As election fever heats up let’s all remember why Reform Party is here.
We are here to stand up for Singaporeans and give you a voice. That includes those who have become victims of our heartless system.
Here you can see Madam L with our Sec Gen looking like a million dollars compared to when she first approached KJ – as we had been successful in getting her some maintenance allowance and then we got it renewed for another six months.
Source: Kenneth Jeyaretnam
I might be flamed by fellow opposition supporters for saying this, but I feel it’s better if we opposition supporters voice out our concerns BEFORE the upcoming GE.
Firstly, not all opposition parties have the same status. The strongest opposition party at the moment is the WP which has 7 parliamentary seats and 2 non-constituency members of parliament. The WP is stable, has good leadership, party discipline, a strong brand name, strong grassroots network and has managed to attract a critical mass of skilled professionals. These factors explain why the WP has a better image and thus a better chance of winning than the other opposition parties. As was seen in the Punggol East by-election, in a multi-cornered fight, the WP candidate will attract a much larger share of votes than the minor opposition parties.
Next in the ranking of the opposition parties, is the SDP. Why? Because this is a party with a history, alternative policies and a clear ideology. SDP’s grassroots potential is underused but not lacking, as it seems to be able to attract social activists and other liberals. Say what you may about the SDP but at least it does not give the image that it is an unstable party that lacks people. The party website is well designed and is kept up to date. SDP’s decision to pull out of the Punggol by-election and avoid being a spoiler earned it goodwill from opposition supporters and thus the SDP’s image was not tarnished by a great defeat. The SDP may have committed some blunders such as implying that they were unwilling to run a town council, but they have corrected that mistake! They realized that they have to turn their attention to municipal matters too. And thus, earlier this year, they published a paper detailing their plans on running a town council. The SDP is not perfect, but if your constituency is not contested by WP, it’s your best bet if you want an opposition win.
Why did I not list the SPP which has 1 NCMP as the second pick for opposition supporters? Last GE, we saw a nationwide 6.5% vote swing AWAY from the PAP. Thus, every constituency that was also contested by the opposition in 2006 saw a larger percentage of the votes gained by the opposition in 2011. All constituencies save for one – Potong Pasir. SPP instead saw their votes in Potong Pasir drop by 6%, leading to their narrow loss of a safe seat to the PAP’s Sitoh Yi Pin!
This is largely due to the choice of SPP to field Lina Chiam who was intended to be Chiam See Tong’s successor. This is widely perceived to be the reason why SPP lost. Mrs Chiam was not eloquent enough at her rallies. Nor did she attack the PAP candidate sufficiently. Most importantly, she did not manage to convince the swing voters that she had a good chance of winning against the PAP candidate. That was why there were 242 spoiled votes. If just half these votes had gone to SPP, she would have won!
I’m not against SPP but I’m just saying that SPP has to deal with these REAL perceptions if they intend to field Mrs Chiam in Potong Pasir again. A party only stands a decent chance if it can generate hype among its supporters. Supporters and swing voters have to be convinced that the party can win. Remember, Sitoh Yi Pin has been the incumbent MP for Potong Pasir for 4 years now and he has a huge advantage over Mrs Chiam. It is no longer 50-50 as was the case in 2011. Even other opposition parties like the DPP are doubting Mrs Chiam’s ability to win again. That is why these opportunists want to cause a multi-cornered fight in Potong Pasir.
SPP can still win back Potong Pasir if they field someone younger, whose appeal to the voters is stronger. If they wish to revive Mr Chiam’s legacy while renewing SPP, then why not field Mr Chiam’s daughter? As Nicole Seah proved in the last GE, it is possible for a young, eloquent and inspiring female politician to generate sufficient hype to shift the vote towards her party, even against a strong incumbent from the ruling party.
SPP has been gifted with the entry of strong opposition personalities like Ravi Philemon and Jeanette Chong-Aruldoss, who is poised to give the PAP a tough fight at Mountbatten SMC once again. So why not build on that to renew the party’s overall image? I hope SPP can see the bigger picture and try to attract back swing voters.
All the other opposition parties are not main contenders. NSP received a lot of bad publicity after GE2011 because they went through a change of 5 secretary generals in such a short time and furthermore lost almost all their top candidates in the last GE to other political parties. Singfirst and PPP are new parties with no history and swing voters usually stick to established parties when they vote. RP and SDA have been discredited by their secretary generals losing their deposits in the Punggol by-election. These parties will be entering the upcoming GE with voters perceiving them to have a low chance of winning. They have a lot of hard work ahead of them. It will be an uphill task for them to win a seat in parliament.
Harold
Source: www.tremeritus.com
Although several opposition parties have staked their claims to the same constituencies, the political analysts TODAY spoke to said multi-cornered fights are likely to prevail only in constituencies the Workers’ Party (WP) does not gun for. Multi-cornered fights, they said, hold “grave consequences” for other opposition parties that do not have a branding as strong as the WP’s.
