SDP Dr Wijeysingha to lead SDP team in Holland-Bukit Timah

[Hoppie24]

SDP with these guys is sibei sud. I watched the razorTV of press conference for SDP, they really have a passion to serve not passion to collect money. That's what i feel.

[Christan]

Read in Today

[Asd78]

Holland Bt Timah GRC has alot of landed properties but alot of ppl who stay here are expat and they do not get to vote. The owners may be registered in another GRC.

[Park88]

Mod - delete if this is considered not fit for posting

 

 

 

 

Would the questions be anwered?

 

A time for reckoning - an open letter to PM Lee

 

 

 

 

 

The following is an open letter from a TOC reader to Prime Minister Lee

Hsien Loong. PM Lee will be on a Channel NewsAsia programme tomorrow -

Question Time With The Prime Minister - to take questions from

Singaporeans. The programme is scheduled to air LIVE on the web on Tuesday,

April 12, 8-9pm. (See here and here.)

Our reader too has some questions for the Prime Minister in the following

open letter.

 

 

Dear Prime Minister,

(Embedded image moved to file: pic10021.jpg)

 

 

At the end of each term, every child in school receives a report-card that

sums up his or her performance during the term. It is essential for each

child to get good grades so he or she can move on to the next class.

Similarly, we hope the PAP government will be willing to look at a report

card on its performance over the past five years. The report is not

exhaustive but merely a sampling of some of the issues that concern your

subjects, oops, the plebeians, I mean the people.

The editors of The Online Citizen (TOC) have assured me that in the

interests of transparency and openness, your reply will be published in

full, unedited and unabridged and certainly unchanged for "sense". I am

sure you will find this a refreshing change from the heavy-handed treatment

that letter-writers to some of TOC's larger contemporaries in town

(mainstream media) get.

For your convenience, the report has been grouped into sections. Most of

the points have been framed as questions for your kind consideration:

ACCOUNTABILITY

1. Financial crisis: What were the exact losses suffered by Temasek

Holdings (Temasek) and the Government Investment Corporation (GIC) between

2008 and 2009 owing to the global financial crisis? How much of the losses

were recovered in 2010? Global best practices as seen in countries such as

Norway require that these be disclosed.

 

 

 

2. Shin Corporation, ABC Learning etc: How much has Singapore lost on its

investments in these and similar companies over the past five years? Has

anyone been held accountable for the losses? (We are specifically

interested in the second question).

We understand it is in the nature of markets for investments to go up as

well as down. However, this does not mean there are no bad investments and

that they should not be scrutinised and held up to public view. We hope you

agree.

 

 

 

3. Myanmar : How much of Singapore 's public money is invested in Myanmar ?

Did Singapore sell arms to the military junta and is it continuing to do

military deals with the government in that country? Why does Singapore

continue to have relations with this repressive regime at all? (Perhaps

your Foreign Minister, Mr Yeo, would like to comment on this; he has been

remarkably quiet on this subject).

 

 

 

4. Failed SGX-ASX merger: We understand the Australian government has

rejected the proposed merger of the Singapore and Australian Stock

Exchanges owing to its strongly negative perception of the government's

holdings in the Singapore Stock Exchange (SGX) through Temasek. Would you

care to comment on why Temasek's interests in SGX should be viewed

negatively? Could it be because of excessive government control of business

and industry in Singapore ? Would you say it has something to do with the

opaque manner in which the government operates its businesses and its

tendency to monopolise certain sectors of the economy?

 

 

 

5. Mas Selamat's escape: We are very sympathetic to your government's

plight over this unfortunate episode. We understand that our highly paid

Deputy Prime Minister and Co-ordinating Minister for National Security

could not have foreseen the security lapse so, of course, it was not his

fault. Nevertheless, the people are concerned because we are told our

Ministers expect to be paid in line with top earners in the private sector.

Of course, we understand that service in your government is different from

working in the private sector and that it is not necessary for senior

people to take responsibility for major lapses. (The security breach could,

in theory, have been very damaging to Singapore if Mas Selamat had not been

recaptured by our neighbours). We also understand the culture in other

countries where ministers resign to take responsibility for lapses in their

ministries is alien to us; Singapore , after all, is a special country with

special circumstances. In this country it is acceptable for junior officers

to be disciplined and removed but not senior grandees, sorry, ministers.

 

 

 

6 Youth Olympic Games (YOG):

We are told the cost of this event was one-tenth that of the Summer

Olympics. The Beijing Summer Olympics attracted a total of 4.7 billion

viewers. Could the Ministry of Community Development, Youth and Sports

(MCYS) tell us how many viewers the YOG attracted worldwide? We understand

the MCYS Minister, rather than being held accountable for his performance,

has been promoted to head your government's re-election bid in a Group

Representation Constituency (GRC).

We fully understand he, like the gentleman mentioned in the previous point,

was not responsible for the budget over-run or the food-poisoning incident.

