WP's Pritam Singh on '10 million population target': We need to think hard about the nature of falsehood

WP's Pritam Singh on '10 million population target': We need to think hard about the nature of falsehood
PHOTO: YouTube/The Straits Times

At a walkabout early this morning (July 3), Workers' Party (WP) chief Pritam Singh responded to the issue of the "10 million population target" — a figure that was brought up by Singapore Democratic Party (SDP) leader Chee Soon Juan and refuted by People's Action Party's (PAP) representative Vivian Balakrishnan during their live TV debate on Wednesday. 

Chee's comment led to a war of words between the two parties, with Deputy Prime Minister Heng Swee Keat stating that he "did not say that Singapore should plan to increase its population to 10 million people".

Singh was speaking to reporters at Punggol West SMC where candidate WP Tan Chen Chen is standing in this year's election. 

[embed]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dMEYQ_aejRc[/embed]

He said, without wanting to mistakenly paraphrase what was said by either party, there "seems to be an issue because of the nature of Pofma and the nature of falsehoods and how do we describe a falsehood". 

Pofma refers to the Protection from Online Falsehoods and Manipulation Act, and was put in place to target fake news.

Singh said: "We know it’s a false statement of fact. But you know when you have ministers in the past who’ve made allusions to we possibly could have more, a larger population size, then I think there is room for fair comment about really what is the size that we are aiming towards. I think most reasonable people would come to that conclusion.

"One of the things I don’t understand is why can’t these things actually come up well before the elections. I mean it’s the government’s position so it should state that very clearly," he added.

"That’s my view. But I also want to be cautious not to delve too deeply into it because it’s not an issue that is a matter involving this party.

"We need to think hard about the nature of falsehood and really does this fall squarely in that sort of definition."

Following the televised debate on Wednesday, SDP issued a statement declaring that it has “achieved victory on our call for the ‘no’ to a 10 million population”.

But PAP hit back on Thursday evening with a statement declaring that the slogan, which it described as “a key plank in the SDP’s election campaign”, is a “falsehood (which) renders the campaign pointless, and calls into question the integrity of the whole party”. 

candicecai@asiaone.com

This website is best viewed using the latest versions of web browsers.