The PAP is still scared of Chee Soon Juan, going all out to discredit him again

[LITTLEREDDOT]

Singapore GE2020: PAP says Chee Soon Juan should admit SDP campaign is based on false claim

SDP chief Chee Soon Juan during a televised debate on July 1, 2020.PHOTO: LIANHE ZAOBAO

Tee Zhuo


SINGAPORE - The People's Action Party (PAP) on Thursday night (July 2) said the election campaign of the Singapore Democratic Party (SDP) is pointless now that a key plank of its campaign has been proven false.

The "No to 10 million population", which is part of the SDP's Four Yes, One No campaign slogan for the general election, is based on a false claim that the Government plans to raise the country's population to 10 million, the PAP noted.

The ruling party said the honourable thing for SDP chief Chee Soon Juan to do would have been to admit that his party's campaign was based on a falsehood, withdraw it, and apologise to Singaporeans for misleading them.

"But that would have been out of character," the PAP said.

"Instead, Dr Chee further twists the facts. He now claims the SDP has 'achieved victory' by extracting a promise from the PAP that it had no intention to increase the population to 10 million," it added.

The PAP statement came hours after the SDP said that Dr Chee had "successfully extracted an assurance from the PAP that it has no intention of increasing the population to 6.9 or 10 million".


The SDP had claimed the PAP wished to jack up the population to 10 million by bringing in more foreigners, a charge Dr Chee repeated three times during a televised debate on Channel 5 on Wednesday.

Dr Chee claimed that Deputy Prime Minister Heng Swee Keat had in an interview "toy(ed) with the idea of bringing our population up to 10 million", the PAP noted.
Foreign Minister Vivian Balakrishnan, representing the PAP, refuted him each time, referring Dr Chee to a statement the National Population and Talent Division (NPTD) issued earlier in the day.

The NPTD also stated categorically that the Government "has not proposed, planned nor targeted for Singapore to increase its population to 10 million".

Dr Balakrishnan also stated for the record that Singapore "will never have 10 million".
And Dr Balakrishnan asked Dr Chee not to repeat the false statement.
"But Dr Chee doubled down on this falsehood. After the debate, he published it again, this time in a Facebook post linking to a Straits Times report of a dialogue that DPM Heng had with NTU students in March last year," the PAP said.
Mr Heng himself refuted Dr Chee's false statement in a Facebook post earlier on Thursday, and released the video clip of what he had said at Nanyang Technological University.
Mr Heng referred to former chief planner Liu Thai Ker, who had publicly said Singapore should go for a higher population number. Mr Heng also said the population number is not just about the physical space but also the social space, and sense of togetherness.
The PAP said: "Dr Chee first conjures a bogey out of thin air to befuddle, frighten and divide Singaporeans. When it is pointed out to him the bogey doesn't exist, he claims someone else had 'toyed' with the idea first.

"And when it is shown conclusively that someone else had done no such thing, he waves his arms triumphantly in the air, proclaiming, 'see, I slayed the bogey'."
Added the PAP: "Dr Chee has staged this drama many times before, going back to 1996 when he refused to apologise for his use of wrong data on healthcare subsides at a Parliamentary Select Committee.
"'Reputation is temporary; character is permanent,' Dr Chee said in 2015. One cannot agree more.
"A leopard does not change its spots. The new Dr Chee - of which there have been many - is still the old Dr Chee," it added.

 

[LITTLEREDDOT]

10 million population is just 1 of SDP's 5 Point campaign. What has the PAP got to say about the other 4 points?

 

[lovesamleong]

Aiyah, SDP makes a mistake, no where in that Straits Times report has Mr Heng said Singapore plans to have 10 million population, Mr Heng referenced to Liu Thai Ker's proposal, that does not mean Mr Heng plans a 10 million population.

Don't SDP fact check? Should SDP have written to the government asking to confirm the 10 million population? See.. never do homework.

Now Mr Heng confirm he did not say Singapore should plan to increase its population to 10 million population.
https://www.straitstimes.com/politi...ore-should-plan-to-increase-its-population-to

Who is lying? Mr Heng or Dr Chee? SDP made a boo boo here and should be brave enough to admit its mistake. The people of Singapore knows SDP made a boo boo there but SDP pretend they were right and pretend they accomplish the mission. Sure, pretend all you want, treat Singaporeans like fools but SDP don't fool them at the ballot box. Dr Chee said himself "And when you cannot admit to your mistakes, you cannot correct them". If the SDP cannot admit they make a mistake, how can they correct mistakes they make if elected? Nothing wrong with making mistakes, everyone makes mistakes.

One last word to SDP: You can still play punk here, pretend nothing happened, mission accomplished, PAP can make life difficult for SDP because they claimed otherwise, which meant PAP lied, and that PAP can sue SDP, just like what they have done in Cheng San etc.

Ps. PSP's Brad just falled into PAP's trap by responding to Shanmugam's taunt that PSP is not sincere in Nee Soon.

