WP team to contest in Tampines, residents here really need your party here , pls dont forsake and abandon the Tampines residents! :(
Low promises more on Nomination Day
by Leong Wee Keat
04:46 AM Mar 28, 2011
SINGAPORE - Before 2006, most seats in previous General Elections (GE) were not contested - "a pathetic situation for the Opposition", said Workers' Party (WP) chief Low Thia Khiang yesterday.
Now, with at least 40 or more newcomers in their ranks, the Hougang MP feels the situation "augurs well for Singapore".
But Mr Low warned this would not be enough if Singaporeans did not vote for them.
He said: "If Singaporeans don't support the Opposition, and hope that, 'I welcome you to contest, but never mind, I will vote for the PAP', one day, I think we will end up like in 2001 or 1997 where you don't have much choice.
If Singaporeans want the Opposition to play a role and to give them a chance to exercise the right to vote, they will have to support opposition outfits like the Workers' Party, said Mr Low. "Otherwise, we can't grow, we cannot get (new candidates)," he said.
The WP chief added: "We have a competent Government and we have a competent Prime Minister, but that doesn't mean we do not need (the) Opposition to play a role."
Mr Low was speaking to reporters after leading a party walkabout in the four-MP Moulmein-Kallang GRC yesterday.
Three new faces - businessman Sajeev Kamalasanan, 41, polytechnic lecturer L Somasundaram, 48, and research officer Toh Hong Boon, 31 - were among the party's members who met residents at a Bendemeer Road market and food centre.
But Mr Chen Show Mao, a Beijing-based corporate lawyer who is tipped to be a WP candidate, was absent.
Asked about Mr Chen, Mr Low declined to be drawn on the significance of the Rhodes Scholarship winner joining the WP.
"There will be more significant things to come," added Mr Low. "I think on Nomination Day, more will be known to the public."
WP chairman Sylvia Lim had told Shin Min Daily News last Saturday that the party would be fielding an interesting team of new candidates for this GE.
The National Solidarity Party, which is also eyeing Moulmein-Kallang GRC, said it was prepared to give way to the WP if it fielded top guns like Mr Low or Ms Lim there.
While it did not wish to see a three-corner fight, Mr Low said the party intended to send teams of "mature candidates" with "some experience" for the coming GE.
Last week also saw changes to the PAP line-up for East Coast GRC, which WP is also eyeing.
Asked about the new PAP line-up there, Mr Low said: "I don't wish to speculate why. The question is best answered by the PAP as to why they have to make such a drastic change."
Last week, Ms Lim said the WP was not ready to form a government, and yesterday Mr Low added that he was "against making any type of empty promises".
Pressed for a time frame his party was working towards, Mr Low said it did not have a target and was unsure of how long the political process would take.
"If we look at the development and the evolution of (the) Opposition party in Singapore, it is always taking one step forward, three steps backward," he said. "I think it is a pain.
