Category: Politik

Meet Joan Pereira – Lee Kuan Yew’s Replacement At Tanjong Pagar GRC

One of the doyens of Lianhe Zaobao, Ho Sheo Be, scored a scoop.

In a Lianhe Zaobao article published three days ago, the senior political correspondent noticed a new face that emerged from the walkabouts at Tanjong Pagar GRC.

Joan Pereira’s her name and she is affectionately known as “Indranee’s sister” due to her height and hairstyle.

If you can recall, five-member Tanjong Pagar GRC now have four parliamentarians after the passing of founding Prime Minister Lee Kuan Yew.

Indranee told Channel NewsAsia that she “has begun assisting Mr Lee” in his ward after 2011, including his Meet-the-People sessions and his walkabouts.

Enter “Indranee’s sister” to fill in the gap.

The 47-year old former Director (Family Life & Active Ageing) at the People’s Association had been seen walking the ground with Indranee as long as a year ago.

Ho also observed that Pereira had been actively involved in the wellness programme in Tanjong Pagar GRC, encouraging the elderly to be involved in various activities.

And kudos to Ho, who even found out that Pereira has joined Temasek Cares to assist the General Manager there, heightening the expectation that the former public servant would probably be a woman in white. This is because one cannot be a public servant if he or she wants to enter politics.

According to Ho, Pereira declined comment on whether she would participate in the next General Election (GE).

Try to spot the “two Indranees” from these photos that we found from the Senior Minister of State’s Facebook page:

Test 1

Test 2

Test 3

Test 4

Source: http://mothership.sg

July 24, 2015
New SG Citizen From Malaysia Says PAP Like UMNO Now

Quote : “… How PRs from Malaysia milk our system…”

I believe the author got an agenda in the articles, by pitting ordinary Singaporeans with Malaysian.

Come on, to be fair, it is not just the Malaysians but other nationalities, like PRCs, India Indians, Pignoys, Vietnamese, Burmese who are milking the system? And who allow it in the 1st place – our useless garment?

In fact, comparing Malaysians and other nationalities, I believe Malaysians are more integrated with Singaporeans (as old Cow says so), as Singapore was formally part of Malaysia.

So, I believe it is the pap dog trying to split Singaporeans and Malaysians Chinese/Indian new citizens in the coming GE.

As you can see from fact, why did the useless garment, drawing immigration from the traditional sources like Malaysia/Indonesia up to the late 1990s; to suddenly changed tack and admit other nationalities, like PRCs, India Indians, Pignoys, Vietnamese, Burmese, in large numbers (tens of thousands) as new citizens.

Well, the white monkeys are doing the divide and rule strategy, as they are afraid of the big block of Malaysian voters voting for the opposition parties in the future; just like in Malaysia elections.

So, don’t be fooled by this article. Malaysian new citizens and ordinary Singaporeans should stay united, and vote out the useless garment (just like UMNO, practising cronyism), come the next GE, for a better Singapore.

I believe it is the Malaysian new citizens’ votes that swings the PE by-election to WP favour.

New citizen from Malaysia.

Another pap dog barking

* Comment appeared in: How PRs from Malaysia milk our system

Source: www.tremeritus.com

July 22, 2015
Elections Department Makes Changes To Polling Districts

The Elections Department has made changes to the boundaries of polling districts within several electoral divisions, adding to the anticipation of an imminent report from the Electoral Boundaries Review Committee (EBRC), which Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong has said was formed two months ago.

Details of the alterations in eight Group Representation Constituencies (GRC) were published in the online version of the Government Gazette today (July 21). These GRCs are: Chua Chu Kang, East Coast, Jurong, Moulmein-Kallang, Nee Soon, Pasir-Ris Punggol, Sembawang and Tanjong Pagar.

In response to TODAY’s queries, an Elections Department spokesperson said the boundaries of polling districts are altered to ensure an even distribution of voters across polling stations. In February this year, the Elections Department also posted a notification on alterations to polling districts.

Under the Parliamentary Elections Act, the Registration Officer may periodically alter boundaries of polling districts within electoral divisions. This is due to population shifts, such as with the mushrooming of new towns.

But the changes to the districts do not necessarily mean tweaks to electoral boundaries: The latter are only later decided by an EBRC, comprising senior civil servants. The committee can create new electoral divisions by taking one or more polling district from a constituency and putting it into another.

The committee will submit its recommendations to the Prime Minister and, if accepted, these are gazetted and published in a report — usually an imminent sign the General Election is on the way. The next polls must be held by January 2017.

The only change in today’s gazette is the addition of one polling district in East Coast GRC, making 41 in total.

As it stands, Pasir-Ris Punggol is the GRC with the highest number of polling districts (72). Holland Bukit TImah is the GRC with smallest number of polling districts (34).

