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Tag: GE2015

  • PAP – Same Old, Same Old

    PAP – Same Old, Same Old

    The Elections Department (ELD) is tweaking the rules again, raising maximum spending limit from $3.50 to $4.00 per voter, tilting the “level playing” field to political parties with deeper pockets. Other changes include new ballot papers featuring candidates’ mugshots “to help the elderly identify the candidates”. Since we only get to see these guys face to face once in fifty five years, we won’t know the purity of their hearts from a brief encounter. What they should include is an accompanying short quote reflective of their true colours:


    “If you’re lazy and work less, you’ll have less Medisave” – Khaw Boon Wan

     

     

     

     

     


    “Without foreign workers, Singapore is likely to become a ‘garbage city’. Cleanliness is a character thing. It shows who you really are.” – Goh Chok Tong on Tokyo has no rubbish even though the Japanese capital has no rubbish bins in public places

     

     

     

     


    “A manpower policy that advocates hiring “Singaporeans first” will not benefit the economy in the long term” – Senior Minister of State for Manpower Amy Khor

     

     

     

     

     


    “We (also) need to reflect, are we the way they described?” – Baey Yam Keng on Sun Xu’s “more dogs than humans in Singapore”

     

     

     

     

     


    “However, it may not be wise to call for the tradeoffs to be tilted further to an extent that it dissuades good people from coming forward in future” – Grace Fu on ministerial pay cut

     

     

     

     


    “Some cardboard collectors treat it (collection of cardboards) as a form of exercise and activity rather than being cooped up at home” – Tan Chuan Jin

     

     

     

     

     


    “Well, everybody has a car, we have two — my wife drives one, I drive one. We are both professionals, we need to travel” – Koh Poh Koon on car ownership

     

     

     

     

     


    “…I regret making the decision because, in the end, the baby continued to be in intensive care, and KKH now runs up a total bill of more than $300,000…”- Lim Hng Kiang on regretting the decision to save a baby’s life.

     

     

     

     


    “If we spent 387 million dollars, will we get value from that expenditure? In my mind, the answer… is yes.” – Vivian Balakrishnan on YOG budget blowout

     

     

     

     


    “Whether a participant perished or survived depended on where he or she happened to be at the time.” Heng Swee Kiat on why 12 year olds died on Mt Kinabalu

     

     

     

    Tattler

    * The writer blogs at singaporedesk.blogspot.com.

     

    Source: www.tremeritus.com

  • Reform Party Will Contest Pioneer SMC – Should NSP Pull Out

    Reform Party Will Contest Pioneer SMC – Should NSP Pull Out

    The Reform Party (RP) wants to contest Pioneer Single Member Constituency (SMC) – but not if it means entering a three-cornered fight, party Secretary-General Kenneth Jeyaretnam said on Wednesday (Aug 26).

    The National Solidarity Party (NSP) was previously set to contest the SMC after a series of talks between most of the Opposition parties in early August. Mr Steve Chia – who took 39.27 per cent of the votes in Pioneer in the 2011 General Election – was originally expected to contest again under the NSP banner, but he has since pulled out of contesting the 2015 General Election entirely.

    The People’s Action Party incumbent Cedric Foo will be defending his seat in the single-seat constituency in the coming General Election.

    On Wednesday, Mr Jeyaretnam said RP had initially pulled out of Pioneer only because Mr Chia was contesting the SMC, but should now be given the chance to contest if NSP is unable to field a “strong candidate” there.

    “We agreed to relinquish our interest in Pioneer only because Steve Chia from NSP said he would be standing again. We felt he was a strong candidate and had a good chance of winning, having done well in 2011. However he has now withdrawn entirely from the election,” said Mr Jeyaretnam.

    “If NSP withdraw entirely or are unable to field a strong candidate then we feel that we should be given the chance to contest as we have many excess candidates. However, in the interests of unity and solidarity among the Opposition, we will not enter a three-cornered fight.

    “We hope that NSP will clarify its intentions shortly.”

    The RP chief said his party is declaring its interest publicly as it has been trying to contact NSP President Sebastian Teo and Organising Secretary Spencer Ng, but with no success.

    Pioneer was formerly part of West Coast GRC, but was carved out for the 2011 General Election. RP is set to contest West Coast GRC again in the 2015 General Election, having done so four years ago. The party has been visiting residents in Pioneer SMC since 2011, RP said.

    The RP added that in “similar spirit of Opposition solidarity”, they have contacted independent candidate Tan Lam Siong to offer him a place in one of their GRC teams or in an SMC to avoid a three-cornered fight in Potong Pasir SMC, but have been unable to dissuade him.

    Mr Tan confirmed that RP tabled an offer for him to contest Radin Mas SMC, but he did not accept it.

     

    Source: www.channelnewsasia.com

  • 7 Opposition Parties Launch Campaign Badge

    7 Opposition Parties Launch Campaign Badge

    Taking a leaf out of United States President Barack Obama’s playbook, several opposition parties unveiled a campaign badge carrying the words “Vote for Change” to signal their common goal in the Sept 11 General Election.

    The seven parties – excluding the Workers’ Party (WP) and Singapore People’s Party (SPP) – also renewed their commitment to unity yesterday during the event, held at the Singaporeans First party headquarters in Tras Street.

