Unlike cry baby Desmond Choo who turned on the tear spigot for maximum effect at the last PAP by-election rally at Hougang, party chairman Khaw Boon Wan resolutely admitted that the PAP is not perfect and the (present) government has its faults, but he added that he is confident the situation will improve significantly within the next 4 or 5 years. Which means those guys only started to earn their pay only after May 2011. What improvements PM contributed to the lives of Singaporeans since he ascended the throne in 2004 is an open question. His own report card after 8 years has this entry in 2011, "We're sorry we didn't get it exactly right, but I hope you will understand and bear with us because we are trying our best to fix the problems". Try harder. Add spurs.
According to the Financial Times ("PAP deploys Singapore’s ‘auntie killer’ "), the government has responded to the grumbling ground swell by slashing the salaries of top officials and sacking unpopular ministers. Lee Kuan Yew, at age 88, finally stepped down from the cabinet (but still drawing MP pay without performing MP work). The free flow of immigrants – who account for about 1.3m of Singapore’s 5.1m population – has been recalibrated. The budget in February boosted subsidies for lower-income families and included a pledge to spend S$2.4bn in “special employment credits” to help small and medium-sized businesses hire older Singaporean workers. Even NTUC is buckling by proposing to the National Wages Council (NWC) that workers be given a minimum dollar amount as an increment to their basic pay - instead of getting it as a one time payment.
"It isn’t the beginning of the end of the PAP but it’s the beginning of a new kind of politics in Singapore" (FT, 24 May 2012)
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What they have been doing is "tweaking" the system. They do not have the courage to revamp. As Catherine Lim correctly pointed out the PAP is incapable of re-inventing itself. That is the tragedy because having been so used to total control they will not let go out of fear of losing it. Nothing will really change until a political tsunami hits.
ReplyDeleteReally ? Are they trying hard enough ? I say not enough. We locals have a singlish word for it. "Wayang". Sure, there was this slashing of ministerial pays. Not enough. Just look to the new French President for inspiration.
ReplyDeleteAnother 4 to 5 years , Mr Khaw pleaded.
We heard him, but to make sure,this By-Election need a resounding show of unhappy hands.
I doubt very much there can be significant improvements, not with a bunch of idiots masquerading as leaders, and it does not matter if they are trying their best.
ReplyDeleteThe tragedy is the 60% who failed to see this and hopefully this by-election will be the catalyst.
the biggest joke is we elected them for so long and all we get is sorry, we will do better. we elect the current gov for another 5yrs and khaw can say he need another 4-5yrs. when didn't he say the same thing furing GE2011 that 1 term is not enough, therefore we should elect 2 terms 1 shot for them to create magic (or rather, undo the crap they did)
ReplyDeleteAt the time ,Mr.Khaw he want to serve another term,knowing that he will get the pension if he completes this term(the public were not aware of the secret pension scheme for the ministers until the ministers pay inquiry.)
DeleteFrom http://jentrifiedcitizen.wordpress.com/2012/05/25/what-is-real-courage/
ReplyDeleteIn his final rally speech last night, Desmond cried aloud: ” There is another way, another path forward. It involves change. It involves courage. It calls for conviction – to step forward to write a new chapter!”
And Swee Keat supported this cry with: “I believe the residents of Hougang have sentimentality, integrity and courage…I don’t need to elaborate on your sentimentality and integrity here. But what about courage? It is the courage to say goodbye to the past, the courage to choose a new future”.
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Isn't it is ironic that PAP is able to tell voters that they need courage for new future but deny courage themselves to revamp their f@#$kup system of greed, self-serving and Sycophancy of emperor and prince ?
See again how underhand PAP is where The PAP cunningly confused rally goers by not indicating which location was for which rally .... Isn't this a clear abuse of power ? PAP is caught red-handed publicly. How disgusting PAP can be !
ReplyDeletehttp://newnation.sg/2012/05/pap-fails-to-prevent-massive-turnout-at-wp-rally/
we are ALL as much to blame for this mess - for voting them in, for believing them blindly, for not speaking up loudly earlier, for not having the courage to try others. but mostly for being terribly rulebound and not taking more affirmative and concrete action.
ReplyDeleteeven now, we dun even turn up at events to lend support alternative parties and their efforts, like the sdp's recent health gathering. we are such a bunch of scaredy cats. we want Others to change things for us, or to change. we are so lazy. yes, we need spurs stuck in our hides - badly.
now, all we do is whine online. some of us may write to the press. we just wait for Them to change. We do not proactively try to change things ourselves. currently, we are simply waiting to try and vote new faces in - in 2016. just vote only. nothing else.
we are not even fighting by writing in to protest how hougang's infrastructure has been ignored by the govt.
we are bunch of cowardly losers, who Deserve what we are getting.
During the last GE when they lost 1 GRC which meant 5 seats were lost to the opposition in 1 go, then they became paranoid & only then they started to behave themselves.
