PAP SUPPORTER: STOP ALL PERSONAL ATTACKS & BUILD TRUST INSTEAD

A reader has submitted an email from a PAP supporter who expressed his concern about the politicking that the PAP has been engaging in recently. This comes in the wake of several personal attacks launched against political superstar Mr Chee Soon Juan. Is this a sign that even PAP supporters are getting tired of the party's smear tactics?

To my friends:

I don't usually do this, but I feel that the situation has become urgent and because we are fighting hand, tooth and nail in this election to regain the people's trust, we need to be more careful with what we say or do in this election campaign. So I say this to all my fellow supporters and to my dear leaders, I beseech you: Please stop with all the personal attacks and politicking that has come to unfairly characterize our party!

In particular, I am referring to two incidents in our recent memory: In a public forum at the start of this elections, Mr Wong brought up Mr Chee's past mistake of presenting false statistics to parliament in 1996. He was duly charged for lying, misrepresenting information and contempt of parliament. Then in a rally held yesterday, Ms Sim Ann brought up Mr Chee's leadership struggle with Mr Chiam See Tong, the former Singapore Democratic Party secretary-general who was ousted by Mr Chee and later joined the Singapore People's Party.

No doubt in your minds, these are important issues regarding Mr Chee's moral character. Yet this is not how the people have been seeing it. For instance, the way that Mr Wong hemmed and hawed when he brought up Mr Chee's misdemeanor on national TV suggests to us that even Mr Wong himself was uncomfortable with the personal attack against Mr Chee. To the man on the ground, Mr Wong seemed to be unsure of whether to even proceed with his criticism of Mr Chee, and when he finally let it out, he stumbled and stuttered, making him easy prey for the much more eloquent Mr Chee.

Last night Ms Sim Ann came across as a political naive. All t he good work she has done in the parliament in the Ministry of Health and campaigning for the Chinese language might have come undone if we did not know her better. In her speech, she sounded like an auntie in a kopitiam ranting, but in truth we know her to be much better than that.

So I really question the need to rake up dead and bygone issues that make our party look petty and unscrupulous. PAP is a party that can stand on its own merits, with a solid track record and sincere grassroots volunteers who are always ready to serve their residents. There is no need to resort to personal attacks as this makes us look less credible and less professional.

Instead we should highlight the good we done for the Singapore people and tell the residents in no uncertain terms how the party will definitely improve the lives of residents. Mr Lee Kuan Yew did this in the past in his rally speeches. He inspired the Singapore people with his speeches, not only because he was a good speaker, but because he spoke with such conviction that we could not help but want to believe him. Even when he attacked detractors he did it with eloquence and finesse.

Let us return to the clean politics of the PAP past, where our actions and our policies to improve the lives of the people take centre stage again.

Yours Sincerely
(Edit: Removed name)