All the opposition party members did was to support the findings of the Auditor General's report. It was their version of "Well, we’re sorry we didn’t get it exactly right, but I hope you’ll understand and bear with us, because we’re trying our best to fix the problems." Problems which stemmed from a $2 company which creamed off an undisclosed fee to act as middlemen for a Town Council software transaction when it had neither technical expertise or staff to deliver the goods. Shanmugam may not have realized it when he was busy hyperventilating, all the brickbats he was hurling could have easily been aimed at another party.
And that bit about related parties involved in arms' length transactions could also bring in Chandra Das into the debate, but was not. It could also stir up fresh discussions about a father being chairman of a government investing corporation, daughter-in-law in charge of another asset management entity, and son signing off for the country's billions of reserves. Some things are best aired outside of parliament.
The ultimate threat came from National Development Minister Khaw Boon Wan who said that he will be withholding about $7 million of S&CC grants for the financial year 2014 from Aljunied-Hougang-Punggol East Town Council (AHPETC), his version of Goh Chok Tong promising to turn a constituency into a slum. And he can do it too, since his party dominates parliament house. All sorts of laws can be inked and rubber stamped, like sending 75 year old Ah Kong to jail if he defaults on his $1000++ a year Medishield Life premiums. That's the extent to which these guys will go so that the old man can see through his electoral threat of making Aljunied repent.
Posts
Since nobody had been charged by police with any wrongdoing;
ReplyDelete- I consider this as part of a learning curve
- all the hurdles that have to be overcome when you win a PAP GRC.
It's good for Singaporeans to vote in alternative Parties.
- we need to build up another political party who can take over the reins of government in case Singaporeans vote in a rogue or incompetent government.
Sewer politics at its worst - absolutely disgusting - if they think by this concocted drama they can win back the GRC they are mistaken. Khaw's reference to the Japanese practice of hara-kiri is comical if not for the seriousness of the situation- the politicisation of the Town Council affairs, as LTK rightly put it. Did Wong Kan Seng commit hara -kiri when Mas Selamat escaped? Did Bala do that when he bust the budget for YOG? Funny how things can rebound on them as happened so may times when they adopt the holier than thou stance in the past. Singaporeans must draw the conclusion that they must never again give the PAP too much power.
ReplyDeleteCant blame him.
ReplyDeleteHe was posing for the Television Cameras.
Had it been mirrors that he was looking at, he will be badly terrified.
Anyway, many cant help laughing the Pot calling the Wok black.
Lolx
patriot
Ahhhh....people who live in glass houses should not throw stones lah ..
ReplyDeleteWhat the pap has done to Low TK, Sylvia & et el is no different from a bunch of bullies tripping up their victims and raining blow after blow while they are down and struggling.
ReplyDeleteBystander Singaporeans who are weak-minded would gang up with the bullies.
But by and large, most Singaporeans are very fair-minded.
And heaven has eyes.
pap will have their comeuppance.
And all this started with AIMgate! In 2010, the PAP town councils sold off a multi-million dollar software for a pittance to a $2 company called AIM owned by PAP itself. They claimed that the software was obsolete and due for replacement. Five years later, and today they are still using the same software. Shouldn't the PAP account to their residents as to how much more they have been paying AIM over the last 5 years that they would not have to pay if the software had remained with them? All that Khaw BW and Shunmugam said in Parliament could apply to the AIM affair.
ReplyDeleteagree. If they claim to be whiter than white, they should come out with proper reports on the Bukit Panjang Town Council loss of millons in the Lehman Minibonds/Pinnacle notes. The residents were not consulted on these so-called investments, neither has Joe Public been informed of the outcome. Why the cover-up by them and the MSM. I would imagine these disasters would have been of great interest to the public. Teo Ho Pin seems to have lost his voice.
DeleteI thought it was a court case going on.... without any formal charges. He sure is a legal hound.
ReplyDeleteThere are thick skin, flame proof, shame proof and prick proof people in Sin.
ReplyDeleteSo whatever scandal or blunder are acceptable to most Sinkies. They are used to malfeasance.
patriot
I think they are prepared to leave Aljunied behind.
