The day Vivian lit a match

Note: Normally, I would use a picture to accompany my postings. I’ve decided not to do so for this post because I do not want to subject you to having to look at the face of evil.

Singapore is a multi-racial, multi-cultural, multi-religious society. That much we’ve always been told. And that much is true. We have also been advised to speak with care and to show respect towards our fellow Singaporeans who may not be of the same race, religion or persuasions as ourselves.

And so it was with shock when I read the statement issued by the PAP’s Holland-Bukit Timah GRC team on the matter of a video which was shot in November 2010 of a public forum on the issue of 377A.

The leader of the team, a Cabinet minister, no less, Dr Vivian Balakrishnan, the previous day had accused the team members of the Singapore Democratic Party of being “strange bedfellows”, and that two of its members had not done their “due diligence” before they decided to join the SDP.

Ms Lim, Mr Lim, Mr Yeo, please keep in touch

First, have you noticed that nowadays, our state-owned newspapers no longer call them “Ministers Without Portfolio”? They’re now described as “Minister in the Prime Minister’s Office”. I guess “without portfolio” makes them look like they’re rather redundant.

And Ms Lim Hwee Hua is one of these “Minister in the Prime Minister’s Office”.

Commenting on the criticisms levelled at two of the PAP’s new candidates – Tin Pei Ling and Foo Mee Har – Ms Lim said, “I certainly hope that people will rise above the gender perspective.”

The Straits Times reported her as expressing ”a hope that people would not target candidates because they are women, adding that ‘that would be very sad if it were true’.”

Teo Chee Hean and his nonsense

“By the opposition’s own admission, if you ask them, are you ready to form a government… they say, no, no, we’re not ready.” - DPM Teo Chee Hean, Straits Times, 8 April 2011.

I think Mr Teo should not shoot his mouth off too fast without his brain having process some vital information first. While he ridicules the opposition’s admission that they are not yet ready to form the government (actually it’s only the WP who’s said so, contrary to what Mr Teo said – “opposition” as a whole), Mr Teo should remember that it is his own PAP which has been telling Singaporeans this past few weeks that its new candidates are also not ready – not even ready to be MPs.

That is why they have to be “understudies”. Like Tin Pei Ling and even army general BG Tan Chuan Jin.

So, Mr Teo, don’t be too quick. Your own new candidates aren’t even ready to be MPs, for goodness sake.

And that too, by your own admission.

Dear comrades…

I have received feedback that many people do not and could not understand what Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong said at the NUS Ministerial Forum on Tuesday. Some were upset and some simply were confused. I have gone through the 2-hours worth of recording (by a secret friend whom I secretly planted in the audience that night) and here I will try and paraphrase entirely what PM Lee tried to say.

Dear comrades,

A two-party system cannot work for Singapore. We, the greatest, most honest and most capable party on the face on the face of this earth, and indeed in all of human history, east, west, north and south, knows what’s best for you.

The opposition parties do not.

We are so good that even China, that great great country, emulates our political system! When a communist country copies you, that tells you something, doesn’t it? SO, please. If you believe in the greater good of this our homeland, join us! make us better! We come to serve and not to be served, comrades!

Lets together run the next lap! Lets together take the great leap forward!

But we can’t do it if you vote for the opposition!

We have all the talents. Anyone who says they also have talents is suspect and is a liar because we alone – and alone – have all the talent.

Anyone who claims to be talented but is not wearing white, don’t believe him!

General Election become PAP Election?

James Gomez beat me to it but he is right. It seems that the upcoming General Election is being hijacked by the PAP into one which is self-serving – it is becoming all about the PAP. PAP renewal. PAP 4G leadership. PAP survival. Yadda yadda yadda.

“We have heard nothing specific about policies the PAP will introduce to reduce the suffering it has caused to the people of Singapore,” Mr Gomez says. (Click here.)

And he is right, of course.

The PAP likes to conjure up – in its imaginative hubris – images of doomsday. Apocalyptic meltdown of Singapore should it falter and more opposition members get into Parliament. It is a game played out at every election. This is how the PAP hijacks a national referendum into one which is narrowly-focussed and self-serving. 

Goh Joke Tong – everyone hates him

In just one week, Senior Minister Goh Chok Tong has singlehandedly made a joke of his office. After playing that now-infamous prank on his Facebook about Tin Pei Ling, the very next day he ridiculed farmers. And now, two very senior ministers have distanced themselves from his remarks about ministers in future having to serve shorter terms.

Indeed, the man is becoming a joke.

The latest to disagree with his views is no other than the man at the very top – PM Lee himself.

“Mr Lee said he also disagrees with Senior Minister Goh Chok Tong’s recent opinion that future ministers may end up serving only two terms. Mr Lee said that is not possible because of the lack of numbers.” (Channel NewsAsia)

Yesterday, it was Deputy Prime Minister Wong Kan Seng who distanced himself from the joker’s comments and said: “That is SM’s opinion…”

The man is famous for gaffes like these. There are too many to list down here. But as the General Election is around the corner, it reminds me of one of the biggest boo boo the man made – that of first enticing and then threatening the voters of Hougang and Potong Pasir.

