CAUGHT IN THE EYE OF THE STORM

By Nigel Tan

Chief Editor

 

 

The mainstream media has tried hard to portray her as a well-meaning, starry-eyed young lady who just wants to serve her country.

 

Internet critics have suggested that she is, amongst other things, incompetent, immature, vacuous, and unfit for office.

 

Even Senior Minister Goh Chok Tong has admitted that she cost her team votes in the recent general election, while others have said that she would not even be an MP had it not been for the coat-tails for Mr Goh.

 

Meanwhile, more than 60,000 Facebook users have started a petition calling for her to step down – and now, a police report has been filed against her for allegedly committing an election offence on “Cooling Off Day” on May 6.

 

Tin Pei Ling could be forgiven for wishing she was someplace else right now.

 

The PAP’s youngest candidate in over 20 years has been returned as an MP following a slender electoral victory in Marine Parade GRC, but as far as her fledgling political career is concerned, it seems that controversy follows her wherever she goes.

 

 

 

Back Door Entry

 

The 27-year old first found herself in the spotlight because of a YouTube video of her petulantly stomping her feet and replying “I don’t know what to say!” following a Young PAP event which she helped to organise. The video quickly went viral, sending the internet into a frenzy over the fact that someone who appeared to be a complete airhead would soon be parachuted into Parliament on the coat-tails of a venerable former Prime Minister.

 

It didn’t help that Ms Tin didn’t exactly acquit herself with distinction during her first few press interviews after being introduced as a candidate – when asked about her biggest regret in life, she infamously replied that it was not taking her parents to Universal Studios; when questioned as to which policies she hoped to change, she hemmed and hawed before answering that there were none.

 

Despite the fact that her electoral victory had been all but guaranteed from the day she was nominated to stand in the safe ward of Marine Parade, such was the strength of the public’s rejection of Ms Tin that her team – comprising Mr Goh and another heavyweight candidate, Brigadier-General Tan Chuan Jin – managed to poll only 56% of the votes against a weak NSP team whose only candidate of note was 24-year old Nicole Seah.

 

The PAP’s vote share in Marine Parade was the third-lowest out of 12 GRCs – only the teams in Aljunied and East Coast fared worse. To put this result in perspective, the last time Mr Goh faced a contest in his constituency – in 1992 – his PAP team romped home with more than 72% of the votes in a four-cornered fight.

 

Mr Goh’s stoic defence of Ms Tin, characterised mainly by his strong assurances that she would gain experience after a few years in Parliament, only served to add fuel to the fire – angry taxpayers were disgusted at the prospect of paying her a $15,000 monthly allowance over the duration of what they perceived to be a 5-year internship.

 

Meanwhile, others pointed out that Ms Tin’s victory – and Foreign Minister George Yeo’s defeat – was illustrative of the flaws of the GRC system, and expressed their dismay that they would be represented in the legislature by the former rather than the latter. A group was created on Facebook urging Ms Tin to step down so as to allow for a by-election in which Mr Yeo could contest. It gained more than 35,000 “likes” in a matter of days.

 

 

Chosen for the Wrong Reasons?

 

Despite the PAP’s insistence that Ms Tin had been selected because of her 7 years as a grassroots volunteer and youth leader, cynical murmurs were heard in every online forum that the only reason for her selection was her husband’s position as principal private secretary to Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong.

 

Things got even worse when it was revealed that Dilys Boey, her boss at Ernst & Young, was the wife of PAP MP Hri Kumar Nair.

 

Instantly, a web of conspiracy theories were spun over what could only be nepotism and cronyism of the highest order. After all, they argued, the PAP had always been an insular and elitist party.

 

Suggestions that she is being given special treatment by her managers at Ernst & Young have been given even more credence by rumours that she has been given a triple promotion – from Senior Associate to Director – just days after she was elected as an MP.

 

In Singapore, any hint of special treatment or favours for “inner circle” elites is immediately pounced upon with ferocity, in part because of continued assertions by the PAP that it governs based on the principle of meritocracy. The fact that Ms Tin does not appear to be competent enough to be a Parliamentarian only strengthens the view that she has been ushered in due to her personal connections rather than her ability.

 

 

 

No Cooling Off

 

Now, Ms Tin faces a possible police investigation over an alleged violation of election rules on Cooling Off Day, with campaigning of any sort expressly disallowed. She had allegedly made a comment on Facebook regarding Nicole Seah’s rally speech the night before, in which she made disparaging remarks about Ms Seah breaking down in tears over the plight of a needy resident.

 

Though the offending post was removed after 20 minutes, the damage had been done, with screen shots having been circulated to tens of thousands of netizens around the country.

 

Ms Tin later clarified that it was her administrator, Denise He, who made the post, and that it was an “honest mistake” because Ms He was accessing Facebook from her mobile phone. Apparently, she did know that she was logged into Ms Tin’s account.

 

But irate netizens didn’t take this lying down – they dug even deeper, and soon discovered that Ms He had not been listed as one of Ms Tin’s campaign managers or administrators in the forms which she submitted on Nomination Day.

 

According to existing election regulations, all candidates must make a declaration of all platforms on which they intend to conduct campaign activity, including online platforms. The NSP has filed a complaint against Ms Tin with the Elections Department, and now a police report has been filed by a member of the public. The NSP’s Secretary-General, Goh Meng Seng, has said that his party would be “following up” on their complaint as a result of the latest police report.

 

 

 

Caught in the Eye of the Storm

 

Whether or not the unrelenting pressure on Ms Tin will jeopardise her political career remains to be seen, but one thing is certain: she has become the one who Singapore loves to hate.

 

She is caught in the eye of a storm that shows no signs of abating, and had it not been for the unyielding efforts of the PAP and the state-controlled mainstream media in defending her, her position would be clearly untenable.

 

If she were a politician in any other country, there is no doubt that she would have been forced to resign.

 

Ms Tin has become the lightning rod for the overall public resentment towards the PAP that has forced the resignations of Senior Minister Goh and Minister Mentor Lee Kuan Yew from the cabinet. It seems that she is the embodiment of everything that is wrong with the PAP.

 

It would not be an exaggaration to say that Ms Tin is precisely the type of PAP “department store dummy” that David Marshall famously lambasted prior to his passing – she has no views of her own, she just toes the party line, she is more of a community volunteer than a politician. Worse still, she is thought to have been selected because of her inner-circle connections than her ability.

 

And most damningly of all, she is now an elected representative of the people, even though those who voted for her were really voting for Mr Goh.

 

 

–

The author is the Chief Editor of The Satay Club

 

 

 

SEE ALSO:

 

WHY CAN’T PEOPLE STAND TIN PEI LING?

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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