Tag: GE2015

Vote Wisely – PAP Is The Boring Dutiful Wife While Opposition Is The Sexy Vixen

At a local coffeeshop, I heard a most interesting analogy. The uncle compared the relationship between the PAP and the Opposition Parties as that of the dutiful wife and the vixen. Here goes:

The PAP is akin to a middle aged wife of a self-made wealthy businessman. She toiled tirelessly, washing clothes, cooking, teaching the kids… Basically caring for household.

Regardless of how well she runs the household, she would never have gotten the praises and adoration of her husband and children. When something goes wrong, it will usually be her fault… Too strict… Incompetent…u name it.

But why would she be naggish and strict? Because the wife is there to walk life’s journey with the husband and she has a responsibility. She scolds because she is worried, she nags because her heart aches.

The opposition is like the vixen who is prancing and waiting to replace the wife. All she needs to do, is to dress up, speak nice sweet things and gain the liking of people. Nothing more.

Once the vixen gains her position, she has his money to spend. She doesn’t care if the kids or the family has a future! After all, she didn’t walk the journey from the start with the family, the kids are not hers!

Why would this vixen be seemingly sweet and considerate? Because she has no responsibilities, and she doesn’t and wouldn’t appreciate how difficult and arduous the journey has been from rags to riches.

To pick on bones and speak badly of the wife, is easy, who can’t? All that’s needed is to speak against, act prominently and go against the flow of logic…

Choose wisely.

Source: www.allsingaporestuff.com

September 7, 2015
First Time Voter: Stop Slamming The PAP & Start Impressing Me With Alternatives

Dear Editors,

This is the first time I’m voting for the elections and there are many things running through my mind. I’m don’t follow much on politics and thus needed to be convinced by both parties for my vote. But I am deeply troubled by the way most parties present themselves and their topics.

Opposition:

Most of them should stop talking bad about the PAP. It’s not like the PAP forms the worst government in the world. They should address current issues, and inform the public about their solutions. One good example would be the speech by Dr Chee Soon Juan. I’m not a fan of the SDP, but at least his speech is made fair and equal and not being biased to himself.

Most of the time I hear them talking about giving out money to elderly and children, greatly reducing living costs, etc. But everything works in a Give and Take rule. If you want something, you have to give something. Where will the funds for all these free policies come from? Definitely not from the children or the elderly, but from the middle-age group. The country still needs funds to operate. A country cannot simply have a few million dollars in it’s reserve. An economic power house like Singapore definitely needs its reserve to be in Billions. And by giving out freebies to Singaporeans, it’ll only increase the pressure for its sustainability.

This can end up in a vicious cycle. If we can’t sustain the freebies, the only way is to increase how much the middle-age group is giving. The government can’t always depend on investments to have an increase in revenue and the middle-age group is a reliable pool of money. Which will see an increment in unhappiness among the people and the demand to have similar freebies. This will not do good in the long run. Always remember, don’t take a privilege as an entitlement.

And if you want to convince my generation of their votes, you have to impress. Yes, we all know politics are all about manipulation and once you get in, we won’t know if you will really fulfil your promises as you won’t have that much experience as compared to PAP when running the country. But still conduct yourself well. Take it like an interview where the people will choose whether or not to hire you. Prepare yourself and not shout out the other party’s name by accident. That clearly shows how serious you are and how much effort you put into campaigning. Needless to say, making a fool out of yourself. And don’t throw mud at others just to make yourself cleaner. Talking bad about others doesn’t solve any issues.

Finally, the PAP isn’t as terrible as you made them out to be. I have to admit that Singapore is safer and cleaner than majority of the countries. Our currency is ever growing in the region. Don’t compare Singapore to another country like Africa. Make a fair and just comparison. So give credit where credit is due.

PAP:

Stop it with the constant reminder of the PAP’s achievement for the past 50 years. PAP did well for the past 30-40 years, but not the last 10. And it’s not the current generation of candidates who can be credited for those achievements. Your education system is improving and with that, the youth will grow wiser and more intelligent. So stop treating your people as if they are idiots. We are no fools. Taking a seat in the parliament does not increase your IQ.

You deserve credits for the success of Singapore in the eyes of the world, for which I am greatly grateful for. And we must give you that. But in return, many of your people are not satisfied with the method of ruling. I understand that bills like ERP, CPF, etc must be implement to maintain the current tax rate, and also generate an income for the country. But do deliver promises you made to the people and not change the policies to better your needs, then convince the people you’ll improve the policies just to garner votes, only to know that it’ll be discarded after polling day.

As stated above, we are no fools and can tell that gerrymandering means you are not confident of the elections. If you have been ruling well as indicated in your constant reminder, why would you not have the confidence? And please stop defaming others to achieve your desired goal. Stepping on others, or worse, countries, is an immoral thing to do. Isn’t that what we learnt during Primary school under your education system? My generation will be the one that can create shocking results as many of us are rebels, but in return, all of us are educated and can tell between the good and bad. So as long as you address the current issues with your solutions, stop bringing up your ancestor’s achievements and stop resorting to “character assassination” and avoiding topics, we will still think through thoroughly with our votes.

