Tan Cheng Bock's 'untrue spin' on poster incident 'regrettable': S Iswaran

A viral video had shown the PSP removing their posters from lamp posts.

Andrew Koay | July 03, 2020, 09:30 PM

The People's Action Party (PAP) minister S Iswaran has weighed in on a viral video that showed Progress Singapore Party (PSP) posters being taken down by its members.

In a post on Facebook on July 3, Iswaran said PSP's Tan Cheng Bock's "untrue spin" on the incident is "regrettable".

Both Iswaran and Tan are contesting with their respective teams in West Coast GRC for the upcoming General Election.

"Not true"

Iswaran wrote on Facebook: "Dr Tan Cheng Bock and the Progress Singapore Party (PSP) have put out videos claiming the West Coast Town Council took down their posters."

"This is not true."

Iswaran then pointed to statements by the Elections Department (ELD) and the town council, which indicated that the posters were removed because they contravened public safety regulations.

"In this case, ELD checked with West Coast Town Council, which is the premises owner/occupier where the said lamp posts are located. West Coast Town Council asked for the posters to be removed for public safety reasons, as they were affixed to open space lamp posts where high volume of traffic was expected," said a statement provided to Mothership by the ELD.

Iswaran noted that PAP posters had also been taken down in West Coast because they were in "contravention of the rules".

"The PAP has complied by taking down the posters," he wrote.

"It is regrettable that Dr Tan and the PSP have chosen to give an untrue spin to this issue.

At a time when we are grappling with bigger issues like COVID, the economy and jobs, I think the residents of West Coast GRC and Singapore deserve better."

"Hours of hard work down the drain"

The PSP — whose campaign slogan is "You Deserve Better" — had uploaded a video on Facebook about a day earlier that showed men dressed in party uniform removing posters from a lamp post.

The accompanying description said that they were "forced" to take down the posters by the West Coast Town Council.

In a subsequent update, they revealed that the town council had made a report to ELD, which was the one that delivered the order to take down the posters.

"Hours of hard work went down the drain," the party said.

Additionally, PSP claimed that the PAP's posters were left untouched on the lamp posts, which they described as "puzzling".

The last update to the video's description linked to Tan's Instagram video, where the West Coast GRC candidate says that he was "very upset and very sad".

However, Tan also wrote in the video's caption that the PSP is "not going to blame anyone".

Top image from PSP West Coast and S. Iswaran's Facebook pages