New ideas, new people needed for changing electorate: WP’s Gerald Giam
From left: WP party members Ms He Ting Ru, Mr Mohamed Fairoz Bin Shariff, Mr Gerald Giam, Dr Daniel Goh, Mr Leon Perera and Mr Kenneth Foo introducing the party manifesto. Photo: Robin Choo
SINGAPORE — While acknowledging that the incumbent People’s Action Party (PAP) has “played a big role” in the Republic’s development in the past, Workers’ Party (WP) central executive council member Gerald Giam today (Aug 29) said that changes to the electorate and new challenges require new people with new ideas.
“We cannot continue to assume that this success that the governance and economic model that brought us to where we are today is going to continue on for the next 50 years... We need a new approach to a lot if things, a lot of issues, challenging problems that we face as a nation... And the PAP doesn’t have all the answers to certain things,” he said at a press conference after the WP unveiled its 48-page manifesto for the coming General Election.
The WP will also issue a document on Nomination Day, detailing its contributions in the 12th Parliament - where the party held seven seats for elected Members of Parliament (MP) and two seats for Non-Constituency MPs during the four-and-a half year term.
“This is for the public to evaluate what we have contributed in Parliament, and whether we have contributed to the policy reversals and U-turns in the past four years,” said party member and potential candidate Daniel Goh.
Mr Giam and Dr Goh were responding to a question from the media on where Opposition parties stand in Singapore’s development.
Earlier today, Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong, in unveiling the ruling’s party’s election manifesto, said that no other party but the PAP is in a position to provide leadership for Singapore.
Mr Lee had said that Singapore would be “sunk” if the Opposition wins enough seats to form the Government. He also said that opposition parties do not wish to form the Government because “they know they are not credible”.
To that, Mr Giam said: “I don’t buy that argument that the PAP is so indispensable that no one can ever replace them.”
The democratic process is a gradual one, he said.
“You cannot have a Parliament that is overly dominated by one party, because we need the different ideas to come forward, we need the different players to be able to push through those ideas.”
Nonetheless, the WP’s aim in the coming polls is to entrench a “significant Opposition presence” in Parliament, he noted, it is neither seeking to form the Government, nor to form a coalition with other parties.
The party has staked its claims on 28 out of 89 seats in the coming polls, five more than it contested during the 2011 election.
“I think it is important for us not to get into binary thinking again, where it’s either we are trying to form the Government or we are trying to not do anything at all,” said Mr Giam.
He added: “Once it comes to a time when we feel that we are able to take over to form the Government, that’s when we will be campaigning on that platform. Until then, we are not going to be able to campaign on that platform.”
