Tag: PAP

ST Correspondent: Government Should Help Beef Up SMRT Resources To Fix Problems

In an opinion piece in the Straits Times on Thursday, 09 July, the newspaper’s Senior Transport Correspondent, Christopher Tan, says “apologies from the operator, regulator or the Government” over Tuesday’s island-wide MRT shut-down “are beginning to sound glib and hollow.”

However, Mr Tan also suggested that “the Government should step in to help beef up resources required for SMRT to make things right quickly.”

In Parliament in February, the Government revealed that in total, S$40 billion would have been spent on the PTOs over the next 10 years, that is S$4b a year. (See here: “Parliament: Government spends $4b a year on transport infrastructure and subsidies“.)

Do you think it is prudent for the Government to pour in even more resources into SMRT, resources which ultimately will have to come from commuters and taxpayers?

Source: www.theonlinecitizen.com

July 9, 2015
30 Years In Chong Pang – K Shanmugam

After nearly 30 years, tales of woe, triumph, joy and loss have formed a mental library of memories. Some of them remain vivid.

In one of his first few Meet-the-People Sessions as a Member of Parliament for Sembawang GRC, a resident wanted Mr K. Shanmugam to build helipads on top of HDB blocks for medical evacuation, the Minister recalled with a laugh.

Since he was elected in the 1988 General Election, Mr Shanmugam has been serving the Chong Pang ward and attending weekly Meet-the-People Sessions.

The area, which consists of about 40,000 residents, is now part of the five-member Nee Soon GRC which Mr Shanmugam leads. The other MPs in Nee Soon are Dr Lee Bee Wah, Dr Lim Wee Kiak, Associate Professor Muhammad Faishal Ibrahim and Mr Patrick Tay.

Of the resident who requested helipads, he said: “(The man went to the session) simply to give trouble to an MP. He wasn’t mentally unsound. He was all together. He knew what he was doing. But he just wanted to make unreasonable demands.”

There is a small number of people who are like that, Mr Shanmugam added, whose unreasonable demands stop him from attending to the more genuine cases.

Mr Shanmugam tried to reason with the man but “he wasn’t listening, he wasn’t interested in my answer”.

Despite that rocky start, most of his memories in the area are happy ones.

Asked about his fondest memories from being an MP, he smiled and said: “That’s a very difficult question.”

“(There are) so many different moments. In the end, it’s people reaching out to you, forming the networks, forming the community support groups and helping people,” he said.

“There are countless stories of people helping each other, people helping me and me helping people.”

Calling Chong Pang an area where there is a strong “kampung spirit”, he said the residents do not go to him just to get help but also to help one another.

The minister cited a case of an elderly woman selling vegetables at a bus stop in the area.

“(She was a) very warm, very friendly, very old lady. She didn’t want to take any kind of assistance and wanted to earn her own living,” he said.

But residents had complained about her causing a mess and as a result, the National Environmental Agency (NEA) told her to stop selling vegetables there.

Other residents found out about it and alerted Mr Shanmugam, who wrote to NEA to appeal on her behalf.

“NEA was good enough to give her a licence,” he said.

There is also a case from 15 years ago that still stands out for him.

A young, pregnant woman was about to go to jail for hiring illegal workers in her father’s laundry business.

Not wanting her child to be born in jail, she was going to terminate the pregnancy and Mr Shanmugam found out about it.

He advised her not to abort the baby and sent appeals to the Attorney-General’s Chambers and the Ministry of Home Affairs on her behalf.

At that time, he was still a practising lawyer and would ask his colleagues to attend the woman’s court hearings to keep him updated.

The woman was eventually let off with a fine and her daughter is now 14 years old.

When it was mentioned that it was cases like these that endeared him to residents, he let out a rare smile and said: “I hope so.”

“(There are) so many different moments… In the end, it’s people reaching out to you, forming the networks, forming the community support groups and helping people. There are countless stories of people helping each other, people helping me, and me helping people.”

– Mr K. Shanmugam on his fondest memories from nearly three decades as an MP

On General Election

OUTSPOKEN: Criminal lawyer and pro bono advocate Josephus Tan is now in Chua Chu Kang GRC. ST FILE PHOTO

Asked about preparations for a possible General Election, Mr Shanmugam said preparations have be ongoing.

“The latest you can have it is early 2017, so it’s a good bet it’s going to be the next year or so.

“Many people think it might be faster than that. And you don’t wait until the last minute (to) prepare,” he said.

On the issue of possible new candidates, Mr Shanmugam said with a laugh that many had already been identified by the media.

“(Some of these people have) been in my branch and they’ve been in other places. I wouldn’t know if they’re going to stand for certain,” he said.

“But I know that there are people who have started in my branch and are in a number of different places now, that much I can say.

