Tag: DPP

Body Of Missing DPP Kevin Morais Found By Malaysian Police In Oil Drum Filled With Concrete

The remains of a Malaysian deputy public prosecutor abducted nearly two weeks ago on his way to work were found on Wednesday (Sept 16) in an oil drum filled with concrete in Subang Jaya, Selangor.

The police made the grisly discovery at around 6am after they detained a military doctor – the main suspect in Mr Kevin Morais’ abduction – who led them to the swamp where the body was found, Bernama news agency reported.

“The oil drum was found in the swamp after divers went in to confirm it,” said Federal Criminal Investigation Division director Mohmad Salleh, according to The Star daily. “A forklift was used to hoist the oil drum out so that work could be carried out to retrieve the body.”

Fire and Rescue Department officers opened the concrete-filled barrel to recover the body, which was wrapped in a gunny sack.

Six other people, including a woman and a child believed to be unrelated to the case, as well as the doctor, were taken in by police on Tuesday.

Mr Morais, 55, deputy chief of the Appellate and Trial Division at the Attorney-General’s Chambers, was reported missing on Sept 4 after he left his Menara Duta apartment in Kuala Lumpur to go to his office in Putrajaya. Police later confirmed he was abducted, based on a video-capture of a road in the city.

“Initially, CCTV footage showed that Morais’ car was trailed by a Mitsubishi Triton that rammed into his government-issued Proton Perdana,” Commissioner Mohmad told the media. “He was abducted after the collision and a suspect drove off with Morais’ car while he was taken away in the Mitsubishi Triton.”

Datuk Seri Mohmad added that the 52-year-old main suspect, head of the pathology and laboratory department who was said to hold the rank of colonel, was involved in a corruption case that was prosecuted by Mr Morais in Shah Alam recently. “We believe the other suspects were contracted by this suspect to kidnap him,” said the commissioner.

Police believe Mr Morais was killed in the Mitsubishi pick-up truck before his body was placed in a gunny sack and sealed with cement inside the oil drum, according to The Rakyat Post.

A Mitsubishi Triton that investigators believe was used to hit the victim, two other vehicles – a Honda Accord and Proton Persona – and RM32,100 (S$10,500) in cash have been seized as evidence.

Police are also investigating a burnt car that had its vehicle chassis and engine numbers filed off. It was found on Sept 6 near an oil plantation in Perak. Police suspect it was driven by Mr Morais on the day he was abducted.

His body was taken to the Kuala Lumpur Hospital mortuary for a post-mortem examination.

Speaking outside the mortuary yesterday, the victim’s brother, Datuk Richard Morais, described him as a “strict man” who lived for his job and the law, The Star reported. “He was a secretive person. He was very professional about his work. He didn’t share (details of his work) with his family members.”

But his brother added that “this is not a normal death… Everybody knows this was case-related”.

Source: www.straitstimes.com

September 17, 2015
Joint DPP-SPP Team To Contest Bishan-Toa Payoh GRC Under DPP Banner

The Singapore People’s Party (SPP) and the Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) have finally unveiled the final five members of their joint team for Bishan-Toa Payoh GRC, more than three weeks after the two parties agreed to partner up to contest the constituency.

They are DPP chief Benjamin Pwee, 47, and chairman Hamim Aliyas, 55, who have both resigned from the party and joined the SPP to enable them to be fielded. Their teammates are SPP members Law Kim Hwee, 55, a former marketing manager, training company manager Abdillah Zamzuri, 31, and tech entrepreneur Bryan Long, 37.

Election rules dictate that all candidates in a GRC team must either come from one party or consist of five independents. Both SPP and DPP had earlier agreed that they would contest under the SPP banner.

The confirmed line-up was introduced by SPP chairman and Non-constituency MP Lina Chiam following a walkabout at Toa Payoh Lorong 8 on Sunday (Aug 30) morning.

While the three SPP members are election first-timers, Mr Pwee and Mr Hamim were in 2011 part of an SPP team led by opposition veteran Chiam See Tong that scored 43.1 per cent of the vote against a PAP team led by Dr Ng Eng Hen.

Mr Chiam’s exclusion from the current line-up is a strong signal that he has retired from politics. But the veteran opposition leader, who held Potong Pasir SMC for 27 years, was also present to give the joint team his backing.

