The Singapore Democratic Party (SDP) has written to the Elections Department seeking clarification on several elections rules, especially those on the use of promotional material and access to counting centres .
The letter from SDP chairman Jeffrey George, which was released to media on Friday, said the party was seeking “clear, concise and written rules that will be practised by all Returning Officers”. The letter goes on to outline incidents in previous elections where the party said there was confusion over procedures its polling agents and counting agents were required to follow.
“In short, the multiple standards of operations by the Elections Officials at the various Polling and the Counting centres resulted in us not being able to fully utilise our resources and ground supporters/ volunteers,” wrote Mr George.
The SDP is also asking if it can play party music during campaign rallies and also if it can have a decorated campaign bus.
“We have the intention to advertise via bus wrapping advertisement on a Private Hire Bus for the nine days of electoral campaigning starting from Nomination Day for the upcoming General Election,” said the letter.
The People’s Action Parts (PAP) today (Aug 22) announced its slate of candidates for Tampines Group Representation Constituency (GRC). New face Ms Cheng Li Hui will join the five-member GRC team, along with NTUC deputy director Desmond Choo who previously contested the Hougang Single Member Constituency (SMC) during the 2011 General Election and the 2012 by-election.
Ms Cheng, who is the deputy chief executive of Hai Leck Holdings, has been Councillor in the Northwest CDC since 2004. She is also the Vice-Chairperson of the Tampines East Citizens’ Consultative Committee and the Tampines East Community Club Management Committee.
It was earlier announced that the two current Members of Parliament (MPs) for Tampines, former National Development Minister Mah Bow Tan and Ms Irene Ng will be leaving politics
The other PAP candidates to contest in Tampines GRC are Education Minister Heng Swee Keat, Second Minister for Home Affairs and Foreign Affairs Mr Masagos Zulkifli and Mr Baey Yam Keng.
Here is a new series where Yahoo Singapore speaks to potential candidates for the upcoming General Election. Members of Singapore’s various political paties have been invited to participate. First up: Dennis Tan of the Workers Party, who was interviewed Friday, 14 August.
Shipping lawyer Dennis Tan, 44, cuts a somewhat nervous figure when we meet at the Yahoo Singapore office. Vice-chair of the media team for the Workers’ Party, Tan, who is married without children, also sits on the party’s central executive committee.
Tan has come to 60 Anson Road to be profiled as one of the many new faces in the upcoming General Election, though he stresses that Workers Party’s candidates will only be officially unveiled on Nomination Day.
Perhaps he seems ill at ease because he will be on camera in a one-on-one interview, and also because party members have strict guidelines on speaking to the media. “Discipline is very important for us. It’s important that party members are seen to be behaving in a responsible and disciplined way, and I think people respect that a lot,” says Tan.
But the diffident and mild-mannered Tan begins to loosen up when asked about the issues close to his heart, in particular multi-party democracy, and the adequacy of retirement schemes.
Asked what he thinks of the nine Workers Party MPs’ contributions to Parliament so far, Tan replies emphatically with a somewhat dated Carpenters reference, “As the song goes, we’ve only just begun. This is only the beginning of what we see as a First World parliament, and it will take time, given the political circumstances in Singapore.
What we look forward to, and certainly I look forward to, is a more diverse parliament with representation from different political parties. It is important that people from different ends of the political divide come together, share their ideas in parliament, debate bills and policies openly, and may policies be made as a result of such vigorous debate in parliament.”
He is also concerned about bread-and-butter issues like the Central Provident Fund (CPF), and whether Singaporeans will have enough to retire on. Tan says, “I think we have seen…in the last year, that there has been a lot of discussions, online as well as generally in the coffeeshops, about the adequacy of CPF savings for retirees in Singapore.
Clearly, with the relatively low interest rate, which is not linked to inflation, this is an issue that has really not been resolved by the ruling party.”
