Found a transcript of Workers' Party chief Pritam Singh's GE2015 rally speech on 5 Sep 2015. He shared how grassroots organisations and taxpayers' funds are used as "political tools of the PAP", even in Opposition wards. A reminder this #GE2020 .

https://www2.wp.sg/pritam-singhs-rally-speech-punggol-field-walk-rally-5-sep/

Thread:

1. "When the Aljunied MPs took over the GRC in 2011, our first welcome gift from the PAP was the transfer of the leases of 26 community sites where Aljunied residents gather and bond, from the Town Council to the People's Association (PA)."

2. RCs (Residents' Committees) use public spaces to hold events inviting PAP grassroots advisers, but elected Workers' Party MPs are not allowed to use People's Association facilities - even though the PA is supposedly non-partisan.

3. The chairpersons of RCs and CCCs (Citizens' Consultative Committees) are appointed not by elected Workers' Party MPs, but by PAP candidates who had lost at the ballot box.

4. People's Association grassroots leaders and advisers try to win political mileage for one political party - the PAP - even though, as mentioned before, the PA is supposed to be non-partisan. "Opposition supporters in the CCC are told to leave." So much for national unity.

5. Grassroots organisations - some of which are partisan, at least in Opposition wards - are funded by taxpayers' money.

6. Elected WP MPs have "no say prioritising community improvement projects for their constituencies". Power lies in PAP grassroots advisers and PAP-supportive CCCs, who allegedly hold back on projects pushed by WP MPs - even if it means "short-changing and punishing residents".

7. Conclusion: "The system has evolved over the years and has now become a disease that has permanently hosted itself."

8. And then people wonder why the Opposition - even after being elected into Parliament - can't do more for their constituents on the ground.

Hence, I am still interested in finding out what "underhand tactics" PAP candidate Victor Lye has had to face in Aljunied GRC. I wonder if they are as bad as shutting elected MPs out of PA facilities, or holding back on community projects.

#GE2020 https://twitter.com/eisen/status/1279070120397033472