SDP praises Tharman, but rounds on his response to its proposals

SINGAPORE — Singapore Democratic Party (SDP) candidate Paul Tambyah disagreed yesterday (Sept 7) with Mr Tharman Shanmugaratnam’s take on the SDP’s economic and healthcare proposals — but not before heaping praise on his political rival.

Commending Mr Tharman — the People’s Action Party’s (PAP) candidate in Jurong Group Representation Constituency — and some of his colleagues for contesting on issues and not the “gutter politics of the past”, Professor Tambyah called the Deputy Prime Minister “probably the most brilliant of our current ministers”.

“Many of us think he will make a fine Prime Minister,” Prof Tambyah, the SDP’s Holland-Bukit Timah candidate, added.

“In fact, to tell you a secret, there are many of us in the alternative parties who hope that DPM Tharman will have a falling-out with the Prime Minister and will come out to lead a grand coalition of opposition parties — Pakatan Rakyat Singapura — to present a real alternative to the current PAP Government,” he said, in a nod to Malaysia’s former deputy premier Anwar Ibrahim leading the now-defunct Pakatan Rakyat opposition group.

Speaking at the SDP’s lunchtime rally in Raffles Place, Prof Tambyah addressed points raised by Mr Tharman on Saturday at the PAP’s rally in Bukit Panjang.

Mr Tharman, who is also Finance Minister, had said no country that offers healthcare that is free, or close to free, is able to avoid raising taxes for the middle-income.

Prof Tambyah, an infectious diseases expert, said the SDP’s healthcare proposal is not about free healthcare, but a national plan that provides basic healthcare.

The wealthy may choose to pay for more expensive services if they choose, he said, criticising the MediShield scheme as “probably the world’s most profitable public healthcare insurance policy in terms of its medical-loss ratio”.

Medical-loss ratio is the percentage of premiums that an insurer spends on claims.

Last year, Non-Constituency Member of Parliament Gerald Giam had questioned if MediShield payouts were falling too far behind the amount collected in premiums.

Out of every dollar paid in MediShield premiums in 2013, only 44 cents was paid out in claims, he noted.

But MP Janil Puthucheary had clarified that MediShield’s medical-loss ratio, if defined the same way as in the United States, would average 96 per cent over the past five years.

VIVIAN FIRES BACK

On opposition candidates who hope DPM tharman would leave the PAP and form a coalition of opposition parties, Dr Vivian Balakrishnan said at the PAP rally yesterday: 

"One example, just this afternoon at Fullerton, one candidate said he hoped that our DPM Tharman would have a falling out with (the) Prime Minister, join the Opposition, form a grand coalition of opposition parties — I call it a motley crew. No, it’s not a matter of daydreaming. This reveals the mentality, the mindset, and the attitude they have to politics.

"I have just one message to send to the SDP: In the PAP, we do not have a tradition of backstabbing our mentors … The question you should ask is, why? Why do we not have this tradition? The reason is because in the PAP, if you’re a member of the PAP and you offer yourself as a leader within the PAP, it’s not about you, it is about Singapore. First, party; second, the individual doesn’t count. The individual is relevant only as so far as we can serve the country and serve the party. So, you will not get this kind of behaviour and this kind of thinking in the PAP."