Tan’s education and background seem to echo that of many middle-class Singaporeans. The younger of two children spent much of his childhood in a housing estate in Telok Blangah and studied at Raffles Institution and Raffles Junior College. Tan also studied in the United Kingdom in his university days. Tan’s father used to work at the Japanese embassy, while his mother was a housewife.
He remembers being fired up on Nomination Day in 2011, when he was present as the candidate for Joo Chiat SMC was unveiled. Shortly after, he was invited by a friend to join the WP, and he gladly accepted.
“I could identify with the Workers Party leadership, with the way that they looked at politics in Singapore, the way they conducted themselves as a party,” recalls Tan. It has been a fairly rapid ascent within the party for Tan – by 2013, he was speaking at the WP rally during the Punggol East by-election.
Tan has been doing grassroots work in the Paya Lebar and Kaki Bukit divisions of Aljunied GRC for the past four years, a experience he calls “enriching and humbling”.
And while Tan declined to comment directly on the ongoing Aljunied-Hougang-Punggol East Town Council (AHPETC) saga, his words seem to reflect the party’s wariness of mainstream media outlets.
Asked how ground sentiment in Aljunied GRC have changed since 2011, he says, “I think the residents of Aljunied have been very supportive of our MPs and our WP members and volunteers who are on the ground, and they have encouraged us, including at times when there were not so happy news in the mainstream media about the Workers Party, and what the PAP is trying to do.”
But perhaps the issue that gets the strongest reaction from Tan is that of elitism, and his alma mater. A recent letter by teenager and RI alumnus Russell Tan Wah Jian to The Straits Forum, had suggested that elitism can be good for society, “There is no point aiming for equality for the sake of equality, and giving up equity.”
Tan says quietly but firmly, “I am from Raffles Institution, and I’m proud of being an RI boy…and I am proud of the fact that I’m a member of the Workers Party.”
Alluding to a newspaper article from the 1980s which noted that most of the RI students at the time came from working class backgrounds, he adds, “Elitism is something that all societies recognize exist, but it is always frowned upon, especially in a school like RI where we always prided ourselves…as a school that provides equal opportunity for Singaporean children of different backgrounds.”
Perhaps Tan’s sentiments on elitism have something to do with the fact that a fair number of his peers and schoolmates are currently Members of Parliament.
He clearly has strong feelings on fairness and having a voice in the democratic process, “It is important that Singaporeans have an active say in the way that they would like to see how their country moves forward, in which direction, rather than to have any party dictating to Singaporeans, telling us what is good for us.”
Asked if he has a message for voters, Tan takes a minute to compose himself, “Your vote is secret, always remember that. There’s nothing to fear. And if you cast away your fear, you can do anything that you would like to do.”
Singapore’s first 10-storey flats, colloquially known as “chap lau chu” in Hokkien, are seven blocks of brown and beige-coloured flats in Commonwealth Drive.
Built in the early 1960s, this pioneering “mini estate” introduced Singaporeans to the concept of a self-contained “public housing precinct” with several tall housing blocks next to a food centre.
Decades later, the once-bustling neighbourhood lies vacant.
After the area was earmarked for redevelopment in 2008, residents of blocks 74 to 80 and businesses cleared out by early last year.
The abandoned estate has sat in limbo since, awaiting the wrecking ball which is expected to strike later this year.
Entrances to the stairways of flats are gated and padlocked to keep away loiterers.
An eerie silence hangs in the aisles of shuttered provision stores and the odd childcare centre or barber shop below the blocks.
In the courtyard lies a worn-out playground and pavilion that were once a distraction to children and their elderly caregivers on many an afternoon.
“It has an eerie vibe, especially when night falls and you see the leaves scattered all over the desolate streets,” said Mr Jason Seow, 45, a former Tanglin Halt resident who returned to photograph the place before it is torn down.
As the nation relentlessly renews itself, more housing estates have been left deserted.
These are curious places, caught in between yesterday and tomorrow, with everything intact but its inhabitants gone.
Over the last decade, 19 projects have been completed under the Housing Board’s Selective En bloc Redevelopment Scheme. This means that residents in all these 19 areas have vacated their flats.
