THE TEMASEK REVIEW

Veteran opposition leader and MP for Potong Pasir Mr Chiam See Tong will be celebrating his 25th year as an MP together with his constitutents this Saturday.

The event will be held at an open field near Block 119 along Potong Pasir Avenue 1. The expected turnout is 1,000 people, including leaders of other opposition parties. The dinner costs $30 per person.

According to the organizers, 90 per cent of the guests will be Potong Pasir residents, an indication of the Mr Chiam’s enduring appeal and popularity.

Mr Chiam first won the seat during the 1984 general elections by beating PAP candidate Mah Bow Tan. He garnered 60.8 per cent of the valid votes. From 1985 till 1991, Mr Chiam is the sole non-PAP MP in parliament.

Despite everything the ruling party had thrown at him including dangling a $100 million upgrading carrot to Potong Pasir residents in the last election, Mr Chiam continues to hold his fort.

Potong Pasir estate, which is built in the 1970s, should have its flats and amenities upgraded if not for the pork-barrel politics dished out by the PAP which denies crucial estate upgrading to opposition wards as a “punishment” for its constituents for not supporting them.

Mr Chiam had expressed his desire to step out of Potong Pasir and lead a team to contest in a nearby GRC in the next election due by 2011. His seat in Potong Pasir is expected to be defended by his wife Lina Chiam.

Interviews conducted by the Chinese paper Lianhe Wanbao suggest that voters are ambivalent towards his plan. While many agree that he has served the constituency with dedication, they also say that they will not transfer support to his wife automatically.

The losing PAP candidate for Potong Pasir in the last two elections Mr Sitoh Yee Pin, who found fame with his weekly sharkfin porridge breakfast for the residents has been keeping a low profile.

It is not known if he will be attending the dinner. Mr Sitoh garnered a respectable 45 per cent of the votes against Mr Chiam during the last elections.

Observers feel that he will stand a higher chance this time if Mr Chiam is not standing due to his long-standing grassroots work at Potong Pasir over the last few years.

Since the GRC system was introduced in 1988, no opposition party has managed to breach what is considered a “PAP fortress”. The closest they came to winning on is during the 1988 elections when the Workers’ Party Team comprising of Francis Seow, Dr Lee Siew Choh and Mohamad Yakcob won 49.1 per cent of the votes in Eunos GRC.

Eunos GRC was to give the PAP another close scare in the next election when another Workers’ Party Team led by Jufrie Mahmood won 46 per cent of the votes. As a result, Eunos GRC is “dismembered” and absorbed into neighboring GRCs in subsequent elections.

Given the PAP’s entrenched positions in the GRCs and the “kiasi” mentality of Singaporeans, Mr Chiam’s chances of winning one is unlikely to be high especially with the introduction of a series of electoral “reforms” by PM Lee to increase the number of non-PAP MPs in parliament to twenty including nine NCMPs or the “besst losers”.

Voters will be enticed by the PAP’s “two in one” package which allows them to vote for a PAP MP to serve them at their constituency and a non-PAP MP to speak up for them in parliament at the same time.

The disingenuous move is meant to curb the growth of the opposition at the grassroots level since only elected MPs are able to mobilize the resources in the community and not NCMPs.

Whatever the result, Mr Chiam is guaranteed a place in parliament after the next elections whether as a MP or NCMP given his standing among Singaporeans.

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