PAP team in Aljunied will set things right: PM Lee

SINGAPORE — Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong threw his weight behind the People’s Action Party’s (PAP) slate standing in the opposition-held Aljunied Group Representation Constituency and Hougang Single Member Constituency last night, urging residents to support what he calls a “good team” as he laid out short- and long-term plans for the area.

“I wanted you to know that I sent a good team here ... and that we are behind them, we have full confidence in them, we will support them, and together if you give us the chance we will serve you well,” he said at a PAP rally held at a field near Defu Avenue 1.

Mr Lee, who is also the party’s secretary-general, said it was a deliberate choice to hold a rally at the Workers’ Party-held GRC, and for him to visit the PAP candidates there, because he wanted residents to know of his full confidence in the PAP team.

Describing how the area has progressed over the years, from a poor “backward place” with several kampungs to what it is today, Mr Lee said Aljunied has changed enormously because “year by year (with) the PAP working with you, we’ve transformed Aljunied”.

He is familiar with the area, having served in the now defunct Jalan Kambing Camp for a year. “Today the camp is gone, the Jalan Kambing is gone, the kambing (goat in Malay) also is gone, but I’m not gone — I’m back,” he said.

Mr Lee also made reference to the long-running Aljunied-Hougang-Punggol East Town Council (AHPETC) saga, which has seen candidates from both the ruling party and WP trade barbs during their campaign trail.

Under the charge of Foreign Minister George Yeo, said Mr Lee, the team ran the town council well, provided good service, and it was financially sound. It broke even and built up its reserves so that there was something for a rainy day, he added, but it did not take long for things to go awry.

“Decades of work by good men and women working with you to make this progress, but it doesn’t take long to demolish it, to waste it away,” he said.

“Four years ago, we didn’t win the elections, we handed over the town council to WP, it was in good working order then ... the accounts were all properly kept, certified by the auditors, in a surplus,” he added. “But unfortunately, for the last four years, things haven’t gone well at all.”

That is why the PAP is sending a “good team” to contest in Aljunied, to “convince and persuade you that the PAP is a right choice”, he said. “You vote for my team, vote for them, they will stop things from going wrong and they will put things right. And things will work again!”

In his speech, which he made in Malay, Mandarin and English over 45 minutes, he also laid out short- and long-term plans for Aljunied GRC, such as the Wisma Geylang Serai, which will be ready in two years, and the redevelopment of the Defu industrial estate.

The PAP’s Aljunied team, comprising veteran Member of Parliament Yeo Guat Kwang and four newcomers — Mr Victor Lye, Mr K Muralidharan Pillai, Mr Chua Eng Leong and Mr Shamsul Kamar — is attempting to reclaim the GRC, but faces a tough fight against WP’s incumbent team, which includes party chief Low Thia Khiang, chairman Sylvia Lim, Mr Chen Show Mao, Mr Pritam Singh and Mr Faisal Abdul Manap.

During the 2011 General Election, the PAP’s Aljunied team, led by Mr Yeo, garnered 45.3 per cent of the votes and became the first GRC to fall into Opposition hands.

Others who spoke at the rally yesterday included the five Aljunied GRC candidates, newcomer Lee Hong Chuang, who is contesting WP-stronghold Hougang SMC, and former Cabinet Minister Lim Boon Heng, who has been advising the Aljunied team.

In his speech, PM Lee also provided brief anecdotes of each of the six candidates on stage, something he had also done in his first rally speech for Tanjong Pagar GRC and Radin Mas SMC on Wednesday.

Beyond local issues, Mr Lee also took pains last night to address concerns faced by the elderly and youth, a continuation from his first rally speech, where he had touched on the issue of cost of living. On the elderly, Mr Lee cited several programmes initiated to take care of them, such as the Pioneer Generation Package, to help pioneers with their healthcare costs, and the Central Provident Fund (CPF) Life scheme, which provides lifelong monthly payouts in retirement.

Pointing out that the CPF scheme — an issue often attacked by opposition parties — is a “very good scheme” that helps everyone save for retirement, Mr Lee pointed out that in the Special Account, the first S$60,000 earns an interest of 5 per cent a year. Interest rates for Retirement Accounts are even better, at 6 per cent for the first S$30,000, he said.

“I think it’s not bad, right? So why, when you go to Opposition rallies, they never mention this? Because if they mention this, nobody will vote for the Opposition. But I think I should mention this,” he said, adding that last year, the sum people voluntarily placed into their Special Account or Retirement Account amounted to S$500 million.

As for the young, Mr Lee said the Government has increased childcare places, upgraded preschool teachers, made sure every school is a good school, built more universities and increased the number of tertiary places, among other things.

Children are the future of Singapore, and they are the reason why the Government is working so hard, so that they can succeed and inherit a good Singapore, he said. “To do that we need a good government, I think you need a good PAP government.”