Category: Politik

Shamsul Kamar Bukan Muka Baru Di Kaki Bukit

Berita Encik Shamsul Kamar sebagai pengganti Encik Kahar Hassan selaku Pengerusi Parti Tindakan Rakyat (PAP) cawangan Kaki Bukit mungkin satu kejutan bagi sesetengah pemerhati.

Namun, pemimpin akar umbi memberitahu Berita Harian (BH) bahawa penglibatan Encik Shamsul, 43 tahun, dalam kerja-kerja akar umbi di kawasan undi tersebut bukan baru.

Beberapa aktivis akar umbi Kaki Bukit berkata mereka telah lama bekerjasama dengan Encik Shamsul – ketua jabatan bagi pengurusan pelajar di Sekolah Menengah Spectra yang telah meletak jawatan.

Beliau dijangka terus berkhidmat di sekolah khusus untuk pelajar Normal (Teknikal) itu sehingga 21 Ogos ini.

Salah seorang daripada aktivis itu yang hanya ingin dikenali sebagai Cik Saadiah, 47 tahun, berkata beliau mengenali Encik Shamsul semasa Profesor Madya Muhammad Faishal Ibrahim merupakan Anggota Parlimen (AP) di GRC Marine Parade (Kaki Bukit) antara 2006 dengan 2011.

“Kami sama-sama aktif dalam sesi bertemu penduduk.

“Encik Shamsul merupakan orang yang banyak membimbing kami tentang cara menghasilkan surat permohonan penduduk kepada pelbagai agensi pemerintah.

“Secara peribadi, beliau mudah dihampiri dan akan hulurkan bantuan apabila diperlukan,” kata kakitangan dalam industri perkhidmatan sosial itu.

Seorang lagi aktivis, Encik Mohd Yahya Zakaria, yang telah berkhidmat dalam kerja-kerja akar umbi sejak lebih 30 tahun lalu berharap Encik Shamsul sudah pun dikenali sebahagian penduduk.

“Saya yakin sekiranya beliau diberi sedikit lagi masa untuk bermesra dengan penduduk, beliau boleh membuktikan kemampuannya,” katanya.

Encik Shamsul telah dilantik sebagai Pengerusi Parti Tindakan Rakyat (PAP) cawangan Kaki Bukit, menggantikan Encik Kahar Hassan yang mengundur diri akhir bulan lalu.

Sabtu lalu, mantan Anggota Parlimen (AP) dan menteri kabinet, Encik Lim Boon Heng, mengumumkan demikian selepas mesyuarat dengan akar umbinya di Pusat Perkhidmatan Keluarga Thye Hua Kwan.

Encik Lim memberitahu pemberita bahawa keputusan mengeluarkan Encik Kahar “bukanlah sebab beliau telah melakukan sebarang jenayah atau skandal.”

Semasa dihubungi, Encik Shamsul berkata masanya belum sesuai baginya membuat sebarang kenyataan.

Tambahan lagi, beliau masih berkhidmat dengan perkhidmatan awam.

Difahamkan Encik Shamsul kini mencurahkan khidmat sebagai pemimpin akar umbi di kawasan undi Kaki Bukit.

Source; http://beritaharian.sg

August 5, 2015
Halimah Yacob Akan Bertanding Di Marsiling-Yew Tee GRC

Speaker Parlimen Cik Halimah Yacob akan berpindah ke Kawasan Undi Perwakilan Kumpulan (GRC) Marsiling-Yew Tee dan menerajui divisyen Marsiling di kawasan undi baru itu sebagai persiapan bagi pilihan raya umum akan datang.

Pemindahan Cik Halimah, yang sebelum ini memimpin kawasan undi Bukit Batok East dalam GRC Jurong, disahkan oleh pemimpin akar umbi dan aktivis parti kepada Berita Harian (BH).

Menurut salah seorang daripada mereka, yang enggan namanya disiarkan, Cik Halimah telah membuat pengumuman tersebut kepada pemimpin akar umbinya di Bukit Batok.

Cik Halimah juga telah menghadiri acara sambutan Hari Raya Marsiling di Kelab Masyarakat Fuchun hujung minggu lalu. Acara tersebut dihoskan Setiauasaha Parlimen Kanan (Pendidikan merangkap Tenaga Manusia) Encik Hawazi Daipi, yang kini memimpin kawasan undi tersebut.

