Someone Must Be Feeling Invincible

“You must separate your public political position from your private business or professional interests,” Lee Hsien Loong thought he had made it plain. “You must not exploit your public position as Government MPs, your close contacts with the Ministers, or your access to government departments and civil servants, for your personal business interest or the benefit of your employers."

That didn't stop People's Action Party (PAP) member of parliament (MP) specifically in-charge of Nee Soon South, Lee Bee Wah, from her company being awarded the contract to provide Civil and Structural engineering services for the Khatib Court development located within Lee’s constituency.

The Singapore Police Force (SPF) had warned that getai performances are “strictly not allowed before, during or after election rallies,” as stipulated under the Public Order (Election Meetings) Regulations 2009.

That didn't stop the PAP MP from being introduced as a PAP candidate for Nee Soon GRC at a 4 September Seventh Month Festival event, with the emcee openly asking the audience to support Lee at the ballot box and vote for her.

This is the same Lee Bee Wah who had falsely alleged that Workers’ Party (WP) supporters mislead elderly residents about how to vote, and uploaded her own graphic of a ballot paper with her Nee Soon GRC team on it with explicit instructions to boot. “Look at this drawing: You should draw a cross next to the party you want to vote for,” she inscribed. Too bad the Facebook posting was not done on "cooling off" day.

Defending her stage time with the getai hotties, Lee stated that she is familiar with political campaigning rules. “Of course I know what the rules are, what I can or cannot do … I’m just supporting the community group in my constituency, as I’ve always done — does this mean that during General Election time I can’t support them?” Thanks to vigilant members of the community, a police report had been lodged about the cameo appearance, and the court gets to decide who is the law in Singapore. The big assumption here is that our SPF boys are responsible, accountable and transparent, and ever ready to respond to reports of infringement of the laws of the land. And not unduly obssessed by the rantings of 16 year olds.

A Deficit Of Logic

Lee Hsien Loong's team may like to borrow words like Responsibility, Accountability and Transparency, but in their perverse version of the English dictionary, they spell only R.A.T. If you thought the rodents burrowing at Bukit Batok were bad, the species unearthed from parliament house are downright despicable.

It was Charles Chong who told Chinese daily Lianhe Zaobao that the Punggol East SMC had a surplus of $1 million when the People's Action Party (PAP) handed it over to the Workers' Party (WP). Chong was "misleading, lying to the public." These were same words Lawrence Wong used to slime Chee Soon Juan at a recent forum, and claimed an apology should have been forthcoming.

PAP Pasir Ris-Punggol candidate Zainal Sapari inadvertently confirmed the big lie when he wrote in his 9 Sep Facebook posting, Punggol East’s town council accounts showed that “At the handover to AHPETC on 30 Apr 2013, although there was a deficit in the accumulated routine fund of $282,009...” As students of accounting 101 are familiar, the amount of $303,372 claimable as reimbursement from some fund is merely an account receivable, not cash in hand. There's no guarantee that accounts receivable will not turn into bad debts, especially when the Town Councils Act has opaque rules about what happens when there is a change in party managing a constituency. By same definition, your minimum sum in your CPF account is also "claimable", but we know how that goes.

When chief Low Thia Khiang  held up a printout of the ward’s town council accounts as at April 30, 2013, showing a deficit of more than $280,000, he had the proverbial smoking gun in hand.

In 1997, J.B. Jeyaratnam waved a copy of a police report, complaining that Goh Chok Tong, Tony Tan and Brigadier-General (NS) Lee Hsien Loong had been inside a Cheng San GRC polling station on Polling Day. Then  Law Minister S. Jayakumar put it to Attorney General Chan Sek Keong for a legal opinion, and resulted in the warped logic, "while it is illegal to be within 200 metres of a polling station unless you are voting, IT IS NOT ILLEGAL IF YOU ARE INSIDE." Jeyaratnam was also sued for waving another police report, in support of another candidate in Cheng San, lawyer Tang Liang Hong (who Prime Minister Goh Chok Tong had accused of being a Chinese chauvinist). Goh considered the $20,000 award for damages as "derisory", and on appeal, the damages were raised to $100,000 plus $20,000 in court costs.

Times may have changed, but the rats still proliferate. Let's see how this saga unfolds.

The Mouse That Roared

Finger pointing in the wrong direction, Lee Hsien Loong missed the quiet mice in his own team in Parliament. The brigadier general was never strong in marksmanship anyway, he was bested by his own papa at a rifle range in Brunei.

Raymond Lim obviously zipped his lips after being dethroned from his million dollar perch. He was not about to give his successor any tips on running the Transport Ministry, not for a paltry $16,000 a month anyway.

The surprise revelation - and this is according to Hansard, the name for Parliamentary records - is that Goh Chok Tong spoke only once in Parliament since he was re-elected in 2011. He finally got off his seat-warmer bum in February 2013 to support the divisive Population White Paper. He was one of the 77 PAP MPs who endorsed the 6.9 million "planning parameter".

"Regarding population size, I, too, am not sure about the idea of having 6.9 million people. Many Singaporeans cannot imagine how that can work, when their daily experience with 5.3 million people is of crowded trains and buses. It is good that Deputy Prime Minister Teo has reiterated and reassured all of us that 6.9 million is only a planning parameter and not a policy target."

