Thursday, May 5, 2011

Liar, Liar, Bum On Fire

You know you've wandered into a PAP rally when chairs are neatly set up in an open field. The crowd is smaller, and the audience is distinctly decades older than the targeted generation of first time voters. And the speaker on stage is crafting his words solely for the benefit of the mainstream media.

The mystery of why PM Lee didn't apologize on his himself at the Boat Quay rally was dispelled during the opening minutes of Vivian Balakrishnan's speech. He had PM Lee's approval for a revised budget of $387 million, or so we are told, up from the original estimate of $104 million in November 2007. See, all that talk about overspending is a big fat lie. The new mystery is why this number is made available only now, at the penultimate hour, the last lap before the May 7 polling date. There was no mention about this statistic when questions were fielded in parliament about the YOG debacle.  Unexplained also, then and at last night's rally at Clementi Avenue 4, was what went into the "Other Costs" of $79.8 million.

Balakrishnan concocted a story about running into a young man in a LRT train ("He never expected a Minister to ride the train") who asked him about the overspending on YOG. The snake oil dispensed: it's all about the youths. "This is the first and possibly last time an Olympic event will be held in Singapore" and "would make a big difference" to Singapore youths. The big difference as we know too painfully well is that volunteers were given skimpy packet meals (some kena food poisoning somemore) while the foreign guests feasted on gourmet buffet. Some of these helpers were practically forced marched by their teachers into "volunteering". At the end of the day, their certificates of appreciation weren't even signed by the "grateful" organizers. The signatures were photo shopped, just like the wanted posters of Mas Selamat. And the big reward for their sacrifice, a day at Universal Studios, was only good for limited hours, on limited days, and allowed for barely enough time to queue for the big rides. This is almost second nature to the man, strictly in style with his "Do you want three meals in a hawker centre, food court, or restaurant?" type of largess. Batteries definitely not included.

Balakrishnan said he believes young Singaporeans want respect, fairness and a land of opportunities. "If as a political party we cannot address these key needs of young Singaporeans, I think we are in trouble." That was about the only bit of honest truth in his oratory of the night. By that time, you could smell something was burning. Hot air is combustible, don't you know?

12 comments:

  1. Your wicked sense of humour and high productivity would have easily put all our PAP Ministers into shame.

    Praise aside, so the budget was S$387 million and he did NOT exceed it afterall ? What a sick joke PAP must be!

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  2. The sad truth is, young and talented Singaporeans are leaving for other countries in droves. No one in the current government seems to care because they think they are importing more than they are losing.

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  3. "So we decided S$387 (million) would be the maximum but, in the end, we spend much less," Dr Balakrishnan said, without giving a figure.
    So he didn't spend $387 million, so what DID he spend? Another Ong Teng Cheong type response in the making - that it would take man-years to figure out?

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  4. Vivian wld be the last person to have any shred of moral credibility to claim he understands what fairness is after all that low blow gutter below belt campaigning he gave out to Vincent. HE has lost all sorts of respect from pple. Stop being a fake and go back to being an eye doctor for he clearly has lost his sights peddaling koyok on million dollars of taxpayers money.
    thanks for all the great articles..keep them coming for the last lap to polling day!! Follow #sgelections

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  5. Bruce Banner5/05/2011 12:34 PM

    How will the uncles and aunties vote? They are a huge sector and their inclinations will be decisive.

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  6. Your writing is very interesting.

    Sad to know of this social injustice and wayang. The problem in Singapore is that the PAP treats all Singaporeans like fools. You can simply list down all the information and data that are kept secret from the people. There is no transparency at all. There is no accountability at all. Daft Singaporeans still believe such political party in government can still lead them into the future. The uncles and aunties mostly belong to the silent majority who will vote for PAP due to fear factor. This GE2011 outcome could possibly be 87:0 clean sweep by PAP. If such happens, Singaporeans deserve the consequence. Be prepared, do not expect any change after this GE because of this silent majority. I also hope the outcome will not lead to social unrest that one of the political analyst suggested.

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  7. Dear all opposition supporters

    Though each of the opposition rallies attracted tens of thousands spectators, and there may be in total 200,000 attended the rallies, but 200,000 is only 9.09% of the total voters of more than 2.2 millions.

    Majority of the 90.91% (2 millions) of voters may not be aware of those issues raised during the rallies. So please work hard to convince these voters to vote for oppositions.

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  8. It will be a tragedy if PAP loses significant vote shares and yet takes control of the remaining 2 opposition seats. I don't think even PAP wishes it to happen that way. The democratic world will definitely take notice. Such a situation will be extremely unstable and unrest will become a very real possibility.

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  9. Are Balakrishnan's words cutting against themselves? "respect, fairness and a land of opportunities"--these were all promised to us, but none were really given per se over the last 10 years. Singaporeans displaced by foreigners, and unfair policies which left the poor and disabled out, and "opportunities" on an asymmetrical basis......

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  10. Bruce, not to worry. Not all Aunties and Uncles are illiterate. And the Opposition just need to win a GRC and more SMCs for a start in order to move to bigger stuff. So I see winning a GRC as a huge step & victory for the ppl. Also subsequent GEs, there will be less of the elderly....

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  11. Just a thought.
    After seeing the way things have unfolded for the PAP, revealing the scumbags they have been all along, how many sporeans still want to trust VivianBala as their personal eye doctor?
    For sure I won't, and good thing he is not the only one on this island or planet.
    Now imagine what could happen if he was?

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  12. See, this is what we will get if we give the PAP a blank cheque with a 100% control of Parliament.

    They don't have to account to us, they don't have to seek our agreement, they just do it without even informing Singaporeans, they just practically ignore our existence.

    And why did they not make this public in Parliament?

    I smell a rat. They must have cooked up this story just to quell the unhappiness and perhaps save them some votes. It's totally unbelievable that they are now giving this explanation at this particular moment in time.

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