Wednesday, May 11, 2011

Another One Bites The Dust


Who turned out the lights?
  Ex-Foreign Minister George Yeo told the press he's already 57 years old and would be 62 by the next general election, and would rather have a younger person to take on the important task of reclaiming Aljunied. Ex-Minister Lim Hwee Hua, a member of PAP's losing Aljunied GRC, has also declared she will not contest in 2016. She also said she will leave it for someone younger to do battle as she'll be 57. While both ministers can afford to retire early with their millions, lesser mortals are asked to work to their grave. For them, retirement is not an option.

Just as Seet Ai Mee went down in history as the first minister to lose her office in an election, Lim shares the dubious honour of being sacked by popular vote from the office of Minister, Prime Minister's Office, Second Minister for Finance and Second Minister for Transport. She was made full minister on 1 April 2009, a cruel joke that lasted two years for some residing in Serangoon Gardens.

Lim polled 40% of the votes in Serangoon, her Waterloo and site of the contentious foreign worker dormitory. Over 1,600 residents out of the roughly 4,000 households in the immediate vicinity of the proposed dormitory presented a petition to Lim in 2008. During a dialogue session, which was attended by some 250 people, the residents could sense they were talking to a brick wall. She was paying lip service to the peasants, and deferring to Minister for National Development Mah Bow Tan who had said earlier in the year in Parliament that, given the constraints of land, foreign workers’ dorms would eventually be near residential areas. It was the tip of the iceberg of the foreign worker influx, and we were kept in the dark.

Today, Lim said she does not believe anything she did differently in her Serangoon Gardens division would have changed the outcome of her fate. "People feel they are not being listened to sufficiently and that the party makes policies based on their intellect and does not seem to listen," she said. What she did not say was that she was part of the groupthink, and supporting Mah in 2008 would certainly not deter her promotion in 2009. Like the rest, she has mastered the art of obfuscation, masking the truth from the people, and maybe herself as well: "The Serangoon Gardens episode was a good experience – residents got a better understanding of the macro needs whilst being assured that the disamenities, if any, would be minimized, through constant interaction among all stakeholders." Cocooned for 15 years of smug self-adulation at The Party, she was enlightened only at the 9 days in May, "It is a surpirse for us that the resentment is so deep."

Lim said she'll head back to the corporate sector (last employer: Temasek Holdings). It remains to be seen if she'll ever draw the same super-sized paycheck again. But quite definitely, she can kiss the 8 months GDP-linked bonus goodbye.

18 comments:

  1. what does a 2nd minister do?

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  2. Let us remember for a moment that those same residents were also roundly blasted online for their ugly "not in my backyard" attitude.

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  3. She will be even richer by working in corporate world and at the same time drawing the pension since she has served more than 2 terms in parliament. She was brought in by GRC system and dropped by GRC system too. The issue is not what policy and whether people understand it or not. It is the heart and passion to serve people. With her connection, there is no issue at all for her. Only the poor Singaporeans have to live with the ill policy that she has been involved in. How sad is Singapore society? No social justice at all!

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  4. Singaporeans are very forgetful. All crows are black. George is no difference from her but why an outcry over his retirement. Hope he repents and do good to Singaporeans. But I doubt. He has his pension to worry about if he does not toe the line.

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  5. GY doesn't have to worry about his pension, which is enshrined in law under the Parliamentary Pensions Act. And the ruling party probably won't amend that because it's a double-edged sword to do so.

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  6. Hi Lucky,

    You mentioned 40% vote in her constituency. Is there any published data (I can't find it on the GE govt website) for the results broken down into constituency levels?

    LHH downplayed the rumour that she polled the worst result in the GRC. Thanks.

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  7. Apologies, Tatler I mean.

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  8. Hello Ben,

    In order of vote ranking (all scored below 50%):
    1. Zainul Abidin of Eunos
    2. Ong Ye Kung of Kaki Bukit
    3. George Yeo of Bedok Reservoir-Punggol
    4. Cynthia Phua of Paya Lebar
    5. Lim Hwee Hua of Serangoon

    Todate, only Lim Hwee Hua's bottom score of 40% was disclosed.

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  9. Pensions expert5/12/2011 11:26 AM

    To Anon at May 12, 2011 6:33 AM

    As a matter of fact, Lim Hwee Hua will not be eligible for any pension because:
    a) She was elected as MP only in 1997. The Parliamentary Elections Act had been amended such that only MPs appointed before 1995 were eleigible for MP pension.
    b) She is not eligible for "office holder" pension because she only became Minister of State in 2004; i.e she has not served 8 years. Before that, she was a plain vanilla MP (see above). She would ahve had to serve at least 8 years before she can get an "office holder"

    Nevertheless, with the millions that she had made, and will be able to make after leaving politics, I wouldn't worry too much for her.

    P.S. George Yeo on the other hand will be eligible for both an MP's pension and Ministerial pension, both at the full rate of 2/3rds of his highest MP allowance (i.e. $16,000 per month) and his highest annual salary as a Minister - check out Section 4 of the Parliamentary Pensions Act. Way to go, George!

