Squirrel Gate

"Go and check up the views of ex-NMP like Siew Kum Hong, Calvin Cheng, Paulin Straughan, Eugene Tan, who's now in parliament, and even bloggers like Mr Brown, Kin Mun, they do not have allegiance to specific political parties. But they, together with other Singaporeans who have minds of their own, they are the real check on the PAP. They are the real check on the PAP." - Denise Phua, Hougang By-Election Rally, Sunday 20 May 2012.

Wah lau! Minister not happy, ah?

Before independent minded bloggers like aforementioned Mr Brown a.k.a. Lee Kin Mun (no relation of the Singapore  princeling), get all puffed up and start petting themselves on the back, here's what DPM Teo Chee Hean has to say about "wild accusations making the rounds on the Internet that were made in order to anger voters just to get a few more votes":

"I am ashamed, really, that people are doing this kind of thing on the Net." (TODAY, page 6, 23 May 2012)

Well, if like minded Singaporeans are really the check on the PAP, one of them will have to shut up. Sylvia Lim of the Workers' Party (WP) has her doubts: "Let me ask Denise one thing - if she receives an instruction from the PAP leaders to keep quiet, is she not going to shut up?"

Blogger turned Member of Parliament Gerald Giam confirms the obvious: "If I had heard her speech back then, I wouldn't have bothered going through all the trouble of joining the WP and contesting in elections.  I would have stayed at home and blogged the way to real change in Singapore."

If Teo is worried about wild accusations, he should tread cautiously when commenting on the purloined minutes of a WP central executive council (CEC) meeting which were mysteriously emailed to the mainstream media. In 1972, five burglars broke into the Democratic National Committee's (DNC) headquarters at the Watergate Complex in Washington, in search of politically damaging material.  The "Watergate Seven", former aides of President Nixon, were indicted by a grand jury. If the "Secret Squirrel" turns out to be a planted mole, all hell will break loose. Nobody in his right independent mind will want to go there.