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Tag: general elections

  • SDP: Halimah’s Resignation Is A Deliberate, Calculated Ploy By PAP To Remove One Of Its MPs To Stand For Another Election

    SDP: Halimah’s Resignation Is A Deliberate, Calculated Ploy By PAP To Remove One Of Its MPs To Stand For Another Election

    Ms Halimah Yacob has announced that she will contest in the coming Presidential Elections and has resigned as MP for the Marsiling-Yew Tee GRC.

    The GRC system was introduced in 1988, the official reason being “to ensure that Singapore’s parliament would always be multiracial in composition and representation.” As such, the constitution requires that GRC teams include at least one member from a minority community.

    Given this rationale, Ms Halimah’s stepping down as MP runs counter to the essence of the GRC system both in letter and spirit. Her resignation must necessarily trigger a by-election in Marsiling-Yew Tee.

    The government determines the number of GRCs needed at any one general election necessary for fair representation. If the government can remove a minority MP at will after he/she is elected, why set the number of GRCs – and therefore the number of minority MPs – to be contested in the first place?

    In addition, the government stipulates the particular ethnic representation for a particular GRC so as to ensure that the ethnic community in that GRC is adequately and effectively represented. By removing that MP, is the government not also removing that community’s representation in Parliament?

    To be clear, Ms Halimah’s resignation is a deliberate and calculated ploy by the PAP to remove one of its MPs in order that she may stand for another election. The PAP cannot be allowed to vacate elected Parliamentary seats just to maximise its electoral chances for another office. It is an abuse of the system and makes a mockery of the general elections.

    If the PAP insists on taking such a step, it must abide by the rule of law and call for a by-election. It cannot have its cake and eat it too.

    Minister Chan Chun Sing says, however, that no by-election will be held if Ms Halimah were to resign from her seat. Such a unilateral and unconstitutional measure runs counter to the concept of the GRC system and must be challenged.

    To this end, the SDP will actively explore legal remedies to ensure that the PAP does not willy-nilly change rules or interpret the law to suit its own political ends by calling for a by-election in Marsiling-Yew Tee.

     

    Source: http://yoursdp.org

  • PAP Has Gotten Worse Since Last GE

    PAP Has Gotten Worse Since Last GE

    <Written by Joseph Tan Kheng Liang>

    The PAP has gotten worse since the last GE!

    One of the most recent landmarks in the Singaporean political calendar was the ‘watershed elections’ of 2011. The term watershed was used because it seemed highly probable at that point in time that the PAP would lose several GRCs. Lee Hsien Loong even apologised and cried in public.

    The key question is this: How has the PAP changed for the better since then? The clear and simple answer is that the PAP is back to their own arrogant ways and Singaporeans are not going to benefit from this! Let me give you some examples to illustrate.

    In 2011, they promised to work harder and apologised for their mistakes, mainly due to a liberal immigration policy and an infrastructure which did not keep up. 5 years later, they have come up with arrogant tactics and a completely befuddling “ownself-check-ownself” governing philosophy.

    We have seen numerous cases of lack of transparency in recent times, including the Hep C outbreak at SGH which was not made public until a later stage, we had the case where residents in Sengkang felt cheated after plans to build a columbarium was labelled as a ‘temple’ instead.

    When the trains have new problems such as mysterious ‘signalling fault’, there was no sound or trace of apology from their favourite fixer Khaw Boon Wan. Instead, he chose to pretend that everything was fine, celebrating openings and gatherings on his Facebook page.

    Looking at the by-election of 2016 (which was caused in part because of the actions of their own MP), ministers and even junior MPs took the liberty to ‘whack’ their opponent’s character. When another by-election took place 3 years before, they resorted to no such thing with Lee Li Lian.

    Their jokes even continued abroad! Mainstream media was so proud that Pinky got invited to a US State dinner but did not boast as much when he later ended up offending China by commenting on their territorial dispute and later prove their foreign policy lapses by offending Trump!

    If the average man thinks that these issues do not affect him, look at the price increases: parking charges and waste collection charges (which Leong Sze Hian dug and found an increased surplus)! Even though there is a drop in transport charges, it is not as much as the drop in oil prices!

    Ask yourselves: has the PAP given you a better life since the last General Elections? If the answer is no, the PAP must be very thick-skinned to tell us that they wish to check themselves! Is this even right given their recent track record?

    I can only conclude that they have gotten worse and need someone like the SDP to keep them in check!

