The ruling People’s Action Party (PAP)’s politicians may have gone for the assault on their opponents pretty much immediately since the nominations were confirmed, but opposition parties are definitely not going to just roll over.

They too had some rough things to say about the PAP themselves, and yesterday saw them firing round after round of criticism onto the ruling party — with some even going creative with their barbs. Let’s sum up the sick burns of the day.

Chee Soon Juan (SDP) vs Vivian Balakrishnan (PAP)

Sure, Dr Balakrishnan may have attracted some concern and attention when he claimed that his Holland-Bukit Timah GRC opponents — the Singapore Democratic Party (SDP) — proposed policies that would lead Singapore “on the road to Greece”.

SDP party chief Dr Chee however rebutted the affront by reminding the press that SDP’s proposal to raise taxes for top earners (which was discredited by Dr Balakrishnan in 2011) was actually implemented later on by Finance Minister Tharman Shanmugaratnam. “It seems that Mr Tharman did exactly what Dr Balakrishnan attacked the SDP for.”

Burn Level: Zinger
Great play by Dr Chee to essentially make Dr Balakrishnan eat his words. But he could probably have done more to defend other aspects of SDP’s policies (raising minimum wage and increasing social spending for example).

Kenneth Jeyaretnam (RP) vs PAP

During a walkabout in West Coast GRC, Reform Party chief Jeyaretnam questioned if PAP’s policies have been truly beneficial for Singaporeans — they attract foreign workers and multinational companies by the droves but homegrown citizens have been sidelined along the way.

Burn Level: Singe
Not much of a stinger, but his comments are certainly relatable to all who feel left behind by the system and are struggling to catch up with Singapore’s fast-paced society.

SDA vs PAP posters

You have to give it to the Singapore Democratic Alliance (SDA) — they certainly know how to react to the massive onslaught of PAP posters adorning the whole island. Instead of putting their candidate’s faces on their own election posters, they’ve instead chosen to place posters reminding folks about what they dislike about PAP’s policies. Smart.

SDA’s posters took aim at the highly contested issues of the Central Provident Fund (in which Singaporeans are supposed to have their retirement fund returned at age 55) as well as the 6.9 million population policy which brought anger about overcrowding.

Bonus round: It was reported that several election posters put up by the PAP were found torn along Sengkang East Way, vandalized by unknown individuals. Though the tarnished posters have since been replaced, the phantom scars left by vandals still remain.

Burn Level: Scalding
Reminding voters about the flaws in the PAP is one thing, but actually seeing them every time they pass by yet another PAP poster? That’s brilliant.

WP vs PAP

The WP rally at Hougang yesterday saw Aljunied GRC candidate Pritam Singh fired up about how the Action Information Management Pte Ltd — which they claim to be “PAP-owned” refused to work with them, which was just one of the many examples of how odds are stacked against the opposition. Png continued by saying that they managed to run the town council despite the loss of the AIM software.

Other candidates Low Thia Kiang and Sylvia Lim took stage and rebutted in detail all of the PAP’s nitpicking about the Aljunied-Hougang-Punggol East Town Council (AHPETC) issue, painting PAP leaders as bullies.

Burn Level: Wildfire
The massive crowd yesterday night licked up every single morsel throughout the WP rally, roaring along in support to all the orators’ fired up criticisms against PAP.

Photos: @dugongmaster via Twitter; Facebook