GE2025: PAP’s actions are legal but may not always be principled, says RDU at rally | Singapore Breaking News & Latest Updates

GE2025: PAP’s actions are legal but may not always be principled, says RDU at rally — Follow our live coverage here. SINGAPORE –In opposition Red Dot United’s (RDU) rally on the last day of campaigning, its secretary-general Ravi Philem...

Follow our live coverage here.

SINGAPORE –In opposition Red Dot United’s (RDU) rally on the last day of campaigning, its secretary-general Ravi Philemon led his party members in questioning the principles of the ruling PAP.

Mr Philemon cited the example of psychiatrist Syed Harun Alhabsyi joining the PAP’s Nee Soon GRC team after resigning from his Nominated MP post in February.

He asked why Law and Home Affairs Minister K. Shanmugam was allowing the former NMP, “who has not properly accounted for why he is standing under the PAP ticket so soon after setting stepping down, ride on his coattails into Parliament”.

On Feb 14, Dr Syed Harun and lawyer Raj Joshua Thomas resigned from their posts, the first NMPs to have done so before the end of their term.

“For the PAP, everything is legal, everything is constitutional, but is everything principled? We have to be very, very worried about unprincipled political parties. I am worried that the PAP is charting into these waters. You should be worried with me,” added Mr Philemon at the May 1 rally, held at a field in Yishun Central.

Other members of the RDU’s Nee Soon GRC slate took turns to fire salvos at their opponents, with private school teacherSyed Alwi Ahmadalso taking aim at Dr Syed Harun, 40.

Dr Syed Alwi, 57, said: “An NMP role is meant to be non-partisan, a space where voices from civil society, from education, the arts and the community can speak freely without political alignment... when someone moves that quickly from a neutral platform to the ruling party, we must question whether the independence of that voice was ever real to begin with.”

Mr Philemon, 56, also said there are many issues that PAP candidates have to answer for, citing incidents such as Foreign Affairs Minister Vivian Balakrishnan’s “like” on a Facebook post by formerNMPCalvin Cheng and remarks that Dr Balakrishnan made in Parliament aboutPSPNon-Constituency MP Leong Mun Wai in 2021 that were caught on a hot mic.

Ms Sharon Lin, 40, a senior consultant in theinformation technologysector, accused new candidate Lee Hui Ying, 36, whom former Nee Soon GRC MP Lee Bee Wah had endorsed at a PAP rally on April 30, of hiding behind the older Ms Lee.

Addressing the new PAP candidates, she said: “Don’t ride on the coattails of a minister who has been here for almost 40 years. Don’t hide behind Lee Bee Wah. If you want to serve, then start by showing us who you are without the shadows of others propping you up. This isn’t just about attacking personalities. It’s about upholding principles.”

RDU chairman David Foo, 60 – also a candidate for Nee Soon GRC – said his party has shown that it is “not recalcitrant or rogue”, and in the past five years, has proven itself to be responsible.

With 15 members contesting in three GRCs and one SMC, the party is fielding the second-highest number of opposition candidates in this election.

Dr Foo said this was because RDU had earned the trust of good people who want to serve.

“We are not here to tear the system down. We are here to help make it better for Singaporeans. Because we believe that a system improves when it is challenged with respect, when it is questioned with courage, when it is refined with truth,” he said.

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