ReplyDeleteI also believe that voters there are even more hardened now.
If there is any illegal or criminal activity, they will begin investigations but they prefer parliamentary insulation.
It is a dangerous gambit that they are attempting. The ground feels soft in my opinion... and WP may well garner another GRC.
Perhaps the PAP should ship out along with all their civil servants and start a new country elsewhere.. though I cant see where in the world can they go. After all, they have this large group of highly competent people ( as they believe).
They have become more and more unpleasant.
Politics at it's gutter worst. We know from the day that WP took Aljunied from them, they will be all out to get them, by hook or by crook. Nobody likes bullies, especially low-down scoundrels who abuse state resources to fix others. The unrestrained venom of the PAP is on full display, sending in one attack dog after another - hypocrites who have lost the moral authority to condemn others.
ReplyDeleteCommon sense tells me that if there is even an iota of cheating or misappropriation of funds, they would have sent in the CPIB or the CAD. In due time, this affair will backfire on them, as we have witnessed before. Hang on in there, WP, because you will win an even bigger majority. The best riposte is to cock a snook at them by winning more GRC's. We Sinkies may be daft, but by and large, we are fair-minded and disapprove of injustice, as shown by the people of Hougang.
I changed channel after 4 minutes
ReplyDelete- TV viewers get to see what PAP Ministers actually say
- But we only get to hear the MSM summary of what WP MPs say in reply. We never get to hear what they actually said.
Good thing we have the Hansard parliamentary record of what was actually said.
Good thing WP chose to have the discussion in parliament rather than Hong Lim Green.
Clearly if we want to have a public protest.
Voting in more Opposition MPs into parliament is the way to do it.
Ho Thian Poh is secretary of the PAP-run Jurong Town Council, is a member of the PAP.
ReplyDeleteHo Thian Poh is also the managing director of Jurong Town Council’s managing agent, Esmaco Township Management.
What say you now, Shanmugam?
They threw their own shits here an there
ReplyDeleteand got themselves splashed.
Are they immuned from the stench.
patriot
If WP has "lapses" in their virgin set up of a larger GRC, it is totally understandable. Given this is their (or ANY opposition) party first foray into the TC management, not withoutstanding the bureaucratic barriers and nonsense put up by PAP, most of us think it is an acceptable and necessary learning curves.
ReplyDeleteHowever, with a ruling Party that has ruled uncontested for pretty much the last 50 years, PAP has many "relapses." One just need to go to AGO webiste and reread the yearly reports on the various charges they are prone to commit over by the different Ministries repeatedly. Why didn't these sorts of regulatory failures and repeated behavior get a mass seppuku from PAP? Khaw traps in his own intellectual wonderland shows not the slightest recognition that some of his party's own programs might have gone seriously amiss. Please spare us the "more holier than thou" garbage and your fifty shades of white.
No wonder the people are tuning out .
If AHPETC's actions are unlawful, please charge them and let's have a trial.
ReplyDeleteOtherwise, it's just "background noise".
"public monies lost"
ReplyDelete- which public monies are you talking about?
- are you referring to the public monies lost by PAP Town Councils investing in mini-bonds and Pinnacle Notes?
- or the public money lost by Temasek and GIC during the financial crisis in 2008?
SOURCE:
http://singaporemind.blogspot.sg/2008/11/town-council-lost-12m-who-cares.html
A software developed with $25 million of taxpayers money was sold to AIM for $140,000 so the $2 company can charge a service fee from all the PAP run town councils. Oh yes, Shanmugam, public monies have definitely been lost.
ReplyDelete"AIM is not any ordinary $2 company. It was set up by the PAP specifically years ago to help its PAP MPs do a better job running their TCs. The party was standing behind it, effectively guaranteeing its performance." - Khaw Boon Wan, May 2013, on the sale of PAP's Town Council management software to Action Information Management (AIM). Connect the dots.
DeleteIf PAP government continues in this blatant disregard for the wishes and desires of people, then they deserve to fail. It's time to repent before it's too late and I don't mean the people of AHPETC.