He did an exemplary job in generating marketing exposure for Singapore and

attracting additional tourist revenue. Only, we have not been told how much

of this exposure was generated internationally and whether it was really

beneficial (as opposed to mere internet "noise") or sustainable for the

long term? Would you care to enlighten us?

 

 

 

7 Road traffic: When the Certificate of Entitlement (COE) and Electronic

Road Pricing (ERP) schemes were introduced 20 years ago, we were told the

purpose was to keep traffic in Singapore "free-flowing". Your government

has earned billions from these two schemes yet we have traffic snarls on

our roads that are approaching the infamous levels seen in the capitals of

some of our neighbouring countries. Of course, it could not have been

foreseen by your Ministry of Transport or highly paid Transport Minister

that releasing COEs liberally to pander to the demands of the motor

industry would lead to this situation. The poor minister who is responsible

for these conditions, we understand, needs the support of another

"heavyweight" minister from your cabinet in his bid for re-election in a

GRC.

In short, our point is that many ordinary Singaporeans are held accountable

in their everyday jobs and they are penalised for serious mistakes. The

people would like to know whether your government and specifically, your

talented cabinet, has a similar culture of accountability and acceptance of

responsibility?

 

 

 

KEY PERFORMANCE INDICATORS (KPI)

1. Median wages: The median income for all households in Singapore rose by

barely 1.6% per year in real terms over the past decade[ii]. Income for the

bottom third of households increased by much less. During this time,

Singapore 's Gross Domestic Product (GDP) increased by 86% from $162.6 b to

$303.7 b[iii]. Your Ministers have, of course, rewarded themselves

handsomely based on the growth of the economy. Would you care to explain

why wages have not kept pace with the growth of the economy? Would you

agree that your single KPI, GDP growth, is hopelessly misaligned with the

interests of Singaporeans as a whole? Shouldn't the main KPI for senior

civil servants and ministers be median wages rather than the GDP?

 

 

 

2. Other indicators: Shouldn't non-material indicators such as work-life

balance of Singaporeans, working hours and leisure time, flexible working

hours for young parents, our carbon footprint, population density and so on

also be included in the KPI of senior officers in your government?

 

 

 

SOCIAL SERVICES

1. We have already touched upon the stagnant wages of the bottom third of

society. There have been many stories in the media concerning the elderly

and the homeless in Singapore . Why is it that despite Singapore 's

phenomenal econo mic growth, we continue to have an underclass of

desperately poor people? Could it be because your government's mindless

pursuit of econo mic growth has been divorced from all concerns of whether

or not the growth benefits all segments of society?

 

 

 

2. The number of hospital beds in Singapore has been stagnant over the past

decade. In fairness to you, several new hospitals are coming on-stream over

the next few years. Nevertheless, we hear that large sections of the people

are not covered under the Medishield programme for various categories of

serious illnesses, such as cancer, as has been highlighted on this blog

recently. Why is it that Singapore , with a per capita GDP approaching

$60,000[iv] cannot provide a basic safety-net for the poorest or the

stricken in our society, in keeping with those in other countries at a

similar level of development? Would you agree with the charge that your

government's liberal foreign worker policy has disadvantaged and

impoverished our people?

 

 

 

3. Would you agree that a country can have a high GDP per head while

maintaining a low population density and a high quality of life (eg

Luxembourg )? Do you not agree that the business model pursued by your

government has resulted in a congested and environmentally degraded city?

Has this overcrowding not resulted in public housing (HDB) prices rising by

over 60% in the past three years?

 

 

 

PERSONAL LIBERTIES

After almost half a century since independence and the end of the Malayan

Insurgency and Konfrontasi, and 20 years since the fall of the Berlin Wall

and the end of the Cold War, why are Singapore citizens still not allowed

to freely:

Assemble

Speak in public

Demonstrate peacefully

Publish newspapers or

Broadcast on television and the Internet?

Why do we need a law that allows detention without trial? Surely your

government can produce a proper anti-terrorism law that allows those

charged the benefit of a fair trial? Why are we still stuck in the past

with retrograde, repressive laws?

 

 

 

We hope it is not too much to expect an answer from you to these questions?

With a salary approaching $4 million a year for yourself, three full

ministers assisting you and a budget for the Prime Minister's Office of

close to $348 million per year we pray these questions will not burden you

too much.

 

 

 

The people look forward to your reply to this brief report card so they can

decide whether or not to give you and your government a clean bill of

health in the coming General Election.

 

 

 

Thank you for taking the time to read this.

 

 

 

Yours sincerely,

A Concerned Singaporean

 

 

 

PS: We know you will be overwhelmed with questions at the Q&A session on

Channel NewsAsia "live" on Tuesday and that the editors will have a hard

time picking the questions for you to answer. I am sure there is no truth

to the rumour that they will pick the ones that show your government in the

best light. In any case, we hope the written questions above will give you

time to ponder over them at your leisure and reply at your convenience.