 

[bobby]

Singapore race gets heated over immigration and '10m population'

Singaporean Foreign Minister Vivian Balakrishnan, right, listens to Singapore Democratic Party chief Chee Soon Juan in a debate on July 1, in this screenshot from the city-state's Channel 5 via CNA.

DYLAN LOH, Nikkei staff writerJuly 2, 2020 19:15 JST


SINGAPORE -- A terse exchange in a Singaporean election debate has brought simmering tensions over immigration to the surface, forcing the ruling People's Action Party to fend off opposition claims that it wants a dramatic increase in foreign workers.

The spat broke out during a televised debate Wednesday night, when the chief of the opposition Singapore Democratic Party suggested that Deputy Prime Minister Heng Swee Keat had entertained the idea of nearly doubling the city-state's population to 10 million, from 5.7 million as of June 2019.

"Singaporeans are deadly worried about this proposal," the SDP's Chee Soon Juan said, addressing the PAP's representative in the discussion, Foreign Minister Vivian Balakrishnan. "Will you categorically tell Singaporeans right now that your party has no intention of raising our population to 10 million by continuing to bring in foreigners, especially foreign PMETs into Singapore, to compete with our PMETs for jobs?"

PMET stands for professionals, managers, engineers and technicians.

"That's a cheap shot Dr. Chee," Balakrishnan, a debater in his school days, fired back over objections from his rival. "Let me state for the record: We will never have 10 million. We won't even have 6.9 million. The government doesn't have a target for the population. What we want is a Singapore core that is demographically stable, able to reproduce ourselves, able to create opportunities and jobs for ourselves."

Chee, however, struck a nerve just ahead of the July 10 election.

"We have got to stop this foolishness of continuing to bring in foreign workers, especially foreign PMETs," he also said in the debate. "We have more than 100,000 unemployed [PMETs] in Singapore at the moment."

Immigration and population growth have long been burning questions for tiny Singapore. Ministry of Manpower data shows there were over 1.42 million foreign workers on all types of permits at the end of last year. While the city-state has an aging base of locals, the idea of further supplementing the workforce with labor from abroad has proved touchy in elections before. The number 6.9 million stems from a government white paper's projection that stirred controversy in 2013, before an eventual revision.

Tempers may be running especially hot in this race to the polls, as the coronavirus pandemic pushes the economy toward an estimated 4% to 7% contraction for 2020.

On Wednesday night, the government rushed to post a response on its website, stating that it "has not proposed, planned nor targeted for Singapore to increase its population to 10 million." On Thursday, the Ministry of Manpower said there were only 39,000 unemployed PMETs, citing a figure for 2019.

Heng himself -- the man tipped to be prime minister when current leader Lee Hsien Loong steps down, likely in the next term -- weighed in on Facebook on Thursday.

Deputy Prime Minister Heng Swee Keat, center, has found himself under pressure from opposition parties over remarks made last year. © Reuters

He sought to clarify remarks he made last year in a discussion with students, which seemed to be the basis for Chee's argument. A report by the Straits Times newspaper said Heng had cited former chief planner Liu Thai Ker's view that Singapore would need 10 million people, while arguing that the nation should remain open.

"Far from endorsing this, I had explained that our population size was not just about physical space, but also about social space and how we can preserve a sense of togetherness," Heng wrote on Thursday.

"The government has never proposed or targeted for Singapore to increase its population to 10 million," he added. "And if we look at today's situation, our population is likely to be significantly below 6.9 million by 2030."

The firm denials raised the prospect that the government might even invoke its fake news law -- the Protection from Online Falsehoods and Manipulation Act. It has refrained from doing so, but the National Population and Talent Division under the Prime Minister's Office on Wednesday warned that action may be taken against further publication of false claims about the population.

This did not stop the SDP from following up on Thursday with a statement titled "No to a 10 million population," in which it insisted that it did not invent nor imagine the number.

The SDP is not the only opposition group pressuring the PAP on immigration and employment. The Progress Singapore Party -- which has drawn plenty of attention over the membership of Prime Minister Lee's estranged brother, Lee Hsien Yang -- also hammered the point in the debate.

"The facts still remain that you have among us the 400-over-thousand numbers of foreign PMETs working here," said Francis Yuen, the PSP's representative.

"And the fact also remains that there are a number of our own PMETs that are out of jobs, to the tune of 100,000. So, logic would tell us that our own PMETs certainly could fill up some of the jobs," he continued, suggesting the government should repatriate "excess" foreign workers and have locals fill the vacancies.

Tied to the issue of jobs and income, the subject of inequality also came up in Wednesday's debate. The Workers' Party's Jamus Lim highlighted his camp's proposal for Singapore to introduce a minimum wage.

"It is really a crime that we see the elderly continue to feel that they have to work, in order to make ends meet," he said. "Elements like a minimum wage would actually help us move toward increasing social mobility."