Dalam pada itu, Menteri Kanan Emeritus Goh Chok Tong, yang telah menjadi Anggota Parlimen GRC Marine Parade sejak 1976, berkata beliau besar kemungkinan akan bertanding dalam pilihan raya akan datang.

Dalam catatannya di laman Facebook Marine Parade, beliau turut mendedahkan senarai calon Parti Tindakan Rakyat (PAP) dalam GRC lima-anggota itu yang akan bertanding dalam pilihan raya, termasuk AP Melayu/Islam Profesor Madya Fatimah Lateef.

Sementara itu, di kawasan undi Bukit Batok East, tempat Cik Halimah, dijangka diisi pendatang baru, Cik Rahayu Mahzam, 35 tahun, yang telah meninggalkan jawatannya dalam perkhidmatan awam selaku timbalan pendaftar bersama Mahkamah Syariah.

Sejak kebelakangan ini, beberapa pegawai perkhidmatan awam telah meninggalkan jawatan mereka. Terkini Setiausaha Tetap Kedua (Perdagangan dan Perusahaan), Encik Chee Hong Tat telah meletakkan jawatan, sekali gus mencetus spekulasi beliau akan ditampilkan dalam pilihan raya akan datang.

Menurut kenyataan Divisyen Perkhidmatan Awam di Pejabat Perdana Menteri semalam, tarikh akhir khidmat Encik Chee dalam perkhidmatan awam ialah pada 11 Ogos. Sebelum ini Encik Chee sering dilihat menghadiri acara kemasyarakatan di GRC Bishan-Toa Payoh.

Dihubungi BH, Encik Chee enggan mengulas spekulasi itu namun berkata beliau berharap dapat diberi peluang untuk berkhidmat.

Sebelum ini, pegawai polis kanan, Encik Melvin Yong, 43 tahun, yang aktif di kawasan undi Punggol North, telah meletak jawatan.

Pegawai perkhidmatan awam dikehendaki meletakkan jawatan sebelum mereka menyertai politik dan lazimnya merupakan muka baru yang diperkenalkan oleh parti politik.

Dalam pada itu, ketika dihubungi, Cik Halimah enggan mengulas meskipun tidak menyangkal berita tersebut.

“Pergerakan calon itu adalah keputusan parti dan sesuatu yang biasa. Di mana saja saya disuruh berkhidmat untuk rakyat, saya akan berusaha sedaya upaya,” ujar beliau.

Cik Halimah, 61 tahun, yang menjadi AP pada 2001, akan menyertai Menteri Kebudayaan, Kemasyarakatan dan Belia, Encik Lawrence Wong, yang telah mengumumkan akan berpindah ke GRC Marsiling-Yew Tee dari GRC West Coast.

GRC tersebut turut merangkumi sebahagian daripada GRC Sembawang dan GRC Chua Chu Kang yang dipimpin Encik Alex Yam dan Encik Ong Teng Koon. Kededuanya telah melahirkan harapan agar dapat terus berkhidmat di kawasan undi masing-masing.

GRC Marsiling-Yew Tee mempuyai sekitar 107,527 pengundi dengan kawasan undi Marsiling didiami sekitar 30,000 penduduk, 27 peratus daripada mereka merupakan penduduk Melayu. Perangkaan itu lebih tinggi daripada purata nasional.

Marsiling juga mempunyai jumlah penduduk berendapatan rendah yang ramai, dengan sekitar 1,000 unit flat sewa dan hampir sepertiga daripada blok di situ merupakan flat tiga bilik.

Pemindahan Cik Halimah ke kawasan undi Marsiling bermakna Encik Hawazi dijangka berundur pada pilihan raya akan datang. Encik Hawazi, 61 tahun, dilantik AP dan berkhidmat di GRC Sembawag sejak 1996.

Source: http://beritaharian.sg

August 5, 2015
Senior Civil Servant Resigns, Hints At Entering Politics

The Second Permanent Secretary in the Ministry of Trade and Industry (MTI), Mr Chee Hong Tat, has indicated that he is leaving the civil service to enter politics in the coming general election.

The 41-year-old, whose resignation was announced yesterday, told The Straits Times: “I hope to have the opportunity to continue serving Singapore and Singaporeans.”

In response to whether he was leaving to enter politics, he said that he enjoyed public sector work. “I find it is very meaningful.”

The Public Service Division, in announcing his departure, said his last day of work is Aug 11.

Public servants are required to resign before they can enter politics, so they are traditionally the last to be unveiled as election candidates by political parties.

