OPPOSITION PARTY CHIEFS ANGERED BY LEAK OF CONFIDENTIAL MEETING

Opposition chiefs from the National Solidarity Party (NSP), People's Power Party (PPP), and the Reform Party (RP) have expressed unhappiness over a breach in confidentiality following the opposition get-together on Monday which was attended by 11 opposition parties. They have called the breach an attempt to smear the NSP and to destroy opposition unity.

The aim of the meeting on Monday was to discuss the possibility of avoiding multi-corner fights at the upcoming General Election.

According to unnamed sources, mainstream media had reported on a "heated" disagreement between the Workers’ Party (WP) and the NSP over who would contest the Marine Parade Group Representation Constituency (GRC), Jalan Besar GRC and the MacPherson Single Member Constituency (SMC).

People's Power Party (PPP) chief Goh Meng Seng shared a TODAY report on his Facebook page today, calling the purported leak a "despicable underhand tactic".

"As a participant of the meeting, I openly condemn such leaks of half-truths (as) a deliberate way of smearing NSP," said Mr Goh. "This is not helpful for achieving opposition unity at all. This is a despicable underhand tactic that we should not condone."

Mr Goh is a former Secretary-General of the NSP, having run for elections under the party banner in 2011.

NSP likewise posted on its Facebook and echoed Mr Goh's sentiments.

"The 'source' who leaked these 'half-truths' is not doing anybody good and aims to split Opposition unity," said the party, which urged the public to not "jump into conclusions yet, based on hear-say and rumours" until after the second round of discussions on Thursday.

A day earlier, Reform Party chief Kenneth Jeyaretnam also took to Facebook to slam anonymous sources in a Straits Times article, who raised similar allegations of conflict between the WP and NSP.

"What was the point of us all agreeing to keep the meeting's discussions confidential when someone has leaked the whole caboodle to the press?" he asked.