Weekend TODAY: WP's 'suicide squad' volunteered for the job

GE2006

THE Workers' Party (WP) line-up that will vie for votes with Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong's team in Ang Mo Kio GRC were volunteers and were not "assigned" the battleground, party chief Low Thia Khiang said on Friday.

"I managed to convince my party to send a team to Ang Mo Kio. More importantly, we managed to get a team who are prepared to go to Ang Mo Kio," Mr Low said. "Every candidate must have the motivation and must be prepared to go. I didn't assign."

He also countered Mr Lee's comments that his team in Ang Mo Kio is a "suicide squad".

A "gan si dui" is better than a "pa si dui", he quipped in Mandarin. Translated, it means: A suicide squad is better than having a team that is afraid of dying.

To those who felt that the WP candidates for the People's Action Party stronghold have a "defeatist attitude" because they have already conceded they would lose, Mr Low said that just because they are contesting in constituencies that are ruling-party fortresses - where they have no real chance of winning - does not make them defeatist.

"We have a mission and they will execute the mission to provide a choice to voters in Ang Mo Kio and residents of the former Cheng San (where some voters have been absorbed by AMK GRC)," he said of his Ang Mo Kio team.

Mr Low, who is defending his Hougang seat this election, was speaking to reporters at a coffeeshop in Aljunied GRC - just across the road from his Hougang ward - where he and his party colleagues took a break after a 90-minute walkabout through both constituencies. - ANSLEY NG