    The red badge was launched by representatives from the SingFirst party, Singapore Democratic Alliance (SDA), Democratic Progressive Party, Reform Party and People’s Power Party (PPP).

    “Vote for Change” was Mr Obama’s campaign slogan during the 2008 US presidential elections.

    The National Solidarity Party and Singapore Democratic Party were also part of the effort but they did not attend the launch yesterday due to prior engagements, said PPP chief Goh Meng Seng.

    It appears that another objective of the badge is to help raise funds. Mr Goh said some of the parties, including his, would be selling the badges for $5 each during their election rallies.

    He added that the badge would be “a sign of unity among the opposition parties”, and that their supporters would wear it during the upcoming campaign period.

    Mr Goh told reporters he hoped the badge would end the in-fighting and disagreements that have dogged the opposition parties.

    “We will move on to the real battlefield, one that is based on our policy views,” he said.

    Mr Goh added that invitations to this unity effort were extended to all nine opposition parties but the WP and SPP did not respond.

     

    Source: http://www.straitstimes.com

  • SDP Chief, Chee Soon Juan, Calls For Clearer Campaign Rule

    SDP Chief, Chee Soon Juan, Calls For Clearer Campaign Rule

    Clearer campaign rules could have been put out earlier to ensure a level playing field for political parties, said Singapore Democratic Party (SDP) chief Chee Soon Juan yesterday as the party introduced two new candidates at its headquarters.

    Referring to new conditions introduced by the Singapore Police Force for the upcoming General Election (GE), Dr Chee, who spoke to reporters after the SDP introduced Ms Jaslyn Go and Professor Paul Ananth Tambyah as candidates, said the party would have no problem complying with them.

    One of the two new permit conditions bar the concealment of faces on stage during election rallies. The other prohibits Central Executive Committee members and candidates of each political party from speaking at the rallies of other parties.

    Party chief Chee Soon Juan said the SDP has no intention of doing so, but other opposition parties may have wanted to speak at one another’s rallies. He also said the party had printed posters for the elections, but new requirements were issued that it now has to address, without going into detail.

    The SDP also wanted to have decal advertisements on a rented private bus to transport candidates during the nine days of campaigning, but it has dropped the idea of a “campaign bus” after the lack of clarity on the applications needed and a shortage of time. “These are things that (are) just not helpful at all to conduct truly free and fair elections,” Dr Chee said.

    Prof Tambyah and Ms Go were introduced by SDP chairman Jeffrey George. Both candidates have been active before the 2011 GE, although Prof Tambyah joined as a member only in the past fortnight after leaving human rights group Maruah. Ms Go, who runs a construction company with her husband, joined the party in 2007.

    Prof Tambyah, 50, has been active with the party for a decade and spoke at the SDP’s rally in Boat Quay in 2011. He said he could not contest then as his father died that year. Ms Go, 43, said she was not ready in 2011 and has since walked the ground to understand concerns of the public. Representing the party at conferences and events has also helped build her confidence, said the mother of two, who was an emcee at the SDP’s rallies in 2011.

     

    Source: www.todayonline.com

  • Jaslyn Go Drawn To SDP Over Education And Cost Of Living Issues

    Jaslyn Go Drawn To SDP Over Education And Cost Of Living Issues

    Mother-of-two Jaslyn Go began working during the school holidays from the age of 12, travelling from her home in Bukit Merah to a Paya Lebar garment factory to earn S$5 a day.

    She began working part-time from Secondary Two at McDonald’s, but juggling work and studies took its toll. She ventured into the working world after her O-Levels, doing sales and marketing mainly in the automobile industry.

    Ms Go said yesterday that she has also personally experienced challenges facing small and medium enterprises, running a construction company with her husband since 2004 that now hires 30 people and has an annual turnover of S$2 million.

    Her children are aged 12 and 10, and Ms Go said she feels strongly that education policies should encourage children to enjoy the process of learning.

    “Do we actually want our kids to grow up in this kind of stressful environment (today)?” she said.

    There is now also an overemphasis on paper qualifications, she feels. “In my generation, we are still able to make it without the paper chase. Unfortunately, I can’t say the same for the younger generations,” she wrote in her biography published on the SDP’s website.

    Her son will be taking his Primary School Leaving Examination this year and she is counting on her supportive husband to look after the children in her absence.

    Ms Go joined the Singapore Democratic Party in 2007, drawn by concerns over the cost of living, she said.

    “I felt strongly about it as a new mother. I was worried for my children, how they were going to … pay for a decent house and having to compete for places in schools, and (for) job opportunities,” she said.

    Jaslyn Go Hui Leng, 43

    Sales director of a construction company co-founded with her husband

    Fact file:

    • Has a certificate in early childhood education and a diploma in sales and marketing

    • Began working part-time from the age of 14 to help her family financially

    • Oversees sales, does training and develops profit targets at the construction company set up with her husband in 2004, that now has 30 staff and annual turnover of S$2 million

    She said:

    “Attitude in life surpasses academic qualifications … The twists that life throw at you can be turned into valuable lessons, they are experiences that books can’t teach you. They certainly brought me to where I am today.”

     

    Source: www.straitstimes.com