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PSP member Brad Bowyer resigns after drawing flak for views on Govt’s Covid-19 response

SINGAPORE — Progress Singapore Party (PSP) member Brad Bowyer on Wednesday (Aug 11) resigned from the party, saying that online criticism he had been receiving on his stance on Covid-19 policies including vaccinations has unfairly tarnished the party’s image.

Mr Brad Bowyer (pictured) resigned from the Progress Singapore Party on Aug 11, 2021.

Mr Brad Bowyer (pictured) resigned from the Progress Singapore Party on Aug 11, 2021.

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SINGAPORE — Progress Singapore Party (PSP) member Brad Bowyer on Wednesday (Aug 11) resigned from the party, saying that online criticism he had been receiving on his stance on Covid-19 policies including vaccinations has unfairly tarnished the party’s image.

Mr Bowyer told TODAY that PSP did not pressure him to resign and that it was entirely his own decision to do so.

“If I keep speaking, it’s going to impact the party some more, so I have no choice,” Mr Bowyer, a freelance digital marketer, said. “For the good of the party, I am resigning.”

The 54-year-old contested the General Election last year as part of PSP’s five-person team in Nee Soon Group Representation Constituency.

When contacted by TODAY, PSP's spokesperson Kumaran Pillai confirmed that the party received Mr Bowyer's resignation request on Wednesday and that it has been accepted.

Mr Bowyer also announced his resignation in a post on Facebook. He said that “cowardly commentators” had been attacking both him and PSP for his views.

He added that he has “no time for the cancel culture”, but he understood that some of his views are “diverging from Progress Singapore Party’s positions”.

He said that PSP has “massive value to add” and he does not want to “give anyone the chance to derail their good work”.

Mr Bowyer has been posting his opinions and stance on Singapore’s Covid-19 response regularly on Facebook.

He questioned the efficacy of the vaccines under the national vaccination programme and also criticised the differentiated measures for vaccinated and non-vaccinated people.

These measures, which began on Tuesday, mean that those who are not vaccinated are not able to dine out in groups of up to five at restaurants and cannot do unmasked activities indoors, among other restrictions.

On the same day the different rules were enforced, Mr Bowyer posted a criticism of the policy along with an image related to the Holocaust, which drew some flak online, with some condemning him for being insensitive.

Screenshots of some of his comments have been circulating. Some of the comments on these posts have asked PSP to speak up against his stance.

In his resignation Facebook post, Mr Bowyer, who was born in Britain and later took out Singapore citizenship, defended the use of the Holocaust image.

Mr Bowyer told TODAY that now that he is no longer a member of PSP, he can comment and post about the topics more freely as a “private individual”.

“I’ll try and do what I’ve been doing for the last year, which is ask questions and ask for answers,” he said.

In his Facebook post, he wrote: “In my mind, this removes the few limits that being part of PSP I placed upon myself, and the gloves can now fully come off!”

In November 2019, Mr Bowyer was the subject of the first use of Protection from Online Falsehoods and Manipulation Act when he was directed to correct a Facebook post about state investor Temasek Holdings.

Related topics

Progress Singapore Party Brad Bowyer Covid-19 vaccination coronavirus vaccine

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