GE2025: 4G PAP 'has lost its way', say PSP's top leaders Leong Mun Wai and Tan Cheng Bock

SINGAPORE: The fourth-generation People’s Action Party (PAP) team has lost its way, said Progress Singapore Party (PSP) chief Leong Mun Wai on Thursday (Apr 24). 

Speaking at PSP’s maiden physical rally on Thursday night, the former Non-Constituency Member of Parliament (NCMP) reflected on his nearly five years debating the ruling party in parliament.

“The more I debate the government, the 4G PAP government, the more I realise that it is ... not the Grade A government that we used to know,” he said at the rally at Catholic High School. 

“On the governance front, we can see a general decline in the standards, in accountability, competence and ethics in recent years.” 

Mr Leong, party chairman and founder Tan Cheng Bock, and vice-chairperson Hazel Poa were part of the PSP team that came within a few percentage points of victory in what was the tightest race in the 2020 election. 

Then, the PAP retained West Coast GRC with 51.69 per cent of the vote, while the PSP secured two NCMP seats for Mr Leong and Ms Poa.

The three are part of PSP's line-up for the redrawn West Coast-Jurong West GRC for this election, alongside new faces Sani Ismail and Sumarleki Amjah. 

TRACETOGETHER, SIMPLYGO, TRAIN BREAKDOWNS

In his speech, Mr Leong noted instances of “poor coordination” across ministries. He touched on the privacy concerns over COVID-19 contact tracing app TraceTogether, and the Accounting and Corporate Regulatory Authority’s (ACRA) NRIC disclosure.

In June 2020, then-Senior Minister Teo Chee Hean and Foreign Affairs Minister Vivian Balakrishnan told Singaporeans that TraceTogether data would only be used for contact tracing, Mr Leong said. 

But in February 2021, Dr Balakrishnan told parliament that the police had used the data once. “And he already knew this around October 2020, but he didn’t tell Singaporeans,” Mr Leong added. 

“For many months, they kept quiet. And then they come back, say sorry and ask parliament to urgently pass a Bill to cover their mistake.” 

Last December, ACRA mistakenly disclosed the full NRIC numbers of many Singaporeans after “misinterpreting a circular” from the Ministry of Digital Development and Information, said Mr Leong. 

“No political office holder came out publicly to take responsibility again. The competence of certain government agencies and government-linked companies also become questionable.” 

The Land Transport Authority (LTA) also saw “a series of missteps” in the past few years, he said. 

When it announced in January 2024 that it was going to push for the full adoption of the SimplyGo system, many Singaporeans were unhappy, said Mr Leong. "A few weeks later, LTA had to backtrack and postpone these plans.” 

He recalled multiple train breakdowns in 2024, the most serious of them all was the six-day long closure of the East-West Line between Jurong East and Buona Vista in September 2024, which affected millions of commuters. 

The problems with Singapore’s MRT system started in 2011, after MRT disruptions in December that year affected over 200,000 commuters, he added, noting that the then-transport minister reacted by calling for a Committee of Inquiry (COI). 

On the recent train disruption, Mr Leong recalled asking Transport Minister Chee Hong Tat about convening a similar COI. “The minister said: ‘No need, because there are no systemic failures within SMRT ... or SBS transit.’,” he added. 

“As compared to the previous generations of PAP leaders, there’s less and less accountability by the 4G leaders on how decisions are taken and who are responsible.”

INCOME-ALLIANZ DEAL

Bringing up the proposed acquisition of Income Insurance by German insurer Allianz, Mr Leong took aim at labour chief Ng Chee Meng, who is contesting the single-seat ward of Jalan Kayu. Mr Ng led the PAP slate in Sengkang GRC at the 2020 election, receiving 47.88 per cent of the votes and losing to the Workers’ Party (WP) team. 

Under the proposed deal, which came to light in July 2024, Allianz would have acquired a 51 per cent stake in Income for about S$2.2 billion (US$1.7 billion). NTUC Enterprise, the parent company of Income, said then that it would remain a "substantial" shareholder if the sale went through.

The arrangement triggered a public outcry over whether Income would be able to continue its social mission, and the government stepped in on Oct 14 to block the transaction, with Culture, Community and Youth Minister Edwin Tong telling parliament that the deal in its current form "would not be in the public interest".

Income, a former co-op, was corporatised in 2022. In doing so, it sought to be exempted from Section 88 of the Co-operative Societies Act, which allowed it to carry over approximately S$2 billion in surplus to the new corporate entity, said the minister. 

The proposed capital reduction in the Income-Allianz deal “runs counter” to the premise for why the exemption was given, added Mr Tong.

Mr Ng, who is secretary-general of the National Trade Union Congress and on the board of NTUC Enterprise, should have known about the capital reduction, said Mr Leong in his speech. 

“If he had known the capital reduction plan, he didn't tell the Singaporeans in August 2024 when he said that the Income-Allianz deal was good for Income and good for Singaporeans,” he added. 

RULING PARTY’S DOMINANCE

The “enduring dominance” of the PAP has compromised fair political competition, Ms Poa said at the rally. 

While the PAP only clinched 61.24 per cent of the votes in GE2020, it took 83 seats in parliament out of an available 93, she noted, adding that this dominance is likely to continue for some time.

“On a positive side, it ensures continuity in our policies and fosters stability,” she added. “On a negative side, it allows the ruling party to put and keep in place rules that create an unlevel playing field and hinder fair political competition.”

Ms Poa said meritocracy “can only exist where there is fair competition”. She highlighted recent changes to Singapore's electoral boundaries, noting that some opposition politicians who have laboured for years in an SMC have seen their efforts gone to waste when the ward is absorbed into a GRC. 

All 13 PSP candidates, who will stand in West Coast-Jurong West and Chua Chu Kang GRCs, as well as Bukit Gombak, Pioneer, Kebun Baru and Marymount SMCs, spoke on Thursday.

Echoing Mr Leong, Dr Tan, the last to speak at the rally, reminded supporters that he started the PSP “because I honestly feel the PAP has lost its way”.

"It sounds strange that I should leave a party that I helped for 26 years,” he added. The PAP is not the same as when he was an MP, said Dr Tan, who will turn 85 in a few days.

Dr Tan entered politics during the 1980 election under the PAP’s banner, becoming the MP for Ayer Rajah SMC. He held that seat until 2006, when he stepped down from politics and his ward was absorbed into the former West Coast GRC. He later resigned from the party in 2011 to run for president.

“We challenged the government of the day then, although we were in the PAP," said Dr Tan, recalling how he voted against the Nominated MP scheme and argued with Singapore’s first Education Minister Goh Keng Swee about the education system. 

"That is what I always believe that Members of Parliament who go into parliament must do that, and not just toe the line.”

PAP representatives used to come from all walks of life, including “ordinary men”, he said. Now, they come from the civil service and the army, he added. 

“This is dangerous. There will be groupthinking. To me, it is inbreeding. And when there’s inbreeding, there is no way you can change policies within that system,” said Dr Tan.

Throughout their time debating in parliament, Mr Leong and Ms Poa contributed their NCMP salaries to party funds and “didn’t take a cent”, said PSP’s chairman. 

“One of the reasons why I left the PAP is when I find that everything we talk about is money. I think that is not correct,” said Dr Tan. 

If PSP members win seats in this election, parliament will be different, he stressed, adding that his party will join forces with WP and others who are elected to ensure issues that concern Singaporeans “will get the attention” of the government.

“Why? Because we hear you. I don't know whether they hear you or not.”