The People's Action Party (PAP) has released a second statement on the 10 million population statement precipitated by the "Singapore Votes 2020: The Political Debate" programme on July 1.

The tussle took place between Vivian Balakrishnan from the People's Action Party and the leader of Singapore Democratic Party (SDP) Chee Soon Juan.

Chee had insisted that Deputy Prime Minister Heng Swee Keat "came up" with the idea that Singapore would raise its population to 10 million, an assertion which Vivian responded to by calling it a "cheap shot".

In light of the furore, PAP's second statement on July 3 stated that they were "disappointed but not surprised" that Chee would double down on the falsehood, despite clarifications from the ruling party earlier in the day.

The PAP, however, expressed their surprise that SDP's chairman Paul Tambyah had backed Chee up.

"We thought he was a better man," the scathing statement reads.

The statement also attacked Workers' Party's Pritam Singh for "opportunistically" jumping into the fray.

Pritam, who was speaking at a morning walkabout in Punggol West with candidate Tan Chen Chen, had asked why the government did not earlier state that the population would be well below 6.9 million in 2030.

The PAP statement also included an animated analogy.

You can read PAP's full statement here:

"We issued a press statement earlier today questioning Dr Chee Soon Juan’s integrity over his false statement that the Government wants to increase Singapore’s population to 10 million people.

We are disappointed that Dr Chee and the SDP have dug their heels in, repeated their falsehoods, and refused to apologise to Singaporeans for misleading them. Disappointed but not surprised, for we knew Dr Chee has not changed, cannot change, and will never change.

A simple analogy will explain Dr Chee’s mendacity. Imagine this. Dr Chee claims you said you want to beat up your spouse. You deny it, and show proof that you neither said this nor have beaten your spouse. Instead of apologising, Dr Chee says: “Victory! I extracted a promise from you that you will never beat your spouse”.

But we are disappointed and surprised Dr Paul Tambyah, the SDP’s Chairman, has joined his chief in this charade. We thought he was a better man.

Other opposition leaders have also opportunistically jumped into the fray. Mr Pritam Singh asked why the Government could not have said earlier that our population would be well below 6.9 million in 2030, let alone a mythical 10 million.

It is baffling that Mr Singh should ask this question. During the Committee of Supply in February 2018, Minister Josephine Teo had said that our population would be significantly below 6.9 million in 2030. She repeated this in the Committee of Supply in February this year. Was the Leader of the Opposition not scrutinising the Minister’s statements?"

Top photo via PAP, Chee Soon Juan's Facebook page