By Faris – December 17th, 2010
One chair (far right) is left empty as the six-member
guest panellists take their seats. (Yahoo!)
The ruling
People’s Action Party (PAP) skipped a major political forum on
Thursday evening which was attended by the leaders of Singapore’s
political parties.
Organised by socio-political website,
The Online Citizen, the event which was held in a packed
ballroom at the
Quality Hotel in Balestier was attended by over 350
people, made up mostly of the public, party
activists and the media.
Leaders of the various political parties including
Kenneth Jeyaretnam of the Reform Party (RP),
Chia Ti Lik of the Socialist Front and Secretary-General of the
National Solidarity Party,
Goh Meng Seng (NSP), were guest panellists.
Chee Soon Juan of the Singapore Democratic Party (SDP),
Chiam See Tong of Singapore People’s Party (SPP) and
Gerald Giam representing The Workers’ Party (WP) were also
present during the 2-and-a-half-hour dialogue.
However, as the political leaders took their seats, a chair was
conspicuously empty — the PAP was the only political party who
chose not to send a representative.
Before the forum began, moderator Mr Choo
Zheng Xi, 25, addressed the “elephant in the room” and said,
“We did actually invite the PAP. We sent an email to the
Secretary-general of the PAP, Mr
Lee Hsien Loong, and reached out to an MP who said was
keen to come. He asked for clearance but did not get it.”
Yahoo! SEA understands the MP in question
was Mr
Zaqy Mohamad, who is Vice-Chairman of the young PAP
and head of the party’s media subcommittee and new media
engagement.
In an email reply to Yahoo! SEA, the MP for
Hong Kah GRC declined comment and suggested we
contact PAP HQ for an official comment.
When asked about the PAP’s absence, Reform Party
chief Mr Jeyaretnam said “it was a definitely a huge loss
for PAP itself. It was an opportunity to engage those in the forum
just like the debates held in the US or the UK.”
Forum moderator, Mr Choo, a 25-year-old law graduate added, “It
was not just plain debate, it was a debate of substantive quality.
Real, significant issues were profoundly discussed tonight and the
PAP missed out on it.”
A member of the public who called himself Chetan
said the PAP missed a chance to connect to their
constituents ahead of the next General Election.
“They missed an important process of dialogue with other
political figures. Perhaps they are still suspicious of the new
media, ” said the 30-year-old engineer.
However, a blogger who was present, Donaldson Tan, said that
although their absence was disappointing, the party
actually did not have much to lose.
“It’s not much of a loss for the party. The PAP conducts its own
forums and meetings with its activists to gain feedback from the
ground. But their absence did mean that there was no robust
debate between the ruling party and the opposition,” said the
editor of the
New Asia Republic.
Among the broad range of issues covered during the forum
conducted in an open QnA style were housing, income inequality, the
role of the media and civil liberties such as freedom of
assembly and the
Internal Security Act (ISA).
During the session, the audience was allowed to pose questions
specifically to a political party or general questions which all
speakers on the panel could answer.
Housing proved to be the hottest issue of the night
with Mr Chee of the SDP calling on the
Housing Board Development (HDB) to be more transparent and
reveal the true costs of building flats in order to solve the
issue of high housing prices.
But all came to an agreement that public housing should be made
accessible for the bottom 30 per cent of the population.
On the role of the media, Socialist Front’s Mr Chia said, “We
can use the internet to force the mainstream media to be more
objective. Media in other countries is supposed to be the watchdog
and that is the role that the media has to rise up to.”
On the issue of the controversial ISA law, which
allows people to be detained without trial, Mr Chiam said, “It
is arbitrary. Very dangerous. There is no emergency now unlike the
1940s” before calling for compensation for those who have been
unfairly detained.
An audience member also raised the question on whether the
ruling party, PAP, was “divorced from reality” and creating
policies which are not in tune with its citizens.
62-year-old retiree, Mr Bentley Tan told Yahoo! SEA, “I
have grown up with PAP and they have done well in the initial years
but now they are not listening to the ground.”
“The old guard is passionate, sincere and dedicated in
serving the people, but now public service is more of a career,” he
added.
WP”s Mr Giam addressed the issue during the forum and
said, “The PAP has a extensive network of grassroots who
provide feeback. But worse than being out of touch is to
ignore that feedback. It is time to get the opposition more
representation in parliament.”
On what voters can expect in the next GE, due to be held by Feb
2012, Reform Party’s Mr Jeyaretnam said, ”Don’t keep
grumbling and then on polling day, you vote for the
incumbent, and then go on grumbling for the next four years. Do
something about it.”
Summing up the event, Andrew Loh, 44, and co-founder of
organiser TOC, said the forum was organised to allow the
public to “see political parties talking about real issues which
have affected Singaporeans since the last general election in
2006″.
Human rights activist, Ms
Braema Mathi, added, “I can sense a maturing in way
public approach opposition and their response. (The opposition
parties) seem to have greater clarity on the approaches they want
to take.”
(Clockwise from top left): Chia Ti Lik (Socialist Front), Goh
Meng Seng (NSP), Kenneth Jeyaretnam (RP), Gerald Giam (WP), Chiam
See Tong (SPP) and Dr Chee Soon Juan (SDP)
- Yahoo!Singapore
