“Befuddles me” why PAP “wants to draw more attention” to gerrymandering, says Chee Soon Juan
https://www.channelnewsasia.com/singapore/ge2025-campaigning-day-4-general-election-5085666
After a walkabout this morning, SDP chief Chee Soon Juan addressed comments by PAP's Ong Ye Kung, who had accused him of abandoning Bukit Batok to contest Sembawang West SMC.
At the party's rally last night, other SDP candidates rebutted what Mr Ong said.
Dr Chee urged people to tune into or attend the party’s rally for Sembawang West SMC tonight at Evergreen Primary School, saying he wanted to specifically speak about it when he is in this constituency.
“I just want to make sure I gather my thoughts and make it a coherent response,” he told me.
“I mean, all I can say right now - just befuddles me why they want to draw more attention to this … about the gerrymandering. But they make their beds. They have to lie in it. But for me, as I said, I will respond to them.”
The party chief also spoke about SDP’s “talent track scheme” - its proposal to put Singaporeans first in the workforce by ensuring “only foreign professionals whose skills and credentials are rigorously verified may work in Singapore”.
Dr Chee said government-linked companies (GLCs) must not be “sitting front and centre” in Singapore’s domestic sector, claiming that GLC leaders are “basically technocrats, not really a go-getter".
He said: “Even your local academics … they keep saying that innovation cannot come from your technocrats. They must be true-blue entrepreneurs, and right now, we’re asking to get the government to divest, and we can begin to talk about a real economy that is driven by the ground up.”
SDP’s Sembawang West SMC candidate Chee Soon Juan greeting diners at Kampung Admiralty on Apr 26, 2025. (Photo: CNA/Ooi Boon Keong)
SDP doesn't need support from foreigners: Chee Soon Juan
https://www.straitstimes.com/live-singapore-election-nomination-day-2025
The Singapore Democratic Party is not interested in foreigners endorsing candidates for elections here, said party chief Chee Soon Juan in a media doorstop this morning.
His comments come after a Malaysian politician - Mr Iskandar Abdul Samad - shared several posts showing support for Malay-Muslim candidates including SDP's Mr Damanhuri Abas.
Mr Iskandar had been identified as one of three individuals who have made Facebook posts in what the Government has flagged as an attempt to interfere in the election.
Said Dr Chee: "We don't need the support - I mean, look, this is a domestic issue, and I just want to completely agree with the PAP. Stay out."
He was speaking to reporters after a walkabout at Kampung Admiralty and Woodlands Mart.
He added: “We fight our own battle. We don't go in and support other politicians when they have their election in the country.
Every country, every sovereignty, every citizenry, must have that exclusive right to elect their own leaders that they see fit. This is what it means to be a citizen of a country, right?”
Dr Chee, who is contesting Sembawang West SMC against the PAP’s Ms Poh Li San, will be speaking at the rally tonight.
“Come to our rally tonight at Evergreen Primary School, 7pm,” he told residents.
ST PHOTO: TAY HONG YI