Tag: MPs

The Singapore Government By The Numbers
Which school in Singapore has produced the most number of office-holders in the 2015 Singapore Cabinet? How many doctors and lawyers are there in the mix? How many made the jump from military service to political office? Who is the youngest and who is the oldest person in Government?

On Monday (Sept 28), Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong revealed his new Cabinet following the Sept 11 election, in which the ruling People’s Action Party won a 69.9 per cent of the votes.

He introduced a new Coordinating Minister role which will be undertaken by his two deputies – Mr Teo Chee Hean (National Security) and Mr Tharman Shanmugaratnam (Economic and Social Policies) – as well as veteran minister Khaw Boon Wan, who will be Transport minister as well as co-ordinate issues related to Infrastructure.

Mr Lee also put younger faces in key posts, including first-time MPs Ng Chee Meng and Ong Ye Kung who will both be Acting Minister in the Education portfolio.

Among them are several former principal private secretaries (PPS):
- Mr Khaw Boon Wan, Minister for Transport and Coordinating Minister for Infrastructure, was PPS to former Prime Minister Goh Chok Tong (1992 to 1995).
- Mr Heng Swee Keat, Minister for Finance, was PPS to then Senior Minister Lee Kuan Yew (1997 to 2000).
- Mr Lawrence Wong, Minister for National Development, was PPS to Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong (2005 to 2008).
- Mr Chee Hong Tat, Minister of State for Communications and Information and Health, was PPS to Mr Lee Kuan Yew (2008 to 2011).
- Mr Ong Ye Kung, Acting Minister for Education (Higher Education and Skills) and Senior Minister of State for Defence, was PPS to PM Lee Hsien Loong (2002 to 2005).
There are also several former military men:
- PM Lee was a Brigadier-General in the army.
- Mr Teo Chee Hean, Deputy Prime Minister and Coordinating Minister for National Security, was the Chief of Navy.
- Mr Chan Chun Sing, Minister in Prime Minister’s Office and Government Whip, was the Chief of Army.
- Mr Tan Chuan-Jin, Minister for Social and Family Development, was a Brigadier-General in the army.
- Mr Ng Chee Meng, Acting Minister of Education (Schools) and Senior Minister of State for Transport, was Chief of Defence Force.
Here is a look at the Singapore Government by the numbers.

Source: www.straitstimes.com
October 1, 2015
Lee Hsien Loong: Electoral Boundaries Committe Formed Two Months Ago

The committee that reviews electoral boundaries was formed two months ago, a sign that the general election is round the corner.

Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong announced the formation of the Electoral Boundaries Review Committee on Monday, in response to questions in Parliament.

The forming of the committee, which redraws constituency boundaries ahead of a general election, is the first formal step towards calling a GE.

Leading up to the polls in 2006 and 2011, the committee had taken four months to do its work before issuing its report.

While there is no fixed date for the election to be called after the report is submitted, it has taken as short as one day and as long as one month and 26 days in the past.

Mr Lee told the House that he had asked the Committee in its review to consider the population shifts and housing developments since the last boundary delineation exercise.

He also asked them to consider having smaller group representation constituencies, so as to reduce the average size of such constituencies to below five members, and have at least 12 single member constituencies. There are currently 15 group representation constituencies and 12 single-seat constituencies.

“As per past practice, the Committee is chaired by the Secretary to Prime Minister. It is now in the midst of its deliberations and will make its recommendations to me when it is ready,” said Mr Lee.

He was responding to questions from People’s Action Party MP Arthur Fong (West Coast GRC) and Non-Constituency MP Yee Jenn Jong of the Workers’ Party on whether the committee has been formed.

Mr Lee added that he could not promise a minimum period between the publication of the report and the calling of a general election, which Mr Yee had asked for.

The reason is that “it depends very much on the exigencies of the situation, and … on when elections become necessary,” said the Prime Minister.

The committee’s work is to split or shrink group representation constituencies, and absorb or create more single-member constituencies, based largely on population shifts.

It is appointed by the Prime Minister and is usually made up of five civil servants.

Mr Yee had asked if the committee’s members can be drawn from various political parties as well, as it was done before Singapore became independent.

Mr Lee said the committee has, for many years, comprised civil servants with experience and domain knowledge.