The announcement of Mr Chee’s exit from the civil service came ahead of a meeting of People’s Action Party (PAP) branch secretaries from across the island at the party headquarters in Bedok last night.

Though they meet regularly, sources told The Straits Times that last night’s meeting had a decidedly election feel.

For example, the branch secretaries – the men and women who run ground operations in the PAP’s 87 branches – were told by party leaders to “expect momentum to pick up after National Day”.

They were urged to ensure that logistics, like activists’ roles during the campaign period, are settled soon. The branch secretaries also discussed where opposition parties had been sighted, and potential problems that could arise during the campaign.

One branch secretary, for example, feared that his team may suffer burnout before the polls take place, as they have been in “election mode” for a while.

The ruling party looks to be in the final stages of electoral preparation, with Mr Chee likely to be the last of its public sector candidates to tender his resignation.

The others include Ms Rahayu Mahzam, 35, the outgoing deputy registrar of the Syariah Court, and teacher Shamsul Kamar, 43, who is also serving out his notice period.

Another high-flier likely to enter politics is Chief of Defence Force, Lieutenant-General Ng Chee Meng, 47, who announced last Friday that he will retire from the Singapore Armed Forces on Aug 18.

Mr Chee has recently been attending community events with Bishan- Toa Payoh GRC MP Hri Kumar Nair, who is expected to retire from politics at the next polls.

An officer of the elite Administrative Service since 1998, Mr Chee graduated from the University of California at Berkeley with degrees in electrical engineering and computer science as well as in economics. He has held various appointments in such ministries as Home Affairs, Finance, Transport and Education.

He was Mr Lee Kuan Yew’s principal private secretary in 2008 when the late founding Prime Minister was Minister Mentor. He was also chief executive of the Energy Market Authority (EMA) from 2011 to April this year.

Mr Chee was appointed Second Permanent Secretary at the Trade and Industry Ministry last year.

His responsibilities included international trade policies, tourism, competition policy, entrepreneurship and enterprise development.

The Public Service Division said he was active in promoting a business-friendly environment and helping small and medium-sized enterprises, or SMEs, to raise their competitiveness through innovation, market access and developing their capability.

Source: www.straitstimes.com

August 5, 2015
WP, NSP In Heated Wrangle Over 3 Constituencies

A day after opposition leaders emerged all smiles from a three-hour meeting and declared that most potential multi-cornered fights had been resolved, it emerged yesterday that discussions were dominated by a heated tussle between the Workers’ Party (WP) and the National Solidarity Party (NSP) over Marine Parade Group Representation Constituency (GRC), Jalan Besar GRC and the MacPherson single-seat ward.

At one point, an NSP representative even threatened to send a team to contest in Aljunied GRC — which is held by the WP — if the WP refused to back down, sources who attended the closed-door meeting at the NSP’s Jalan Besar headquarters told TODAY.

The sources, who declined to be identified as the parties had agreed on keeping the discussions confidential, said the WP stood firm on its decision to send a team to contest Marine Parade GRC, where the NSP had lost in the 2011 General Election despite garnering 43.4 per cent of the votes.

The NSP had asked for the WP to withdraw its interest in Jalan Besar GRC, in return for the NSP to give up contesting Marine Parade GRC. The WP said no. There was also no room for negotiation on MacPherson Single-Member Constituency (SMC), which the NSP is also eyeing, the sources added. They said the WP maintained that it will not budge on the five GRCs (Aljunied, East Coast, Marine Parade, Nee Soon, Jalan Besar) and five SMCs (Hougang, Punggol East, Fengshan, MacPherson and Sengkang West) which it had declared its interest in, following the release of the electoral boundaries report last month.

Yesterday, both the WP and NSP conducted house visits in Serangoon Central — which falls under Marine Parade GRC — with the two entourages only hundreds of metres away from each other.

WP Non-Constituency MP Yee Jenn Jong, who is likely to lead the WP’s team in Marine Parade GRC, told TODAY that his party’s position on the GRC is “firm”. The NSP declined comment, referring to the ongoing discussions that will resume tomorrow.

In the 2011 GE, Mr Yee had contested and lost narrowly in Joo Chiat SMC, which has been absorbed into Marine Parade GRC for the coming elections. Mr Yee said that apart from continuing to walk the ground in Joo Chiat after the GE, he had also started outreach efforts in the rest of the Marine Parade GRC area since “more than a year ago”.

