Level of transparency and accountability in Singapore is ‘woeful’: Chee Soon Juan
Singapore Democratic Party secretary-general Chee Soon Juan speaking to a resident living along King’s Road in a walkabout at Holland-Bukit Timah Group Representative Constituency (Photo: Kyle Malinda-White)
By: Kyle Malinda-White
Secretary-general of the Singapore Democratic Party (SDP) Dr Chee Soon Juan hit out at the state of affairs in Singapore’s government investment arms, calling accountability levels “woeful”.
He said this on the sidelines of a SDP walkabout Sunday (Aug 16) along King’s Road in the Holland-Bukit Timah Group Representative Constituency (GRC), a ward that the party has expressed interest in contesting.
Although he said the party is “feeling very upbeat” in continuing to hit the ground running, Chee said the SDP would only reveal its slate of candidates for the various wards it intends to contest in “closer to Nomination Day than just about now”.
The party also intends to contest Marsiling-Yew Tee GRC, as well as Bukit Batok, Bukit Panjang and Yuhua Single Member Contituencies (SMCs). It gave up its claim for Sembawang GRC to the National Solidarity Party after recent all-hands talks between opposition parties.
Chee was hopeful that Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong would issue the writ of elections as early as the middle of next week, following promises made by the ruling People’s Action Party (PAP) to reveal its slate of candidates before the National Day Rally on August 23.
“Nasty spats” between candidates should not take centrestage: Chee
One issue Chee hopes the party can highlight in Parliament is to ensure reserves are monitored and “foreign sovereign wealth funds are all transparently managed”.
He cautioned against imprudent spending, saying that the government’s investment arms continued to plough in money into banks such as UBS and Lehman Brothers at the height of the 2008 sub-prime mortgage crisis in the United States. This, Chee says, caused the government to lose money after investing in the banks affected by the crisis..
“Because there isn’t an opposition to hold the government accountable, the question is are your investment strategies right? It doesn’t matter what income group you are (in): if our reserves go, the economy tanks, everybody goes down together with it,” said Chee.
The secretary-general hopes that issues such as this come to the fore in elections hustings, instead of squabbles between parties and candidates over statements said during the campaign trail.
Referring to recent comments made by PAP organising secretary Dr Ng Eng Hen against personal attacks, Chee said, “We hope that some of these nasty spats that we have seen in past elections will not be the headline-makers. We want to ensure that that campaign is grounded on the issues and that is what residents are concerned about.”
A face that Chee introduced to the media was SDP treasurer Chong Wai Fung (above), 45, who works an an administrator in the health services industry and joined the party in 2011. She was assisting the party in fundraising efforts in the last General Elections, and said that she is keen on championing issues affecting vulnerable groups such as the poor and elderly, as well as addressing rising healthcare costs.
However, Chee stopped short of confirming her candidacy, saying that the party is “considering all our CEC (Central Executive Committee) members and are evaluating everybody”.
Dr Chee also hinted at several other campaign videos that the SDP will upload on social media in the weeks ahead.
One such video that was recently uploaded showed a washing machine with “Pappy White” detergent removing stains from a white shirt. These stains were in the form of words such as “accountability”, “democracy” and “transparency”.
