"Negative politics" isn't the People's Action Party's (PAP) DNA — uniting Singaporeans is, Prime Minister Lawrence Wong said during an interview with the media after his walkabout in Tampines GreenCourt on Wednesday (April 30).

PM Wong, who is also the party's secretary-general, was responding to Workers' Party (WP) secretary-general Pritam Singh's rally speech on Tuesday, where he countered that the PAP themselves engaged in "negative politics" and that it was "the PAP's DNA".

Speaking with the media, PM Wong replied, first explaining that references the WP made in relation to "negative politics" were actually referring to policies.

"I'm referring to a different kind of negative politics, a negative politics where, in the case of the WP in their earlier rally, they targeted Gan Kim Yong the entire night with personal negative attacks," he elaborated, adding that these attacks were "unwarranted".

Addressing WP's comments on the lack of access to resources from the People's Association (PA), PM Wong — again referring to this as "policies" — shared that he is open to robust debate even in Parliament, as there "will always be differences" and "room to improve".

He highlighted that policies in place are not perfect but will be improved, as they have been over the decades.

In particular, he stated that the policies related to the PA are constantly debated on and that the PA is "non-partisan".

However, opposition parties may have differing views, and the PAP welcomes adjustments where necessary, he added.

PM Wong further explained that the PAP government's approach is to "try and bring all Singaporeans together", especially when handling sensitive issues such as Section 377A, wearing of the tudung or the Israel-Hamas conflict.

"We try to forge as wide a national consensus as possible on these issues, and to make sure we continue to expand our common ground and bring Singaporeans together so as not to accentuate our differences nor to seek to exploit these differences," he said.

"That's the PAP way. That's the PAP's DNA, and that's how, over the decades, we have been able to bring Singaporeans together, unite our people and forge a much stronger Singaporean identity today."

'Policies are not static'

PM Wong also replied to questions from the media on Singh's claim that the PAP had changed their policies due to the loss of votes, specifically a policy in the past where PAP-held wards received HDB upgrading plans ahead of opposition-held ones.

He acknowledged that this was a "logic" that was previously held by the PAP, but added that this logic "is no longer wearable today".

But this change wasn't brought about solely due to opposition protests — Singaporeans on the ground had also pointed out that there was a better way to allocate resources, PM Wong said.

"Policies will always be fine tuned with the input of Singaporeans," he stated. "When we hear their voices, when we engage Singaporeans, we understand and we continue to improve policies."

He added: "When it comes to policies, we are happy to debate... We listen to every voice. We believe that every voice matters, and we will continue this listening engagement to make sure that we always do better for Singaporeans."

PM Wong attended the walkabout alongside PAP's Tampines GRC candidates Masagos Zulkifli, Baey Yam Keng, Dr Koh Poh Koon and new faces David Neo and Charlene Chen.

Also present was Tampines Changkat SMC candidate Desmond Choo and PAP assistant organising secretary Alex Yam, who is also a candidate for Marsiling-Yew Tee GRC.

khooyihang@asiaone.com

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