For SMCs, Potong Pasir has the fewest polling districts (5), while Sengkang West has the most (16).

There has been wide variation in the window between changes made to polling districts and the release of the EBRC report.

In the last three polls, the lag has ranged roughly from three weeks to two months.

Singapore Management University law professor Eugene Tan said the latest notification is a routine step by the Elections Department and a separate exercise from the EBRC report.

“But it’s also clear that polling districts provide the EBRC with the most granular data in terms of the number of voters in a polling district, which means that if the EBRC feels there’s a need to redraw boundaries — let’s say they’re looking at maybe this particular GRC needs 5,000 more voters to make it on par with GRCs of a similar size — this is where the polling districts provide very useful information on the number of voters,” he said.

Nevertheless, he thinks the polling districts are unlikely to go through another round of changes before the next General Election is called, “which means that if they’re going to redraw boundaries, it means that particular district is unlikely to be split (between) electoral divisions”.

Source: www.todayonline.com

July 22, 2015
Selamat Hari Raya From Amos Yee

So I was awake at around 8am (It’s a miracle) and I wondered why the fuck is my mother telling me to ‘hang my clothes nicely’ at 8am, she usually does it at 9:30 at night. So I inquired on the divergence of the constant variable, and apparently, she had a weekday off (fuck), because it was Hari Raya.

Now apparently, Hari Raya comparatively to the Chinese towards Chinese New Year (At least the ones in Singapore) Hari Raya is a fucking big deal to Malays, with their meetings of extended families that reach the 100s, profuse amounts of Malay delectables (Like the Onde-Ondes I treasure),and there’s only 1-2 days of the national holiday, but you guys can extend the celebration to over a week.

However, other than the Malays,the 13.3% (~0.718067 million (2013)), or other races compelled by neighbor pressure, typically no one else gives a fuck about the festival other than the fact that there is a work/school holiday. And also seeing what I had planned to do today, watching Attack On Titan and indulging in the 1st social gathering since I’d been released from prison (Yeah it actually took that long, I’m still a loner, I’m really just leading the life of a famous hermit), I didn’t even know.

Now most people opine that the majority of prisoners in Singapore, are black, and from what I have observed(Which of course, isn’t empirically substantive), they’re right. And if they’re mostly Black, they’re mostly Malay, which means my cellmates were mostly Malay, which means that most of them, celebrated Hari Raya. And since I was in prison for 5 weeks (Or 3 weeks in prison, and 2 weeks in the worst fucking place ever), that is the only reason I’m giving a solitary shit about this festival.

Now the benefits of being in prison while Malays are fasting a month before Hari Raya, is that their desires to be generous (Does that come from fasting?) and their resolute spirit to either eat less daily or engage in a full day hardcore fast (Which unlike me, they didn’t have the assistance of a mental stimulus fueled by unrelenting thoughts of suicide) while we were transitioning a move to the yard, they’d cover the food with a travel catalog and sneak the bread into my cell, so that my buddies and I could eat it later.

My Muslim cellmates, would tell me how important the festival was to them. One of them, dictated when he wanted to reveal his crime of Awol (which is apparently really easy to pull off), based on the date of Hari Raya, because if he admits his crime early enough, he could have the chance to finish his sentence before the festive season, so he can celebrate it with his children and family.

One of my fellas at IMH, who was intended to be discharged during Hari Raya, (and then subsequently be sent back after it was over, in the eyes of the family, there’s somehow an exception for tolerance to mental hysteria during Hari Raya) made the highly compelling argument that he was obligated to be released earlier, because he had to attain a suitable Hari Raya Baju.

Now, due to genetics or food (Probably the latter), he’s really fucking fat, and shops in Geylang Serai do not have shirts of sizes up to 3XL, and the man was measured to need 5, so if he wants the Malay shirt, it has to be tailor-made, and since he was probably released only like a day or two before, he probably won’t be able to get it. I hope he doesn’t have to celebrate Hari Raya nude, Muhammad wouldn’t like that, which is unfortunate for Australian Muslims.

So as I was in prison, frequently exposed to my Malay buddies’ love and desires to celebrate Hari Raya, I recalled that quote from Roger Ebert, which I can’t seem to remember and fucking find, so somebody if they can, please identify it and write it down on the comments section, but he said something along the lines of, there’s always something fascinating from the things that people derive great joy from. And thus from there, I too, started to develop a liking (Just a little), of this festival, of Hari Raya.

