Translated by Donaldson Tan
This is a non-verbatim translation of Zaobao report 《刘程强：我没掉进’非选区议员圈套’》 dated 10 March 2011.
(2011-03-10) ● 周殊钦
Low Thia Khiang
他指出本身早已在国会上宣布个人绝不会接受非选区议席，至于工人党其他候选人，如果他们届时接到国会邀请，也肯定不会自动接受，而是须要开会决定。
本报昨天报道一些反对党领袖不满工人党在协商选区分配时采取不妥协态度，造成一些选区，尤其是单议席选区可能出现三角战。一名不愿受引述的反对党领袖甚至声称那是因工人党已掉进执政党所设下的“非选区议员圈套”。
宪法规定国会在不足九名反对党候选人当选的情况下，能邀请得票率最高的落选反对党候选人以非选区议员身份填满九席，而每支反对党集选区竞选团队可有两人成为非选区议员。工人党可能是为了提高它的集选区候选人进入国会的机会，而到单选区跟其他反对党打三角战，以拉低他们的得票率。
刘程强是后港区议员。他昨晚在区内接见选民之前，特地针对这样的指责接受本报记者访问，以澄清人们因此而对工人党产生的错误印象。他不仅坚持这样的指责为无稽之谈，还反驳说其他政党把争论通过传媒在大众舞台上搬演，简直是“拿石头砸自己的脚”。
他语气强硬地说：“我不知道他的根据是什么。那一位政党领袖到底是谁？我希望那位政党领袖不要畏首畏尾，公开地出来讲。你要搞政治，政党领袖嘛，为什么要畏首畏尾呢？丢了这句话，然后就没头没尾地走掉，我都觉得莫名其妙。”
刘程强指出工人党打算派出的候选人数目同上次大选所派出的20名候选人相差不远，因此要以候选人人数来指责工人党有野心，并着眼于非选区议席，绝对不能成立。
至于同其他政党谈判时到底有没有协商空间，以尽量避免发生三角战，他表示目前的变数还相当大，到提名日之前都难以断言。
“但是从工人党一向的做法来看，我们所要去的地方，基本上是有一定的候选人要去的。就好像上届大选，我们说准备去宏茂桥集选区，我们去了。这次大选，我们没说要去宏茂桥集选区。所以，当我们想要去一些选区参选时，不是在空口说白话。这是肯定的。”
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LTK: I didn’t fall into NCMP Trap
Last night, Workers’ Party (WP) Secretary-General Low Thia Khiang rejected the conspiracy theory that the reason why WP had refused to compromise with other opposition political parties is that it intended to enter Parliament via the NCMP route.
He stressed that he had already said in Parliament that he would never accept the NCMP seat. On the other hand, if other WP members were to be offered NCMP seats, the party would convene a meeting to make the decision to accept or reject the NCMP offer.
Zaobao reported yesterday that there are opposition leaders who are unhappy with WP whose unyielding attitude and refusal to compromise have led to the possibility of three-cornered fights at some SMCs. One Opposition leader, on the condition of anonymity, told Zaobao that this is the result of WP falling into the NCMP trap.
The Singapore Constitution stipulates the appointment of up to 9 NCMPs should there are less than 9 Opposition members elected into Parliament. 2 members of every Opposition GRC team stand a chance of becoming a NCMP. In order to boost the chances of its GRC teams entering Parliament, WP’s election strategy may involve sending candidates to SMCs in order to reduce the likelihood of other (smaller) opposition political parties from entering Parliament.
Mr Low is also the MP for Hougang. Last night, he specially arranged for this interview just before his weekly scheduled Meet-The-People Session (MPS) so as to rectify any incorrect public impression of the Workers’ Party. He not only condemned the conspiracy theory as nonsense, but also added that the dragging inter-party disputes onto the public stage is as good as “using rocks to smash one’s own feet”.
“I don’t know on what basis the anonymous Opposition leader makes his claim. Who is he? I hope he will come out to the open and clear the air. If he wants to do politics, he shouldn’t hide. Even I find his behaviour baffling,” Mr Low said.
Mr Low also added the number of GE candidates WP would be putting up this coming General Election is close to the number (20) from the last General Election, thus the arguments that the WP is eyeing NCMP seats and that it is ambitious based on the number of GE candidates do not stand.
On criticism that the WP is reluctant to cooperate with other political parties in order to avoid three-cornered fights, Mr Low said that the situation is still fluid and no conclusion be made until nomination day.
“If we say we are going to contest at a particular constituency, it means we definitely have candidates for that constituency. For example, during the last General Election, we said we are prepared to contest at Ang Mo Kio GRC and we indeed did. However, we didn’t say we would be contesting at Ang Mo Kio GRC this coming General Election. We mean our words.”
