We appreciate feedback, but please don’t misrepresent our efforts
I refer to your article (A PLEA TO SDP: PLEASE WORK HARDER IN SEMBAWANG GRC!) by ‘A frustrated Woodlands resident’. We thank the writer for his/her views.
However, we must also point out that there is a difference between urging the SDP to do more and making inaccurate statements. The writer says, or at least gives the impression, that the SDP does not dare to visit crowded places, that we are not serious in our effort and that we are contesting for the sake of contesting. This is wholly untrue.
The last elections was held in May 2011. In June that year, we were already on the ground meeting with residents (see here). We have continued with our ground work ever since, conducting regular and frequent walkabouts, house visits, block parties and kopi sessions over the last three years. We have posted these activities on our website and FB, and will leave readers to check them out.
We conduct walkabouts as they allow us to meet with more residents in a given period of time. Due to the nature of the activity, however, it is harder to have quality interaction with the people. We make up for this by doing house visits where we can spend more time with individual residents and households.
On top of these, we hold block parties to get to know our constituents and see if we can be of service to them. (However, we’ve have been told by a PAP-run Town Council that we cannot conduct these parties without a permit.)
The writer also refers to the by-election at Punggol East. We were out at Rivervale Mall on 6 January 2013 to meet voters and distribute flyers. That same morning we knocked on the doors of nearly 2,000 households in the constituency, that’s about 20 blocks of flats.
PM Lee Hsien Loong responded by calling for the by-election three days later.
Over the following few days, we visited 98% of the HDB households in the constituency often starting in the morning and working right through into the night. We only stopped when we decided to pull out because we did not want to risk splitting the opposition vote and letting the PAP win the election.
We are acutely aware that coming up with alternative policies and campaigning online is not enough. The only way we are going to get our message across to Singaporeans is through our walkabouts and house visits. This is why we are there at the hawker centres, along the corridors, in the kopitiams, and at the void-decks.
Singaporeans must understand, however, that elections are not a spectator sport. Our supporters cannot cheer us to victory. Parties are elected because supporters physically help out. But we do not ask our supporters to do the work while we take it easy. When our volunteers take one step, we will take ten.
Is the SDP going all out in our ground campaign? Absolutely. Can we do even more? Of course, we can. That is why we continue to put out appeals for volunteers. More volunteers means reaching out to more voters. To those of you who have responded to our appeals, we say a heartfelt thank you. To those of you who would like to help, please click here. Our next activity is on 25 May 2014.
The SDP welcomes and appreciates feedback because we learn from it and become a stronger party. But we ask that our efforts not be misrepresented.
BRYAN LIM
Head, Ground Operations
Singapore Democratic Party