SDP’s alternative policies to be 'front and centre' of election campaign: Chee
Left to right: Dr Wong Souk Yee, Mr Chee Soon Juan and Mr Sadasivam Veriyah. Photo: Ooi Boon Keong
SINGAPORE — He is commonly seen as the face of the Singapore Democratic Party (SDP) but, set to contest in his first elections since 2001, Dr Chee Soon Juan said it is the party’s alternative policies that will be at the “front and centre” of its campaign.
Confirming expectations that he would stand in the coming General Election after his discharge from bankruptcy in 2012, Dr Chee, 53, today (Aug 29) presented himself as a candidate together with university lecturer Wong Souk Yee, 56, and former teacher Sadasivam Veriyah, 60.
Their introductions round out the SDP’s team of 11 for the GE, but Dr Chee said the party will only reveal its line-ups for various constituencies on Nomination Day on Tuesday. The party is expected to contest in the four-member Holland-Bukit Timah and Marsiling-Yew Tee Group Representation Constituencies, as well as the Single Member Constituencies of Bukit Batok, Yuhua and Bukit Panjang.
Earlier this week, it presented eight candidates – nursing home administrator Chong Wai Fung, accounts manager Khung Wai Yeen, infectious diseases expert Paul Ananth Tambyah, businesswoman Jaslyn Go, compliance auditor Sidek Mallek, psychology lecturer John Tan Liang Joo, hospital manager Bryan Lim Boon Heng, and former Islamic college director Damanhuri Abas.
“We are going to present concrete proposals to the electorate and what we can do when we’re in Parliament, and how we are going to push the People’s Action Party,” said Dr Chee. Over the years, the SDP has put proper organisation in place, as well as a set of workable policies on its website, he said. “Not just one-page write-ups here and there but policies that Singaporeans can study.”
Speaking out against the Government’s courting of high net-worth individuals to Singapore and its importation of cheap foreign labour that kept wages down over the years, he said the SDP’s alternative is a Talent Track scheme that uses a points system to process applications of foreigners who wish to work in Singapore. Employers may employ from the processed pool after showing they cannot find Singaporeans for the positions available, he said.
“And we’ve placed before the electorate a slate of 11 candidates, people not only with brains but with heart as well,” added Dr Chee, a father of three.
Mr Sadasivam, 60, is a former SDP central executive committee member who contested as part of the SDP team in Sembawang in 2011. The former teacher, also a father of three, called himself a “grassroots man”. He was President of the Singapore Tamil Teachers’ Union and has served in the grassroots organisations of Ayer Rajah when it was under former PAP MP Tan Cheng Bock. He spoke out against the changes in Central Provident Fund draw-down age and said many people were unhappy with the scheme.
Dr Wong, 56, said she would like to see more accountability and transparency from the Government. A political detainee in the 1980s, she was asked about her stance on the Internal Security Act (ISA). “My stance and the SDP’s stance has always been that the ISA has to go,” she said. “ISA enables the Government to detain anyone without trial. That effectively is a suspension of all laws … That’s against every grain of democratic values and it’s also open to abuse of power.”