If the parameter is the bull's-eye of a target, and the arrows are estimates, then a relatively high absolute value for the bias means the average position of the arrows is off-target, and a relatively low absolute bias means the average position of the arrows is on target. They may be dispersed, or may be clustered. The relationship between bias and variance is analogous to the relationship between accuracy and precision. Notice the accuracy and precision is specified to a first decimal point. Not 6, not 7, but exactly 6.9 million.

Goh's skewed understanding of the fable of the rooster that crows when the sun rises is that the feathered creature was claiming credit it could cause the sun to rise. Thanks to alternate voices, we now know the rooster was heralding the dawn of a new day.

Minimum Wage

In his attempt to explain why the People’s Action Party (PAP) opted for the Workfare scheme rather than a minimum wage, it is clear why the Social and Family Development Minister Tan Chuan-Jin actually thought collecting cardboard boxes under the heat of the tropical sun is a healthy exercise for our senior citizens. They must be having a blast now that the haze is on, with the 24-hr Pollutant Standards Index (PSI) hovering at the 82-94 range.

The Workfare Income Supplement (WIS) Scheme, like all pseudo help government contrived programmes, makes one jump through many hoops, before you get to see the real cash. Some requirements posted on their website:

• - must be 35 years old or above on 31 December of the work year;
• - must work at least two months in a three-month period;
• - must earn an average gross monthly income of not more than $1,900 for the period worked;
• - must live in a property with annual value of not more than $13,000 assessed as at 31 December of the preceding year.

So the student who tries to pay his way through school will continue to be exploited by working at a fast food joint for $500. Even if he's desperate enough to collect the WIS handout, he has to first labour for 2 months at slave wages. And if he happens to be staying with his retiree parents in a nice house, he is disincentivized from taking on a part time job to help with the bills. Minimum wage has no such artificial constraints.

So what happens to the employer who refuse to pay the minimum wage? These are the same folks who typically ask their $500 employee whether they want a paycheck with or without CPF deduction to avoid the compulsory contribution. They march to the friendly neighbourhood PAP MP and threaten to close shop and wreck the economy. And dummies like Tan will fall for it hook, line and sinker.

“These companies may not be prepared to pay that wage level. We've seen that happening in other countries,” Tan claimed. Please name those countries at your next rally, first world types preferred.

Behold Thy Alternate Voices

Associate Professor Daniel Goh's opening remarks:
"Good evening voters.
In 2011, many of you supported our call to move Singapore towards a First World Parliament and sent seven elected Workers' Party Members to Parliament. WE have seen the result. Today, we have a more responsive goovernment that is more sensitive to the struggle struggles of the people. We have seen policy changes responding to the needs of Singaporeans. But the journey towards a First World Parliament has only just begun. We cannot let our guard down now."

And here's the rest of his message:

We must continue our journey to protect our future and the future of our children. To protect our future, you have to further entrench your power and your rights in Parliament.
You need to take charge of your future, but this is not possible if we have an imbalanced Parliament with an overwhelming majority of ruling party MPs.
This election is a landmark election in the new era in Singapore.
Our formula for success in the last 50 years was to allow the ruling party to monopolise power, to exercise control over every aspect of our society, and set the direction for us. This was largely based on the mentality  that we only have a small talent pool that could lead Singapore. But times have changed. Our talent pool has vastly expanded through education and exposure. Many talented Singaporeans today excel in their own fields. However, our enterprises struggle to take off in the global arena and our workers struggle with productivity.
This is not for lack of talent, but because Singapoeans are not empowered to seize our future for ourselves.
For Singapore to become an outstanding smart nation in the next 50 years, we must build and nutrure confident professional, business and people sectors unfettered by unhealthy political monopoly. To do this, people must be able to think out of the box; people should be able to express themselves freely and debate issues within known limits as a multi-racial and multi-religious society. People must also feel secure and be assured of their rights against unreasonable and disproportionate actions from the Government and political leaders.
We have the opportunity now with the General Election to take that step to become such an outstanding nation. We can empower ourselves through a Parliament that truly represents the diversity of Singapore society for our future as a nation.
We are the masters of Singapore.
Our political leaders should serve us and facilitate empowerment of the people, not encourage subservience and groupthink. You have to decide whether having more ruling party MPS resulting in an imbalanced Parliament is in the best interest of the future of Singapore and your children.
Your vote is a signal to the ruling party that it cannot do what it wants without taking you seriously. It will signal to what extent the ruling party can deprive you of your power to participate in the policy-making process in the name of acting in your best interest.
Before 2011, the ruling party cruised along with policies that led to escalating cost of living, employment and retirement insecurity, and strained infrastructure due to runaway immigration. Your vote changed the course, but change for a better future is only just beginning.
Singapore is one of the richest countries in the world, but Singaporeans still feel stressed and disempowered at every stage of our lives. This is not right. The Government is planning for a 6.9 million population to solve the problems at hand. This is heading towards the wrong course. We have to change this.
Your vote is your power.
Use it to empower yourself.
We understand that to exercise the power of your vote, you need to have an alternative party deserving of your support. The Workers' Party is your credible choice. We are a rational, responsible and respectable party. We do not oppose for the sake of opposing and take a balanced approach in politics. We have worked hard to offer a a slate of capable candidates, balanced between seniority and youth, experience and idealism, but all united in seeking the empowerment of Singaporeans.
You can empower yourself to make decisions for your own future. Vote Workers' Party. Empower your future. Good night.