ReplyDeletePAP says: "Mirror Mirror on the Wall..What say thee is whitest of them all..."
ReplyDeleteMirror says: "Thee is whitest of them all."
Mirror showing only whitish bright like the blinding glares from a whitish hot sun...so bright black becomes white...and in the end white becomes black (burn to a blackish crisp).
zzz
指鹿为马。
ReplyDeleteDuplicity.
Tsk, tsk.
"It's very convenient. the husband issues a payment voucher, the wife approves payment, the wife signs a cheque. It's all in the family."
ReplyDeleteKhaw Boon Wan
https://sg.news.yahoo.com/debate-on-ahpetc-in-parliament--the-dramatic-things-people-said-134154511.html
Singapore has many husband and wife teams over the years.
Which husband and wife team is Khaw Boon Wan referring to?
This whole elaborate saga only proves one thing for me and my family.
ReplyDeleteIF a relatively new Party like WP has only run a GRC in its first term can have many "un-transparent or unaccounted management " practices as called-out by PAP (mind you, there are quite many experienced ex-police officer, law and banking executives in the small team), can you IMAGINE what it would be like for a long running party who has run a country without any qualified checkers will run into if/when the power do change hands, how much of international forensic accountants would we require to uncover when they have no-one shadow party to check upon them can we possibly unearthed?!
This can only expedite the urgency that this country and its people need to do in the coming election to vote for more checks.
It may be the sheep year for election, but we need not let anyone pull wool out of the sheeple's eyes.
Aiyah, what harakiri is Khaw talking about?
ReplyDeleteIn those good old days, daft japanese look to their Emperor who has no clothes and worshipped him like a god. Until the WW2 is over, then they realized the Emperor has no clothes (power) in the decision making, and are stripped of any criminal charges, thus sparing his life, while millions of Japanese soldiers and civilians were the ones who blindly went hara-kiri for their so called God. Is Khaw suggesting this kind of good old days when Lee the Sun/Son God is to die for?
In fact, just look at recent years of Fukushima tragedy. What happens to the Tepco Chairman and Executives after they take a deep bow and resigned? Yeah right, we know exactly that is how it plays out in the PAP rule-book too, from Mas Selemat to India Riots to Haze etc. I supposed that's the kind of hara-kiri he is favoring lah?!
http://japandailypress.com/resigning-tepco-executives-safely-land-cushy-gigs-at-other-companies-224983/
"In response to legit queries ..... they stone-walled, deflected queries, .... raised irrelevant excuses, and sought to confuse the public."
ReplyDeleteKhaw Boon Wan
SOURCE:
https://sg.news.yahoo.com/debate-on-ahpetc-in-parliament--the-dramatic-things-people-said-134154511.html
President Ong Teng Cheong.
What say you?
Do you agree?
/// Maybe it was just his bad hair day, if you think he has any at all on his shiny pate. ///
ReplyDeleteTattler - you are only looking at his public hair. How can you be sure that he does not have those curly ones - those "public" minus the "l"?
/// Anonymous2/13/2015 9:36 AM
ReplyDeleteAhhhh....people who live in glass houses should not throw stones lah .. ///
Oooohhhh, and they should not make love without drawing the curtains.........
Didn't it all started with a simple "what is wrong with getting more money" unless they themselves are implying the man who uttered those words are a real hypocrite?
ReplyDeleteOr somebody's son may turn out to be so greedy or dishonest if he is not paid enough pay so obscene that so many Singaporeans are still crying father or crying mother?
Then there is this Minister who is paid millions and yet still so shameless in enjoying a subsidised price of $8 for heart surgery?
Then how different is it that these greedy PAP ministers are not doing exactly what they are now claiming WP is doing ie. Taking monies from the people to pay their own friends or to be exact, cronies?
Are they not real hypocrites in disguise?
That which we call "sin" in others is "experiment " for us.
DeleteDo you recall any Opposition calling PAP in their early days for mismanagement or not coming clean? Who were there to catch their mistakes then, and also now? And we are still scratching the WP face, instead of the deep veins of PAP ? Are we even any where closer?
