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PM raps Opposition, calls it a mouse in the House

SINGAPORE — Pointing to the Opposition’s “disappointing” performance in Parliament, Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong said yesterday that they were voted in to be a tiger in a chamber, but ended up being a “mouse in the House”.

A billboard featuring Workers’ Party Members of Parliament at Hougang Central. PM Lee said that in Parliament, the Opposition "remain quiet, and ... call that responsibility". Photo: Don Wong

A billboard featuring Workers’ Party Members of Parliament at Hougang Central. PM Lee said that in Parliament, the Opposition "remain quiet, and ... call that responsibility". Photo: Don Wong

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SINGAPORE — Pointing to the Opposition’s “disappointing” performance in Parliament, Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong said yesterday that they were voted in to be a tiger in a chamber, but ended up being a “mouse in the House”.

Speaking at a press conference held at the People’s Action Party (PAP) headquarters, Mr Lee, the party’s secretary-general, said it was “very easy” to make fierce and rousing speeches at election rallies, where candidates can promise to do things if elected.

“But when they come to Parliament, none of those issues are raised because they know in Parliament, if they raised those issues face-to-face, in debate, they will be pinned down, and the fallacies and the insincerities and the untruths will be exposed,” he said.

In Parliament, the Opposition “remain quiet, and they call that responsibility”.

“So, you voted for a tiger in a chamber and you got your mouse in the House,” said Mr Lee in response to a question about a growing belief among Singaporeans that good governance could mean having more than one party in Parliament.

He added that it depended on the quality of the Opposition, citing the example of the only three PAP candidates — Mr Lee Kuan Yew, Mr Goh Chew Chua and Mr Lim Chin Siong — elected in the 1955 General Election, but who managed to establish a reputation for themselves.

“In 1959, they swept the General Election and formed the Government. It’s the quality that counts, it’s not the numbers,” he said.

Senior Minister of State (Education and Law) Indranee Rajah also countered the argument that more of the Opposition should be voted into Parliament since the ruling party has done more in the past five years.

She called this seemingly “attractive and seductive” argument a “fallacy” and said: “In order to achieve all those things we’ve achieved, we need a strong Government, with a strong mandate and with good people to do the things that need to be done.”

She added that every vote against the PAP could affect the composition of the Parliament and Cabinet, where there would be fewer people to deliver results.

On whether the Government’s policy actions have mitigated discontent among the electorate and if they no longer desire to have the Opposition in Parliament as much as before, Mr Lee said the Government will do “what is right and what needs to be done” with policies.

He also made reference to Deputy Prime Minister Tharman Shanmugaratnam’s previous comments that the world did not begin in 2011.

“We’ve been making policies for 50 years, and the shift towards stronger safety nets and a different balance between self-reliance and mutual help is something we started 10 years ago at least, certainly since I’ve been in Parliament and became PM and even before that, when Mr Goh Chok Tong progressively introduced a whole series of measures over many years,” he said.

Mr Lee added that this was not a game where a party does more when it is threatened. “If you play that kind of game, you’ll very soon be in the same kind of jam as other countries that do this,” he said.

“Our formula has been to work together and build a trust. The Government does the right things for voters, to the best of our ability. Sometimes we make mistakes, sometimes it falls short of what the voters expect because it’s harder to do than we imagined. But overall, there’s that basic trust that I’m doing this on your behalf, otherwise I wouldn’t be doing this.”

He did not dismiss the possibility of a freak election and said an election outcome would not be known “until the ballot boxes are opened”.

“We’re fighting this election on the assumption that all 89 seats have to be fought seriously, and as I told our candidates yesterday when I met them before this morning’s hustings began: ‘If you’re in the PAP ward, fight as if you can lose; if you’re in the opposition ward, fight with the conviction that we can win.”

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