WP’s Lee Li Lian: Amendments in motion to vacate NCMP seat are a personal attack
The Workers’ Party’s former Punggol East MP Lee Li Lian has criticised the amendments to the motion passed in Parliament to vacate her seat as NCMP, saying they were unfair to WP and a personal attack on her.
WP chief Low Thia Khiang and Aljunied MP Sylvia Lim requested their party’s objection to the amendments to the motion be noted when Speaker Halimah Yacob called for a vote in Parliament on Friday (29 Jan). The amendments were added by People’s Action Party whip Chan Chun Sing.
The amendments said the WP supported the “political manoeuvre to take advantage of” the NCMP seat, despite Low having compared the NCMP position to “duckweed” a few days ago.
In a statement later, the WP said it abstained from the vote “so as to avoid endorsing the PAP’s amendment to the original motion”.
The amended motion also noted that Parliament “regrets that Ms Lee Li Lian, having stood as a WP candidate and received the highest vote share among all losing opposition candidates, has now decided to give up her NCMP seat to another candidate from her party with a lower vote share”.
In her Facebook post on Saturday (30 Jan), Lee said that the amendments accused her of “acting in contrary to the views of the voters”.
She clarified that she did not contest in the General Elections to be an NCMP but to be an elected MP with full responsibilities to represent her residents. Having lost her MP seat to PAP’s Charles Chong, she said that she stepped aside in line with what the voters had expressed.
Lee addressed Chong’s suggestion that she should have respected the “decision of the minority” who had voted her by taking up the NCMP seat.
In her defence, Lee said, “The NCMP scheme was not put in place by the voters, but the Government. The people have no direct hand in electing me to the NCMP seat. Voters who voted for me were seeking for me to be their elected MP.”
Lee also highlighted the obstacles she had faced as an NCMP-elect and as an MP of her ward. If Lee were to become an NCMP, she said that she would be unable to represent her residents on the ground and in Parliament, citing a recent incident.
“Just recently as an NCMP-elect, I tried to apply to the PAP-managed Town Council to hold a charity food distribution event in Punggol East on 30th January 2016 today. This was rejected by the TC because they do not approve applications made by Political Parties,” Lee said.
(Screenshot taken from Lee Li Lian’s Facebook page of the email from the Pasir Ris-Punggol Town Council to the former Punggol East MP)
Calling the incident “ironic”, Lee said that when she was an MP, she had never rejected any applications from PAP-affiliates to hold events at areas managed by the WP Town Council. In comparison, Lee said she was never successful in her applications to hold events at areas managed by the HDB like Rivervale Plaza.
“As an MP there were many challenges on the ground working with PAP-affiliates to hold events in my own constituency, even if they benefited the residents. What more as an NCMP where I would not be able to support even the people who voted for me on the ground?” Lee added.
Nonetheless, Lee said the NCMP scheme is good for aspiring MPs and that she is “glad” that Parliament is allowing the vacant seat to be taken up by one such person.
“I wish members of the House all the best. I will continue my outreach and grassroots activities and my mission to make a difference to the lives of people in my own way,” she said.
Meanwhile, WP member Daniel Goh, the party’s choice for the vacant NCMP seat, had also dipped into the “duckweed” debate.
Goh said that while he holds the same position as his party in opposing the NCMP scheme in principle, “the principle of national service trumps” and he stands ready to serve as NCMP.
“If my country sees fit that I contribute as duckweed, then it is my honour to be duckweed Goh. It is no insult; it is a privilege.”