     

    Source: www.allsingaporestuff.com

  • PAP Looking For Suitable Candidates In Preparation For Next Elections

    PAP Looking For Suitable Candidates In Preparation For Next Elections

    The People’s Action Party has started preparing for the next general election, Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong said.

    Mr Lee told past and present PAP MPs at a dinner in Parliament House on Tuesday night that he has asked Health Minister Gan Kim Yong to take charge of the process of identifying new candidates.

    And Mr Gan, who takes over the task from Defence Minister Ng Eng Hen, has already started work to prepare for GE2021.

    He told reporters that the first tea session with potential candidates is likely to take place by the end of this month.

    PM Lee and Mr Gan were at a dinner to thank retired PAP MPs for their contributions to the party over the years.

    Mr Lee said he was glad the PAP secured a clear mandate from Singaporeans across the board at the Sept 11 general election.

    And while national factors like the SG50 celebrations and Government policies like the Pioneer Generation Package played a part, the hard work MPs had put in was crucial to the strong result, he added.

    The PAP won 83 out of 89 seats and nearly 70 per cent of the popular vote at GE2015.

    Mr Lee also said a key contribution retiring MPs had made was to help their successors settle in on the ground.

    And the PAP was helped by the fact that after GE2011, it identified and deployed potential new candidates early.

    “This gave them time to learn and settle in, and gave the public time to size them up and warm to them,” Mr Lee said.

    “It’s certainly something we want to do again next time,” he added.

    The PAP has also improved the process of candidate selection, and included seasoned activists, senior backbenchers as well as members with private sector experience who were practised in assessing candidates for posts.

    This gave the party a diversity of perspectives, and helped it make sharper and more reliable assessments of potential candidates, Mr Lee added.

    Mr Lee also thanked the 15 retired MPs, who collectively served almost 250 years in Parliament, for improving community life in their wards and speaking up on a wide range of national issues.

    They include former Deputy Prime Minister Wong Kan Seng, who entered politics with PM Lee in 1984, and former minister Mah Bow Tan, who first stood in 1984 and was elected in 1988.

    Others who retired include four who were elected in 1997: Mr Hawazi Daipi, Mr Inderjit Singh, Mr Seng Han Thong and Mr Yeo Guat Kwang.

    “Some spoke forcefully and vigorously in Parliament, while others made your points firmly but in your own quiet and equally effective way,” he said.

    For example, Mr Yeo Guat Kwang, a four-term MP who was redeployed to Aljunied GRC at the last election, raised a rare private member’s bill to improve laws related to animal welfare last year, which Mr Lee called a “considerable undertaking”.

    He also highlighted the five former officeholders who retired from politics at the GE – Mr Hawazi Daipi, Mr Mah Bow Tan, Mr Raymond Lim, Mr Lui Tuck Yew and Mr Wong Kan Seng – for their valuable contributions in their portfolios.

    He singled out former Cabinet ministers Mr Mah, Mr Lim and Mr Wong, for staying on another term as backbenchers and “taking good care of their ground while nurturing able successors”.

    Culture, Community and Youth Minister Grace Fu, who is Leader of the House, also paid tribute to the retired MPs, especially former Deputy Prime Minister Mr Wong Kan Seng and Senior Parliamentary Secretary Mr Hawazi Daipi, for coaching the new candidates selflessly and generously.

    She also thanked the spouses of the newly retired MPs by quoting recently-retired MP Hri Kumar Nair who had said: “When an MP is elected, his entire family serves.”

    “When an MP is out serving the residents, a father or mother, a husband or wife, a son or daughter is out there serving. The spouse, parents or older children have had to step in to look after the home front,” she added.

     

    Source: http://news.asiaone.com

  • The Arab Spring-Democracy Will Not Work In Singapore

    The Arab Spring-Democracy Will Not Work In Singapore

    This election is not our Arab Spring.

    I remember lots of folks cheering for the spread of democracy in the Middle East, fueled by social media and a surge of emotion for change.

    “This is it! This will make history!”

    It happened, Egypt had her revolution and soon after the heroes became villains and the excited bystanders in the media and ordinary people like you and me looked away.

    But old habits die hard. It doesn’t matter that we see America’s export of democratic experiments failing time and again. We can’t let go of the movies of “one man against the world” or “giving it to the man”.

    But many of those upheavals were in countries that were having problems.

    Not First World Problems.
    Not “I can’t buy a car” problems.
    Or “you don’t make me feel like I am complete” problems.

