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Gilbert Goh: PAP’s Main Motive For Suing WP’s Three MPs Probably To Stop Them From Standing For Next General Election

Let’s support the Workers’ Party as the PAP seeks to destroy and bring down the opposition party here. They can’t unfortunately ownself clear ownself like our PM did three weeks ago in Parliament.

The PM’s own ward Ang Mo Kio Town Council also faced similar alleged corruption but the case was easily settled out of the public scrutiny when the town council general manager was relieved of his duties last year and dismissed without implicating the MPs.

Its also a important distraction tactic as the government faces a host of its own problems involving the PM’s own abuse of power allegation by his two siblings which he has cleared himself in Parliament and the Malay-only Presidential Election.

The PE which will take place in September has hurt the feelings of alot of our Singaporean Malays and put the government on a back-foot for the past few weeks as it struggles to properly address the racial legality of their preferred Indian-Muslim candidate Halimah.

As for the lawsuit against the three WP main figures, if it involves corruption, the goverment should bring in the CPIB to investigate WP but it has instead threw the legal law book at the opposition party which will give the issue wider smear publicity.

By appointing Philip Jeyeretnam son of WP’s founder father JB Jeyeretnam to preside over the case, it has also stir up much sentiments against the former founder’s son who now works for the government.

Its vintage PAP’s distraction technique at its best to sue the WP now when the government has also faced many Accounting-General Office’s official complaints for the past 3 years into financial irregularities for many of its own statutory boards and civil services.

Nothing is believed to have being done to properly investigate and clear the irregularities as the same financial problem is being re-flagged the next year. Should we not also sue the government for improper handling of our millions of taxpayer money?

If the WP’s three MPs are found guilty by our court system, they are likely to be heavily fined and may not be able to stand for the next general election – probably the PAP’s main motive for suing them now.

Let us support WP for the sake of our opposition cause!

Source: Gilbert Goh

July 26, 2017
(Press Release) WP Town Councillors Acted In Good Faith And Best Interests Of Residents, Will Contest Lawsuit

WP TOWN COUNCILLORS ACTED IN GOOD FAITH AND BEST INTERESTS OF RESIDENTS, WILL CONTEST LAWSUIT

1. We confirm that we have received the Statement of Claim filed by the Aljunied-Hougang Town Council against us individually.

1. We confirm that we have received the Statement of Claim filed by the Aljunied-Hougang Town Council against us individually.

2. We have engaged M/s Tan Rajah and Cheah to defend the claim for the 1st to 5th Defendants.

3. In the suit against us, amongst other things, it is alleged that:

(a) We have acted in breach of our fiduciary duties and duties of care and skill owed to AHTC.

(b) We set up a faulty system which allowed the appointment of FMSS and made it possible for FMSS and/or their officers to benefit themselves.

(c) We entered into contracts with architects in breach of duties owed to AHTC.

4. Our reply to all these allegations is NO.

5. We are taking legal advice and will contest the lawsuit and lay out our case vigorously in court.

6. We wish to make the following points:

(a) Low Thia Khiang and Sylvia Lim have been asked to give an account of profits made from the appointment of FMSS or pay damages not less than $1.25 million. We have not benefitted a single cent.

(b) Sylvia Lim and Pritam Singh have been asked to pay damages of $2.8 million for the wrongful appointment of architects.

(c) The WP MPs have acted in good faith and in the best interests of the Town Council and our residents.

(d) In the course of these proceedings, we will be furnishing more information so that all concerned will be clearer on the issues and why we made the decisions and acted as we did.

Low Thia Khiang
Sylvia Lim
Pritam Singh

26 July 2017

Source: http://www.wp.sg/

July 26, 2017
Aljunied-Hougang Town Council Takes Legal Action Against WP Town Councillors Over Past Payment

Aljunied-Hougang Town Council (AHTC), which had appointed an independent panel to help recover improper payments, is taking several of its town councillors to court.

They include Workers’ Party (WP) chief Low Thia Khiang; the town council’s chairman, Mr Pritam Singh; and its vice-chairman, Ms Sylvia Lim.

The Straits Times understands that the legal action was initiated as part of the work of a panel tasked with looking into improper payments made by AHTC.

Ms Lim confirmed that the three WP MPs were served with a statement of claim against them by AHTC on Tuesday (July 25) evening.

“We will respond further shortly, after we have studied the claim,” she told ST.

The independent panel has the power to commence legal action on behalf of the town council for overpayments and payments without proper certification of work being done, among others. This can include mediation, arbitration and other court proceedings.

The panel’s other powers include making demands and coming to settlements on behalf of AHTC.

The Housing Board had asked AHTC to appoint a third party to recover the improper payments made from town council funds.

The independent panel appointed in February is chaired by senior counsel Philip Jeyaretnam, and comprises senior counsel N. Sreenivasan and KPMG managing partner Ong Pang Thye.

A pre-trial conference date of Aug 31 has been listed.