Singaporeans await your reply with bated breath.

 

 

 

[Vince69]

sianz... just saw the announcement for SDP Sembawang lineup... a very weak team... maybe SDP is still not serious about this GRC...

 

anyway, here is a story to share, which may shows the flaw in the current arrangement/strategy employed by SDP.

 

taken from http://findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_m103...37/ai_15419781/

 

"The famous story of Top Horse, Middle Horse, and Weak Horse in the Warring States Period (476-221 B.C.) exemplifies the advantages of the Taoist dialectic. Sun Bin was a master strategist who served General Tian of the Kingdom Qi. General Tian raced horses with the princes of Qi as a hobby, often wagering large sums of money. One day, General Tian came up to Sun for advice on an upcoming horse race, which seemed to be at a draw. As the usual practice went, the contest consisted of three races. The traditional strategy for victory was to pit one's best, middle, and worst horse against the similar horses of his rival. Sun Bin advised General Tian to race his worst horse against his rival's best horse, to pit his best horse against his rival's middle horse, and finally to use his middle horse to compete against his rival's worst horse. General Tian followed Sun's advice; after one loss and two wins, General Tian was declared the final winner of the contest. As a good strategist, Sun Bin saw the larger picture and understood that the goal was to win the contest, not each race."

 

 

[Ahtong]

Nothing wrong with being gay or advocating better rights for gays.

 

Between a gay person willing to speak out in parliament and a hetro who have no money to help the poor but willing to blow epic amounts on YOG, i think the choice is clear.

[LoverofCar]

Nothing wrong with being gay or advocating better rights for gays.

 

Between a gay person willing to speak out in parliament and a hetro who have no money to help the poor but willing to blow epic amounts on YOG, i think the choice is clear.

I guess they are done for this time...he will be the target for the next 2 weeks for MIW...right or wrong...gay is still not widely accepted in our country...sigh..is the same old result again..

[Parkingidiot]

I guess they are done for this time...he will be the target for the next 2 weeks for MIW...right or wrong...gay is still not widely accepted in our country...sigh..is the same old result again..

 

.

yeah,... I had high hopes for this power team - the Ex Col from SAF and the ex GCT PPS... but this incident may remove them even before the battle begins - and lose these 2 power players from the opposition race.

[Albeniz]

I vaguely remember a few years ago, there were some discussions in parliament about gay inclination and work abilities. The conclusion was as long as the person is able to deliver his work, we should still welcome these talents (despite they are gays).

 

Over here is all about meritocracy. Never mind the sexual inclination.

 

If I remember the above correctly, how come they roti-prata again?

Edited April 25, 2011 by Albeniz

[Albeniz]

I am straight and I am very traditional.

 

However, I would still prefer a gay over someone who tells me outrightly that you need to pay him million of dollars before he could start to work honestly.

[Vulcann]

.

yeah,... I had high hopes for this power team - the Ex Col from SAF and the ex GCT PPS... but this incident may remove them even before the battle begins - and lose these 2 power players from the opposition race.

 

It sure sounds that another BA Chor Mee episode again.

 

Knife are out....

[Shull]

It sure sounds that another BA Chor Mee episode again.

 

Knife are out....

 

And didn't GCT say he wants to see a clean fight? How come diff constituency got diff strategy one ah?

[Parkingidiot]

I am straight and I am very traditional.

 

However, I would still prefer a gay over someone who tells me outrightly that you need to pay him million of dollars before he could start to work honestly.

 

 

unfortunately... it's not that easy to convince a whole bunch of homophobic people of the same...

[Shull]

Read in Today

[Albeniz]

unfortunately... it's not that easy to convince a whole bunch of homophobic people of the same...

 

I thought MIW also recently fielded a new candidate who is a divorcee?

 

During a marriage ceremony, the husband took a vow and swore in front of some many relatives and friends that he would take care of the woman and the only way to end a marriage is "till death do us apart".

 

Divorce is the easiest way out in a difficult marriage, but if the candidate can't stand by the promise he made to his own relatives and friends, can we expect him to keep any promise he made to us?

 

Worse, if that marriage vow had been taken in a religious setting.

 

 

[LoverofCar]

SDP's reply to the allegation..

 

If I heard him correctly..he did not deny that Vincent is not a gay....despite what all said here...he will be the prime target....all his team member will be implicated...MIW will use this to tell voter that opps had hidden agenda or so...sigh....our hope is gone

[Shull]

If I heard him correctly..he did not deny that Vincent is not a gay....despite what all said here...he will be the prime target....all his team member will be implicated...MIW will use this to tell voter that opps had hidden agenda or so...sigh....our hope is gone

 

Well.. he did answer to VB's question whether SDP has a hidden agenda.. and it is NO..

[LoverofCar]

Well.. he did answer to VB's question whether SDP has a hidden agenda.. and it is NO..

I heard that...but knowing Singaporean...kiasi..kiasu...the battle already lost 30%