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Tag: Hougang SMC

  • 15 Quotes That Sums Up Worker’s Party’s First Rally At Hougang

    15 Quotes That Sums Up Worker’s Party’s First Rally At Hougang

    The first Workers’ Party (WP) at Hougang just ended and from the looks of the many photos on social media, it looked like the gig of the year.

    What…

    The…


    Heck…

     

    According to the Electoral Boundaries Review Committee, there are 24,064 residents in Hougang.

    The crowd certainly looks like its “Hougang core” has just faced a severe immigration problem.

    Anyway, here are some quotable quotes that stood out at the rally tonight.

    Yee Jenn Jong – WP candidate for Marine Parade GRC.

    1. “Because Marine should be blue. Not white!”

    2. “Actually they (Goh Chok Tong and Tan Chuan-Jin) are all mistaken. The rooster does not crow to make the sun rise. It crows every morning because it’s morning and it’s time to wake up.”

    3. “Four and a half years later, by the grand wisdom of a small committee of people, Joo Chiat SMC is now no more.”

    Daniel Goh – WP candidate for East Coast GRC.

    4.” They (Goh’s family and friends) told me: ‘They will throw the kitchen sink at you – that one is American expression. The local equivalent is: ‘They will even throw the toilet bowl at you. Everything inside.’”

    5. “Life is too short and special to be kiasu, kiasi and kiakwai (afraid of ghosts).”

    Png Eng Huat – WP candidate for Hougang SMC

    6. “The Workers’ Party has never set up a $2 private limited company.”

    7. “The PAP would rather fix the opposition, than the transportation system”

    8. “The PAP government is not a government of the future, but a ghost of the past.”

    Pritam Singh – WP candidate for Aljunied GRC

    9. “The PAP has worked overtime to ensure that a Singapore of checks and balances does not occur or make progress.”

    10. “Is this the future we want for Singapore or our children in the next 50 years? Ownself check ownself?

    11. “AIM is a beautiful metaphor for the politics that takes place in Singapore in our town council. Residents first pay for a computer system which is then sold to a PAP-owned company”

    Sylvia Lim – Chairperson of WP and candidate for Aljunied GRC

    12. “I thought the civil service only work five day week? But I received letters from Saturday and Sunday as well. They are probably listening to our speeches now. They are as good as a 24/7 EMSU unit.”

    13. “Many Town Councils also overpaid, including Nee Soon Town Council.”

    14. “Without Hougang, the Workers’ Party would not have Aljunied or Punggol East.”

    Low Thia Khiang – Secretary-General of WP and candidate for Aljunied GRC

    15. (in Teochew) “PAP looks for a small hole and keeps digging like its life depends on it.”

     

    Source: http://mothership.sg

  • WP Will Check On The PAP!

    WP Will Check On The PAP!

    CHAN Ah Pek sat in his chair and took a sip of kopi. What a night. He knew it was going to be crowded, of course. But when he heard that his buddy Low was going to be at the rally, he thought, well maybe he might want to get a cup of kopi with him after, catch up. Well, he would just have to catch him another time.

    It was good to see him on stage though, the old man thought as he closed his eyes, recalling the scene at the open field outside Blk 837 in Hougang Central. He seemed confident, as he usually did, but perhaps a little tired. Still, the crowd loved him. His speech was entirely in fluent Teochew – usually, he would also speak in Mandarin at these rallies but he ran out of time, he said. It was 10pm. Had to close shop. Well, that was fine. Ah Pek was getting a little sleepy himself.

    He took another sip of kopi and tried to recall what his buddy said. He was most passionate when he spoke on the AHPETC controversy, Ah Pek thought. The G had checked the town council’s accounts for 10 months, and couldn’t find anything, he said. If he was really corrupt, he would have long been taken away and locked up by the CPIB. The crowd cheered, drowning out Ah Pek’s own thoughts, which was how he really didn’t care that much about the whole affair. He was tired of reading it in the papers every day, frankly.

    But it was a topic that came up several times. That Indian man, Mr Pritam Singh. He was talking about how town councils were being used as political tools against the Opposition, and perhaps, should they be returned to the Housing Board and be run by them instead? Also Mr Png Eng Huat, who talked about how the G was “highly mischievous” for suggesting that the party had caused the multi-constituency town council to fall into a deficit since both Aljunied and Punggol East were in surplus before they were taken over by the Opposition. He had a few choice words for the PAP, but it was this line that stood out for Ah Pek, and for the crowd – that the PAP was “not a party of the future, but a ghost of the past”.

    Then of course, there was that lady, Ms Sylvia Lim. She seemed very frustrated, Ah Pek thought. Apparently, the Ministry of National Development (MND) has been sending her letters asking her questions about AHPETC – even on the weekends. “I thought they work only a five-day week?” she had asked incredulously.

    Her defence of AHPETC was passionate, that much Ah Pek could tell just from her opening line: “I am the chairman of AHPETC. And I’m proud of it.” And when she went on to bust what she called the four myths about the town council, she really sounded like she knew what she was talking about.

    The details were too convoluted for Ah Pek to recall, but it wasn’t that different from what he had read over the past few days while having his morning kopi at the coffeeshop: That the Workers’ Party did not use AHPETC to reserve contracts for friends, that it did not “overpay” its managing agent, that they did not “freely sign cheques to themselves” – and lastly, that the town council was doing just fine. The beginning was tough, she acknowledged, but “we have turned things around”, she said.

    Ah Pek tried to remember what the other candidates had said. He took another sip of his kopi.

