PM Lee: Singapore is not a ‘one-party state’

In an interview with the Straits Times, Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong proclaimed that Singapore is not a ‘one-party state’ and lavished generous praises on WP leader Low Thia Kiang for lending ‘support’ to the PAP system.

In response to a question of whether the ‘appetite’ for alternative voices among Singaporeans is ‘unquenchable’, PM Lee said he ‘understand’ how people feel.

“I understand that….But we are functioning, right? And we are not a one-party state – this is not an election where the PAP wins 95 per cent of the vote,” he added.

It appears that PM Lee does not understand the exact meaning of a ‘one-party state’ which refers to a country with a single party in power in control of all the state institutions such as the police, press, economy and civil service and lacking an effective opposition to check on it, just like Singapore.

PM Lee also reserved special words of thanks to his “ally” in the opposition Low Thia Kiang:

“Low Thia Khiang, in a great tribute to the system, has said the vote is secret, nothing will happen to you (if you vote for the opposition), nothing has happened to me and my children (for being in the opposition).”

Though he was supposedly an opposition MP, Low Thia Kiang once praised the PAP as an effective government and gave it a ‘passing’ grade in governance while hurling insults at another fellow opposition leader, calling him a ‘mad dog.’

When asked by PM Lee whether embattled former Home Affairs Minister Wong Kan Seng should resign over the escape of famed terrorist Mas Selamat during a parliamentary session in 2008, Low was stunned into silence and could only stare blankly in the air.

With the PAP expected to lose votes in the coming general election, Mr Low should state clearly whether WP will form a coalition government with the PAP or the rest of the opposition if no parties manage to win a simple majority to form the government.