Category: Politik

Tharman Shanmugaratnam: I Won’t Be PM Unless They Forced Me To

In a public forum about what lies ahead of Singapore at the SG50+ Conference held by the Institute of Policy Studies, Deputy Prime Minister and Finance Minister Tharman Shamugaratnam unreservedly said that he will not be the next Prime Minister unless the ruling PAP Government forced him to. DPM Tharman said that he is neither interested in the PM role nor believe he is suitable for it:

“Let me put it this way, we all have our preferences. And I was always, in sports, a centre half rather than centre forward. I enjoy playing half back and making the long passes, but I am not the striker.

Unless I am forced to be, and I don’t think I will be forced to it, because I think we have got choices. It is not bad that we think so hard about succession, and we don’t always get it the way we expect it to be, but we think very hard about succession in Singapore.”

The forum host, CNN journalist Dr Fareed Zakaria, also asked DPM Tharman if Singapore will get to see a non-Chinese Prime Minister one day, of which DPM Tharman became politically-correct and ambiguously said “it is just a matter of time”.

The issue on a non-Chinese Prime Minister has previously surfaced to the Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong where he said it will not happen any time soon and that Singaporeans are not yet “totally race-blind and religion-blind”:

“Will it happen soon? I don’t think so, because you have to win votes. And these sentiments – who votes for whom,and what makes him identify with that person – these are sentiments which will not disappear completely for a long time, even if people do not talk about it, even if people wish they did not feel it.

…attitudes towards race had shifted in the last two to three decades as English provided more of a common ground, but said to get to “a position where everyone is totally race-blind and religion-blind, I think that is very difficult. You will not find it in any country in the world.”

The Singapore Government has sparked heavy criticisms over the positions of the family and friends of the first PM Lee Kuan Yew. His eldest son, Lee Hsien Loong, became Singapore’s PM in 2004 and even until today, most people remains unconvinced Lee Hsien Loong attained his PM role without the help of his father. Lee Hsien Loong’s leadership has faced much criticisms as the PM leadership inherited the controversial aspect of his father’s (i.e. restriction of free speech), but none of the economic and social progress Singaporeans enjoyed during his father’s days. Lee Hsien Loong has been PM for the past 11 years, but unlike a real democracy, there is no legislated limit on the number of years he can be Prime Minister.

Source:http://statestimesreview.com

July 4, 2015
Davinder Singh: Roy Ngerng Used Foreign Organisations To Pressure The Courts

Blogger Roy Ngerng used foreign organisations to put pressure on the Courts, Senior Counsel Davinder Singh – acting on behalf of Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong – asserted on Friday (Jul 3), the final day of a hearing to assess the amount of damages has to pay Mr Lee for defaming him by alleging the misappropriation of CPF funds.

He cited two letters that Roy Ngerng had submitted to the Supreme Court. One is from the International Commission of Jurists, a human rights non-governmental organization based in Switzerland. The other is from the Centre for International Law, a human rights group based in the Philippines.

“You used these foreign organisations to suggest to this court that if it were to award high damages it would run afoul of international human rights law, it would be generating an atmosphere of intimidation and would be a form of judicial harassment,” Mr Singh said. Mr Singh added that Mr Ngerng was also suggesting that if the court were to award damages, it would be “denying” the right of freedom to expression or “impairing” it.

In response, Justice Lee Sieu Kin, who is presiding over the proceedings, stressed that he does not feel any pressure from external parties.

Mr Singh also said the 34-year-old blogger was not being truthful to the court. For example, the blogger had sent emails regarding the takedown of his blogpost to 82 journalists’ email addresses, instead of the claimed 52, said Mr Singh.

The lawyer also said that at the time of the incident, the blog homepage – where posts could be read in full – had ten times the pageviews of the blog article itself. But when Mr Singh and his team asked for information on homepage views, they were not provided by Mr Ngerng.

The blogger argued that the popularity of a post should be measured by the article’s pageviews, and not the homepage, which contains other articles.

The Senior Counsel also put forth that in Mr Ngerng’s ambitions to publish factual information, he did not publish the Prime Minister’s rejection to his out-of-court offer for S$5,000. In defence, Mr Ngerng said that Mr Lee’s response to the offer being “derisory” was already reported by the media.

LEGAL COSTS

Mr Ngerng said he was seeking financial help as his savings and the donations have dwindled since the case went to court. About S$110,000 was donated by the public.

Mr Ngerng, who said he now lives off his parents, told the court that S$70,000 had been paid to lawyer M Ravi, while S$36,000 was used to pay Mr Lee’s lawyers in costs for the summary judgment as well as the Queen’s Counsel application.

The remaining money was used to pay Mr Ngerng’s third lawyer George Hwang, but the blogger received an additional £5,000 (S$10,500) from London-based human rights organisation Media Legal Defence Initiative (MLDI) to fund the case. Mr Ngerng said MLDI and another London-based organisation, Article 19, assisted in legal advice.

But when the blogger told the court that all the donations had been spent, the Senior Counsel said that knowing his means were limited, Mr Ngerng should not have aggravated the offence with follow-up blogposts.

“As you were incurring these expenses and filing fees, you were aware that if you continued to aggravate the injury, there was a risk that the damages could be increased,” the Drew & Napier lawyer said. “The sensible thing to do was to stop aggravating.”

Mr Singh noted that after receiving the letter of demand from Mr Lee’s lawyers, Mr Ngerng immediately offered damages “to get away on the cheap”, yet continued aggravating the offence with his subsequent actions.

