The heated “10 million population” debate will likely rage on until the 2020 general election is over, and crop up again before the next election.
It’s a classic he said, she said argument, with PAP saying they never proposed such a thing and opposition parties adamant that it did.
What has angered the PAP is that some parties are continuing to propagate this claim, namely Singapore Democratic Party (SDP) chief Dr Chee Soon Juan.
PAP released a statement recently in response to Dr Chee’s ‘falsehood’, but they may not have chosen the best words to express their sentiments.
Or to be more specific, the best analogy.
A Problematic Analogy
In a statement on Friday (3 July), PAP accused Dr Chee and the SDP of digging their heels in repeating the ‘false statement’ that the ruling party plan to increase the population to 10 million.
You can probably see the problem here.
PAP compared domestic abuse allegations to Dr Chee’s claims about PAP’s proposed population policy.
In its statement, PAP wrote: “A simple analogy will explain Dr Chee’s mendacity.
“Imagine this. Dr Chee claims you said you want to beat up your spouse. You deny it, and show proof that you neither said this nor have beaten your spouse.
“Instead of apologising, Dr Chee says: ‘Victory! I extracted a promise from you that you will never beat your spouse.'”
According to AsiaOne, the domestic violence analogy has prompted many concerned residents to reach out to Aware, a gender equality advocacy group.
Aware’s Response
In response, Aware said the analogy is “regrettable”, and that it’s “insensitive to apply imagery of spousal violence to situations that have nothing to do with it.”
“Domestic violence is a serious and devastating issue for many in Singapore, and millions more around the world. It is not something to be invoked lightly — especially not during the Covid-19 pandemic, when domestic violence has seen a sharp increase.”
This may seem like a clumsy choice of analogy to you, but it could have an unintended, serious consequence.
As Aware says, domestic violence is under-reported and many victims suffer in silence. By equating allegations of domestic violence with a supposed “falsehood’, it may reinforce the “myth that false allegations of abuse are common”.
“This myth is one of the barriers that deter survivors from coming forward about their experiences,” Aware said.
The gender equality advocacy group called upon political candidates to be “mindful and responsible in their communications throughout this election”.
A Loaded Question
According to one user on Reddit, PAP used this analogy because they were accusing Dr Chee of using a loaded question.
A loaded question is a question that contains a controversial assumption, such as a presumption of guilt.
The traditional example of this question is “Have you stopped beating your wife?.
Whether you answer yes or no, you will admit to abusing your spouse or having abused her at some time in the past.
PAP compared Dr Chee’s claim to a loaded question, because if PAP denies having made the population proposal, Dr Chee can say that his party has “achieved victory” to put a halt to such plans.
PAP has yet to respond to Aware’s statement. It’ll be interesting to see what they have to say.
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