Dear SDP,
I am somewhat concerned that the SDP may have played into the hands of its opponents and lost its focus.
The articles posted on your website over the last few weeks are predominantly about Dr Chee’s plight. While there is no denial that Dr Chee has been a victim of grave injustice, it is a bad idea to let this issue overshadow the main mission of your party. Furthermore, filling your website with such articles – whose contents are often repetitive – just makes Dr Chee look like a whiner.
Wouldn’t it be a better strategy to underplay whatever injustice the PAP has been inflicting on Dr Chee and focus instead on exposing the injustice being done to the commoners under a cloak of propaganda? What kind of a person would you like to portray him as? A quiet selfless hero who endures inhuman hardships for a noble cause, or an opportunistic politician who readily parades his battle wounds for sympathy?
For example, the on-going NKF/Durai trial has revealed uncanny parallels with the ways and means of the PAP government. Just about every statement that Shanmugam has put forth against the NKF and Durai applies verbatim to the PAP and Lee: the lack of transparency and accountability, the misuse of public funds, the exploitation of official positions for personal gains, the appointment of cronies to key offices, etc. Yet I have not seen a single word about this on your website.
Singaporeans are generally known to be a self-centered lot. It is unrealistic to think that they will cast a protest vote against the PAP in support of somebody else’s interest (eg. Dr Chee’s). You can, however, convince them to do so when it is their own interest at stake. The NKF saga presents a perfect opportunity to show the commoners that they really do live in a fiefdom and that their interests have been sacrificed by Lee and his cronies in the same manner the NKF donors have ripped off by Durai and his cronies.
QWERTY PO