Singapore Management University law don, associate professor Eugene Tan, said the WP is in a “healthy bargaining position”, and unlikely to concede the places it staked a claim to.
“In a case where there is nothing much to differentiate between the two or more opposition parties, voters may not know where or on whom to pool their votes. And this is where we are likely to see votes being split,” he said.
WP secretary-general Low Thia Khiang on Sunday (Jul 26) announced his party’s intention to contest in Marine Parade GRC and MacPherson SMC — the former being a ward contested by the National Solidarity Party (NSP) in the 2011 polls and the latter, a part of it until electoral boundaries were redrawn last Friday.
The NSP has called for a meeting this Friday among opposition parties to hammer out deals and avoid multi-way fights.
MULTI-CORNERED FIGHTS MORE LIKELY IN WEST, CENTRAL PARTS
With the WP’s plans to expand eastwards, Assoc Prof Tan and former Nominated Member of Parliament Siew Kum Hong felt multi-cornered fights are more likely to happen in the western and central parts of Singapore. Said Mr Siew: “I think most other opposition parties will be hesitant to challenge the WP.”
Added political analyst Derek da Cunha: “The other opposition parties have yet to concretely demonstrate that they are on the same level as the WP in terms of voter appeal.”
The analysts also cited the Punggol East by-election in 2013 as an example of why opposition camps should avoid multi-cornered fights that involve the WP. Ms Lee Li Lian from the WP won the single seat with 54.52 per cent of votes, while the PAP’s Dr Koh Poh Koon garnered 43.73 per cent.
The Reform Party’s Kenneth Jeyaretnam and Singapore Democratic Alliance’s Desmond Lim raked in 1.2 and 0.57 per cent, respectively, and both lost their election deposits.
National University of Singapore (NUS) sociologist Tan Ern Ser said the prospect of multi-cornered fights means opposition parties have to work harder. “They would have to try hard to differentiate themselves from one another, such as with more well-thought-out criticism of the ruling party and better ideas, better programmes that resonate with voters. Maybe even better candidates.”
NUS political science associate professor Bilveer Singh suggested that fighting in single-member constituencies would be “more economical” for opposition parties, especially “the new ones that have no ground record”.
CROSSOVER OF CANDIDATES
An issue that may muddy the parties’ claims to contest for various seats is the crossover of candidates between parties since the last GE.
For instance, Ms Jeannette Chong-Aruldoss, who contested for the Mountbatten seat in the last election as part of the NSP, has announced her intention to fight for the same seat again, now under the Singapore People’s Party umbrella. She left the NSP earlier this year.
“Many a time, they move because of bad blood, unhappiness. So, that makes the ability to make concessions, to give and take, somewhat more challenging,” said SMU’s Assoc Prof Tan.
“We do not know if the trust and confidence among the opposition parties is strong enough for them to come up with a deal, where everyone would feel they have not been shortchanged.”
Source: www.channelnewsasia.com
The death of Lee Kuan Yew leaves his seat in Tanjong Pagar GRC vacant. Recently a Bloomberg journalist asked me to comment on the suggestion that Lee’s seat in Tanjong Pagar be left vacant as a mark of respect. Her resultant article can be read here. Some commentators have suggested that the Opposition should boycott any by-election, giving the PAP a walkover similar to the ones it has enjoyed ever since Lee Kuan Yew’s constituency was included as part of Tanjong Pagar GRC. In addition a lot of people have been asking me whether I think a by-election will or even must be called.
The fact that any one could even suggest that denying the democratic rights of the citizens of one ward to choose their representative is a way to show respect for the founder of our one-party authoritarian system goes a long way to explaining how far from being a democracy that system is and how far we have to go to become a developed nation in terms of our political and legal structures.
LKY’s seat had of course been effectively vacant for some time. For many years other MPs in the GRC had performed his constituency duties. Ill-health and advanced years also meant that his appearances in Parliament after his unopposed re-election in 2011 were mostly perfunctory. In a democracy an MP who was incapacitated by advanced years or ill-health would have resigned to allow a new and fitter incumbent to perform the duties that he was no longer able to.
In addition because of LKY’s deliberate creation and reinforcement of a climate of fear, and the very real measures he took to crush anyone who stood up to him, the voters of his GRC have been denied the right to choose their representatives for several decades. Even in 2011, when every other seat was contested and our aim was to see Singapore’s first non-walkover GE , a team of independents ran out of time in filing their nomination papers and were disqualified. The fact that the people of that ward have gone without choosing their representatives for so long means that there is a more urgent need to hold a by-election in his constituency now. But can the PM leave the seat vacant indefinitely in defiance of every democratic norm but as has been normal PAP practice until recently?
The short answer and the absolute legal fact is that it would be unconstitutional not to hold a by-election unless the Prime Minister decides to call a general election within the next three months or so.
The argument ( thanks to Article 14) runs like this.