“You have Henry (Kwek), you have Louis (Ng), you have (Yee) Chia Hsing in Punggol, quite a few.”

MOVEMENTS

Mr Kwek, 39, executive director of a food supply company, started out as a branch secretary in Chong Pang but has joined veteran MP Inderjit Singh in Kebun Baru in Ang Mo Kio GRC.

Animal rights activist Ng, 37, who started out doing grassroots work in Chong Pang, was moved at the start of the year to Joo Chiat constituency under veteran MP Charles Chong.

Mr Yee, who works at CIMB Bank, also started out in Chong Pang but is now branch chairman of the People’s Action Party at Punggol East.

Asked about criminal lawyer and pro bono advocate Josephus Tan, who has been very outspoken about his grassroots work in Chong Pang, Mr Shanmugam smiled and nodded.

“Yes, Josephus is now in Chua Chu Kang (GRC),” he said.

On animal cruelty

ANIMAL LOVER: Mr Shanmugam and his wife with Zorro, a mongrel they later adopted. PHOTO: NEE SOON GRASSROOTS ORGANIZATION

Mr Shanmugam said that when it comes to animal welfare, one has be realistic.

“However much society progresses, there will always be a small minority – and you hope that it’s a small minority – that engages in wanton cruelty against other human beings,” he said.

He was responding to questions about the recent cases where cats in Pasir Ris were believed to have been fed poisoned fish flakes and an old, blind dog that was abandoned in a plastic bag in Siglap on June 21.

Mr Shanmugam said: “Different traits of irresponsibility, inflicting of pain, cruelty – all these are human characteristics. Thankfully, I would say, it’s in a very small minority. That’s where you need tough laws and you need to enforce them.”

DIFFICULTY

Looking down for a brief moment, he added: “The difficulty with cruelty to animals is that it’s hard to find who perpetrated the crimes.”

Mr Shanmugam’s love for animals has been well documented.

A strong advocate of animal welfare in Parliament, he has four dogs of his own – all adopted from animal shelters.

“I’ve always liked animals, I’ve always wanted to have pets but it wasn’t possible for a number of different reasons,” he said, adding that his first two dogs were mongrels.

One was from a shelter and the other had been given up by a family moving from a house to a flat.

“In Singapore, mongrels are not easily adopted. And if someone didn’t adopt them, they’d most likely be put down,” he said.

Source: www.tnp.sg

July 6, 2015
PAP Should Field Strong Team In Aljunied GRC

First of all, I just want to come out and say that the Group Representation Constituency (GRC) is a scheme conjured up by the PAP to retain more seats in the parliament. The other ways of skewing the electorate to their advantage are: redrawing electoral boundaries, and punishing opposition GRCs and SRCs by withholding services.

I do not support the concept of GRC at all. I strongly believe if the PAP is masculine enough, they will man up, and allow for only man-to-man square off in each constituency. No need to sneak in weaker candidates on the coat tails of stronger ministers… but if this is how the PAP wants to play, let’s play.

I propose the following team for the PAP in Aljunied. If I were the PAP, I would field the strongest team possible in the Aljunied GRC. Don’t just talk. Do. Put your money where your mouth is. Unless, of course, if the PAP has no confidence.

Here goes. The 5 PAP candidates should be:
1) PM LHL
2) DPM Tharman
3) DPM TCH
4) Minister Ng Eng Hen
5) Minister Kee Chiu Sing.

If you cannot win with your A team, you have no business running the government, and for that matter, Singapore.

Let’s bring it, shall we, PAP. Show some guts for once.

National Slavery

Source: http://renounce-sg.blogspot.com.au

July 6, 2015
PAP Caught In Catch-22 Situation In Aljunied GRC

The ruling People’s Action Party (PAP) organising secretary Ng Eng Hen’s latest comments on PAP’s readiness for the next polls are another sign the General Election could be near, possibly soon after the National Day Rally, said political analysts.

And ratcheting up intrigue in the forthcoming elections, which must be held by January 2017, they added, are Dr Ng’s comments about the PAP’s strategy for the electoral battle in Aljunied and the make-up of the possible new candidates it has found.

In an interview with The Sunday Times published yesterday, Dr Ng, speaking on contesting Workers’ Party (WP) in Aljunied Group Representation Constituency (GRC), was quoted as saying: “Why would we want to field somebody that we know has a higher chance of being rejected and deprive ourselves of an office-holder?”

Analysts said such a strategy captured the challenges the PAP faces in reclaiming the first-ever GRC it lost — its team of candidates in 2011 included several ministers and Mr Ong Ye Kung, a new face touted as a potential office-holder. Whether the WP keeps its team in Aljunied intact — headlined by party chief Low Thia Khiang and chairman Sylvia Lim — is one factor to consider, they said.

