SDP to set up taskforce to handle emergency cases in Bt Batok if it wins

SINGAPORE — The Singapore Democratic Party (SDP) plans to set up a taskforce to handle defects and shortfalls in the Bukit Batok constituency if Dr Chee Soon Juan wins the by-election, and the party takes over the running of the town council.

Mr Yeo Yeu Yong — part of a four-man team unveiled by the party last month to ensure a smooth transfer of town council management — said this at the SDP’s final rally on Thursday (May 5) night.

The taskforce, for “emergency deployment purposes”, would respond to cases “as expeditiously as possible”, Mr Yeo said at the rally held on the open field along Bukit Batok Industrial Park A.

He is the chairman and chief executive of Primech Services International, a facilities management, property development and construction firm.

Mr Yeo added that the party would bring cost savings to residents, and also explore innovative ways to award contracts, as it plans to cast its net wide to have the “best service providers” tender for the town council’s jobs.

As other speakers took to the podium last night, they again talked up the character of Dr Chee.

Ms Jaslyn Go praised him for being “a man of character ... who always stands up for what he believes in”.

Addressing Dr Chee’s mother who was at the rally, Ms Go, the party’s assistant treasurer, said: “Auntie, (he) is a driven man. He believes firmly in justice, democracy and the rule of law, and he is selfless. He fights for those who have no voice.”

Responding to comments by Jurong GRC Member of Parliament Rahayu Mahzam that Dr Chee may be against foreigners entering Singapore, SDP member Damanhuri Abas said Dr Chee was a “defender of anti-discrimination”, having previously paid a summons for “fighting for the right” of a Malay girl to wear a tudung (headscarf) in school.

Dr Paul Tambyah, SDP’s central executive committee member, said that Dr Chee had spent more than two decades speaking up for “the last and the least” in society, and he remains dedicated despite being called “all kinds of names”.

He added: “Since the passing of the late, great JB Jeyaretnam, there is probably only one Singaporean who can stand up hand-on-heart and say, ‘I was there fighting for you, every step of the way’: Dr Chee Soon Juan.”

There were speakers who singled out the media for being prejudiced against the SDP, and they urged residents not to “read the papers”.

Party member Sadasivam Veriyah said: “What Dr Chee speaks at the rally is not what is being reported in the papers. It’s distorted.”