ReplyDeleteJust imagine if PAP starts losing another 1 or 2 more GRCs at the next GE, how much better off will it be for all Singaporeans if the opposition suddenly won 10 or 15 seats in one go?
And when that happens, GRCs will be PAP's own Achilles Heels. By trying to harm others, they ended up harming themselves. 害人終害己
"Khaw: When an MP does not agree with the government, the people in the constituency suffer"
ReplyDeleteDoes he talk like a mafia boss or what? If this is not a threat, I don't know what it. Is like saying if your guardian don't agree with your parents, the children will suffer.
This Khaw is a real joke. Asking for another 4 - 5 years to put things right ? Many of them have been in office for several years already. If they have not been able to do things right, what makes you think they can do so given another 4 - 5 years ? These guys are just asking for another 5 years of million dollar salaries, with no guarantee of any results. They are just shameless.
ReplyDeleteThe cure to Desmond Choo's tears is not sympathetic vote but a baby pacifier. You give a vote, and he cry louder to get more vote but if you give you a baby pacifier, he stop crying immediately.
ReplyDelete"The beauty and the burden of democracy is this:
ReplyDeleteNo idea prevails without the support of the majority. The people decide the moral issues of the day, not a majority of one.
Majorities do not decide what is right or wrong. Your conscience does. So why should a citizen
surrender his or her conscience to a legislator?
No, we must never, ever kneel down before the tyranny of a majority."
All the above, not I say one...even the movies(wayang) know how to say this. So what it says about our dearest of dear 60% fellow singaporeans. You tell me.
We really need a breakdown of those 60% who voted for our greatest party of endtimes, pap.
1. how many are the pap candidates themselves & their families & their extended families
(they know who they are & we know who they are)
2. how many are the giang png &
hardup pap members...still panting after bread crumbs that fall off the dining tables of their master with their tongues sticking out, their families & their extended families
(they know who they are & we know some but we know not all whoever they are)
3. how many are the salivating yet to be noticed potential candidates throwing themselves at the feet of their potential masters & offering themselves at the pap altar
(they know who they are but we know very little about who they are until they surface from nowhere to contest the next election)
4. how many are the balls carrying so-called grassroots self-serving useless bums...yes you heard me right, useless balls carrying bums...do you need me to repeat
(they know who they are & we know who they are)
5. how many are the ex-office bearers with vested interest
(they know who they are & we know who they are...do you need me to name them one by one)
6. how many are the kiasu & kiasi civil servants...bo lumpar type
(they know who they are & we know who they are)
7. how many are the kiasu & kiasi gic/glc employees
...still struggling to call themselves talents/elites...if you are really that good, then go & get a life & real job...cheaper/better/faster still if you can build a start-up & then break the record for the market cap of apple computer...show me you are that good & then i promise to eat my own words...if not just vanish & stop fuming
(they know who they are & we know who they are)
8. how many are the ignorant masses who are selfish & bochap about national issues & just give their votes away to any crumbs or handouts
(they know who they are & we are not entirely sure who they are)
9. how many are the cult followers or what we call apparatchiks...these are those that have been bomohed for dinosaur years & still counting...they are not even sure who they are or what they are to begin with
(for those, i reserve my comments)
10. how many are the fence sitters
(they know who they are & we know not who they are)
so let us reach out to those that are with conscience but have been misled all these while and welcome them back to the fold & in no time, we can snuff out the flame from the flickering candle of the pap once & for all.
impossible is nothing & nothing is impossible
vote out the pap, wholesale
I will believe Khaw BW if I only need to pay a pittance for a heart bypass. Till then, I doubt very much and do not have much faith in this batch of leaders. The departed ones will be rolling in their graves. May they rest in peace and haunt the present ones.
ReplyDeleteCongratulations to Mr Png Eng Huat and Workers Party on winning the Hougang by-election. Keep up the good fight for Hougang!
ReplyDeleteKudos to the Voters of Hougang and congratulations to Workers Party.
ReplyDeleteI salute YOUR FORTITUDE!!!
patriot
The results confirm the majority in Hougang who keep voting for WP are the ones "still trying their best"...to show the rest in Singapore what it means to have courage, indomitable spirit.
ReplyDeleteWell done to WP. This is only a forerunner to 2016. Yes, your margin of victory is smaller than in 2011. But this by-election has exposed the lack of calibre of the top echelon of the PAP.
ReplyDeleteWhat is the lesson to be learned? That we want a democratic society built on justice and equality. So PAP, stop your discriminative policies, and you will fare better in future. When you say "always here for you", say what you mean and mean what you say.
Who is the "Beauty" and who is the "Beast" in this "Beauty and the Beast" contest ?
ReplyDeleteTurns out that Png Eng Huat is both the beauty and the beast ! Png has the inner beauty of serving the people with passion and commitment, and as for the beast part, well, he just doesn't look as ... .... ... as the pap one. Anyway, PAP's wolf side has been exposed by DPM.