PSP first accused PAP volunteers of following them around last Saturday and taking photos and videos of them when they were visiting residents in the estate.
Ms Low refuted those allegations in a Facebook post on Wednesday containing details of what had supposedly happened, including alleging that a male PSP volunteer had intimidated a PAP volunteer and slapped him twice.
She also alleged that another male PSP volunteer had forcibly pulled a second PAP volunteer by his shirt to take a wefie and video with him.
Her FB post garnered over 1000 likes within 24 hours. Despite the lack of evidence, many of her followers believed that the slapping actually occurred and went on a tirade against the PSP.
Dr Tan Cheng Bock said that he was “shocked” at the allegations, adding that PSP had “immediately” held a meeting on Wednesday evening to hear directly from the party’s volunteers and examine the allegations made in Ms Low’s post.
Not long after I’ve made the above video, Male Volunteer 1 came out as Azman Ibrahim and released a video in which he claimed that he was attacked by a female PSP member when he was filming a PAP volunteer being surrounded by group of PSP members.
The second part of the video did show a PSP female volunteer trying to block his filming with her fliers but there was no indication of harassment until he was “attacked”. The video was obviously edited with the part of being surrounded joined to the part of being attacked. I posted the following on my FB.
“The video shared by Azman Ibrahim has been edited. We don’t know what took place before he was hit by the flyers. Could he have said something offensive to her? Looking at the videos shared by PSP, I believe they acted in response to instigation. Objectively, however, smiling and hitting someone with flyers does weaken the PSP’s case. It gives the PLPs something to drum on and make mountains out of molehills.Nevertheless, the most serious issue at hand is the accusation of slapping. That ought to be the first thing the PLPs ought to prove. It seems like they have exaggerated things. Most repugnant, are the responses from PLPs. Even a video of a PSP member raising his hand will be able to convince them that the slap did occur.”
After investigating the matter, Dr Tan posted:
“An update on SMS Low Yen Ling’s allegations(10 Jan)I was shocked by the allegations in SMS Low Yen Ling’s FB post on 8 Jan 25. As a party, PSP immediately held a meeting on the evening of the same day (8 Jan) to hear directly from our volunteers. We wanted to hear their account of the matter and specifically examine the allegations in Ms Low’s FB post. We looked at all our photos and videos of the day.
All the male volunteers who participated in the house visits on 4 Jan at Goodview Gardens were clear that they did not slap anyone, and they were firm in asserting that the allegation was untrue. A PSP volunteer did try to take a photo with a man who was filming him, but did not pull him by his shirt as alleged in Ms Low’s FB post. Our volunteers also said that they started video recording only after being recorded themselves, contrary to the account given in Ms Low’s FB post.We note that in the video released by the PAP volunteer on 9 Jan 25, there was no evidence of any slapping, merely subtitles alleging so. I note that I also did not see any evidence of shirt pulling as alleged.For Ms Low to have made such serious allegations, she must have clear evidence of the alleged manhandling. She needs to make this evidence available. If any of our volunteers acted aggressively, we will take disciplinary actions. If they are accused falsely, then together we will fight the allegations all the way.
The Progress Singapore Party does not condone any form of violence, nor do we want to see our people become polarised because of politics. At the end of the day, we are all Singaporeans and we want the best for our country and fellow Singaporeans.”
Look at the part in bold. A true leader protects his followers.