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Battle For Sembawang GRC Shapes Up

The battle for Sembawang GRC is shaping up.

The People’s Action Party (PAP) slate of candidates is starting to take shape in the five-MP GRC that was substantially affected by new electoral boundaries last week, and its MPs have begun working the new ground.

Party chairman Khaw Boon Wan yesterday said he and his team were reaching out to the 53,177 new voters added to Sembawang GRC from areas that were under Nee Soon GRC, while “handing over” the areas with 61,061 voters that have been carved away to the new Marsiling-Yew Tee GRC.

In the 2011 General Election, Sembawang GRC saw a contest between the PAP team and a Singapore Democratic Party (SDP) team.

he PAP won 63.9 per cent of the vote against the SDP, whose slate included academics James Gomez and John Tan.

The SDP confirmed it will again contest the GRC at the coming general election. But party leaders have yet to name their slate for the GRC.

With the boundary changes, two members of PAP’s current team in the GRC – Senior Parliamentary Secretary Hawazi Daipi and first-term MP Ong Teng Koon – will see their wards go to Marsiling-Yew Tee GRC, said Mr Khaw, who is the National Development Minister.

But Dr Lim Wee Kiak, a two-term MP in Nee Soon GRC’s Canberra ward, will join Sembawang GRC.

This leaves a spot open in Sembawang GRC. But Mr Khaw would not confirm if lawyer Amrin Amin, 35, a PAP new face spotted in the GRC, will join his team.

But he added: “He’s in my group. He’s proactive. I need a Malay after (the) carving out of Marsiling.”

The two other MPs in the Sembawang GRC team are Ms Ellen Lee and Mr Vikram Nair.

Mr Khaw gave the likely line-up for his GRC – and partially for Marsiling-Yew Tee GRC – to The Straits Times when he met Nee Soon GRC MP Lee Bee Wah at a coffee shop in Yishun Avenue 11.

His disclosure reinforced a point that PAP organising secretary and Defence Minister Ng Eng Hen made at a SingHealth Nurses’ Day event yesterday: that the party would disclose its slate of candidates early, probably well ahead of Nomination Day.

At the meeting between Mr Khaw and Ms Lee, she briefed him about the 51 blocks that were being transferred to Sembawang GRC following the boundary changes.

Mr Khaw said boundary changes have the greatest impact on the PAP, and in some cases are “quite drastic … We’ve invested time. Now, new relations have to be forged”.

Losing Marsiling, which has a predominantly elderly population, Mr Khaw said, will lower the median age for Sembawang GRC and bring it nearer to the national median age of just over 40 years.

Yesterday, SDP members went on a walkabout in Holland-Bukit Timah GRC, and party activist Paul Tambyah said it would return to the areas it contested in 2011 – including Sembawang – “because the residents know who we are”.

“We have been going back there over the years… on a regular basis, so these are a natural fit for us.”

That opposition parties aim to contest all 89 seats at the next general election, is a prospect relished by first-term Tanjong Pagar GRC MP Chia Shi-Lu.

Speaking to reporters at an event yesterday, he said that he and his fellow GRC MPs were at a “disadvantage” as theirs was the only uncontested constituency in 2011.

As the GRC, previously helmed by the late Mr Lee Kuan Yew, has no history of contests to indicate how it would do in the face of a challenge, “we actually have to work harder than most others”, he added.

This is why the team campaigned in 2011, going door to door and meeting residents, as if they were facing a real election.

“We take nothing for granted because of this unknown element, which I suppose spurs us to work even harder,” he said.

The Singaporeans First party and Democratic Progressive Party are keen on Tanjong Pagar GRC.

But the SDP, which said in January that it was also considering Tanjong Pagar, confirmed yesterday that it would not target the GRC.

Said Professor Tambyah, who was accompanied by SDP chief Chee Soon Juan and party activists: “Many people in Tanjong Pagar are very keen to vote but, at the same time, there are many other parties that have expressed interest.”

Source: www.straitstimes.com

July 31, 2015
2011 Walkover ‘A Very Big Disadvantage’ For PAP Candidates

Only one constituency – Tanjong Pagar – went uncontested in the 2011 General Election. The lack of a contest there is “a very big disadvantage” for the incumbent Members of Parliament there, says Dr Chia Shi-Lu.

The consultant orthopaedic surgeon was assured of a seat in Parliament on Nomination Day four years ago when a Singapore Democratic Alliance team intending to contest the Group Representation Constituency filed their nomination papers after the deadline.

The People’s Action Party went on to win 60.1 per cent of the votes in the 26 other constituencies islandwide, following an intensive campaign period which ultimately saw it lose a GRC for the first time in history.

This time round, the incumbents at Tanjong Pagar could have two things working against them, said Dr Chia: Not having been in the thick of the hustings, and the risk of complacency.

“This is a very big challenge, a very big disadvantage for us,” said Dr Chia, speaking to Channel NewsAsia on the sidelines of the Global Youth Leaders’ Summit, held at Bishan Park Secondary School on Thursday (Jul 30). “Because of this we actually have to work harder.”

WILL THE TEAM CHANGE?

The MP in charge of the Queenstown ward said that their preparation for the upcoming General Election, which will have to be held by early 2017 but which observers expect to take place in the near future, started even before Polling Day, 2011.

“We started working in Apr 2011. Even though we didn’t have an election at that time, we did our campaigning,” he said.

Part of the reason was to keep themselves on their toes, to ensure the PAP team remained relevant to the electorate.