Besides this case, AHTC also filed another writ of summons in the High Court against FMSS last Friday.

This was in relation to an arbitration case over a financial dispute emerging from the lapses at the town council.

Source: www.straitstimes.com

July 26, 2017
WP MP Faisal Manap Brought Up Aspirations Of Muslim Women In Singapore

The Singapore Parliament was speaking about the aspirations of the Singapore Women.

WP MP Faisal Manap brought up the aspirations of the Singapore Muslim women.

He highlighted the importance of inclusiveness for Muslim women which would allow them to fulfill their career aspirations while meeting religious obligations (i.e. to wear the tudung at work)

It was a fair point, except that he seems to needle these ‘Malay-Muslim’ issues consistently every chance he gets – a point, which Minister Masagos highlighted.

In 2014, he called for the formation of a committee to tackle issues faced by the Malay-Muslim community because participants felt left out in certain policies and practices that “question the loyalty of Malays to the country”.

In 2015 and 2016, he called for inclusion of Malay officers on Navy Ships and other sensitive positions in the Military

As the only Malay Opposition member, he had every right to bring this up in parliament. After all, as a politician, he has to work to keep up his political mileage with his Malay voters.

But why is he constantly harping on this issue whenever he talks about the Malay Community?

What about other equally important and challenging issues that the Malay community is currently facing?

What about Malay entrepreneurship, upskilling of the Malay community, Malay home ownership. The Malay community significantly lags behind other races in education, health and housing and is over-represented in crime, drugs and prison statistics.

Are these issues not worth championing for, in parliament?

What good will it do for the community if they can wear the tudung on the front line, but struggles to keep pace with the rest of the races in our society.

How different is this from the political party, PAS, in Malaysia, who pushed for Hudud laws every election, organised rallies for thousands of people, championed laws prohibiting the proximity between men and women but conveniently ignored other pertinent social issues in their community such as education and standard of living.

Singapore cannot be successful and Singaporeans cannot be happy if there is any section of the population which is not doing well.

Because we are such a small population – we breathe and live each other’s air. If that under-performance is defined by race or religion, it will even be starker.

As much as we want our brothers and sisters to be able to fulfil their religious obligations, it is in our national interest, to make sure that everybody succeeds and that the under-performance is not defined by race and religion.

You want to push for the tudung issue, sure.

Make sure you champion other cases as well. Otherwise, you are nit-picking on popular issues and not really looking out for the Malay community.

Source: www.thoughtssg.com

April 6, 2017
WP Takes Backhanded Swipe At Minister Shanmugam’s Comments On Town Council Affairs

The Law and Home Affairs Minister, K Shanmugam, in speaking on the the investigation of the General Manager of Ang Mo Kio Town Council (AMKTC) by the Corrupt Practices Investigation Bureau (CPIB) contrasted the approaches of PAP-run town council with the one run by Workers’ Party (WP). WP’s then-Aljunied-Hougang-Punggol East Town Council, has been under scrutiny for its relationship between its former managing agent FM Solutions and Services (FMSS) and Essential Maintenance Service Unit (EMSU) contractor FM Solutions and Integrated Services (FMSI).

Mr Shanmugam alleged that unlike the PAP-run town council, the Workers’ Party-run town council has not been transparent with the general public.

The Workers’ Party in responding to Mr Shanmugam’s harsh criticisms of its town council management said that “since CPIB is investigating the AMKTC case, we should let due process take its course and not jump to conclusions.”

In its statement, WP pointed out that when their auditors released the report on AHTC in July 2016, “some people jumped prematurely on the possibility of fraud and fictitious payments without waiting for the results of the audit.”

Their auditor, KPMG, had said in the July 2016 report that the use of this “highly irregular shortcut” made it “practically impossible” to have effective oversight of these transactions.

They added: “Such large-scale use of this practice raises questions about the management of AHTC’s finance function. Consequently, it is easier for duplicate payments or fictitious payments to be made without being detected.”

Mr Shanmugam had then taken issue with the manner the WP announced the lapses highlighted by its auditors. In a Facebook post, the Minister said KPMG’s report underlined that “AHTC’s leadership has neither upheld nor enforced integrity and ethical values”.

“The rot is at the top,” he added. “This should come as no surprise. The High Court and the Court of Appeal have already criticised Ms Sylvia Lim and Mr Pritam Singh for suppressing the truth (designed to mislead) both in Parliament and in Court. To them, the truth is a tradable commodity.”

Aljunied-Hougang Town Council subsequently ordered a 100% check on the $60m direct journal entry and dummy code issues.

WP’s unsigned statement today said, “when no fraud and fictitious payments were found, the speculators kept quiet.”

The statement further said: “Premature speculation, especially when done by influential people, may pervert the course of justice by shaping investigations. So let’s wait for the findings of the CPIB on the AMKTC case and let the law take its course.”

Source: http://theindependent.sg

January 7, 2017

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