    No, people in those countries were staring down a barrel of a gun.
    They were being trafficked and raped and beaten.

    So that they reached for some desperate promise of freedom is almost understandable.

    But here in Singapore?

    What are we wanting in our version of democracy?

    It seems many of the opposition parties
    are posturing for our Arab Spring.
    “Vote for us and you will truly democratic! You know, like the West!”
    “Cos more dissenting voices in parliament is always better, right?”

    And more of the same old boring ideas:
    Minimum wage as the cure all.
    Extravagant government spending with no talk of higher taxation to pay for it.

    Look, we just need to fire up a browser and look at how countries around the world are doing.

    Just look.

    What Singapore has doesn’t look like the “norm” because some folks have been innovating this little red dot out of those knots for years now.

    Do you think water independence could have been had in an American context?

    Look at the hoops Obama had to jump through for Obamacare. Singapore pretty much turned on a dime there.

    What we have is very different.

    We need to think whether drinking the koolaid of being more like the democratic world will work when the world doesn’t stick around when things falls apart.

     

    Source: Wally Tham

  • The Opposition State Of Play: Who’s Running Where In General Elections?

    The Opposition State Of Play: Who’s Running Where In General Elections?

    A week after the Opposition first met to lay claim and discuss the constituencies they would contest at the upcoming General Election, it appears the parties have managed to strike a compromise to avoid multi-corner fights in all but one of the 29 electoral divisions.

    Following announcements on Monday (Aug 10) by Singaporeans First and the National Solidarity Party, it appears that only the single seat of Potong Pasir – the smallest constituency on the political landscape – may see a three-cornered contest – and only because of an independent candidate, who has said he would throw his hat into the ring.

    On Monday, NSP said it would no longer field candidates to contest Marine Parade GRC and MacPherson SMC – two constituencies that the Workers’ Party had staked claim to earlier. In a surprising turn of events, the Singapore Democratic Party (SDP) said it would allow the NSP to run in Sembawang GRC, even though the SDP had contested the constituency in the 2011 General Election.

    Not long after, SingFirst announced that it would step aside in Ang Mo Kio GRC to allow the Reform Party to go head-to-head with the People’s Action Party team led by Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong.

    These were the last points of contention between the established Opposition parties following their two meetings on Aug 3 and 6.

    The parties had also agreed to avoid multi-corner fights at the 13 single seats. However, former NSP Secretary-General Tan Lam Siong has said he may contest Potong Pasir as an independent candidate.

    Current Singapore People’s Party Non-Constituency Member of Parliament Lina Chiam has indicated she will contest the ward, which was helmed by her husband Chiam See Tong for 27 years. Mrs Chiam lost the 2011 ballot by just 114 votes.

    WHO’S RUNNING WHERE?

    There is no surprise that the Workers’ Party – which currently has 7 elected members in Parliament, as well as two NCMPs – is the Opposition party set to contest the most seats: 28. This is 5 more than the 23 candidates it fielded in 2011.

    Three other parties – SDP, NSP and RP – look set to field 11 candidates each.

    The SDP is eyeing Holland-Bukit Timah and Marsiling-Yew Tee GRCs, as well as three SMCs: Bukit Batok, Bukit Panjang and Yuhua. The NSP said it will contest Tampines and Sembawang GRCs as well as Pioneer SMC. Meanwhile, RP will look to field teams in Ang Mo Kio and West Coast GRCs as well as a candidate in Radin Mas SMC.

    SingFirst has indicated it will field 10 candidates in two five-member GRCs – Jurong and Tanjong Pagar.

    The SPP, headed by Mr Chiam See Tong, and the Democratic Progressive Party – headed by Mr Benjamin Pwee, who ran under the SPP banner in 2011 – will collectively challenge for eight seats. SPP will field candidates in Potong Pasir, Mountbatten and Hong Kah North, while a joint team will be fielded for the 5-member Bishan-Toa Payoh GRC. It is not yet known under which party banner the GRC team will be fielded.

    Helmed by Secretary-General Desmond Lim, the Singapore Democratic Alliance will again field a six-man slate in Pasir Ris-Punggol, where it took 35.21 per cent of the vote in 2011. The People’s Power Party – started by Mr Goh Meng Seng, another former NSP Secretary-General – will field the smallest team of all the Opposition parties, contesting in the 4-member Chua Chu Kang GRC.

     

    Source: www.channelnewsasia.com