Minister Mentor
Lee Kuan Yew has warned Aljunied voters they will have to live and "repent" for the next five years if they vote in the
Workers' Party (WP) team at Aljunied GRC.
Speaking at PAP's Radin Mas branch on Saturday, Singapore's founding father said the PAP will not lose in this election, as the only hot-seat is Aljunied.
But he said, "If Aljunied decides to go that way, well Aljunied has five years to live and repent."
MM Lee added that he does not consider it a major setback if the
People's Action Party (PAP) loses the the contest, that it would not be "the end of the world" as the PAP would fight to get the GRC back.
"We accept the verdict of the people, but they must also accept the consequences of their actions. You must expect the PAP to look after PAP constituencies first."
His latest comments come hot on the heels of another stern warning to voters on Friday, when he said Aljunied voters will "pay a price, the hard way" if they voted for the Opposition. His remarks then sparked a huge backlash online, with close to 3,000 comments on Yahoo! alone questioning MM Lee's motives.
Netizens have also not taken too kindly to the 87-year-old's latest warnings, calling them a thinly veiled threat to voters.
Yahoo! News reader Secret wrote, "Dear MM Lee, I am a resident of Aljunied... I do not need you to either lecture or intimidate me. You and your ilk may be the "CEO" of Singapore Inc now, but even the CEO has to answer to the stakeholders -- and we citizens are the stakeholders who have the right to either keep you employed or fire you."
Another reader Jubilant said, "Voters of Aljunied GRC will be intimidated by your threats. Instead you should be the one to repent for insulting the intelligence of Aljunied voters."
Users of micro-blogging service Twitter were also quick to criticise MM Lee.
@SamanthaDelina said, "Quite disgusted by MM Lee's comments on WP. No matter how great PAP is, I don't see a need for them to put others down."
Another user @duncanchew was also appalled and wondered, "How can those words come out from MM Lee's mouth?"
On Saturday, MM Lee also questioned WP's real intentions.
"It's not just to win one GRC. Let's have no hypocrisy about this, every political party sets out to win and win a majority and they are setting out from a single constituency to a GRC and then expand to more GRCs and then take over. It's up to you to decide whether they are capable of running Singapore," he said.
The high-powered 'A' team from the Workers's Party contesting the Aljunied hotspot consists of former Hougang MP Low Thia Khiang, former NCMP Sylvia Lim, the party's "star catch" Chen Show Mao as well as family counsellor Muhamad Faisal Abdul Manap and post-graduate law student Pritam Singh.
They will be up against the incumbent PAP team fronted by Foreign Affairs Minister George Yeo, Minister in the Prime Minister's Office Lim Hwee Hua, Senior Minister of State for Foreign Affairs Zainul Abidin Rasheed, Madam Cynthia Phua and new face Ong Ye Kung, an assistant secretary-general of NTUC .
Separately on Saturday, Senior Minister Goh Chok Tong also commented on the impact should Mr Yeo and his Aljunied GRC team be voted out of Parliament.
Speaking at a rally in Marine Parade GRC, SM Goh said Mr Yeo has been handling delicate negotiations with Malaysia and Indonesia on border issues.
Describing that Singapore has a "beautiful arrangement" -- with an Indian as President, a Chinese as Prime Minister and a Malay, Zainul Abidin Rasheed, as potential Speaker of Parliament -- SM Goh said that "on the basis of merit we ended up with this, a politically balanced, beautiful picture'.
"You knock out George Yeo and Zainul Abidin. Well, you'll have to look for another Speaker on the basis of merit. Well, that person may not be Zainul Abidin once he's out, or another Malay MP.
"These are the fine points of politics which we in PAP understand, which we try to manage quietly. But the opposition says never mind, George Yeo can be a diplomat. Come off it, that's not the way you build up a first-rate government."
Related news
Aljunied voters will regret choosing WP: MM Lee
Follow Yahoo! News on Twitter and become a fan on Facebook.
This article is published by Yahoo! Southeast Asia Pte. Ltd., 60 Anson Road #13-01 Mapletree Anson, Singapore, 079914.
153 comments