The WP's candidates for Aljunied being presented to the crowd at the final rally of the campaign
By Wayne Sim
Staff Writer
Making his final rally speech of the election campaign, the Workers’ Party’s Chen Show Mao threw a question to the 50,000 strong crowd.
“Many years from now, your grandchildren will ask you: Did you do your part for Singapore in Aljunied?”
Mr Chen challenged the residents of Aljunied to send the WP team into Parliament to fulfill the vision of a First World Parliament, highlighting that increased political competition would help to bring about better governance from the PAP. To raucous cheers from the crowd, he recalled the rare but monumental opposition milestones in Singapore’s electoral history, declaring:
“After Anson, after Potong Pasir, after Hougang, there will be Aljunied!”
Mr Chen’s rallying call summed up the spirit of courage and defiance that has characterised the WP’s election campaign over the past two weeks as he tops a list of impressive new candidates on the party’s slate going to the polls on May 7. The party’s Aljunied line-up is one of the strongest ever fielded by any opposition party since the inception of the GRC system, with Mr Chen standing alongside Mr Low Thia Khiang, Ms Sylvia Lim, Mr Mohammed Faisal Manap and Mr Pritam Singh.
Mr Low, the WP’s secretary-general, is leading this battle from the front. The veteran opposition MP has vacated Hougang – his stronghold of 20 years – to headline the team for Aljunied. In his final rally speech of the campaign, he defiantly declared that Minister Mentor Lee Kuan Yew had challenged him to contest in a GRC years ago. “Well, here I am!” he yelled, drawing a defeaning roar of approval from the crowd.
Ms Lim was close to tears as she recounted her eight years spent working the ground in Aljunied, coming into close contact with many residents who needed assistance. She said that she could not do anything for them as she had no official capacity, because a directive was sent to government ministries and agencies telling them not to reply to letters from Non-Constituency MPs.
She insisted that there was no fame or fortune to be gained from being in the opposition, and that she and her colleagues were working hard purely because they wanted an opportunity to serve.
The WP's rallies have drawn enormous crowds on a nightly basis throughout the entire campaign
She said that if elected, the WP team would be more than capable of running the town council – noting that the candidates on her team were all of a very high calibre and could all bring unique qualities to the table.
The battle for Aljunied is likely to be decided on a razor-thin margin, with a host of heavyweight PAP leaders – including Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong and Senior Minister Goh Chok Tong – declaring that Mr George Yeo, the leader of the incumbent PAP team as well as the Foreign Minister, is too important to lose.
Mr Yeo himself has launched a passionate appeal pleading with angry voters to give him and the PAP another chance, promising to be their voice not only in Parliament, but also in the cabinet.
The WP has declared that the battle for Aljunied will be critical, because the PAP’s constant gerrymandering tactics have made it impossible for the opposition to gain any foothold in Parliament. Mr Low said that the crucial need for the WP to lock down a GRC was the reason why he left Hougang, a decision he described as being one of the most difficult in his life.
In the 2006 election, a WP team led by Ms Lim lost narrowly to Mr Yeo’s PAP team, obtaining 44% of the votes.
–
The author is a Staff Writer at The Satay Club. He is a final-year law undergraduate at a reputable university in Australia, and returns to Singapore twice a year.
Yes I did my part, voted for WP, kicked Cynthia Phua n Lim Hwee Hua out, sorry to Geo Yeo
PAP parasites billboard before GE2011
1 ) Wong Kan Seng ( Still holding the champion since 20 year ago )
2 ) Lui Teck Yew ( Arrogant shit )
3 ) Mabok Tan
4 ) Lim Hwee Hua
5 ) Lim Swee Say
6 ) Cynthia Phua
7 ) Christopher de souza
8 ) Vivian the BALA overbudget taxpayer’s money
“Remember, the sentiment on the internet is not reflective of the sentiment on the ground. Past election results have proven this.”
Yours are the words of the ignorant and shortsighted. With each passing year, Singapore (and in fact the whole world) becomes more and more wired, with an ever-growing % of people using the Internet. Thus over time, the Internet becomes an ever-increasingly accurate reflection of society.