Sunday’s introduction came one day after both parties signed an agreement to formalise their joint team, finalising their paperwork just three days before Nomination Day.

The signing of the agreement brings to a close a difficult, month-long negotiation that began at the joint opposition meeting to decide who would contest in which constituency. At several points in recent weeks, there had been rumours that the partnership was on the brink of collapse, especially due to disagreements on the make-up of the team.

Both sides had said on Saturday that they needed to take time to sort out a broad range of issues.

“It is a deliberated decision. We took time to make sure this isn’t something we hastily go in to just for elections. We went into it, we went through every single point. We had to know that logistics work, finance works, we want to know candidates, we want to talk about decision-making – if anything this demonstrates the maturity of the cooperation,” said Mr Long.

Added Mr Pwee on behalf of the DPP: “I think we respected the time and space that they need to make the decision. I think we didn’t want to push it and run the risk of this partnership breaking. At the end of the day, there could be nothing worse than if this partnership broke and we went into a three-cornered fight together.”

Source: www.straitstimes.com

August 30, 2015
DPP Chief Benjamin Pwee: Leaked Bishan-Toa Payoh Poster ‘One Of Many Drafts’

A mock-up of an election poster for the joint opposition team standing in Bishan-Toa Payoh Group Representation Constituency (GRC) has prompted talk that the line-up for the ward has finally been confirmed, but Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) chief Benjamin Pwee on Thursday (Aug 27) maintained that a final decision has yet to be made.

The poster circulating features two DPP members — Mr Pwee and party chairman Mohamad Hamim Aliyas — and three Singapore People’s Party (SPP) members, Mr Law Kim Hwee, Mr Abdillah Zamzuri and Mr Bryan Long. The SPP logo was also on the poster along with the tagline, “We hear You. We speak for You”.

The three SPP members are new to politics, while Mr Pwee and Mr Hamim contested in Bishan-Toa Payoh GRC in the 2011 General Election under the SPP umbrella.

Responding to queries from TODAY, Mr Pwee said: “We have many, many different draft posters with different combinations of candidates because SPP hasn’t confirmed their candidates for the five-man team. We will leave it to SPP to officially announce the five-man team under the SPP banner on Nomination Day.”

Asked if the parties agreed on the slate at the Elections Department on Thursday, SPP chairman Lina Chiam said the team has been formed, but declined to elaborate.

“The team will be as strong, if not stronger than the previous one,” she said, referring to the team SPP fielded for the General Election in 2011.

The two parties had agreed to jointly contest the five-member GRC under the SPP banner after each party initially indicated an interest to field their own teams, potentially setting up a three-cornered fight.

Mr Pwee has been introducing potential candidates for the team, while the two parties have put out conflicting messages about the make-up of the combined slate at separate walkabouts they held. Mrs Chiam has expressed preference that the SPP holds three of the five spots on the team, while Mr Pwee has said the best five should fill the positions.

Mr Pwee was part of SPP chief Chiam See Tong’s team in Bishan-Toa Payoh GRC in 2011, but left the party one year later with Mr Hamim. The team took 43.07 per cent of the votes in 2011.

The DPP-SPP team will go up against the People’s Action Party’s team made up of incumbents Defence Minister Ng Eng Hen and Senior Minister of State for Transport and Finance Josephine Teo, and new faces Mr Chee Hong Tat, Mr Chong Kee Hiong and Mr Saktiandi Supaat.

Nomination Day is on Sep 1.

Source: www.channelnewsasia.com

August 28, 2015
Benjamin Pwee: No Rifts Between DPP And SPP

There have been no disagreements between the Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) and Singapore People’s Party (SPP) as they decide on members of a joint team to contest Bishan-Toa Payoh Group Representation Constituency (GRC) together, said DPP chief Benjamin Pwee.

“Everything is hunky-dory. We’re all happy,” Mr Pwee told reporters before the start of a DPP-SPP walkabout at Toa Payoh Lorong 7 on Sunday morning (Aug 23).

SPP’s Bryan Long added that there is a “positive working relationship” between the two parties and that “DPP brings a good bunch of people to the table”.

Both Opposition parties had agreed to jointly contest the five-member GRC under the SPP banner and have been conducting walkabouts together. However a week ago, Mr Pwee had said his party was prepared to fight for Bishan-Toa Payoh on its own if it could not get agreement with SPP on the five joint-team candidates. SPP chairman Lina Chiam had indicated that her party would like to take three slots in the joint team and in turn, Mr Pwee asked that SPP be “open to discussing who will stand on both sides and not insist on a certain number”.

