See also:
Lee dynasty tightens its grip on Singapore
Top Singapore officials sue Opposition leader              

THE ruling People's Action Party deliberately refrained from fielding heavyweights against two opposition MPs who won back their seats in this month's elections, Prime Minister Goh Chok Tong said.

In an interview with AFP ahead of the new cabinet's swearing-in on Friday, following his massive election victory on November 3, Goh said it was "good to have opposition members in parliament".

He said veteran opposition MPs Chiam See Tong and Low Thia Kiang, the only survivors of an 82-2 PAP win, were not out to "destroy the system."

The two politicians were returned to office with reduced victory margins compared to their 1997 election performance, after being challenged by relatively junior PAP candidates.

Goh said Singapore, ruled by the PAP since 1959, was not a liberal democracy but an "adapted democracy," a system which he said worked for the city-state.

But some opposition members were out to destroy the system so the PAP played "political hardball", Goh said, singling out Chee Soon Juan of the Singapore Democratic Party, who is now facing legal action by Goh and Senior Minister Lee Kuan Yew for defamation.

Goh and Lee, the former prime minister, are seeking "aggravated damages" from Chee for alleging during the campaign that they lent S$17 billion (US$10 billion) to ousted Indonesian leader Suharto.

Goh said the alleged loan was never disbursed to Indonesia as the package, offered during the 1997-98 Asian financial crisis, had conditions attached and was not taken up by Suharto, who was overthrown in May 1998.

Chee, who ran unsuccessfully for a parliamentary seat, was forced to admit he made a false accusation, and apologised publicly.

Legal sources said that on the basis of past court judgements, Chee may have to pay six-digit damages to the two senior leaders.

Goh also took offence at an article which he said was written by Chee in a Taiwan newspaper asserting that "Singapore workers were oppressed and underpaid."

Goh said that if this was true, Singaporeans would not have returned the PAP to power with over 70 percent of the vote, but people who did not know better would believe the article and think that Singapore was a "terrible place".

                                                            Home