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GE2015: SDP rebuts ruling party criticism, alleges PAP of “kneejerk reaction”

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Singapore Democratic Party’s (SDP) Chee Soon Juan (left) and Paul Tambyah (right) respond to allegations by the People’s Action Party that the SDP’s programmes will lead Singapore to bankruptcy (Photo: Sharanya Pillai)

By: Sharanya Pillai

The Singapore Democratic Party (SDP) has defended its alternative policies against criticism from the People’s Action Party (PAP), and fired back that the ruling party “has at first criticised the SDP’s ideas only to adopt them later”.

On Tuesday (1 Sep), Minister for Environment and Water Resources Vivian Balakrishnan, who is leading the PAP team in Holland-Bukit Timah GRC, described the SDP’s proposals as “tax and spend” programmes that have failed in other countries, pointing to the case of debt-ridden Greece.

In a press conference this morning (2 Sep), SDP chief Chee Soon Juan rejected the notion: “The PAP has an almost kneejerk reaction (that) anything the SDP holds cannot be true.”

“And then (the PAP) hears the reasons, and they see the people clamouring. And very soon they come around and say ‘we’ll do something like that’,” he added.

Citing an example, Dr Chee recalled that in 2011, Balakrishnan said that the SDP was “middle-class unfriendly” with its proposed plan to raise income taxes for the wealthy and Good and Services Tax for luxury items. Yet, the government moved this year to raise personal income taxes for the top 5 per cent of earners, Chee pointed out.

“It seems that [Finance Minister Tharman Shanmugaratnam] did exactly what Dr Balakrishnan attacked the SDP for,“ Chee argued.

Chee also alleged that the Fair Consideration Framework, a government initiative calling for fair consideration of Singaporeans in hiring practices, was adapted from the SDP’s proposal to “hire Singaporeans first before considering employing foreigners.”

Fellow SDP candidate Paul Tambyah, who also spoke at the press conference, concurred, saying PAP’s “imitation is the sincerest form of flattery”.

Tambyah defended the economic viability of the party’s proposals, emphasising that they would not put Singapore’s critical services such as defence at risk, as Balakrishnan had suggested.

Calling his party’s proposed defence budget cuts “miniscule”, Tambyah said: “It’s a more holistic approach to the defence of Singapore that we see, which involves investing in the people of Singapore, in their health, in their education and in their well-being.”

Chee also responded to criticism from PAP politicians Sim Ann and Lawrence Wong over his past conflict with veteran opposition politician Chiam See Tong, saying that he wanted to “move past this nonsense.”

Both Chee and Tambyah welcomed Balakrishnan’s scrutiny of the SDP’s proposals, and called for greater debate.

“We are quite glad that Minister Balakrishnan has chosen to engage us on the issues rather than (to conduct) character assassination,” Tambyah said.