“If the incumbent has been there for many years, sometimes it may not always work to their advantage because people are used to them and they keep on doing the same thing. It may have worked in the past but it may not work in the future,” he said.

Change, therefore, is a necessary constant.

In 2011, the Tanjong Pagar PAP team only had two candidates remaining from their 2006 campaign (also a walkover): Mr Lee Kuan Yew, a stalwart there since the pre-Independence 1955 Legislative Assembly General Elections, and Ms Indranee Rajah.

This time round, a rumoured possibility is that Dr Lily Neo will move over from Tanjong Pagar to neighbouring Jalan Besar GRC, where she served as MP from 2001 to 2011.

Dr Chia said of the MP of the Kreta Ayer-Kim Seng ward, which will sit in Jalan Besar GRC following recommendations from the Electoral Boundaries Review Committee: “The area she looks after hasn’t changed. In fact it has gone back to 2006 so I don’t think it’s that much of a change. I think there’s not much of a surprise there. Of course as colleagues we are sad to have her move to another GRC because we have done so many events together.”

THE LEE KUAN YEW LEGACY

One man’s shadow looms large in Tanjong Pagar – that of founding Prime Minister Lee, who passed away in March this year.

Dr Chia Shi-Lu (centre) greets members of the public who came to pay respects to the late Mr Lee Kuan Yew at Tanjong Pagar Community Club on Mar 24, 2015. (File photo: TODAY)

And Dr Chia – who was awarded the Lee Kuan Yew Postgraduate Scholarship in 2003, allowing him to pursue his doctoral degree in England – said the team there still acts with Mr Lee’s principles in mind.

“When I first joined politics and was nominated and came into Tanjong Pagar, the first thing he told me is: Whatever you do, you just do your job well and look after the residents. Do what you are here to do and look after the residents to the best of your ability,” said Dr Chia.

“It’s kind of direct and typical of his style.

“We still go according to the principles of Mr Lee – we will do what we have always been doing.

“He has always maintained that his greatest legacy is what continues after he’s gone, not when he’s around. Now that he’s not around, things should just go on; we should work as we have worked before. But when you look at what he has achieved with his team – everything should not be just maintained, but should be better than when he was here.”

Source: www.channelnewsasia.com

July 31, 2015
Osman Sulaiman: Are Polyclinic Consultation Fees Inflated To Make Government Look Good With Sizeable Subsidies?

This is my dad’s medical bill from the polyclinic. I was quite happy when i saw that the bill is heavily subsidised. But after a second look, I realised that the charges for consultation is ridiculous.

The consultation fee for a neighbourhood private doctor is usually between $20-$30. Public polyclinic is supposed to be cheaper than private clinics. How in the world can a public medical service be much expensive?

It’s either the authorities are inflating the consultation fee and then makes it look like the gov is heavily subsidizing our medical cost or our doctors working at polyclinics are being paid super scale salary that rival the private sectors. I know the latter isn’t true.

But if the subsidies are a true reflection of the amount incurred, then what is stopping our gov to also subsidize private clinics so as to assuage the waiting time at the polyclinics? Tsk.

Source: Osman Sulaiman

July 31, 2015
Malay Commando LTA Extends NS To Take Part In NDP

LTA Hafizuddin bin Mohdar’s Operationally Ready Date was originally on 11 Jun.

However, the NSF Commando officer voluntarily extended his NS to 10 Aug – all so that he could march in this year’s NDP.

“I was first involved in NDP in 2011,” he said, and nothing was going to stop him from joining this year.

He was a flag raiser back in 2011 for the National Cadet Corps (SG NCC).

Source: Ng Eng Hen

July 31, 2015
Getting Used To A New Face As Singapore PM

The GE is coming and as in any general election, a new man or woman could be thrown up as the new Prime Minister. This is normal and common in any democracy except in Singapore. Here the PM is like a life time tenure and would go to the PAP’s candidate. In this GE the PM in the aftermath would be Hsien Loong. There is hardly any doubt about this. Many things would change but the PM of Singapore after the GE would not change.

Let’s put aside this reality and go on a trip to wonderland and let’s say a miracle happens and a new party or coalition is swept to power. And Singaporeans would have to live with a new face as the new Prime Minister. Who would that face be, Low Thia Khiang, Sylvia Lim, Chen Show Mao, Chee Soon Juan or Tan Jee Say? Try to imagine that one of them would be the new Prime Minister. The feeling is quite strange.

Strange it might be, but would anyone picture Jokowi, a businessman, not an elite or a general, an unassuming man being the President of Indonesia? Jokowi has been the President of Indonesia for more than a year and is looking more and more like a President. And who says you need to have experience in politics and an apprenticeship to become a President or a head of govt?

In a democracy every citizen is good enough to be the President or Prime Minister. Singaporeans must get use to a new face as the Prime Minister sooner or later. Maybe not in this election, but it will come. Look at Low Thia Khiang and get use to his face as the PM. Or look at Jee Say or Chee Soon Juan, get accustom to their faces and get use to it that their faces could be the face of a PM. Imagine them in formal business suits and ties and looking dignified as the Prime Minister. I am not talking about the money type of dignity, but the dignity of the Office of the Prime Minister, the Head of the govt of a country.

It is just a matter of getting use to it. Get the idea? In a democracy you don’t need to be from the nobility or aristocracy to be the Prime Minister. There is no need to look noble and rich, just look like a Prime Minister will do. And the strange thing is that it will grow on the person in the Office.

Source: http://mysingaporenews.blogspot.com.au

July 31, 2015