If one thought that Minister Chan Chun Sing’s recent “political price” speech refers to Halimah Yacob’s walkover, he is naive. The real political price is to reaffirm the ruling party PAP’s grip on power, and three Opposition Workers’ Party MPs are now in their radar.
Three Aljunied GRC MPs – Low Thia Kiang, Sylvia Lim and Pritam Singh – are now being sued and made to repay S$33 million. According to Pasir Ris-Punggol Town Council and Aljunied-Hougang Town Council, the three WP MPs are responsible for making “false payments” totalling S$33 million for town council works and hence they should be made to repay the amount.
The Singapore Court, which recently bowed down to the Parliament saying that they are powerless to decide who is the first elected President, is very unlikely to act out of the norm showing any form of defiance to Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong. All Singaporeans know that when Lee Hsien Loong goes to court, he never lose. As such, being charged by Lee Hsien Loong for corruption is as good as being founded guilty of corruption. MP Low Thia Kiang’s earlier speech in Parliament rang true today: his pants are indeed dropping from the lawsuits.
No Singaporean will voice out for the WP MP. After all, to many Singaporeans, Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong is impeccable.
There is of course a small minority of less than 0.01% who are willing to risk their livelihood to voice out against the dictator Prime Minister. The answer to them, is to refer to the Nomination Centre two days ago on Wednesday. Policemen armed with semi-automatic machine guns and armoured vehicles were ready to “handle any situation”.
Disqualifying 3 Opposition MPs is nothing to Lee Hsien Loong. The government’s Nominated MPs are equally good as Opposition, according to the Prime Minister. What political price? Singaporeans can also forget about relying on future elections to post a “protest vote”, Halimah Yacob’s walkover win has already shown how neatly this is done.