“He is continuing to attack the plaintiff (Mr Lee) for improper motives,” he told the court.

Mr Singh also highlighted a blogpost that Mr Ngerng had written the day before the assessment of damages hearing, saying that he was going to court and that “we have to fight back and take a stand”.

Mr Ngerng said, despite the blogpost’s headline mentioning the damages hearing, the post was also about teenage blogger Amos Yee who was involved in another court case, and could thus not be seen as aggravating the defamation case.

“Over the past few days, you have heaped accusations about me of far from being sincere, despite how sincere I’m trying to show (I am),” he said to Mr Singh.

The case was adjourned at 3pm, with written submissions due Aug 31. As Mr Ngerng will be away for the next two weeks for reservist, Justice Lee gave him an additional six weeks after that to make his written submissions.

Source: www.channelnewsasia.com

July 4, 2015
Jeanette Chong-Aruldoss Sets Eyes Again On Mountbatten

Mrs Jeannette Chong-Aruldoss, 51, a lawyer, sets her eyes again on the Mountbatten Single Member Constituency (SMC) for the upcoming General Election with the blessing of her new political party.

A former secretary general of the National Solidarity Party (NSP), Mrs Chong-Aruldoss lost a bid to become NSP president in party polls held in January this year.

She subsequently left the party along with a several other members and applied to join the Singapore People’s Party (SPP) in March, helmed by veteran politician Chiam See Tong.

Mrs Chong-Aruldoss confirms that she will be contesting in the SMC in the upcoming polls which must be held by January 2017.

She said, “Yes, I am keen to make another bid to be elected as MP for Mountbatten. In the course of campaigning during the last GE, I established friendships with residents and got to know some local issues of concern to the residents there. I believe that I will be of more help to residents – and be a better candidate – if I were to have a deeper understanding of issues and closer ties with residents.

“For this reason, even after GE 2011, I have continued to and have been regularly walking the ground at Mountbatten. It has been my aim to build on the relationships which I have already established and to deepen my understanding of the issues of concern.”

Her personal campaign team has also been formed for the purpose of the upcoming election, which does not tax on the limited manpower and resources of SPP. It is said that the team has been visiting the SMC every Wednesday.

In General Elections 2011, Mrs Chong-Aruldoss contested against People’s Action Party candidate, Mr Lim Biow Chuan, under the NSP’s banner for the first time in the newly formed Mountbatten ward.

She received 41.38 per cent of the vote, which is slightly above the national average for opposition candidates.

However, Mrs Chong-Aruldoss is uncertain if the efforts of her campaigning team would bear fruit in the coming election due to Singapore’s constant changing electoral boundaries.

“Of course, all potential opposition candidates including myself, are under the heel of boundary changes. History has seen boundaries change significantly from one general election to another. What if Mountbatten is no longer a single member constituency? I don’t know.”

Despite the uncertainity she faces in the upcoming election, Mrs Chong-Aruldoss said, “For now, I will continue to walk the grounds of Mountbatten to see how best I may be able to serve its constituents, if elected.”

Apart from Singapore People’s Party which is set to contest the SMC if it is not subsumed into other constituencies or removed altogether at the next boundary changes, the NSP itself seems to have also set its eyes on contesting the ward.

This would set up a possible three-corner fight in the SMC.

Source: www.theonlinecitizen.com

July 3, 2015
I Saw Amos Yee On Wanted List At Woodlands Checkpoint

Hi, I would like to raise an awareness. I was using Woodlands Checkpoint few days back. When I was the Car’s queue at the Immigration counter, I saw the Immigration Officers PC serving the opposite of my counter.

In their PC Monitor, Left Side states HOT LIST and all wanted person picture will be moving upwards. Then I saw Amos Yee(in Yellow T-shirt) picture in it.

It was a shock of my life. A young teenage boy picture in the Hot List while he is IMH. How can pass thru Immigration while under custody. And lastly just for speaking the truth and what a normal born Singaporean feel in his heart got him in to Politically Intimidated/Bullied. I am now really terrified of the Ruling Party/Government/PAP/LHL. I am shocked that nobody reported it.

From a very concern, Born Singaporean.

Md Yas

Source: http://statestimesreview.com

July 3, 2015
Tan Jee Say: Lee Hsien Loong Should Stop Fear-Mongering Over Calls For More Welfare Benefits

Two days ago, PM told a large audience at SMU that Singapore has to raise the GST from 7 to 20% if we want Scandinavian style benefits to raise the fertility rate. He is wrong. His speech is here

In SingFirst’s social safety net announced in February this year, we have provided for Scandinavian style welfare benefits to encourage childbirth such as 90% subsidies on childcare centre fee and child allowances of $300 per month for children up to age 12. In addition, we also proposed a range of other benefits for families by lowering the cost of living such as waiver of all fees from primary one to university, 30% reduction in public transport fares and old age pension of $300 per month for all senior citizens aged 60 and above. The total package costs only $6 billion a year and it can be financed from the investment return of around $8 billion that the government is allowed to use for annual budget spending. There is absolutely no need to raise the GST at all, much less to up it to 20%. Here’s a summary table of SingFirst’s safety net package

Details of our package are in this posting SingFirst’s social safety net

It is highly irresponsible for a prime minister to simply pluck a figure from the air and use it to scare the people from putting forward their legitimate demands. Stop your PAP-style scare-mongering to mislead the people. And lay out the facts and figures in full so that Singaporeans can know the truth and engage in a meaningful debate about what the government can do to help them lower their cost of living, raise children, look after the elderly and develop strong families.

Source: Tan Jee Say

July 3, 2015