I am honoured to have been the talk of the parliament, thanks to the Workers' Party, which is trying to defend itself from accusations of playing identity politics and involving foreigners in the process.
(This article is a republication of my Facebook post, since I know not all of you use the platform regularly.)
First of all, I'd like to make something clear - unlike Noor Deros and WP, I have never met or otherwise spoken to any PAP minister, MP or even, to my knowledge, member of the party (at least nobody has ever revealed themselves to me as such).
Nobody has ever sought to solicit my support for any political campaign in Singapore and my commentary here has always been my own.
Secondly, the focus on the controversial Singaporean preacher living in Malaysia, as well as support voiced by two PAS members for the Workers' Party, seems to distract from the fact that these are just the tip of the iceberg in WP's longer political campaign for GE25.
It's the context that matters even more.
Pritam Singh is now trying to downplay the standing of Noor Deros and that he didn't want to draw more attention to him.
But even if he didn't exist, can it be denied that WP made several other decisions that can only be interpreted as targeting a specific domestic minority, in the hope of securing a larger share of its vote?
- Why was the issue of Palestine - a foreign conflict after all - included in the party's manifesto?
- Why did WP run a candidate, Siti Alia, who openly declared that her reason for joining the party was its stance on the war in Gaza? A topic she mentioned during party rallies too.
- Why did WP not criticise the disruptions of PAP's Meet-the-People Sessions by pro-Palestine activists and went as far as to invite people to come to its own MPS to discuss Palestine, as Gerald Giam did in his promotional video?
- Why did WP seek to meet with Islamic preachers ahead of the GE at all, with or without Noor Deros' participation?
That he later went public, bragging how he met with WP's Malay candidates merely brought the whole silent campaign into the spotlight. But it had consisted of FAR MORE than just a single meeting with some controversial individual.
With or without foreign involvement WP had committed to a long campaign of trying to win votes with the Muslim minority by showing its support for a foreign cause (i.e. Palestine) that was obviously important to them. It had done it disregarding the interest of Singapore as a nation and the effect that pandering to a particular identity could have on the society.
The whole Noor Deros affair made it worse, but it was just a cherry on top of a layered cake.
Now, I understand they hate me for drawing attention to it, but how am I to blame for what they themselves had done?