And this shows that even if initially you don’t give a solitary shit about something, if you take the chance to open your mind(or be obligated to due to boredom in Prison) from other people’s different passions and hobbies, you can develop an interest to those yourself, or at least, enough to write a Facebook post about.
And as I wander the world rife with fans of Twilight, Transformers, Justin Bieber and fucking K-pop, I resolve that though I might disagree with their preferences, and interests and tastes in general, I sure as hell won’t say that mine is somehow better, unless of course it concerns the existence of God, in which case, it’s pretty definitive.

And for all my Muslim pals who are unfortunate enough to have to be in prison during Hari Raya, because once I went out from prison, I heard from their family members that instead of backdating their months in remand, they were instead sentenced to RTC. It feels absolutely horrible I know, even more so when you can’t even see the message I’m writing that’s directed to you, it’s quite futile on my part I know. Do be assured, that for most cordial Malay families, they’re probably hoping that you’re doing well in prison, or gossiping and viciously lambasting you for committing a crime, either way, they’re thinking about you, which means you’re more important than the family member who attends the festive gathering, only to then sit quietly in the corner of the house, attempting to hide his complete inability to talk to people by flipping back and forth, the windows on his phone (That was me, it was fucking depressing) .

So fellow Malay friends, as I stay confined in my room staring at blood-spilled gore bursting from the entrails of exploding Titans, I’m glad people outside are experiencing the pleasures of social activities and food that took more than 5 minutes to prepare.
Happy Hari Raya. I hope you enjoy it.

Source: https://amosyee.wordpress.com

July 21, 2015
Opposition Cries Foul, Calls For More Lead Time Before Polls

Despite the prospects of a major redrawing of electoral boundaries and the short reaction time should the General Election (GE) be called as early as September, opposition parties said yesterday (July 13) they were confident their preparations would not be derailed.

Nevertheless, some of them cried foul that Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong had kept the formation of the electoral boundaries review committee under wraps for the last two months, and called on him to ensure that there is sufficient time lag between the release of the committee’s report and the dissolution of Parliament.

On its website, the Singapore Democratic Party called on Mr Lee to “ensure that at least two months are given from the time of the announcement of the new boundaries to the dissolution of Parliament”.

“It is shocking that Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong chose not to announce the Electoral Boundaries Review Committee when he appointed it two months ago,” it said.

Mr Goh Meng Seng, founder of newly registered People’s Power Party, added: “It’s not fair to us … After the report is out, at least give about two to three months, then we can have a good showing.”

The Republic’s first two Prime Ministers, Mr Lee Kuan Yew and Mr Goh Chok Tong, had opted not to announce the formation of the committee. Apart from the latest instance, PM Lee, who took office in 2004, had also made public the setting up of the committee in the last two GEs in 2006 and 2011.

Responding to TODAY’s queries after yesterday’s Parliament session, Workers’ Party (WP) Non-Constituency Member of Parliament (NCMP) Yee Jenn Jong said his party believes the process of setting up the committee should be “automatic and transparent”.

“It will make (for) a fairer democratic system if the review of electoral boundaries is based on a known timeline, independent of when elections will be held,” he said.

WP also reiterated its call for a period of at least six to 12 months between any changes to the electoral boundaries and Nomination Day.

National Solidarity Party president Sebastian Teo said that should the GE be held in September, as some analysts had predicted, opposition parties would be at a disadvantage.

“We will have a shorter time to plan which areas to focus on and to study the formations of the Group Representation Constituencies (GRCs),” said Mr Teo, adding that his party had begun outreach efforts since the end of last year.

Singaporeans First chairman Ang Yong Guan noted that any drastic changes to the electoral boundaries could also hurt the People’s Action Party.

“All the goodwill and effort made by the existing MP will also be lost,” he said, adding that “we are always mindful that the GRCs may change, it’s never cast in stone”.

Similarly, Democratic Progressive Party secretary-general Benjamin Pwee said his party would take the changes in its stride, and redeploy its candidates accordingly.

“As long as the number of GRCs do not change significantly, we are not likely to see drastic changes to the boundaries,” he said.

Singapore Democratic Alliance chairman Desmond Lim said his party members would continue working the ground at Pasir Ris-Punggol GRC. If the constituency’s size is reduced, the party would adjust accordingly, he said.

Reform Party chairman Andy Zhu noted that any redrawing of the boundaries would not severely jeopardise his party’s plan.

On the outcome of the committee’s report, the party is adopting a wait-and-see attitude, he said.

The opposition parties reiterated their call to abolish the GRC system, which has been in place since the 1988 GE. Mr Pwee said: “What we would like to see, is fewer GRCs, and more SMCs, where electoral candidates get voted into Parliament on the basis of their own individual credibility.”

Dr Ang said the GRC system allows weaker candidates to ride on the coattails of stronger team members.

A one-to-one contest is more ideal, as voters can better assess the strengths and weaknesses of each candidate, he said.

Source: www.todayonline.com

July 14, 2015