However, the old blocks of flats in seven of these sites are either still in various stages of demolition or set aside for interim use or conservation today.
The ghost town in Commonwealth Drive has become a spot for some to linger.
On a warm weekday evening, two Chinese construction workers cut through the blocks to get groceries from the supermarket across the road.
On the way back, they went to sit on the concrete floor at the fringe of Block 76, shelling peanuts and drinking rice wine.
They later used a small sandy track that winds through the dense vegetation to get back to their nearby worksite.
Security supervisor Tong, who declined to give his full name, found himself early for his night shift that same evening and sat down at a stone table for a rest.
“This is a special place because there’s no one here and the quiet clears my mind,” said the 65-year-old.
After 20 minutes, he left via another shortcut that office workers use to pass through the empty estate to get to Biopolis and Commonwealth MRT station.
Hollowed-out neighbourhoods like these can also become hot spots for crime. In April, a researcher was slashed in the dim and derelict shortcut at night.
Her employer, the Agency for Science, Technology and Research (A*Star), has advised staff against using the public footpath.
Surveillance cameras have since been installed there by JTC Corporation. The Housing Board said it conducts inspections every day to “deter unauthorised entry into the vacated site”.
The seven blocks are part of the authorities’ biggest housing redevelopment project to date, with 3,480 flats in 31 blocks in Tanglin Halt Road and Commonwealth Drive slated for demolition.
Affected residents have the option of moving to new flats in the nearby Dawson estate.
Residents said the abandoned estate’s destruction seems inevitable, given that its once-distinctive “10-storey” look is now overshadowed, literally, by modern skyscrapers with futuristic names such as Galaxis, Sandcrawler and Fusionopolis.
Yet one stubborn presence continues to haunt the forlorn corridors – karung guni man Chua Thiam Seng, 62.
The long passageways below the flats are strewn with cardboard boxes and cans that he collects from occupied flats and coffee shops across the road.
“This is my office,” he said with a toothless grin. Mr Chua has been a rag-and-bone man in the neighbourhood for the past 20 years.
He claims to have taken up HDB’s offer of a new flat nearby after the relocation exercise, but he still sleeps in a little corner on cardboard beneath his former block on most nights.
He added that it was for convenience, but reporters have spotted him cleaning up at a nearby market many mornings.
The bachelor reminisced about the old days when the close-knit community would gather in coffee shops or outside the lottery shop to exchange gossip.
He lamented: “They don’t construct flats like these any more and though my neighbours have moved nearby, they are not as close as before.”
The People’s Action Party announced today (Aug 21) that first-term Members of Parliament Alex Yam and Ong Teng Koon will be contesting in new Marsiling-Yew Tee Group Representation Constituency, alongside team co-anchors Lawrence Wong and Mdm Halimah Yacob.
Mr Yam’s ward was carved out from Chua Chu Kang GRC into Marsiling-Yew Tee in the recent electoral boundaries review exercise, as was Mr Ong’s Woodgrove ward from Sembawang GRC.
Earlier last week, Mr Wong, Minister for Culture, Community and Youth, announced that he would co-anchor the team with three-term MP Halimah Yacob, who will be moving to Marsiling-Yew Tee from Jurong GRC.
Mr Wong also said the division of boundaries and finding a place for him to operate within the entire GRC may be sorted out after the election. Mr Wong himself will be new to the constituency, having moved over from West Coast GRC.
Mr Yam and Mr Ong are expected to continue helming their respective wards while Mdm Halimah is expected to take over Marsiling from Mr Hawazi Daipi, who is retiring from politics.
At a press conference held at a void deck in Marsiling to confirm the PAP’s slate of candidates, Mr Wong said his team, with two incumbent MPs and two new MPs, brings together continuity and change, and youth and experience.
Ahead of the PAP press conference, the candidates mingled with residents and served up food as musicians entertained the crowd that had gathered at the void deck of Blk 3, Marsiling Drive.