    He liked the sociology professor, Dr Daniel Goh. He had said that “life was too short to be kiasu, kiasi, and kiagui”. Fear of losing, dying, and ghosts. Again with the ghosts! Was it because it’s the 7th month? Ah Pek wondered. So much fear, all because of the PAP’s policies that made education stressful for children, caused prices to go up, and people afraid to lose their jobs. Especially those who already were struggling daily to make ends meet. Now this Ah Pek was interested in – and he was glad that these subjects were touched on by the other people on the stage, even as he wondered sometimes if it was fair to blame everything on the PAP. The crowd certainly seemed to think so. Ah Pek tried to remember their names but failed. During the three-hour rally, including his buddy Low, there had been 14 people who spoke.

    There were two men who talked about where they contested in the last election. One said he had kept his promise and returned; the other said there was nothing to return to – his constituency was now gone. There was a lawyer, a new candidate competing in a new SMC, who argued for more diversity in Parliament as a solution to the pitfalls of “groupthink” in a one-party dominated government.

    That was also a point made by the man who spoke in lightly accented Mandarin – though, he spent too much time talking about roosters in the East and in the West, Ah Pek thought.

    But what was all this diversity for? That was when things started to sound very similar to the Workers’ Party’s rallies that Ah Pek had gone to in 2011. To be a check against the G, almost all of them had said.

    Ah Pek took another sip of his kopi, and was startled by a low growling sound coming from his kitchen. He got up and went to investigate, and caught a glimpse of a small furry creature racing across the linoleum floor into the back of the fridge.

     

    Source: http://themiddleground.sg

  • Workers’ Party, PAP, To Launch Rally Tonight In Radin Mas And Hougang SMC

    Workers’ Party, PAP, To Launch Rally Tonight In Radin Mas And Hougang SMC

    Poised at what the ruling People’s Action Party (PAP) deems a critical juncture in its history, the Republic yesterday entered what will be its most intensely fought elections ever, with a record 181 candidates vying for 89 seats in Parliament.

    After nominations were closed at the stroke of noon, the record books had a new entry: All 16 Group Representation Constituencies (GRCs) and 13 Single-Member Constituencies (SMCs) were contested, the first time since Singapore’s independence that an election will see a battle in every ward.

    Yet, few surprises were sprung on a day that has traditionally thrown up its fair share. Almost everything went according to script, save for an independent candidate who appeared out of the blue to throw his hat into the ring, and in the process help the 2015 GE to notch another entry into the books: It will see the most multi-cornered fights in almost a quarter of a century, with the MacPherson, Radin Mas and Bukit Batok single-seat wards all seeing three-way contests.

    Despite the tumult caused within the National Solidarity Party by its decision to go head-to-head with the Workers’ Party and the PAP in MacPherson — which led to the resignation of its head, Ms Hazel Poa, and a subsequent reversal by central executive committee member Steve Chia, who entered the ring, only to withdraw his candidacy later — the NSP stuck to its guns and entered the fray.

    At Radin Mas SMC, the fight will be between the PAP, the Reform Party and independent candidate Han Hui Hui, an activist who had previously made headlines for her protests against the Central Provident Fund.

    While private-car driver Shirwin Eu had his hopes of standing in the GE dashed after he failed to garner the required signatures, Mr Samir Salim Neji, 45 — who was previously virtually unheard of — turned up at Keming Primary School and successfully filed his papers to contest in Bukit Batok SMC.

    Mr Samir, the managing director of business planning software company Anaplan Asia Pacific, will go up against PAP’s David Ong and Singapore Democratic Party candidate Sadasivam Veriyah. Adding that he stands for “more happiness and less stress”, Mr Samir told reporters that he wants to turn Bukit Batok into a “start-up village”.

    At the eight other Nomination Centres across the island, there was little drama, with party supporters — who gathered as early as 8am before making their way to the centres with the candidates — in good voice and spirits despite the hot sun, notwithstanding the jeering at some of the candidates from sections of the crowd.

    While the support was fiercely partisan, the mood was mostly benign and friendly — and this extended to the halls, where candidates were busy making sure their papers were in order.

    Two PAP candidates, Mr S Iswaran and Ms Grace Fu, alerted their opponents to mistakes in their forms, helping them avoid disqualification. In return, Reform Party chief Kenneth Jeyaretnam and SDP candidate Jaslyn Go showed appreciation for the gesture, even as they downplayed the significance of the errors.

    With the battle joined, rallies will begin tonight, with the PAP and WP getting off the blocks in Radin Mas and Hougang, respectively.

    Over the next eight days, rallies could be held at 46 rally sites — comprising one for each SMC, two for each GRC and a lunchtime rally venue in the Central Business District — across the island, before Cooling-Off Day puts the brakes on campaigning and voting takes place on Sept 11.

    The WP has indicated that it plans to hold a rally every night over the campaigning period.

    Yesterday, hours after the morning frenzy at the Nomination Centres ended, political parties began sending their representatives to apply for permits for the sites. These included supporters of Singapore People’s Party Mountbatten candidate Jeannette Chong-Aruldoss, PAP grassroots volunteers for Marine Parade GRC and Potong Pasir SMC, and a group of WP supporters representing teams from various constituencies.

    In an advisory issued yesterday, the police strongly encouraged people to take public transport to the rally sites, given the large crowds expected. It added that motorists travelling near the rallies should be prepared for traffic diversions or lane closures. Real-time updates on the traffic situation will be broadcast on radio.

    The police also sought the cooperation of supporters and members of the public to assemble at, and disperse from, the rally sites in an orderly manner. It issued a reminder that the operation of Unmanned Aerial Vehicles or drones is prohibited for public safety reasons, and added that police officers will be deployed at the rally sites to maintain law and order.

     

    Source: www.todayonline.com