The Workers’ Party unveiled its first batch of potential candidates for the upcoming general election at its Syed Alwi Road headquarters on Wednesday (Aug 26) afternoon.
Among them were new faces Daniel Goh, 42, an associate professor of sociology at the National University of Singapore, engineer Redzwan Hafidz, 30, and RHBBANK wealth manager Dylan Ng, 40.
On July 26, party chairman Sylvia Lim had revealed that it would befielding a record 28 candidates – up from 23 in 2011 – in fiveGROUPrepresentation constituencies (GRCs) and five single-member constituencies (SMCs).
APARTfrom Aljunied GRC, Hougang SMC and Punggol East SMC which WP currently holds, it is contesting in East Coast, Jalan Besar, Marine Parade and Nee Soon GRCs, as well as Fengshan, MacPherson and Sengkang West SMCs.
Mr Giam, 37, confirmed that he was one of the 28 candidates contesting at the coming polls.
The pair also submitted the candidates’ Political Donation Certificates and certificates from the Malay Community Committee and the Indian and Other Minority Communities Committee, ahead of the deadline on Aug 28.
Mr Low said on Aug 12 that WP was looking to field younger candidates who “will be able to connect more and represent the views and aspirations of the younger generation”.
Philippine national Ello Ed Mundsel Bello, 28, who made disparaging remarks about Singaporeans onFACEBOOK earlier this year, pleaded guilty to three charges on Wednesday (Aug 26).
He was convicted on one count under the Sedition Act, for promoting feelings of ill-will and hostility, and on two counts of providing false information to police. An additional charge under the Sedition Act, and another for lying to police, will be taken into consideration during sentencing.
In hisFACEBOOK post, Bello called Singaporeans “loosers (sic) in their own country”. “We take theirJOBS, their future, their women, and soon, we will evict all SG loosers out of their own country”, Bello added, saying that Singapore would be the “new Filipino state”.
The Filipino also stated that he would be “praying that disastors (sic) strike Singapore and more Singaporeans will die”. He will “celebrate” if this happens, he said.
He ended his Facebook post with the declaration: “REMEMBER PINOY BETTER AND STRONGER THAN STINKAPOREANS.”
Bello did this while employed as a nurse at Tan Tock Seng Hospital, which subsequently dismissed him over the incident, after discovering through their own investigations that Bello had made three other online posts in the same vein in 2014.
In court on Wednesday, Deputy Public Prosecutor Kumaresan Gohubalan said that Bello’s comments were “xenophobic, derogatory and inflammatory” in nature, further aggravated by the fact that his comments were published to “an enormous audience”, and that Bello displayed a total lack of remorse for his actions.
Investigations revealed that he had regularly commented on reports and articles relating to Singapore, often in a “vile, derogatory and offensive” nature, and on sensitive issues such as race and nationality.
Bello’s comments came under the spotlight when they were posted on The Kaki News Network, aFACEBOOK page with a significant public following of 30,000FACEBOOKusers. The comments went viral, and were also the subject of several police reports made against Bello.
Alarmed by the hostility generated by his comments, Bello deleted them, and lodged a report with police, stating that he was “shocked and furious that these comments had been attributed to him”.
He told police on three occasions that he did not make the offending comments on Facebook, and that hisACCOUNT had been accessed without his permission. Bello only admitted to his lies in his fourth statement to police, when “he found he could not keep up the lie”, Bello’s lawyer, Mark Goh, said.
Mr Goh also told the court that as the “delicate golden threads” of race and religion that bind Singaporean society had not been touched on by his client’s comments, Bello should be granted a lower sentence of six weeks, as opposed to the prosecution’s submission of 20 weeks’ imprisonment.
In response, DPP Kumaresan told the court that comments of this nature are “detrimental to society” and “cannot be trivialized or underestimated”, especially in a cosmopolitan society like Singapore.
Bello will be sentenced on Sep 16.
