Candidate's track record more important: Ng Eng Hen
By Sandra Davie & Karamjit Kaur
EDUCATION Minister Ng Eng Hen said the opposition may have better-educated candidates this round, but voters care more about whether a candidate can improve their lives and be trusted to be in government, than about how intelligent he is.
When asked yesterday about the opposition fielding better-qualified candidates, including government scholarship holders, Dr Ng said: 'With a more educated population, you are bound to have better educated candidates across the parties, and it is good for our system.'
He added that as a society matures, there would be people who believe that Singapore should be different, that it should have different economic policies, for example, or a different social welfare or education system.
But at the end of the day, he believed voters would ask if the candidate had a track record and could be trusted.
Dr Ng was speaking to reporters during a walkabout in Bishan-Toa Payoh GRC with the PAP's other candidates there, including Deputy Prime Minister Wong Kan Seng.
Dr Ng also challenged opposition parties to ask voters to trust them to form the government.
'If they can convince voters that they can be a better government, take care of Singapore and voters better than the PAP government, voters will vote for them. Otherwise, voters will say, I will trust the people that have delivered,' he said.
If opposition members want only to be a voice in Parliament, they can do so as Non-Constituency MPs (NCMPs), Dr Ng said. That way, voters will not have to sacrifice their welfare and the welfare of their constituency, he added.
The Government has changed the law such that if fewer than nine opposition candidates are elected, the top losers will be offered the option of taking up the remainder of the nine seats as NCMPs.
Most of the opposition parties have said they are not ready to form a government, but have asked voters to vote them in to act as a check on the PAP government, or as insurance for the future.
Mr Wong said Singapore has a system that allows people to move up the social ladder and do well.
'Some of them will join the Government. Not all of them will stay; some of them will leave. And thereafter, some of them will say, 'I want to do something different'. So, well, that is to be expected,' he said.
Mr Wong welcomes a contest as it provides a good learning experience for him and his team.
He is the only member of the PAP's Bishan-Toa Payoh GRC team to have faced an electoral battle. That was back in 1984.
This year's contest will be a first for Dr Ng, Mayor Zainudin Nordin, Mrs Josephine Teo and Mr Hri Kumar Nair.
The Singapore People's Party (SPP) yesterday issued a statement in response to Dr Ng's challenge to the opposition to offer themselves as an alternative government to the PAP.
Mr Benjamin Pwee, an SPP candidate for Bishan-Toa Payoh GRC, called on the PAP to respect voters' independence and maturity.
Voters should be allowed to decide for themselves if what they want of the opposition is an alternative government, alternative voices, checks and balances in Parliament or political representation, he said.
Mr Pwee is part of a team led by veteran politician Chiam See Tong which intends to contest Bishan-Toa Payoh GRC.
Mr Desmond Lim, secretary-general of the Singapore Democratic Alliance, also responded to Dr Ng's challenge.
Mr Lim said his party's long-term aim is to form a government, whether on its own or in coalition with any other political party.
By Sandra Davie & Karamjit Kaur
EDUCATION Minister Ng Eng Hen said the opposition may have better-educated candidates this round, but voters care more about whether a candidate can improve their lives and be trusted to be in government, than about how intelligent he is.
When asked yesterday about the opposition fielding better-qualified candidates, including government scholarship holders, Dr Ng said: 'With a more educated population, you are bound to have better educated candidates across the parties, and it is good for our system.'
He added that as a society matures, there would be people who believe that Singapore should be different, that it should have different economic policies, for example, or a different social welfare or education system.
But at the end of the day, he believed voters would ask if the candidate had a track record and could be trusted.
Dr Ng was speaking to reporters during a walkabout in Bishan-Toa Payoh GRC with the PAP's other candidates there, including Deputy Prime Minister Wong Kan Seng.
Dr Ng also challenged opposition parties to ask voters to trust them to form the government.
'If they can convince voters that they can be a better government, take care of Singapore and voters better than the PAP government, voters will vote for them. Otherwise, voters will say, I will trust the people that have delivered,' he said.
If opposition members want only to be a voice in Parliament, they can do so as Non-Constituency MPs (NCMPs), Dr Ng said. That way, voters will not have to sacrifice their welfare and the welfare of their constituency, he added.
The Government has changed the law such that if fewer than nine opposition candidates are elected, the top losers will be offered the option of taking up the remainder of the nine seats as NCMPs.
Most of the opposition parties have said they are not ready to form a government, but have asked voters to vote them in to act as a check on the PAP government, or as insurance for the future.
Mr Wong said Singapore has a system that allows people to move up the social ladder and do well.
'Some of them will join the Government. Not all of them will stay; some of them will leave. And thereafter, some of them will say, 'I want to do something different'. So, well, that is to be expected,' he said.
Mr Wong welcomes a contest as it provides a good learning experience for him and his team.
He is the only member of the PAP's Bishan-Toa Payoh GRC team to have faced an electoral battle. That was back in 1984.
This year's contest will be a first for Dr Ng, Mayor Zainudin Nordin, Mrs Josephine Teo and Mr Hri Kumar Nair.
The Singapore People's Party (SPP) yesterday issued a statement in response to Dr Ng's challenge to the opposition to offer themselves as an alternative government to the PAP.
Mr Benjamin Pwee, an SPP candidate for Bishan-Toa Payoh GRC, called on the PAP to respect voters' independence and maturity.
Voters should be allowed to decide for themselves if what they want of the opposition is an alternative government, alternative voices, checks and balances in Parliament or political representation, he said.
Mr Pwee is part of a team led by veteran politician Chiam See Tong which intends to contest Bishan-Toa Payoh GRC.
Mr Desmond Lim, secretary-general of the Singapore Democratic Alliance, also responded to Dr Ng's challenge.
Mr Lim said his party's long-term aim is to form a government, whether on its own or in coalition with any other political party.
