SINGAPORE — Singapore Democratic Party chief Chee Soon Juan on Sunday (May 1) said he had “ample opportunity” to use recent comments by Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong’s sister, Dr Lee Wei Ling, for political gains, but chose not to do so.

Dr Chee, speaking at the second of his party’s political rallies ahead of the May 7 Bukit Batok by-election, described the comments by Dr Lee, where she criticised the recent commemoration of late founding Prime Minister Lee Kuan Yew’s death, as a “very potent attack”.

But the SDP chief, who is contesting the by-election, added that he chose not to raise the incident because he did not want to attack Mr Lee “on such a personal level”.

“That’s not the kind of politics I want to engage in, and even though I did not attack Mr Lee, he has no hesitation in continuing to disparage me,” said Dr Chee at the rally in Bukit Gombak stadium.

He also noted: “Imagine if it had been my sister saying these things about me, what do you think would have happened?”

In a Facebook post last month which has since been deleted, Dr Lee alleged that Mr Lee had abused his power to hold events marking the one-year death anniversary of the late Mr Lee, their father, in order to establish a “dynasty”. She also referred to him as a “dishonourable son”. Mr Lee had refuted her online allegations, saying he was “deeply saddened” by her remarks.

In his speech, Dr Chee also told the crowd that he had instructed his party members to stop attacking former Bukit Batok MP David Ong, whose abrupt resignation on March 12 triggered the by-election.

This followed criticisms by PM Lee during a walkabout on Saturday. Mr Lee, who is also the People’s Action Party’s (PAP) secretary general, said Dr Chee was “completely hypocritical” for saying he would not attack Mr Ong, when his fellow SDP members had in fact already taken turns to criticise Mr Ong sharply at a political rally on Friday.

Dr Chee said the SDP would not engage in “below the belt” politics, and had told his party “in no uncertain terms, cut (personal attacks on Mr Ong) out”.

“Now then, let me turn the question to Mr Lee Hsien Loong. Will he and his colleagues now honour Mr Tharman’s promise and stop the gutter politics, and focus on issues that really matter to voters here in Bukit Batok?” Dr Chee asked.

Nine speakers from the SDP took to the stage on Sunday night to rebut recent criticisms of Dr Chee by the PAP. Speakers included Mr Sadasivam Veriyah, Mr Sidek Mallek, Mr John Tan, Ms Jaslyn Go, Mr Bryan Lim and Dr Paul Tambyah, all of whom were also candidates in the 2015 General Election.

Dr Tambyah charged that the PAP had been launching “venomous attacks” against Dr Chee, adding that no one in the SDP has used the same language Dr Lee had used to criticise Mr Lee.

“We could have used Dr Lee’s published allegations to expose the hypocrisy of the Prime Minister’s statements and character, but we will not. That is not who we are, that’s not how we promise to run this campaign and it will not help the people of Bukit Batok,” said Dr Tambyah, a central executive committee member of the SDP.