Wow! Kudos to pap! They have been thorough in checking on Opposition.
ReplyDeleteBut it's lopsided. Checking goes both ways.
So, in the coming GE, let's remember to vote in more Opposition to thoroughly check on pap.
//Much has been published about the fact that the Secretary and General Manager issued invoices, certified work done and approved and signed cheques to FMSS. //
DeleteSo tell me, what's the difference between a PAP-President signed off the 1-party cabinet bills, approved and paid off million dollars of salaries for themselves, in a broad day light robbery? And we haven't even get to the Uncle, Cousin, Father and Wife parts have we?
In their orgy to pillory the WP, they even resort to put up false numbers to back up their case.
ReplyDeleteAfter all the checking by PAP, WP's AHPETC team has still not been charged by police for any wrong doing.
ReplyDeleteNow I know I can vote for Worker's Party with full confidence knowing that WP has passed even the PAP quality test
When are they just going to let the citizens withdraw all their CPF savings upon reaching 55, no questions asked instead of shoving excuses down our throats that we dont know gow to manage our own funds.
ReplyDeleteStop lying to us that you need our CPF savings desperately to cover losses incurred via mismanagement of funds.
Stop bullying and robbing us daily.
If Khaw Chi bi dare to withold funding to WP towns, all Singaporeans will stand united behind WP and vote to topple PAP. This PAP govt is corrupted beyond words and wrapped under the protection of law. PAP have treated Singaporeans like shit by witholding our CPF, paid themselves billions, bribery, lapses like HDB columbarium project, AIMs, bromtomgate, billions blown off by Temasek, sickly MM still drawing billions and bonuses, how many of the Lees are in Temasek, GIC, PMO holding management roles singing off cheques as bonuses paid to self...you name it, pap has it. Now, how dare Khaw and Sham behaved as if PAP is clean?
ReplyDeleteYup, in the real world, I won't be expecting the wife to report to the husband, and the husband to report to the father, and the Uncle is the nation's Accountant.
DeleteBut as we all know, none of us are really living in the real world. We are in the Leegime indeed.
hmmm....I am glad the ruling party are taking the WP apart in Parliament. WP under the illusion that the ruling party will share power with them. It will never happen. The ball is no in the WP court. They must find a path that is particular to them...a strong assertive path that is not scared to take on the ruling party on other matters and still maintain their moderate approach.
ReplyDeleteAgreed. WP has never been assertive under the current leadership and are always caught on the defensive.
DeleteEven the accounting mess in AHPTEC originated from the AIM saga which they could have seized the initiative but didn't
There are many issues they could have force on the G, like CPF, GIC .Temasek, housing prices but again they failed.
The Sotongs(squids) squitted ink to protect themselves
ReplyDeletebut,
got lost themselves.
The Plot backfired.
patriot
The plot thickens. Based on their MND chart of TC MA rates, they have accused the WP of cheating the people of AHPE by overcharging 1.6 million per year, 6.4 million in 4 years. Khaw deadpanned "16 64" amid much hilarity from the MIWs, as though it was the punchline they were expecting, even turning the stony scowls of Josephine Teo and Shanmugam into say cheese moments. Hri Kumar piped that WP need to "recover the losses." How many times must you flog a dead cow and ask WP to admit their lapses? Commit hri kuri, ooops, hara kiri? If you are not satisfied, charge them.
ReplyDeleteWell, we await with much bated breath for the Law Minister to declare the accuracy of their chart, disputed by Sylvia Lim and LTK, upon which the accusations to discredit the WP hang. What are we to think if he keeps mum? An "honest mistake", "let's move on"?
Methinks they will be cutting down on the snide humour now that their boss won't be able to get it up after removing his prostate glands.
Deletehuh...if i remember right..one of the PAP colleagues in Parliament and minister also of no portfolio (nothing?...so pay him for what...for show or face or for favor...favor for country or for sucking up?)....mentioned about being dumb and deaf froggy in some well somewhere...by inference...deaf froggy minister should not be the only froggy swimming all by itself in that la la land well...should be others similar too then...LOL.
ReplyDelete