For promoting feelings of ill-will and hostility between different races or classes of the population of Singapore, Bello could have received a fine of up to S$5,000 or a jailTERM of up to three years, or both.
For giving false information to police, Bello could have faced a jailTERM of up to one year, a fine of up to S$5,000, or both.
Im a Rider, a small cc bike. i was at the juntion from Bedok North ave 3 turning right to PIE Changi. Its on Red Light and im position at (lane 2) because im going right where its shows (straight and right) exactly the front row and has the Priority weather to give way or not. Exactly im in 1st row.
And this BUGGER was behind me he is going straight couldnt have the patience and keep Honking a few times at me from behind. I was wondering what have i done wrong??.So when i look at my mirror that the way this guy has no patient to wait and thats when i decided to squeez abit to the right and fortunately the (Green Arrow ) appeared.
What i did was instead the inch to the right to make way for him, i make a move like usual turn right. At a very moment half way both of us faced each other, he was mumbling as in “bro im going straight ! Move a little bit la”! ,i responded yelling at him “what sia u its my way!”,im turning right u damn it!”.
Within seconds the guy from (half way straight) he swerved to right dashing thru my exact lane where it was a road bend and he drives dangerously cut from behind which endangering other rd user as well and e-brake right in front of me.
After some commotion i was shock that this guy did said ” F**k la u all MALAY work this kind of job ” like me “RIDER”. I felt pissed of!.. I reply him “what the F**k u said?!? U RACIST AR!!?. His face look shock ! Freeze for a while coz Regret what he already said. Too bad mr.. Good i say to him tonite you will be famous! Online.
And he say u “dun yaya” ..ok let see my yaya how is the outcome. I manage took some picture. When both of about to Dismiss from the place i said to him “wah u rich arrogant” . “IM GIVING HELL TO YOU MY FREN”. Once you are famous all your Richerness will go to the trash because why, people starts to avoid u. U career was A TRAINER am i right?
MMA am i right? So let see your wealthy drowned. You wife/GF will leave u, your children will hate u n all of your surrounding friends will leave
The makeover of the Primary School Leaving Examination (PSLE) is still some time away, with the announcement to come next year at the earliest, said Education Minister Heng Swee Keat.
Parents and pupils will be given enough time to respond and adjust to the changes when they are implemented, he added.
Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong had said two years ago in his National Day Rally speech that the high- stakes exam would be revamped, and the aggregate T-score done away with.
Instead of getting a score out of 300 points, pupils will get grade bands – similar to how students get graded from A1 to F9 for the O levels or A to E for the A levels. The grades will then be converted to points to be used for admission into secondary schools.
Mr Heng said the Ministry of Education (MOE) is already putting diverse programmes in place in primary and secondary schools to meet the needs of different children. For instance, each secondary school has to develop two distinctive programmes by 2017 to cater to students’ interests.
“It is about choosing the school that has the programme, the emphasis and the fit, rather than about that one school that you must go to,” he said.
Recent SkillsFuture initiatives – such as the Earn and Learn programme for polytechnic and Institute of Technical Education graduates as well as the introduction of modular courses at the post-secondary level – also aim to send a message to parents and students that the emphasis is on lifelong learning and helping students enter their areas of interest, said Mr Heng.
“Some of us may take a longer pathway to reach our peak. Some of us may take a shorter pathway, and some will take a path less travelled and go do something completely different,” he said.
“There are many good pathways and I don’t need to cram at just the PSLE level and say that I must get into that one school.”
The MOE is still in the process of implementing programmes in secondary schools – especially in neighbourhood schools – to create differentiation, said Mr Heng.
These initiatives to create a more diverse secondary school landscape, with different schools offering different niche areas, will come before the PSLE revamp.
“Some parents believe that a certain school will help their child succeed better… It will take some time for this mindset to change,” said Mr Heng, adding that the end goal is not just about grades, but also about finding success in life.
Unlike meeting residents in HDB Flats and Landed Property where a candidate can go knock on doors without prior permission, explicit permission is required to visit homes in condominiums.
