Great start for the SDP. Dr Chee must have been doing an excellent job as opposition politician, so good that it catches the attention of Minister Chan Chun Sing.
With the latest press release by Chan Chun Sing, it invoked some memories about the sad and troubled past of the SDP. How does SDP plan to address the issues raised by Chan Chun Sing? That the SDP is a party of the past. That Dr Chee behaved like a hooligan in Jurong. That Dr Chee is not an honorable man. Should Dr Chee step down, run the show from behind the scenes like LKY and let new blood take over?
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Chee sacrifices S'pore to win points overseas: Chan Chun Sing
Published on Jan 16, 2015 12:56 AM
DR CHEE Soon Juan is disingenuous ("Not possible for poor S'poreans to live on $1,000 a month"; Dec 18).
Singaporean families earning $1,000 a month can indeed afford their own flats because of various housing grants. As a result, the lowest 20th percentile of households have an average net home equity of $200,000. That is an achievement no other nation in the world can boast of.
And that is not all. In recent years, we have enhanced our social safety nets. Lower-income households have benefited from, among other things, Workfare and various assistance schemes for medical, transport, utilities and education.
We will soon strengthen our social safety net further with the Silver Support Scheme to help Singaporeans with low Central Provident Fund balances.
Dr Chee claimed that he published in The Wall Street Journal (WSJ) because he could not publish his article in Singapore. But he has been published here before in both mainstream and online media.
The truth is, Dr Chee has always preferred to play to foreign galleries. For instance, when then Prime Minister Goh Chok Tong was conferred an honorary degree by Williams College in the United States,
Dr Chee turned up to protest and embarrass his own prime minister overseas.
He has continued to play to the foreign gallery in writing in its media.
For instance, when he writes in the right-leaning WSJ, he attacks our government-linked companies - never mind the many Singaporean jobs at stake if foreigners do not do business with our companies.
And when he writes in the left-leaning Huffington Post, he attacks the US-Singapore free trade agreement - never mind that this FTA allows our companies to compete in the US market and creates jobs for Singaporeans.
Dr Chee has always been ready to sacrifice Singaporeans and Singapore if he can win points overseas.
He is right now busy prettying himself in preparation for the next general election, trusting younger voters will not remember his past.
But older Singaporeans will remember that he was once dismissed from the National University of Singapore for misappropriating research funds and then staged a dramatic glucose-fortified "fast" in protest. They will also remember that he once heckled Mr Goh at a hawker centre.
Above all, they will remember that Dr Chee betrayed his own mentor, Mr Chiam See Tong. Mr Chiam had brought Dr Chee into the Singapore Democratic Party (SDP), but Dr Chee plotted against Mr Chiam and pushed him out of the party he had founded.
The SDP under Mr Chiam was Singapore's strongest opposition party. The SDP under Dr Chee has become a shadow of its old self.
Singaporeans know who are honourable political leaders, like Mr Chiam, and who are not.
Chan Chun Sing
Minister for Social and Family Development
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