Singapore Democrats
Dr Chee Soon Juan calls for a better quality of life for Singaporeans in the SDP’s 2013 New Year message.$CUT$
Hi, everybody and Happy New Year!
2012 was one of those years that made abig difference for those of us here at the SDP. It was a meaningful12 months filled with work that built on the momentum that we hadachieved from the general elections in 2011.
At the beginning of the year, wepublished our Shadow Budget and outlined our nation’s spendingpriorities to invest in education, small and medium size enterprisesand lower-income groups. We also published two major policy papers,the first on lowering healthcare costs and the second on making our HDBhomes affordable for everyone.
These plans were warmly welcomed bySingaporeans and they heralded the coming of age of the SDP as acompetent and constructive party.
And while we worked to producealternative policies, we also expanded our presence on the ground bygoing on walkabouts in the various constituencies from Woodlands inthe north to Kreta Ayer in the south. In addition, we organised blockparties to meet with our residents and, more importantly, listen toyou and to learn what your concerns and worries are.
We aredetermined to bring your voices with us into Parliament.
We also continued to upgrade ourcommunications capabilities, revamping our website and making it evena more powerful tool to reach out to Singaporeans.
Of course, all these activitiesneeded financial support and thanks to many of you, we were able tomeet our fund-raising target. Along the way we had much fun.
As result, our party has continuedto grow.
But through all this, we werepainfully aware that there are many Singaporeans who are stillstruggling with little comfort and security. We have providedwhatever assistance we could to lift them up. We do this because wewant to see Singapore become a compassionate community. We believethat the true measure of a great nation is how we care for theweakest among us.
But as much as we did last year,2013 promises to be even more exciting, more meaningful. We willcontinue to develop our capabilities and potential as an alternativeruling party and we look forward to your support.
For one thing, we expect aby-election to be called in Punggol East and we are already startingwork to bring our message across to residents at the constituency.
We look not for material riches, welook not for power for its own sake. Instead, we look to build ourvision of a Singapore – a Singapore that is strong and free, whereour people are innovative and competitive, tempered by an equallystrong sense of justice and compassion.
We want Singaporeans not only towork hard but also to enjoy the fruits of our labour, to experiencethe love and joy of our families and loved ones. We want a betterquality of life for our workers, a more balanced lifestyle where wedon’t live to work but work to lead happier lives and achieve a moresecure future.
But we cannot achieve this if weare constantly driven to work harder and longer for less and less, wecannot cultivate a more gracious society if we have the dubioushonour of being the most stressed workers and unhappiest people inthe world.
This is the reason why we continueto speak up and to carry on our work for you. We will work harder andsmarter than we did in 2012 so that we can make our vision forSingapore a reality. And with your support, my friends, this visionis eminently achievable.
Again, thank you for being with usall these years through the good times and the tough ones. We hopeyou will continue to be there for us, you know we’ll always be therefor you.
Have a wonderful and meaningful2013 and on behalf of everyone here at the Singapore DemocraticParty, I wish you and your loved ones all the very best.