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  10. Pensions expert5/12/2011 11:30 AM

    Sorryl some typo errors in my earlier posting:

    As a matter of fact, Lim Hwee Hua will not be eligible for any pension because:

    a) She was elected as MP only in 1997. The Parliamentary Elections Act had been amended such that only MPs appointed before 1995 are eligible for MP pension. Post 1995, MPs who are not appointed to any office will be paid CPF. Strange, though, because MPs' allowance is tax free!

    b) She is not eligible for "office holder" pension because she only became Minister of State in 2004; i.e she has not served 8 years. Before that, she was a plain vanilla MP (see above). She would have had to serve at least 8 years before she can get an "office holder" pension. So, she also doesn't qualify under this limb.

    Nevertheless, with the millions that she had made, and will be able to make after leaving politics, I wouldn't worry too much for her.

    P.S. George Yeo on the other hand will be eligible for both an MP's pension and Ministerial pension, both at the full rate of 2/3rds of his highest MP allowance (i.e. $16,000 per month) and his highest annual salary as a Minister - check out Section 4 of the Parliamentary Pensions Act. Both are tax-free! Way to go, George!

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  11. So much for the fair, equal society that they strive to create in their rhetoric. All talk and no action whatsoever......I even read recently that Singapore has a Russian standard of living.....it's not even surprising considering that we have a Swiss costs of living, but wages that do not differ much from wages in other Third World countries.

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  12. They will find a position for her in Temasek or some GLCs - Ho Ching being her good friend will see to that - no need to worry about ex-PAP ministers, it's a given that they will be looked after, talent or no talent!

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  13. if i'm not mistaken, LHH's score was reported as below 40%. that cynthia's was just a tad higher.

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  14. Tattler,
    many like myself would have made a wager against Lim Hwee Hua in a SMC.
    Lim HH can never dispute the fact she was riding on Georgie's coattail all these years.

    the tragedy unfolding before us is the 60% singaporeans.
    for whatever reason, they failed to see how useless LHL is, who in turn, failed to see he is being surrounded by low calibre Ministers and MPs brought in through the GRC system...such as WongKS, MahBT, RaymondLim, NgEH, LimSS, LimHH, Yaacob, LuiTY, GanKY, VivianB, TeoSL, LeeBW, IreneNg, CynthiaP, JoTeo, TinPL, JPuthu, FooMH, ChanCS, etc.

    if LHL cannot see this or if he is able to but does not act on it, then he deserves to bite the dust! sooner rather than later will be good for singapore.

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  15. Based on my personal experience with her I am not surprised that Lim Hwee Hua scored the lowerst vote. Two years ago, as a resident of Serangoon Gardens, I wrote her an email detailing my reasons to request her (in her capacity as Transport Minister) to consider a linear LRT line to link Ang Mo Kio, Serangoon Gardens and Toa Payoh. To my horror, I received only a five-word reply from her saying that "it's not in her agenda", fullstop. Her lackadaisical and dismissive reply smacks of arrogance and disrespect. Surely the least that she could do was to get one of her many assistants to explain why not. Perhaps she couldn't have predicted that she would need my vote in last week's general election. Had it not been for her I would certainly have gladly voted for our honourable and approachable George Yeo.

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  16. Just a week or so ago, LHH was hinting that Hougang Town Council books was messy and then later try to act angel saying LTK must have misunderstood her.

    Now seems she have to swallow her own pride for losing Aljunied to WP. So the moral of the story is that one should not do evil to others if one don't want bad fortune to befell oneself.

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  17. Her asking for the accounts of Hougang SMC really backfired on her. Even Low Thia Khiang already stated the obvious fact that he submitted the accounts for auditting to an independent auditor, and if the parliament wants to bring him to court for mismanagement of funds, he would surely welcome that if there is a just cause. Obviously there was not any and he was accountable to begin with. Smear tactics seem to have played up against her especially when she assumes what people like Vivian Balakrishnan uses against the SDP by suggesting it was pursuing a gay agenda(when it was not) could be applied to others like Low Thia Khiang. That is really very irresponsible and unethical and has made me see her as somewhat misplaced in her criticisms or attitude. Now that the people decided to put her in her proper place with their votes in Aljunied at least, what happens next? Does she depart in shame? I doubt it. She already has millions to boot, and can move onto any other industry in the public or private sector and continue making millions, while the poorer Singaporeans continue to worry about bread-and-butter issues, such as whether they can even put the food on their tables.

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  18. I am inclined to think GYeo and his team mates will find their niche after biting the dust.

    LimHH will be useful to HoChing in Temasek, she can take some of the blame...later on.
    CynthiaPhua can be the new warden for inmates in Changi. Her natural instinct towards another human will be ideal.
    GeorgeYeo can be the chief salesman for Spore's arms/weapons export...getting his commission from sales, earning more than he ever did!

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