When questioned by students if the single-party dictatorship is willing to give up power to allow diverse voices, Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong openly lied claiming that Singapore is already a “multi-party democracy”:
“Singapore’s multi-party democracy, where one party is dominant, has worked well for the country. There is no certainty in these things. I think it depends on how well the PAP can perform and how well the opposition can convince people that they can do better than the Government, or that the Government is doing things wrong and you should stop the Government from doing things which are no good.”
Lee Hsien Loong said his idea of having an “opposition” is to ask his own men to “go the other side”:
“A small country like Singapore, it is already hard enough to build one team which will work well. If I tell my ministers, three of you leave the party, go to the other side, and we will play against each other … First of all, my team would be weaker, secondly I think the dynamics would change and, in the process, I think Singapore would be shortchanged.”
The dictator PM claimed that he never “completely shut out the others”:
“I would say we make our system work and we adjust incrementally from what is working, for example having Non-Constituency MPs (NMPs) in Parliament. We wanted to have the advantages of a system where one party can be very strong, and yet we will never completely shut out the others.”
Lee Hsien Loong said 12 NMPs is enough, without mentioning the fact that the NMPs are nominated by the PAP-controlled President:
“I would say if you have 12 people, you’re able to make a lot of noise, if you have the right people. Because they will be able to stand up, to hold the Government to account, to make the argument and make an impact. And the next election, they will win more. If they don’t have the right team, you can have 20-30 because of the proportion of representation, but it will not be of help. But 12 good men … I think it will make a big difference.”
Lee Hsien Loong then told another lie claiming that his father Lee Kuan Yew alone held the Colonial Government “fully accountable”, unlike “today’s opposition”:
“The proof of that is the PAP before it came to power. We had only three seats in the Legislative Assembly following the 1955 elections. Mr Lee Kuan Yew was one of them, the Colonial Government was fully held to account. Today, they don’t have such a person in the opposition.”