Tan Cheng Bock joins walkabout in Chua Chu Kang, says he wants a 'clean fight'

Tan Cheng Bock accompanies PSP members at food centre in Chua Chu Kang

About a week after his volunteers were involved in a squabble with People’s Action Party (PAP) members, Progress Singapore Party (PSP) chairman Tan Cheng Bock has been seen with party members in Chua Chu Kang GRC.

In a Facebook post on Sunday (12 Jan), PSP member S. Nallakaruppan said Dr Tan accompanied them on a walkabout at Keat Hong Food Centre & Market that day.

Source: Progress Singapore Party on Facebook

Also present were PSP secretary-general Hazel Poa and Non-Constituency MP Leong Mun Wai.

Tan Cheng Bock met residents during Chua Chu Kang walkabout

Mr Nallakaruppan said party members, includng Dr Tan, met residents and distributed its newsletters and tissues to them.

Source: Progress Singapore Party on Facebook

Mr Desmond Lim of the Singapore Democratic Alliance also showed up and greeted PSP members, posing for a photo with Dr Tan, Ms Poa and Mr Leong.

Source: SDA News Page on Facebook

Mr Nallakaruppan noted that the walkabout went “quite smoothly” with no disturbances.

This is compared to last week’s “unpleasant experience”, he added.

PAP & PSP squabble over incident on 4 Jan

Mr Nallakaruppan was undoubtedly referring to an incident between volunteers from both parties in Bukit Gombak on 4 Jan.

He accused the PAP volunteers of harassment, while Dr Tan released a video of a man filming PSP volunteers in a lift and filming a female PSP volunteer up close.

However, Chua Chu Kang MP Low Yen Ling subsequently said on Facebook that PSP had “given an untrue picture” and that it was actually PSP volunteers who had intimidated and even slapped a PAP volunteer.

CCK MP Low Yen Ling responds to alleged ‘harassment’ of PSP members by PAP supporters

A PAP volunteer named Azman Ibrahim then shared videos of the alleged intimidation and slapping.

To that, Dr Tan said he was “shocked” by Ms Low’s allegations and his volunteers had asserted that they were untrue.

He also called on her to make “clear evidence” available as Azman’s videos didn’t show any slapping, he added.

Ms Poa then said that a similar incident between the two parties’ volunteers had taken place on 9 Nov.

Ms Low, who is also Senior Minister of State for Trade and Industry and Culture, Community and Youth, eventually said last Friday (10 Jan) night that the police were investigating the incident and her volunteers would hand over all the evidence to the police.

She also strived to conclude the spat for now by saying:

I do not think that residents’ interests are served in having a further to-and-fro on this.

PSP wants to fight a very clean fight: Tan Cheng Bock

In Keat Hong on Sunday, Dr Tan was quoted as saying by Channel NewsAsia (CNA) that he felt “a bit disturbed” when he heard about the incident.

He wanted to tell Singaporeans that his party wanted to “fight a very clean fight”, saying:

We don’t want to use tactics that shouldn’t be carried out in Singapore… Let us not be involved in any other kind of rude or those types of behaviour that’s uncalled for.

Dr Tan also expected all his members to conduct themselves well, because “that’s what Singaporeans, from young, we’ve been taught to have fairness”.

Source: Progress Singapore Party on Facebook

PSP will let the police investigate the incident, he added.

Ms Poa confirmed that it was in touch with the police, saying:

We’re just letting the police investigate this and hope that the truth comes out.

PSP contested Chua Chu Kang GRC in the 2020 General Election (GE2020), receiving 41.36% of the votes. That means PAP won with 58.64%, lower than the 76.89% it received in GE2015.

Also read: PAP & PSP’s playground squabble deserves an eye-rolling emoji