This allows them to make considered decisions on how to divide up the constituencies, taking into account population shifts and housing developments in Singapore, and prevents “complete upheaval” each time the boundaries are redrawn, he added.

“As for bringing political parties in, I’m not sure that’s an entirely good idea,” he said, adding that this is the practice in the United States.

In America, members of the House of Representatives decide on the demarcation of electoral boundaries, said Mr Lee, and “what happens is they carve it up among themselves”.

“It’s a political deal. I think that’s not a good arrangement. I think it’s best we leave this to the civil servants to work at,” he added.

Furthermore, Mr Lee said that he would leave the committee to decide whether it would open its meeting minutes to the public, as Mr Yee had requested.

But he added: “I don’t believe that it is helpful to have every twist and turn in the minutes reported and published. I think the committee’s report is the final word.”

After the committee’s report is released, Parliament is dissolved and the writ of election issued. Nomination Day – which must take place no earlier than five days and no later than one month after the writ is issued – then signals the start of the campaign period, leading up to Polling Day.

This process took between two and seven months in the past GEs.

Source: www.straitstimes.com

July 13, 2015
I Am Disappointed With PAP Muslim MP Dr Intan Azura

A few years back, my son was conned into signing for iPhone and later all the telcos went after him for subscription fee.

He just turned 18 and the conman told him to sign for the iPhone while the conman pretended to be a surveyor looking at how the counter personnel perform, after which took the iPhone away from my son, saying that he will return the iPhone back, which of course the conman took them away for good. However, the conman got arrested after that. The telcos did not want to waive the subscription and insist that my son pay them in full even though we provided the arrest report.

The first time we went to see Dr Intan Azura, I needed to go somewhere else urgently so my son got to meet her personally. Do you know what she said?

She asked my son to pay all the telcos in installment so that this can be a lesson to him. I was totally shocked that she could say something like that?

So my son was totally devastated and wanted to quit school to pay the subscription… You see what kind of person this Intan is ? She literally refused to help him…

I am not going to sit down and accept this, so I went to another session and really get the copywriter to make another letter to state all the facts again… this time I got the waiver from all the telcos.

And Intan did not lift a finger to help her constituents at all… So she is really a useless person in actual fact.

Zulkifli Jabal

September 26, 2014
Time for Muslim MPs To Take a Stand on Malay and Muslim Issues

Photo Credit: Yahoo SG

WP MP Faisal Manap raises some concerns of Muslims, as expressed in the Suara Musyawarah Report, in Parliament.

Instead of addressing the issue head-on, PAP Muslim MPs tries to corner Faisal into taking a stand on the issue (which he didn’t, and i think he should have). Later, the MPs were either silent on the issue or tried to skirt it, or even deny it.

Now i have a few questions for the Muslim MPs:

1) Is the Suara Musyawarah Report not commissioned by the government? If so, what is the follow-up?

2) What is the attitude of the Muslim MPs towards the report? Take what you like from it, and ignore what you don’t?

3) If the latter is the case, why have the report in the first place?

4) Even IF those things stated are not true, those are indeed the perceptions of many Muslims. Will you address those perceptions with facts and figures, and reasoned argumentation? Or will those just be dismissed or ignored?

I call upon them to take a stand on these issues/questions, in the name of constructive politics.

Authored by Walid Jumblatt Abdullah

Walid Jumblatt Abdullah, a public-spirited individual, is an ongoing Political Science student of the National University of Singapore (NUS). He is a three-times award recipient of the Graduate Student Teaching (GSTA) Award Honour Roll in 2012. In the recent NUS Commencement Week, he was also selected as the Valedictorian of his cohort.

EDITOR’S NOTE

Seems like both parties cranked up their engines harder this time round with fancy new measures and proposals. The announcement on setting up of WP Malay/Muslim committee to oversee concerns faced by the community should have been done way much earlier. Nevertheless, it’s better late than never. We applaud WP to help the community alongside PAP. Having two different approaches and perspectives to issues will definitely result in expedited progress, only if sole focus is on the community, and not about the respective parties and what’s important to them.

We are glad that more and more Muslims are speaking up for what’s good for their community. This is our country and in a significant way, we have the right to decide our future. As long that discussions are not baseless and no vulgarities involved, someday somehow someone will hear us.

May 30, 2014