‘We want to fight a clean fight’: Tan Cheng Bock

The Progress Singapore Party (PSP) wants to fight a clean fight in the next general election, said party chairman Tan Cheng Bock.

Speaking to the media after a walkabout in Keat Hong on Jan 12, he said: “We don’t want to use tactics that shouldn’t be carried out in Singapore.

“Let us not be involved in any other kind of rude or any other behaviour that’s uncalled for.”

Dr Tan was addressing an incident between PSP volunteers and those from the People’s Action Party (PAP) at a walkabout in Bukit Gombak in Chua Chu Kang GRC on Jan 4.

Each side has alleged harassment from the other and offered a different account of what happened.

In social media posts over the following week, Dr Tan and Chua Chu Kang GRC MP Low Yen Ling said there was no place for violence during political activities in Singapore.

A police report was filed by a PSP volunteer and investigations are ongoing.

PSP secretary-general Hazel Poa on Jan 12 confirmed that the police have contacted the party about the incident.

Dr Tan and other PSP leaders and volunteers walked around Keat Hong Food Centre and Market, speaking to residents and handing out their newsletter, The Palm.

 

When asked if any resident had asked him about the incident, Dr Tan said: “So far, no.”

It is important that the party conducts itself in a gentlemanly manner, he added.

He said: “I would expect all my people here to conduct themselves well… So I think for this incident, let the police investigate and clear the matter.”

On Jan 10, Dr Tan said in a Facebook post that the PSP does not condone violence and will take disciplinary action if any of its volunteers acted aggressively, but would fight allegations if they had been falsely accused.

In a response posted to Facebook on Jan 10, Ms Low, who is also Senior Minister of State for Trade and Industry and Culture, Community and Youth said she agreed with Dr Tan that there should not be any violence while engaging in political activities, adding that the party would leave the matter to the police.

She had previously said that a PAP volunteer was slapped twice during the incident, among other acts from the PSP group.

The PSP has contested her version of events, and party leaders have said the volunteers categorically deny any use of violence.

The party wants to engage the people and earn votes, added Dr Tan.

The PSP contested Chua Chu Kang GRC in its maiden election in 2020.

While the party is new, Dr Tan, 84, is not a stranger to many residents in the area.

He operated a clinic in Ama Keng, a village in Lim Chu Kang, and was a PAP MP in Ayer Rajah SMC in West Coast between 1980 and 2006.

He said of Sunday’s walkabout: “I met many of my old people here, I met one whole group of people (from Ama Keng).

“It’s cheered me a lot to see that they still tell me, ‘oh you operated on me’.”

He added that he hoped violence between political parties would become a thing of the past.

“In my olden days, we had very, very terrible encounters, so we are quite used to it, but that time, we want to put it away,” he said.

“We cannot have that sort of behaviour (now) in Singapore.”