PAP Ah Lians get personal with Sylvia Lim

Another typical propaganda report from the PAP Media. Does not include any quotes from Ms Sylvia Lim but clearly shows how Ms Sylvia Lim was victimized by PAP MPs as they take turn to attack her.

March 1, 2007, ST
Sylvia Lim ignoring offsets in generous Budget: PAP MPs

MS SYLVIA Lim's speech yesterday was rebutted by three People's Action Party (PAP) MPs, who said she had not given the Government due credit for the prudence and generosity of its Budget.

The Non-Constituency MP had criticised the Government's decision to raise the goods and services tax (GST), saying it had revenue from various sources and a stronger fiscal position than was reported.

Ms Lee Bee Wah (Ang Mo Kio GRC) was the first to counter Ms Lim's points, saying the Government's funds for social spending should not be taken for granted.

Playing on the Chinese names of Ms Lim (Lin Rui Lian) as well as her own (Lee Mei Hua) she drew laughs from the House by saying her rebuttal was not meant to start 'an Ah Huay dui (versus) Ah Lian debate'.

'Spending on social services for a greying population by the Government cannot be taken for granted,' she said, adding that only a 'prudent and good government like ours' could make the right fiscal decisions.

To make her point on how the government here was different from those elsewhere, Ms Lee recounted her visit to Malaysia to see her mother for Chinese New Year.

While there, she met old friends who congratulated her, saying: 'Wah, Bee Wah, you are going to get rich very soon.'

They thought politicians were not politicians if they did not know how to fatten their own pockets.

'But I said, 'Excuse me, this is Singapore.'...I assured them that in Singapore, the politicians are here to take care of our citizens. So if you don't have a good, prudent government, you can never think of spending on the social services,' said Ms Lee, in a speech that set ministers and MPs thumping their chairs in approval.

On Ms Lim's criticism of the timing of the GST hike, she said it was better to raise the tax now while the economy was doing well, rather then wait till things took a turn for the worse. Using a Hokkien phrase, she warned against 'looking for a toilet only when one needs to pass motion', a comment that evoked laughter from the House.

Ms Irene Ng (Tampines GRC) said Ms Lim had failed to acknowledge that the Budget was 'incredibly generous', with as much as 19 years' worth of GST offsets for the poor that 'do not fall into any election cycle'.

Ms Lim had 'focused quite singularly on our revenue with little thought about how we can help our working poor, how we can get better jobs for them, how we can level up their incomes', she added.

Dr Fatimah Lateef (Marine Parade GRC) also entered the fray.

She said: 'Governments have to make decisions, and sometimes they are difficult decisions in response to whatever challenges we face, especially in the face of rapid globalisation.'

To Ms Lim, she(Fatimah Lateef)added: 'Let me share with her that nowhere else in the world can you get a Budget which includes love and compassion in abundance as this one.'