SM Goh had been tasked with a “special mission” by Lee Hsien Loong in the 2006 GE to win back the two wards. But what happened in the end?

Chiam See Tong’s percentage of votes increased instead and he won Potong Pasir.

Low Thia Khiang’s vote share shot up so high it was a personal record best – at 62-plus per cent!

And all thanks to Goh Chok Tong.

So, seems everyone has a reason to hate him:

- Sitoh Yih Pin – losing PAP candidate in Potong Pasir

- Eric Low – losing PAP candidate in Hougang

- Tin Pei Ling – the target of Goh’s practical joke

- Wong Kan Seng

- Lee Hsien Loong

And farmers, of course.

But no matter what, in Singapore, gaffes by PAP ministers go unpunished. SM Goh will continue to receive his lifetime pension (of millions) and his annual S$3.4 million salary.

So you see, the joker has the last laugh.

The joke, really, is on us, the taxpayers.

Goh Chok Tong – another dumb remark

TODAY, 2 April 2011, reporting on what SM Goh Chok Tong said:

Noting that surveys indicate how people in less-developed countries are happier, he said: “Because they don’t know what life is; they’re quite happy. They wake up, they brush their teeth, then they’ll farm, and then they’ll sleep. But do you want it that way?”

Goh’s words are so stupid and dumb that I have nothing to say about it except to say that it is very sad to hear someone as senior as him in government saying farmers are ignorant. Goh forgets that it is these farmers who enables him to have food on his plate. What an idiot, really.

But I am glad Natalie Cheong, who is some 50 years younger than Goh, has something more to say about it. She wrote to the TODAY newspaper to rebut Goh.

A farmer’s life deserves respect

Letter from Natalie Cheong

04:46 AM Apr 04, 2011

Senior Minister Goh Chok Tong has been quoted as saying of people in less-developed countries: “Because they don’t know what life is, they’re quite happy. They wake up, they brush their teeth, then they’ll farm, and then they’ll sleep. But do you want it that way?”. What concerns me is the assumption that all farmers in less-developed countries do not understand what life is.

 

I have worked with farmers in Vietnam who have grown up in marginalised indigenous communities. They are able to read and write in English and think more critically than many Singaporeans I have met. They are able to use the Internet and even have Facebook. They humble me with their know-how and adaptability in farming – a skill that has been long-lost in my generation.

Farmers like them help to supply our country’s people with 90 per cent of our food. These are the unsung and financially unrewarded people who have contributed to the success of Singapore today. They are also the people whom millions will rely on to be highly adaptive and resilient in light of changing environmental conditions brought about by climate change.

I am 22 years of age and do not claim to have a comprehensive understanding of what life is. But I do know that happiness, which is not based on disregard for others, is central to what I would want my country to have.

Goh Chok Tong boo boo again, what a clown

Just a day after playing a prank on readers of his Facebook page, Senior Minister Goh Chok Tong has once again talked nonsense.

IN a speech to about 300 grassroots leaders from the Kampong Ubi-Kembangan and Kaki Bukit wards in the Marine Parade GRC, he said:

“You want to bring in new people who can be given responsibilities, (then) you have to create space in the Cabinet for new people coming in. So a time will come, when ministers will not serve more than two terms, generally speaking, so we can have new blood coming in.”

In short, this means there are some redundant ministers whom voters should feel free to discard, or vote out. After all, SM Goh seems to be saying that the PAP has more than enough talent to be ministers. So much talent in fact that they have to shorten their terms.

So voters, don’t worry if your GRC minister loses the election. They can easily replace him.

I’m writing something nice about Tin Pei Ling

So, the criticisms have come and gone. Well, some are still ongoing. But never mind. I am going to write something nice about Tin Pei Ling. Why am I doing this? Because no matter what one may think of her, going into politics is something to be applauded, especially for someone as young as her. I would applaud the same for young opposition members as well.

We can all criticise the GRC system and these criticisms would be utterly deserved because it is truly a completely flawed system which has been abused by the PAP for its won selfish hegemonic reasons. It doesn’t even pretend that the GRC is to provide minority-race representation in Parliament anymore. In fact, Goh Chok Tong has explicitly explained that it is to provide a “guarantee” for first-time would-be PAP candidates to waltz into Parliament.

But a flawed system is quite different from the matter of someone like Tin Pei Ling stepping up to the political rostrum.

And she should be applauded for doing so.

Straits Times, you not embarrassed meh?

You and I know the Straits Times is a self-proclaimed “nation-building” newspaper. That, of course, is an euphemistic term for being a PAP mouthpiece. Even its Chief Editor, Han Fook Kwang, could did not deny it when he was asked about this.

“We’re aware people say we’re a government mouthpiece or that we are biased. But the test is if our readers believe in the paper and continue to buy it,” he said in 2010.

But even so, the ST should at least pretend to be a serious newspaper and its “journalists” professional. The problem is that it does indeed pretend to be these – except that it falls flat on its face every time. I mean, a lie will always be a lie and it will always show itself up. A lie trips you up every time – sooner or later.

And the sooner has arrived.

With expectations of a General Election reaching high fever, I knew the ST could not be counted on to be professional. Where is the proof, you may ask. Sure. Here it is – the Straits Times General Election website, specially set-up for election news.