Workers' Party (WP) candidate Jamus Lim's use of the "blank cheque" analogy on the People's Action Party (PAP) is "not the right categorisation", PAP member and Minister for Trade and Industry Chan Chun Sing said on Thursday, July 2.

Chan was responding to a quote that Lim made during his political debate closing speech on Wednesday, July 1.

Lim had said: "What we are trying to deny the PAP isn’t a mandate. What we are trying to deny them is a blank cheque.”

The quote has left an impression on many viewers.

Lim's analogy "not the right categorisation" for the PAP

Speaking to The Straits Times at a walkabout at Pek Kio Market, Chan said in governance, the PAP is always accountable to the people and to its electorate:

"I don't think there is anything such as a blank cheque, as if the PAP can do anything without accountability. I don't think that's a correct characterisation."

"Everything that we do, at every step of the way, we have to be responsible to Singaporeans, their welfare, their well-being, and we have to be responsible for the long-term survival of the country."

Chan also said the 12 NCMP (Non-Constituency MP) seats ensure "a diversity of views" always in parliament, adding that not many systems in the world have such a feature.

He said they have designed it as such as they want to make sure that "any discussion about the future of the country and the policies that [they] are going to implement is done robustly", adding that it is in their interest to do so as both the PAP and government.

"Blank cheque" analogy previously used by Pritam

Lim was not the first to have used the "blank cheque" analogy on the PAP.

WP chief Pritam Singh had said at its annual members' forum on Jan. 19 this year that the role of the opposition in Singapore is to ensure that the PAP does not have "a blank cheque to do whatever it wants".

Top image adapted via The Straits Times/YouTube & CNA