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A member of the People's Action Party (PAP) team contesting Aljunied GRC, Shamsul Kamar, has debunked allegations that he is "luring people to vote by providing them with free food" or that he is only helping the Malay community.

Shamsul highlighted the allegations in a post on July 1 and noted that they appeared to have stemmed from a photo of a planned food distribution event on July 4, Saturday.

As per Shamsul:

"It is unfortunate that there were allegations by netizens that I am only helping the Malay community and that I am luring people to vote by providing them with free food."

Event postponed

Shamsul added that he had worked regularly with multiple non-profit organisations and private companies to assist residents in Kaki Bukit regardless of their race, language or religion, and pointed out that such entities occasionally wanted to help specific groups.

In this particular case, the organisation that he was working with had wanted to focus on lower-income Malay-Muslim families and that community leaders from the Malay Activity Executive Committee (MAEC) felt that this was a good initiative.

As such, planning for the event had begun even before the General Elections, he further stated.

However, the event has since been postponed to after the election, given the election's recent announcement.

Shamsul further stated:

"Since yesterday, the committee members have already started calling the affected residents on the postponement."

So what was the event all about?

Earlier on July 1, a Facebook page "Say NO to PAP" put up the following photo of what appeared to be information about the July 4 event in question in Malay.

The caption alleged that the vote of Aljunied residents was worth only two pieces of Texas Fried Chicken and insinuated that Shamsul was attempting to bribe voters.

The photo itself contained the following caption,"Wasalam but Seriously PAP? You gonna bait us with Texas Chicken? If it's Arnolds, it might be fine (translated from Malay)."

Here is the full translation of the information shown in the photo:

TEXAS CHICKEN FOOD DISTRIBUTION EVENT

Sir/Maam,

You are invited to receive one set of Texas Chicken - “2 Piece Meal”. This event is sponsored by TEXAS CHICKEN and you are requested to be present at the event:

Date: Saturday, July 4, 2020

Time: 11:30am to 12pm

Venue: 527 Bedok North St 3 (Shaik Abdul Kader AL-Jailani Makan Place Pte Ltd)

Terms & Conditions:

1. Only recipients of this letter have to attend.

2. Limited to one set per family.

3. Please bring this letter along with your NRIC to receive the meal.

I hope Sir/Maam can make time to attend this event. I am looking forward to meet you, should there be a chance.

Sincerely,

Shamsul Kamar

Top image collage left photo from Say NO to PAP Facebook, right photo from Texas Chicken Facebook