Photos by Jamie Chan for Mothership.sg.

The Reform Party held their third rally at Delta Sports Complex yesterday (Sept. 7) to drum up support for Kumar Appavoo, the party’s candidate for Radin Mas SMC.

Kumar’s two other competitors — the ruling People Action Party’s Sam Tan and independent Han Hui Hui — were scarcely mentioned during the rally, which saw other RP candidates — like Roy Ngerng, Gilbert Goh and Osman Sulaiman — taking the stage to challenge the Government on the party’s pet topics: CPF and immigration.

Compared to the three other rallies yesterday night — Reform Party’s rally saw very little attendance, with approximately 2,000  people filling up the stands at Delta Sports Complex.

Here are five Rs of the Reform Rally that we couldn’t miss:

1. Reconciliatory

Gilbert Goh (the baldie in the pic above) was certainly candid with his party’s deep concern about “the 400,000 foreigners right now taking away our jobs”, as well as the sanctity of the voting rights of new citizens.

He later quipped, “When my mother was admitted into the hospital for stroke, I asked the doctors, are your degrees Singapore [sic] or are your degrees foreign. Thank God, his degree is Singapore [sic]”.

Nonetheless, Goh reassured attendees that he was “not xenophobic” and that he was merely “stating facts”. “Let’s be anti-immigration, not anti-foreigner,” urged Goh.

Fellow Ang Mo Kio GRC candidate Roy Ngerng was relentless in decrying the ruling party, labelling the PAP as “cheap” for not telling Singaporeans about the GICs’ usage of CPF monies.

Ngerng later clarified that “we do not hate the PAP, but we Singaporeans believe that the government has a responsibility to its citizens”.

Perhaps to the attendees’ befuddlement, subsequent speaker Siva Chandran later proclaimed outright, “I hate the PAP!”

2. Rescue

The Reform Party’s perception of itself as a redemptive agent was epitomised in two quotes. Each had drawn rapturous applause from the crowd.

Near the beginning of his speech, party Secretary-General Kenneth Jeyaretnam mentioned that a supporter asked him, “How can we vote the opposition in without damaging the economy?”

The opposition leader’s response was, “I’m sorry my friend, but that is the wrong question. How can you not vote us in to save our economy and way of life?”

Later in his speech, the 55 year-old cited himself as a “credible alternative” who deserves to be in parliament to ask the “right questions”.

The opposition leader then issued the following warning: “Another 5 years of this (PAP governance) and I’m not sure if even I can save the situation!”

3. Radical

Throughout the rally, the Reform Party candidates sought to promote an understanding that the party’s proposed policies were prudent and reasonable.

Nonetheless, some of their suggestions were somewhat radical.

For example, Secretary-General Kenneth Jeyaretnam spoke about the party’s intention to raise the “defence budget”. Why?

“Because we would like to reduce National Service to a year and have a professional army,” declared the opposition leader.

4. Retconned