On Sunday, Mr Pwee said both parties’ central executive committees have narrowed down their picks. “We will reveal the best five on Nomination Day. Every person here is a potential candidate,” he said.

Accompanying Mr Pwee and Mr Long were DPP members Ms Juliana Juwahir, Mr Mohamad Hamim Aliyas, Mr Abdul Malik Rahmat, Ms Nadine Yap, and Mr Robin Low, as well as SPP members Mr Abdillah Zamzuri, Mr Law Kim Hwee and Mr Eman Lim.

DPP secretary-general Benjamin Pwee greeting residents at a coffee shop in Toa Payoh during a walkabout on Aug 23. (Photo: Gayathiri Chandramohan)

SPP member Bryan Long and DPP’s Benjamin Pwee and Nadine Yap speaking to patrons at a Toa Payoh coffee shop on Aug 23. (Photo: Gayathiri Chandramohan)

Both parties have said they will put out a joint manifesto for Bishan-Toa Payoh. Mr Pwee, an ex-SPP member, pointed out that the core team in DPP came from the SPP and that they had similar concerns on “larger, national issues”. “When we took over DPP, we basically brought across a lot of the same shared concerns,” he said.

The DPP-SPP team will go up against the People’s Action Party’s team for Bishan Toa-Payoh made up of incumbent MPs Ng Eng Hen and Josephine Teo and new faces Mr Chee Hong Tat, Mr Chong Kee Hiong and Mr Saktiandi Supaat.

Source: www.channelnewsasia.com

August 24, 2015
Democratic Progressive Party Introduces Harvard Graduate As Candidate In Bishan-Toa Payoh GRC

The Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) has pitched a Harvard graduate to be among the slate of candidates it and the Singapore People’s Party (SPP) will be jointly fielding in Bishan-Toa Payoh Group Representation Constituency.

Ms Nadine Yap, 46, graduated with a sociology degree from Harvard College in 1992 and went on to complete a Master of Arts from Harvard University three years later.

In an interview with TODAY, the Eurasian of Chinese-German mix said she wants to contest in the coming elections because she believes there needs to be more diverse types in Parliament.

Referring to the People’s Action Party’s team for Bishan-Toa Payoh GRC, the mother-of-two described them as “people who walked a very narrow path to success”.

“The current set of PAP candidates, they look like very good … capable people. But they are two civil servants, a doctor, a banker, and CEO of a REIT company,” said Ms Yap. “Although I think one might look at my credentials and say ‘you look like one of them’ … I am an entrepreneur; a technologist. I am trained to think outside of the box. I am not averse to failure. So I think Bishan-Toa Payoh, and Singapore in general, needs more voices like this.”

Ms Yap spent years in the United States working for three technology start-ups as well as e-commerce giant Amazon, as a technical product manager. In 2006, returned to Singapore and joined technology company Yahoo!, also in the area of products.

She now works as a vice-president of product at Temasys, which develops platforms for next generation real-time communications applications.

Ms Yap, who joined DPP as a member in December last year, added that she is not “virulently anti-PAP”. Rather, she believes the greater Opposition presence in Parliament has brought about good change.

“The PAP is making changes, and part of it is because of an increasingly credible opposition. If the PAP ends up improving because of this, then sure, why not be part of it?” she said.

As for issues that she is looking to champion, Ms Yap pointed to education. One of her two daughters, both in primary school, is dyslexic, and she believes greater support is needed.

She believes that she would appeal to the many families who have moved to the constituency for the many reputable schools there, as well as Professionals, Managers, Executives, and Technicians — a group that her party chief Benjamin Pwee has identified form a big proportion of swing voters.

Meanwhile, Mr Pwee said he has presented 10 potential candidates — including Ms Yap and himself — for the SPP to consider to field in the five-member Bishan-Toa Payoh GRC. The DPP’s list includes architect Juliana Juwahir, party chairman Hamim Aliyas, and businessman Chia Ser Lin.

“We are still waiting for (SPP chairman) Lina Chiam to decide how many candidates from her side and how many from our side … then we will sit down and both sides will talk. All five must be able to work as a team for the long haul,” he said.

Source: www.todayonline.com

August 15, 2015