And to us Singaporeans, I don’t have the right to tell you your way of life and who knows, maybe 10 years down the road, I’ll probably end up with your mindset. But one example is that some of us insist on the dismissal of National Service, etc. That’s a terrible decision. As much as I hate receiving the SMS from Mindef, it’s still crucial for security. Stop saying that it’s redundant because we won’t go to war. That clearly shows how far your foresight takes you. Those of you who supported the idea is due to your bad experience or your inability to take on hardships. And that attitude of yours is downright selfish. You’re just being selective on what you want without thinking for others or the whole picture. And to those who supports NS and saying that NS builds you to be a better person, fuck you. That’s not a valid political reason. You can still be a better person if you attend some Adam Khoo workshop or go to some church and praise the name of Jesus. Just that you pay instead of getting paid.

This particular election is an interesting one to watch as it is pretty similar to the start of a new era for Singapore. Obviously PAP won’t lose ownership of the government any time soon, but no matter the party, if things don’t change for the better, the people will change it for you.

These are just some of my thoughts about the rallies so please don’t take it personally. I apologise if this was offending as I have no intention of having done so.

Thank you for reading this long rant.

First Time Voter
A.S.S. Contributor

Source: www.allsingaporestuff.com

September 7, 2015
Walid J. Abdullah: This Is Politics

‘This is Politics’:

When a 19 year old says things that you agree with, ‘this kid is really wise beyond his years’.

When a 19 year old questions your policies, ‘i was once young, idealistic and naive like you.’

——

When you talk about race, it is called ‘minority representation’.

When your opponent talks about race, it is called ‘communal politics’.

——

When election is near, you mention on stage ‘I received an email from resident A, thanking me.’

When it is not election time, never mind seeing your face, even emails are ignored.

——

When your opponent raises an important issue, ‘oh we have raised this before’.

When someone points out that you have not raised it before, ‘oh we raise it behind closed doors’.

——

When your opponent makes a mistake, ‘you must commit harakiri’.

When your colleague makes a mistake, ‘let us move on’.

——

When your opponent offers money for Singaporeans, ‘this is pork-barrel politics’.

When you offer multi-million projects – if and only if elected -, ‘it is only right that those who vote for us get these benefits’.

——

When your opponent allegedly indulges in unacceptable behaviour, ‘this is a question of integrity!’

When your own allegedly indulges in unacceptable behaviour, ‘the mistake was made in good faith’.

——

When your opponents speak up a lot in ‘they didn’t speak enough’.

When you speak up just once, ‘it was one too many’.

—–

When you speak rationally, ‘we need to have the GRCs to ensure minority representation’.

When you are in la la land, ‘there are no minorities in Singapore: every Singaporean belongs to the majority.’

—–

When your opponent changes constituencies, ‘these people are nomads’.

When son of punggol becomes son-in-law of AMK, son of Hougang is nowhere to be seen, son of Joo Chiat migrates to Punggol, and daughter of Jurong moves to Marsiling, ‘this is strategy’.

—–

When comparisons with other countries do not work in your favour, ‘Singapore is a city-state. We cannot compare with other countries. We are unique.’

When comparisons seemingly work in your favour, ‘Heng ahhhhh!’

Unfortunately, this is politics.

Source: Walid J. Abdullah

September 7, 2015
Humanising Kenneth Jeyaretnam

With a strong political pedigree as the eldest son of the late opposition figurehead, JB Jeyaretnam, one would expect Kenneth Jeyaretnam to be voted into parliament by now. Why hasn’t it happen?

From the initial excitement when Kenneth first stepped up to takeover the Reform Party to the series of missteps he had made since GE2011, people’s perception of Kenneth changed from a rising star to some kind of joker politician.

I wrote a humanising piece about the Singapore Democratic Party (SDP)’s Dr Chee Soon Juan and thePeople’s Action Party (PAP)’s Chan Chun Sing earlier. Here’s the third in the series. Don’t judge a person too quickly.

Kenneth is not an engaging public speaker, but if you follow his questionings of the PAP government’s economic policies on his blog, he would make a good MP in parliament to ask all the hard stuff. After all, he is a highly educated, experienced economist with a double first class honours from Cambridge to match Lee Hsien Loong.

In Singapore, Kenneth attended St Andrew’s School, followed by the United World College of South East Asia. He attended Charterhouse School in England from 1975-77. From 1978-80 he returned to Singapore to serve his National Service. From 1980-83, he attended Queens’ College, the University of Cambridge, where he read economics and graduated with Double First Class Honours. Kenneth is also an alumnus of the Amsterdam Institute of Finance.

Credentials wise, he is rock solid.