Article 49 of the Constitution states:
49.
—(1) Whenever the seat of a Member, not being a non-constituency Member, has become vacant for any reason other than a dissolution of Parliament, the vacancy shall be filled by election in the manner provided by or under any law relating to Parliamentary elections for the time being in force.
It was established by the Court of Appeal decision in Vellama d/o Marie Muthu v AG (2013) that the calling of a by-election is mandatory and not discretionary and that it has to be held within a reasonable space of time, normally three months.
The Parliamentary Elections Act (PEA) seems to contradict this requirement when it states in Article 24-2(A) that:
(2A) In respect of any group representation constituency, no writ [for a by-election] shall be issued under subsection (1) for an election to fill any vacancy unless all the Members for that constituency have vacated their seats in Parliament.
However this places Article 24-(2A) of the PEA at odds with the Constitution. Where this is the case the Constitution clearly overrides any laws enacted by Parliament, as stated in Article 4 of the Constitution:
Article 24-(2A) of the PEA is clearly inconsistent with Article 49 of the Constitution. Therefore under Article 4 of the Constitution it is void. Therefore the Prime Minister must call a by-election for Tanjong Pagar GRC, or at least for the constituency vacated by his father’s death, within the next three months.
If the PM refuses to do so, I (and I know my Party members would join me) would support an application to the Court to declare that the PEA is inconsistent with the Constitution and that a by-election must be called. It should be easy for Lee Hsien Loong’s poodle, the Elections Department, to carve out Tanjong Pagar SMC from the GRC if the PM does not want to call a by-election for the whole GRC. However as it was uncontested in 2011 it would be right now to hold an election for the whole GRC.
In the event that the PM observes the Constitution and calls a by-election, it would be good for the Opposition parties to come together and agree to field a joint “A” team against the PAP under an umbrella with all our strongest candidates combined. This would be an important step in the process of transforming the Opposition in the eyes of the electorate into a credible force that is ready to form an alternative Government.
Source: http://sonofadud.com
[UPDATE on Sunday, 25 May, 11.00am: Adding details of party’s name, logo, manifesto and founding members]
Former presidential candidate Tan Jee Say unveiled Singapore’s newest political party, Singaporeans First, on Sunday.
The party’s manifesto — “Fair Society, Strong Families and Esteemed People” — was announced along with a list of 11 founding members, which include 60-year-old Tan himself as well as members of the medical profession, architects and company directors.
They include Dr Ang Yong Guan, psychiatrist and former grassroots leader, who along with Tan ran under the Singapore Democratic Party banner at the 2011 elections; Michael Chia, retired engineer and volunteer social worker; Fahmi Rais, communications professional and former Young PAP member; Fatimah Akhtar, architect; Dr David Foo Ming Jin, chemist and former Young PAP member; Jamie Lee Swee Yan, IT professional; Winston Lim, architect; Loke Pak Hoe, company director; and Tan Peng Ann, retired army colonel and former PAP grassroots leader.
Speaking at the party’s unveiling on Sunday at a media conference, Tan said discussions about forming a new party first began last year, and that joining a current opposition party instead of starting a new one was the “easy way out”.
When asked if his new Singaporeans First party would dilute opposition votes further, Tan said it would depend on how the opposition would work together, adding that he was also open to forming coalitions. The next General Election is due to be held by 2016.
On what the new party stood for, Tan said it aimed to remove the Goods and Services Tax, because it was especially unfair to lower and middle class Singaporeans. Another key policy it was aiming for was free education as it wanted to increase the fertility rate by making it affordable to raise children in Singapore. It also proposed unemployment insurance, old age pension and affordable healthcare.
Tan added the party would begin walkabouts and preparing policy papers for public consultation after formally registering the party, which he estimated would take two months.
A financial adviser and fund manager, party leader Tan was formerly the principal private secretary to then Deputy Prime Minister Goh Chok Tong. He and Dr Ang had previously ran for 2011 elections together under the SDP banner in the Holland-Bukit Timah GRC.
Tan left the political party before announcing his candidacy for the 2011 presidential election. He garnered 25% of popular votes, losing out to Tan Cheng Bock and eventual President Tony Tan Keng Yam.
After the elections, Tan had leased a three-storey building along Orchard Road to host weekly policy discussions. The venue, known as “Heart Beat”, had to be closed down following tenancy issues. The space was reportedly approved for restaurant and office use only.
Source: Yahoo SG
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EDITOR’S NOTE
Congratulations to Fahmi Rais and Fatimah Akhtar for embarking in their new challenging journeys – politics. Developing and exercising power require having both will and skill. It is the will that often seems to be missing for most people, and we hope it will not happen to any of our Malay and Muslim leaders. The Malay & Muslim community, and Rilek1Corner family are very happy and extremely proud to learn about their involvement. We wish the new leaders the best in this new political dispensation. We need a nation that will be filled with remarkable development. Towards a better future in Singapore.