Former Nominated Member of Parliament Eugene Tan said the PAP is caught in a Catch-22 situation: “Putting heavyweight candidates may reflect how seriously the party wants to win back Aljunied, but they could risk losing office-holders. However, taking the less risky option almost certainly results in a situation where WP is more likely than not to retain their seats.”

Dr Gillian Koh, senior research fellow at the Institute of Policy Studies, added: “For things to flip in Aljunied, minimally, it will have to be the case where voters decide they do not want a WP team, or that the WP splits the two big leaders from the GRC. It will not be a vote for a PAP team.”

What compounds the equation is the theory that the best time to claw back a constituency is immediately after it has been lost, said Associate Professor Tan. “After a while, voters could become comfortable with the fact that it has become an opposition ward, as with Hougang.”

However, political scientist Bilveer Singh, from the National University of Singapore, said that should the WP leaders venture into other constituencies, it would weaken the party’s position and the public may “punish the WP for ‘abandoning’ them”.

He hypothesised that the PAP could stay away from pushing the issue. “At a strategic level, Dr Ng may be signalling that the PAP can live with Aljunied being run by the WP. It is good for democracy and, yet, having exposed the problems of bad governance that Aljunied residents will have to live with, the choice will be up to the voters,” he said, referring to the scrutiny on the opposition party’s town council management.

With Dr Ng indicating that the slate of new PAP candidates is ready, Assoc Prof Tan felt that the polls could be called within the next six months, while Assoc Prof Singh said it could be as early as weeks after the National Day Rally — normally held two weeks after National Day.

Recent hints that polls could be held soon include Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong’s May Day Rally speech, which observers said carried a heavy political accent, and his targeted Cabinet reshuffle in April.

Meanwhile, on Dr Ng’s comments that the new faces from the civil service, military and police will be “in the minority” — contrary to the norm for the party — Assoc Prof Singh said the PAP may have realised it needs to recruit talent that reflects the changing socio-economic and political flavour of the nation. “The Opposition has hardly got the government-type people on its slots and has been doing well with the electorate,” he noted.

Whether coming from the private or public sector, Dr Koh stressed that candidates need to be able to manage complexities at the helicopter-view level, as well as have a good understanding of how ordinary Singaporeans think, feel and act.

Echoing Dr Ng, she added: “Managing a town council is the very basic criteria, and has to be done well. So whether from the public sector or the private one, the heart of service and these capabilities will be key.”

Source: www.todayonline.com

July 6, 2015
Tharman Shanmugaratnam: I Won’t Be PM Unless They Forced Me To

In a public forum about what lies ahead of Singapore at the SG50+ Conference held by the Institute of Policy Studies, Deputy Prime Minister and Finance Minister Tharman Shamugaratnam unreservedly said that he will not be the next Prime Minister unless the ruling PAP Government forced him to. DPM Tharman said that he is neither interested in the PM role nor believe he is suitable for it:

“Let me put it this way, we all have our preferences. And I was always, in sports, a centre half rather than centre forward. I enjoy playing half back and making the long passes, but I am not the striker.

Unless I am forced to be, and I don’t think I will be forced to it, because I think we have got choices. It is not bad that we think so hard about succession, and we don’t always get it the way we expect it to be, but we think very hard about succession in Singapore.”

The forum host, CNN journalist Dr Fareed Zakaria, also asked DPM Tharman if Singapore will get to see a non-Chinese Prime Minister one day, of which DPM Tharman became politically-correct and ambiguously said “it is just a matter of time”.

The issue on a non-Chinese Prime Minister has previously surfaced to the Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong where he said it will not happen any time soon and that Singaporeans are not yet “totally race-blind and religion-blind”:

“Will it happen soon? I don’t think so, because you have to win votes. And these sentiments – who votes for whom,and what makes him identify with that person – these are sentiments which will not disappear completely for a long time, even if people do not talk about it, even if people wish they did not feel it.

…attitudes towards race had shifted in the last two to three decades as English provided more of a common ground, but said to get to “a position where everyone is totally race-blind and religion-blind, I think that is very difficult. You will not find it in any country in the world.”

The Singapore Government has sparked heavy criticisms over the positions of the family and friends of the first PM Lee Kuan Yew. His eldest son, Lee Hsien Loong, became Singapore’s PM in 2004 and even until today, most people remains unconvinced Lee Hsien Loong attained his PM role without the help of his father. Lee Hsien Loong’s leadership has faced much criticisms as the PM leadership inherited the controversial aspect of his father’s (i.e. restriction of free speech), but none of the economic and social progress Singaporeans enjoyed during his father’s days. Lee Hsien Loong has been PM for the past 11 years, but unlike a real democracy, there is no legislated limit on the number of years he can be Prime Minister.

Source:http://statestimesreview.com

July 4, 2015