Kenneth’s entrance into Singapore politics started with the passing of the late JB Jeyaretnam in 2008. Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong sent a cryptic condolence letter to his two sons, Kenneth and Philip Jeyaretnam. Thereafter, the elder son went on to shoulder his father’s unfinished work in the fight to give Singaporeans an alternative voice in parliament.

Do you remember names like Nicole Seah, Jeannette Chong-Aruldoss, Tony Tan and Hazel Poa? Do you know all of them first entered politics by joining the Reform Party when Kenneth stepped up?

It was the catalyst for all the political awakening that followed, leading up to the watershed GE2011.

In fact, Kenneth was a sought-after star catch then. Both the Workers’ Party (WP) and Chiam See Tong’s Singapore People’s Party (SPP) courted Kenneth to join them in contesting GE2011. If he did, he would probably be in parliament by now.

Yes, there were pitfalls. Maybe Kenneth is not a strong leader; many of the strong members in the Reform Party walked out to join the National Solidarity Party (NSP) and other political parties.

The Reform Party still managed to muster enough resources to contest in 6-members Ang Mo Kio GRC and 5-members West Coast GRC in GE2011. Not bad for a new political party. The Ang Mo Kio team was a motley crue, assembled last minute, but credits to Kenneth for at least putting up a fight there versus a walkover.

The party lost in both GRCs, polling 33.34% of valid votes in West Coast and 30.67% in Ang Mo Kio. For GE2015, the Reform Party is back to contest in the two GRCs plus Radin Mas SMC.

Kenneth tends to take things too seriously. We all know the phrase “don’t feed the trolls”. Not Kenneth Jeyaretnam. He was baited into a silly quarrel with Singapore’s top online troll, SMRT Ltd (Feedback), getting ridiculed as “jeyababy” among other names.

It stemmed from Kenneth making police reports over alleged threats made to his family members after he entered politics. Other opposition politicians like Chiam See Tong had such encounters too, but chose to laugh it off or kept it out of the public’s eyes.

Kenneth is also always quick to speak for those who are the most marginalised, like Roy Ngerng and Amos Yee. It is almost political suicide for any politicians to get themselves associated with these guys. Nonetheless, we do need someone on the far-left of the political spectrum who dare speak when others keep quiet. Imagine one day if you get wrongly arrested under the ISA; you can count on someone like Kenneth to speak for you. Probaby not WP nor the PAP.

In the eyes of many Singaporeans, these are stupid actions, but it also tells you Kenneth sticks to his values on democracy and freedom of expression, just like his late father. Even if it means losing votes.

The dumbest thing he did was to contest the by-election in Punggol East SMC in 2013. Kenneth obtained only 1.2% of the valid votes in a rare 4-cornered fight. The victory went to Lee Li Lian of the WP. This greatly damaged the reputation of the Reform Party as a credible opposition party which can pull votes.

Some stuff he did right – his scrutiny on the minute details of policies, particularly in the field of economics. His favourite targets include the CPF, the GIC and Temasek. Kenneth was the one who flagged the technicality involving a US$4 billion IMF loan commitment from our government, challenging it all the way to court. He is a policy hack.

One of his biggest folly is probably to allow all sorts of people to contest under the Reform Party. Voters view candidates as a team. If your team mates keep scoring own goals and make weird faux pas, you get dragged in the mud.

Maybe he should have went for a SMC first before gunning for a GRC. After all, his father won his first election in the single seat of Anson which has now disappeared from the electoral map.

Kenneth Jeyaretnam may not be the most engaging of speakers, but go listen to him, read his blog and find out more about him before writing him and the Reform Party off as a political lightweight.

Source: http://alvinology.com

September 7, 2015
WP’s Faisal Manap And Fairoz Shariff Put Religion First, Potential Minister-In-Charge Of Muslim Affairs

Bro,

I nampak photo of WP Malay candidates performing prayers before rally dah go viral. I’m actually very proud and impressed of what they do. As a Kaki Bukit resident and a Muslim, it is good for me to see that there’s people like the WP candidates who represent us.

They show that even they are in Chinese party, they never forget their religious duties. They also very good people with very good heart.

What I know is Cik Faisal Manap and Cik Fairoz Shariff is very strict on religion. Religion is number one, is the priority for them. Islam is guide for what they do.

What I feel is Muslim MPs should put religion first, like Cik Faisal and Cik Fairoz.

Cik Faisal I know is Wear White supporter which is pro-family and anti LGBT. As Muslim this is not even a question for us. LGBT is forbidden. I respect Cik Faisal for standing up for what he believes in. He dont care about what the party stand. He support because he is a Muslim.

“I support the movement because it’s my responsibility to show concern for my fellow Muslims, asking them to do some introspection on whether what they’re doing is in accordance with Islamic values. That’s the campaign’s main calling.” – Faisal Manap

I and my family wil pray they will be successful next week. Who knows maybe they can become Muslim Minister one day inshaallah?

Hamzah

[Reader Contribution]

*Editor’s Note: The original article was amended to correct a phrasing error. We apologise to Mr Hamzah.

September 7, 2015