Many, if not all, opposition parties face difficulties in meeting their constituents who live in condominiums.
Approval to visit must be obtained from the condo’s management under the Management Corporation Strata Title (MCST) – the managing body of a condo.
Rejection letters from MCSTs are commonplace as many managing bodies prefer not to have any form of political activities in their private estates.
In the case of Jeannette Chong-Aruldoss, the Singapore People’s Party (SPP) candidate for Mountbatten SMC, she had mailed out 23 requests to various condominiums in her constituency to ask for permission to visit voters residing there.
Letters of rejection
To date, she has only received 4 letters of rejection and has yet to hear from the rest.
Some letters of rejection are more fair, like the one from Sanctuary Green, which promised not to have any form of political activity – from any party, including the People’s Action Party (PAP) – on its premises.
Letter of Rejection from Sanctuary Green MCST
Others, however, have been a little less fair in their decisions.
What is of interest to me is not the letters of rejection and the unfairness but how the opposition candidates responded. Instead of the usual lamenting that many half-expected, they took it in their stride, rolled up their sleeves and got resourceful.
2 cases in point, Jeannette Chong-Aruldoss from the SPP and the Workers Party’s Yee Jenn Jong.
Picnics and BBQs
Jeannette Chong organised a Picnic at Wilkinson Interim Park to mingle with residents from the nearby Private Estates
The letters of rejection did nothing to deter Ms Chong-Aruldoss.
Last Saturday evening, she organised a picnic at Wilkinson Intermin Park. The Park’s location was a strategic one as it was just a stone’s throw away from many private estates. Through the picnic, she had the opportunity to meet many residents of private estates and along with the conversations, there was good food to go around too.
One resident of Mountbatten SMC remarked that it “felt like a block party!”
Jeannette explaining what the Picnic is all about
Jeannette also took full advantage of the fact that she resides in Mandarin Gardens, a condominium in Marine Parade GRC.
As her condominium falls under the Joo Chiat precinct, she organised a BBQ and hosted WP’s Yee Jenn Jong.
Mr Yee had contested in Joo Chiat SMC in the 2011 elections and lost by a hair’s breath – 355 votes – to the PAP’s candidate.
It was an opportunity for him to meet residents of Marine Parade GRC – from both inside and outside of Mandarin Gardens – over some juicy satay.
Sharing a light moment with a resident
It was very clear that there was a real sense of mutual respect and camaraderie between Ms Chong-Aruldoss and Mr Yee, or JJ as he is also called.
“Here’s a personal story about why I respect JJ so much,” Ms Ms Chong-Aruldoss said. “At GE2011, my elderly father was frail and not well but he insisted on casting his vote. So my brother had to devise a way to take him in his wheelchair to vote. My dad was greatly satisfied to have cast his vote (thanks to my brother), and I will always be proud of my dad for his determination. I respect JJ for inspiring my dad’s determination. JJ lost by 388 votes – but it would have been 389 if not for my dad’s vote. After the election, JJ visited the residents to thank them for their support. My dad was very touched by his sincerity. Proud to introduce this sincere, personable and caring man to my neighbours. Joo Chiat is also Mountbatten’s neighbour.”
Mr Yee is expected to contest in Marine Parade GRC in the upcoming elections, after Joo Chiat SMC was erased from the electoral map by the Electoral Boundaries Review Committee in its report released last month.
Overall, it was two events where the opposition candidates managed to weave a way through to meet their constituents despite the roadblocks set by the various MCSTs.
Such events go to show that when there is a will, there is truly a way and these candidates are more than willing to go the extra mile for their constituents. Obstacles do not turn these candidates away. In fact, it strengthens their resolve and forces them to be more resourceful in thinking of creative ways to overcome the rejections.
A shot where candidates and volunteers of SPP and WP come together. Huat ah!
*The writer, Ariffin Sha, is a volunteer with Ms Chong-Aruldoss’ election campaign.
wealth manager Dylan Ng, 40.
