GE2025: PAP’s Alex Yam says SDP chief Chee Soon Juan broke pledge to stay in Bukit Batok

SINGAPORE: The difference between the ruling party’s Nomination Day swap of key Cabinet ministers across constituencies, and the move by opposition figure Chee Soon Juan away from Bukit Batok, lies in the promise he had made to voters previously, said People’s Action Party (PAP) assistant organising secretary Alex Yam.

Mr Yam said on Friday (Apr 25) that the PAP has been able to explain why its decisions were made and that they were “not willy nilly”, adding that the ruling party had “valid reasons” to do so.

“The difference is that Dr Chee made a public pledge not to abandon Bukit Batok, and days later, made the decision that he would swap. That is the crux of the issue,” he said of the Singapore Democratic Party (SDP) secretary-general’s move to contest the Sembawang West seat.

The evening before, Health Minister Ong Ye Kung, who anchors the PAP team in Sembawang GRC, had also addressed Dr Chee’s decision in his rally speech, calling it a "calculated political move" that was taken after a decade of not being interested in the northern area.

Mr Yam was speaking to reporters after a Yew Tee walkabout with Prime Minister Lawrence Wong, anchor minister of the PAP’s Marsiling-Yew Tee GRC team, on Friday morning.

The duo spent about two hours shaking hands, taking photos and handing out flyers at Yew Tee Square and Yew Tee Point malls, and the hard court in front of Yew Tee MRT station. They also visited the nearby Sparkle Care senior care centre.

Each political party is free to deploy candidates “as they deem best in the interests of voters and in the interest of the representation”, said Mr Yam, who has been in Marsiling-Yew Tee GRC since its creation in 2015.

He reiterated Mr Wong’s earlier explanation that Deputy Prime Minister Gan Kim Yong was sent to the new Punggol GRC so that “the east of Singapore has a good heavyweight minister, who would be able to carry the ground there”.

The late deployments of Mr Gan and Manpower Minister Tan See Leng, as with movements by some other parties, were carried out not “for exigency sake”, but deliberately planned to give the best chance for voters to make a decision, said Mr Yam.

“But here you have an individual who made a promise, who made a public pledge to do so, but yet changed his mind immediately after,” he said of Dr Chee’s switch to another constituency for the May 3 polls.

The SDP leader ran and lost in the former Bukit Batok single-seat ward in the 2020 General Election and the 2016 by-election. Prior to that, he had unsuccessfully led the SDP team in Holland-Bukit Timah GRC for the 2015 hustings.

The Bukit Batok seat was absorbed into Jurong East-Bukit Batok GRC under the latest review of the nation's electoral map.

NOT RESTING ON LAURELS

Mr Yam told reporters that the PAP team has received “good response” from residents, with lots of support and encouragement.

“This, of course, is a good sign, but we shouldn't rest on our laurels. It does mean that we must continue to work hard to secure every vote, not just here in our GRC, but across Singapore,” he said.

“This GE is a watershed moment for all of us, because of the global climate that we are in.”

He shared that voters in the ward are ultimately concerned with bread and butter issues, such as the cost of living and the availability of flats.

When asked if the margin of victory in the General Election matters, Mr Yam said that while every vote counts, what happens after the election is most important.

“During these nine days, we want to be able to convince as many Singaporeans as possible that the PAP manifesto, our promises and what we hope to achieve with Singaporeans, will resonate with them, and that's why they will support us,” he said.

“After the election results are out, regardless of the margins, if we have the opportunity to become the government, we must make sure we can deliver on our promises.”

On Thursday, the SDP’s Marsiling-Yew Tee contender Ariffin Sha argued that the margin of victory matters, because “the smaller the margins of victory, the better the policies and welfare for the people”, given that the ruling party will be pushed to work harder.

Mr Yam said that ultimately, whatever campaign each opposition party chooses to run is their own prerogative and aim.

NO REGIONAL CAMPAIGNS

Mr Yam added that unlike the opposition parties, the ruling PAP cannot be selective on which part of the island it chooses to contest.

“For us, we don't have a choice of a northern campaign or a southern campaign or central campaign, or SMC (Single Member Constituency). We are in government. Our responsibility is to every single Singaporean, he said.

“We run every single seat with the hope of being able to secure representation in parliament, so that we can do our best for Singaporeans. So what the opposition runs, that's for the opposition to decide for their own campaign aims.”

While it is okay to have counter narratives or alternative proposals on government policies, they must be grounded in reality and not be just political statements made to win votes, said Mr Yam.

“Ultimately, the government has to take the stand for the greater good of the future of Singapore and Singaporeans. We don't make decisions simply for day to day. We need to plan, and that has been really the hallmark of a PAP government since independence,” he said.

“Sometimes there are difficult decisions to be made. We don't shy away from them. We try our best to explain and to convince Singaporeans why it is needed.”

While the opposition often demands for policies to be rolled back, such as the goods and services tax (GST) increase, they do not provide an alternative suggestion to funding future needs and national programmes, said Mr Yam.

“Very often, even if they do provide some sort of alternative, very often, it does not come with actual numbers and actual calculations that would make sense,” he said.

You can watch livestreams of all rallies on CNA's GE2025 site, CNA's YouTube channel and on mewatch.