Apart from Mr Yee, WP potential candidate Terence Tan, 44, was also spotted at the party’s house visits in Serangoon Central.

Mr Tan, who was one of the speakers at a WP rally in the Punggol East by-election in 2013, is a lawyer. He is on the legal team representing the Aljunied-Hougang-Punggol East (AHPETC) Town Council in the ongoing court case against the Ministry of National Development. The ministry is appealing against a High Court’s refusal to appoint independent accountants to oversee government grants to the AHPETC.

For the NSP, central executive committee members Steve Chia and Spencer Ng were among party members and supporters canvassing support in Serangoon Central, several blocks of flats away from the WP group.

Political analyst Eugene Tan noted the guiding principle among some in the opposition circles that a party that had contested in a ward would have “the first right to contest there”. “The WP, however, has never explicitly agreed to that,” said the Singapore Management University law don.

While the WP could be seen by the NSP as butting into Marine Parade GRC, “voters may not necessarily see the WP as a bully if it were to contest in both MacPherson and Marine Parade”, said Associate Professor Tan. “They are likely to subscribe (to the belief) that voters should be able to vote for the best candidates from the opposition, rather than having opposition candidates foisted on them as a result of a political compromise.”

Assoc Prof Tan noted the absence of WP leaders Low Thia Khiang and Sylvia Lim from the horse-trading talks on Monday. On the WP’s firm stance on where it would be contesting, he said: “It’s effectively saying that other opposition parties going into a multi-cornered electoral contest with it (and the People’s Action Party) are doing so at their own risk.”

National University of Singapore political scientist Bilveer Singh felt that the NSP has “strong grounds” to contest in Marine Parade GRC and MacPherson SMC. “What happens when two rationalities clash? In politics you give and take, something the Opposition is not good at in Singapore so far,” he said.

He felt that opposition parties such as WP and NSP have “already put the cart before the horse and that is going to make horse trading next to impossible”. “Whenever the (opposition) parties clash among themselves, simple logic tells you that it will benefit the incumbent, the PAP in this case. The key to the game is reaching a consensus on where each party should contest.”

Source: www.todayonline.com

August 5, 2015
SingFirst’s Latest Plans Create Crowded Field In 3 GRCs

Following the talks among the opposition parties on Monday, the Singaporeans First (SingFirst) party said yesterday it has made substantial changes to its plans, potentially giving rise to more complicated negotiations at the second round of horse-trading talks tomorrow.

Of the four Group Representation Constituencies (GRCs) it had expressed an interest in, it will relinquish Marine Parade and Pasir Ris-Punggol. But it is now casting its eyes on three new constituencies, SingFirst secretary-general Tan Jee Say told TODAY.

“We are discussing about Jurong, West Coast and Holland-Bukit Timah … We will probably not end up with all, but we’re now negotiating,” he said.

Tanjong Pagar GRC, one of its original targets, is off the negotiating table too, said Mr Tan, although he will listen to an idea mooted by the Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) to send a joint team there. Tampines is the remaining GRC SingFirst had staked its claim on, alongside the National Solidarity Party (NSP) — the People’s Power Party has since backed out.

With these changes, SingFirst has, for the moment, cleared a multi-way fight in one constituency, but created a crowded field in three others.

Its exit sets the stage for the Singapore Democratic Alliance to go head-to-head with the incumbent People’s Action Party in Pasir Ris-Punggol. Marine Parade, however, is still being claimed by the Workers’ Party and the NSP. For the new GRCs SingFirst is aiming for: The NSP has staked its claim on Jurong, the Reform Party (RP) on West Coast, and the Singapore Democratic Party on Holland-Bukit Timah.

Asked about the likelihood that SingFirst and DPP would field a joint team in Tanjong Pagar GRC, Mr Tan said it was an initiative from DPP that has yet to come up with a proposal.

“It’s always good to consider somebody’s offer … but we have a complete team (for the GRC) … so we have to see what they have in mind,” he said.

Meanwhile, RP chairman Andy Zhu said the party will stand its ground in wards it had contested in the 2011 General Election, such as Ang Mo Kio and West Coast GRCs, as well as the Radin Mas single seat. RP is also interested in Jurong GRC, which has absorbed the Clementi ward it had fought in.

Mr Zhu said the party will not hold bilateral meetings ahead of tomorrow’s meeting of opposition parties, so any resolution of issues or compromises to be struck will only be discussed then.

Source: www.todayonline.com

August 5, 2015