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Opposition politicians from three different political parties - People's Voice (PV), Progress Singapore Party (PSP), and Singapore Democratic Party (SDP) met yesterday, April 10, for an "alliance of issues" over lunch.
According to a Facebook post by Lim Tean, leader of the PV, the event had been hosted by Non-Constituency Member of Parliament (NCMP) and PSP politician Leong Mun Wai, to congratulate Leong Sze Hian on his "recent very successful crowdfunding campaign".
"Significant political transformation"
Lim wrote that the successful campaign marked a "significant political transformation" amongst Singaporeans.
Leong is a Singaporean politician and blogger, who had been ordered to pay S$133,000 in defamation damages to Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong, earlier this year on March 24.
Leong, who contested as a PV candidate in GE 2020, had subsequently crowdfunded the full amount via public donations to pay for his defamation suit by April 4, 11 days later.
In his post, Lim commended Singaporeans for protecting the rights of their "fellow men".
Criticised the recent GST hike
Lim also went on to criticise the proposed Goods and Services Tax (GST) hike, which was announced to be "sooner rather than later" during this year's Budget 2021 debate.
Lim said that the politicians who attended the lunch agreed that the opposition must do their utmost to oppose the proposed GST hike.
He added that GST is "a most regressive form of taxation which hurts the middle class and lower income groups the hardest".
He said that a two per cent GST hike will have a "disproportionately harmful effect on the finances of these two groups when it will net the government no more than S$3 billion a year in revenue".
Other opposition politicians present at the lunch included Paul Thambyah, chairman of the SDP, and PV's Kok Ming Cheang.
An "Alliance of Issues"
Lim also briefly shared his thoughts on the recent change of 4G leadership, stressing that it was especially important that the opposition work even more closely on an "alliance of issues" in future.
He wrote:
"Singaporeans expect no less, especially at this time when they have realised how bereft the PAP are of ideas and talent. They can’t even decide who is to lead them going forward.
Mun Wai, Paul and the others, thank you once again for a very enjoyable lunch and the stimulating conversation!"
You can find the full Facebook post here: