Thursday, January 24, 2013

No Smoke Without Fire

The above screen capture from LinkedIn is either a red herring or a smoking gun. Recall Teo Ho Pin's 26 paragraph exposition on the Action Information Management (AIM) involvement makes no mention of multi-million dollar investment by Town Councils, or $5 million software licenses. The numbers he bantered about were a $140,000 "existing software IP" purchase by a $2 company, and $785 per month lease back arrangement. Maybe the millions involved were contractual obligations protected by "confidential" clauses, as in the Formula One race extension deal.

There must be many "Deep Throats" in the civil service, directly or indirectly associated with Town Councils, who can enlighten us on the real deal. Unfortunately most of them live in fear of the Official Secrets Act 1970 (OSA).

Based on the eponymous British legislation, the Act prohibits any act which is defined as "prejudicial to the safety or interests of Singapore" and the communication of any information or document by any person holding any government office to another person not specifically authorised to receive it. A person suspected of committing an offence under this act may be arrested without warrant. The Act also allows the president to confer the powers of a police officer on any person for the purposes of this Act.

In one memorable interview by author Ross Worthington to test the limits of the OSA, he asked one senior official whether latter could divulge the colour of the toilet paper used by the particular ministry. The official replied with a straight face that it was impossible as it would infringe the act. When it was pointed out to the official the information could be gained by any visitor using one of the toilets in the ministry's buildings, the official maintained that while that was so, nonetheless he could not divulge the information. (Governance In Singapore, page 137)

At the Workers Party by-election rally on Tuesday night, Sylvia Lim called her Aljunied Hougang Town Council (AHTC) experience "eye-opening", noting that it was the first time an opposition party had been able to dig into documents showing how the PAP town councils have been managing Housing Board estates, and coming across aspects that show how political town management had become. Surely that's reason enough to vote more alternate party members into parliament to do more digging.

15 comments:

  1. TR Emeritus:

    [Sylvia Lim: I don’t know what Dr Teo is trying to say]

    "At the WP rally tonight (23 Jan), Ms Lim took the opportunity to refute Dr Teo’s rebuttal."

    http://www.tremeritus.com/2013/01/23/sylvia-lim-i-don%e2%80%99t-know-what-dr-teo-is-trying-to-say/

    ReplyDelete
  2. [STATEMENT BY THE ONLINE CITIZEN, IN RESPONSE TO THE STATEMENT BY DR TEO HO PIN ON AIM]

    "Dr Teo Ho Pin issued a statement about the AIM transaction in response to media queries last night.

    The Online Citizen has already explained the problems with the transaction.

    To reiterate, these are the problems...

    Dr Teo has so far failed to address or even acknowledge these problems.

    TOC will send a copy of this statement to Dr Teo.

    We look forward to the statement by Dr Teo Ho Pin in response to new media queries.

    http://theonlinecitizen.com/2013/01/statement-by-the-online-citizen-in-response-to-the-statement-by-dr-teo-ho-pin-on-aim/

    ReplyDelete
  3. TOC Photos

    [3rd Rally by WP for Punggol East By-Election on 23/01/13]

    http://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set=a.10151436774421383.543685.14440041382&type=1

    ReplyDelete
  4. TODAYonline

    [PAP MPs fan out across Punggol East]

    http://www.todayonline.com/singapore/pap-mps-fan-out-across-punggol-east

    ReplyDelete
  5. BBC

    [Google Transparency Report shows rise in data requests]

    "The search giant said it had received 21,389 applications from govt officers and the courts over the last 6 months of 2012.

    That is 17% up on the same period the previous year, and 71% more than 2009's corresponding months."

    http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/technology-21169162

    ReplyDelete
  6. They are even using legal jargon "sub judice" to silence the public from commenting on anything. In fact, sub judice can only be applied to the ones directly involved such as lawyers and judges, not the general public.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. You are wrong. The rule applies to everyone. However, the cases before the courts involve only the interpretation of the law and one does not see how any comment may be said to unduly influence the Supreme Court judges. Are the judges that easily influenced?

      Delete
  7. May if someone can dig into how they price our new HDB flats being sold to unsuspecting Singaporeans, then we will know for sure how affordable or how big the actual subsidy is ?

    That would put to rest for once & all whether our new HDB flats are really subsidised or not ? At this moment the subsidy that they insist makes our flats affordable only comes out of our PAP Minister's mouth, but how sure are they telling us the truth, nothing but the truth ?

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. You can refer to wikipedia article on "build to order". Go to earlier revision of the article. A list of flat selling price and project contract sum is tabulated. The construction cost of each flat can be derived by diving contract sum with total units built.

      Delete
  8. The guy involved in the Town Council deal, Jonathan Tan, self described current “Director, ASEAN & Pakistan at Palo Alto Networks”, has edited out the reference in his CV. It looks like he is afraid he might be called up to "help in the investigation" of AIMgate.

    ReplyDelete
  9. "Why the issue of AIM wasn't raised immediately when WP found out about it instead of dragging for 18 months, after WP's competency in Town Council management has been put in doubt?"
    http://singaporealternatives.blogspot.sg/2013/01/we-need-guard-dog-not-watchdog-politics.html

    Besides the above, WP needed to be goaded to attack the PAP only after bloggers like Alex Au did the heavy lifting.

    If WP is closely watching the government, it certainly is taking its own sweet time about it. Or is WP doing exactly as it promised, to watch and nothing else?

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. I think of one reason: WP didn't want to be sued for libel. AIMgate stinks to heaven, but trying to prove it in a court of law is a different matter. With all the lack of accountability and transparency that is the trade mark of PAP governance, they can literary get away with murder. Do you know that, by law, the CPIB cannot investigate a MP without the permission of the prime minister? That's how the Lee family members got away scot free with the HPL condominium purchases, and why Tang Liang Hong was utterly destroyed.

      Delete
  10. Someone said he switched his car from BMW to Toyota when he visited Punggol East, just wondering how true is it ?

    If it is true, what was he trying to hide ?

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. It's as fishy as his ikan kuning tale! He probably rented a beat-up Toyota to hide his real roots.

      Delete
  11. The guy (Dr AssHole) is just a load of crap.

    He's trying desperately to clean up his image but he can't lie to save his own life!

    ReplyDelete