本帖最后由 AhSengSg 于 28-4-2011 01:39 PM 编辑
选情开始激烈了！
Chiam won’t let go of Mas Selamat issue
By Lin Yanqin, TODAY | Posted: 28 April 2011 1325 hrs
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SPP candidate Chiam See Tong | | | | |
SINGAPORE — While Deputy Prime Minister Wong Kan Seng has been keen to put Mas Selamat Kastari’s escape from detention behind him, Opposition veteran Chiam See Tong is not letting up on pursuing the issue.
Mr Chiam, who is leading a team from the Singapore People’s Party (SPP) to contest the Bishan-Toa Payoh Group Representation Constituency (GRC) against Mr Wong and his People’s Action Party (PAP) team, said the escape is “an important security case for Singapore”.
“... This is a serious matter and I believe people shall always be dissatisfied until Wong Kan Seng, the minister, completely accounts for himself, on how he(Mas Selamat) escaped and what steps will be taken to prevent such an escape again,” he said.
Mr Chiam was responding to Mr Wong’s comments in an interview with Today published yesterday, where Mr Wong had said the issue had been addressed in Parliament in 2008.
Mr Wong, who is also the Coordinating Minister for National Security, had said that Mr Chiam and other Members of Parliament have had more than enough time to raise the issue and Mr Chiam had only asked one question on the affair.
He also said that he would give Mr Chiam “the benefit of the doubt that he has forgotten” that his question was answered.
Mr Chiam, who spoke at a walkabout in Bishan after Nomination Day proceedings yesterday, said: “You cannot get away with it with just a simple apology, and claim your innocence.”
He also noted that this concerned Singapore’s reputation with its neighbouring countries.
“We don’t want to be a laughing stock of the region,” he said.
Mr Benjamin Pwee, part of the SPP team contesting in Bishan Toa-Payoh, also pointed out that beyond wanting more answers, bringing up Mas Selamat in this General Election would allow the voting public to decide whether to hold Mr Wong accountable at the ballot box.
Mr Chiam also objected to Mr Wong’s remarks that his SPP team lacked “concrete ideas” and that they should not “campaign just on personalities”, rebutting with a swift: “How does he know that we do not have any ideas? “We are only in the beginning stage of the election.
When the election is over and we are properly set up, we will produce all the ideas.”
Mr Pwee, a former Government scholar and one of the SPP’s star candidates, disagreed that the team was campaigning on Mr Chiam’s reputation as an Opposition stalwart.
“We are campaigning on what Mr Chiam has said all these years about public accountability and having a voice in the Government,” he said.
Pointing to the SPP’s move to put its six campaign issues on its website for a public dialogue, Mr Pwee said the party was not here to dictate policies.
“We want to be listening to what the community is saying ... and what ideas are coming up that we can shape into something to put forward.”
Of Workers’ Party chief Low Thia Khiang’s move to leave his single-seat ward Hougang and contest in Aljunied GRC, Mr Chiam said it is “nothing new”, and he, too, is stepping out of his “safe haven” in Potong Pasir.
“I put my money where the mouth is. I believe in democracy ... and for democracy to survive, we must have Opposition, because there must be transparency and accountability,” he said.
CNA/TODAY | 
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发表于 28-4-2011 09:14 AM
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