Chee Soon Juan raps Govt for getting priorities wrong
SINGAPORE — Rapping the Government for getting its priorities wrong, Singapore Democratic Party (SDP) chief Chee Soon Juan yesterday (Sept 7) hit back at the ruling People’s Action Party for labelling his party’s proposals tax-and-spend programmes.
The Government’s increase in healthcare spending of S$4 billion in five years might sound “like a lot”, but it is the same amount that state-owned investment firm Temasek Holdings offered last year in a “highly questionable investment in Olam International, which was a debt-ridden company”, said Dr Chee, who was addressing the Raffles Place crowd at the party’s lunchtime rally — the first in this General Election.
He added that S$4 billion is also the amount Temasek paid for Shin Corp, “an investment that ultimately ended up in smoke”. And in 2008, Temasek and GIC reportedly lost billions through investments in banks like Citigroup and UBS, he noted.
Pointing to hospital bed shortages, Dr Chee said: “Priorities, priorities. This government accuses us of coming up with policies of tax-and-spend, but what they will do is take our reserves, go out and make all these failed investments, and then tell us they’re going to increase our healthcare spending by S$4 billion in five years.”
Dr Chee said his party is not opposed to wealth, but wealth inequality. He sought to appeal to voters in Holland-Bukit Timah Group Representation Constituency, where he is contesting. He said he believed that they care about issues such as the elderly struggling to cope with daily expenses.
“We have been led astray, we’ve been told repeatedly no one owes us a living.”
Dr Chee’s Holland-Bukit Timah running mate Paul Tambyah defended the SDP’s proposal to raise taxes for the top 1 per cent of income earners — which Deputy Prime Minister Tharman Shanmugaratnam had disagreed with at a PAP rally on Saturday.
Mr Tharman had said more government spending cannot simply be funded by jacking up taxes for the top 1 per cent of income earners, as this group is mobile, and taxes for the top 5 to 10 per cent of earners would also have to be changed.
Philanthropists of the past, such as Lee Kong Chian, Tan Chin Tuan and the Alsagoffs, did not “hold the government of the day hostage by saying that if Singapore raised taxes, they would run away”, argued Prof Tambyah.
“We don’t want the Robert Mugabes, the billionaire playboys, the tax evading Europeans and Australians, the Burmese druglords. If those people are upset about the proposed luxury taxes or the higher taxes proposed by the alternative parties and want to leave the country, can I say, let them go.” He called for more Opposition voices in Parliament to push the Government to become more fair .
Dr Chee, 53, said he has personally experienced the compassion of fellow Singaporeans.
His family gets by through sales of his books and through income from his fellowships, grants and contributions to books or newspapers. Once, a stranger bought a book and gave him cupcakes and a red packet containing S$10,000.
“You’ve come by, you’ve contributed and that has made a difference … you are my political light,” he said.
An anonymous donor recently left a note in the SDP’s collection box, asking him to buy some Haagen Dazs ice-cream for himself, Dr Chee said. At a rally last week, he had said he checks out Wall’s ice-cream instead of Haagen Dazs and Ben & Jerry’s at the supermarket, and could identify with the daily cost-of-living struggles.
Yesterday, he also thanked the “labour of love” of filmmaker Tay Bee Pin, who used his own money to produce the short film, Behind The Man, about Dr Chee’s family. Dr Chee’s wife and son were spotted after the rally and waited as he autographed books for supporters for two hours.