By 2016 or 2021, the proportion of citizens who are computer-illiterate or non-Internet-savvy will be even smaller (as the older generation of citizens pass away)
You may be right. But right now, we are in 2011. Not 2016. Not 2021. Like it or not, there are still many old folks who appreciate what the PAP has done for them. There are also many young people who appreciate what the PAP has done for them. Because they are happy with their lives, they do not spend their time venting on the internet. You will soon find out that I am correct. Judging from the sentiments on the internet, one might think that opposition will win 75% of the votes. In reality it will be more like PAP winning 60-62% of the votes. This will provide concrete proof that sentiment on the internet is vastly different from the sentiment on the ground.
Just received this in my email:
Subject: Fw: Pensions of our ministers
Msg below is being circulated in the internet. Somehow this was not brought up as an issue in the election campaign by any of the opposition parties. If not mistaken, $9.6 billions have been put aside for this purpose and approved by Parliament then. Singaporeans seem to have poor memory and that is why the MIW have cleverly crafted this act to ensure that they and their families are well taken care of even they are being kicked out of Parliament. Hopefully the act will be repealed one day when the fat cats are ousted out.
DO MINISTERS RECEIVE 50% OF THEIR LAST-DRAWN PAY FOR LIFE?
You friend is wrong about 50%. It is actually as high as 2/3rds. The Parliamentary Pensions Act provides that “office holders” (which means “Prime Minister, Deputy Prime Minister, Speaker, Senior Minister, Minister, Senior Minister of State, Minister of State, Mayor, Senior Parliamentary Secretary, Parliamentary Secretary or Political Secretary”). If you closed your eyes and threw a stone in Parliament House during a Parliamentary sitting – assuming if, and it is a big if, that everyone attends (which is never the case. Parliamentary sittings are lucky if 50% of MPs attend!) you will hit at least 1 or perhaps 2 with the stone ricocheting PAP chaps entitled to pensions.
Anyhow, back to your question. The Act has a formula for payment of the amount of pension. You start with a numerator of 8 (meaning 8 years of service as office holder) and add 1 for every year of service after that. You divide this number by a fixed denominator of 27, and you stop when the number hits 2/3rds, which means that anyone who has 18 years service will hi! t maximum pension. The amount that is due to him FOR LIFE is found at section 4:
4(2) The annual amount of pension payable to an office-holding Member shall be —
(a) in respect of every completed year of reckonable service in any office, or where he has served in
more than one office in each office, at the rate of one-twenty-seventh (1/27) of his annual salary in that
office; and
(b) in respect of any remaining uncompleted year of reckonable service in any office, or where he has
served in more than one office in each office, at the rate of one-three-hundred and twenty-fourth (1/324)
part of his annual salary for each completed month of reckonable service in that office.
(2A) The annual pension payable to any office-holding Member under subsection (2) shall not exceed two-thirds
of the highest annual salary of any office held by him.
(3) Subject to sections 13 and 15, a pension granted under this section shall continue for the life of the person to
whom it is payable but shall not be payable in respect of any period during which he is again an office-holding
Member; at the end of that period the pension shall again be payable and shall be re-computed with the addition
of that period to the period of his former reckonable service as an office-holding Member.
(4) Fo! r the purposes of subsections (2) and (2A), “annual salary”, in relation to any office, means the annual
equivalent of the highest monthly rate of salary (excluding any non-pensionable allowances) received by an
office-holding Member during any period of reckonable service as a holder of that office.
Astonishing, isn’t it that the pension is payable based on the “Highest annual salary of any office held by him” and “highest monthly rate of salary”. So, it doesn’t matter that the MP was a low ranking parliamentary secretary for 17 years, and then became a multi-million $ minister for 1 year. His pension will be based on 2/3rds of his salary as a minister, as that is his highest annual salary of any office held by him. So, it also doesn’t matter that there are occasional reductions in salary during recessions, since their pension is based on their highest annual salary.
On this basis, SM / PM / MM will get 2/3rd x $3 million for the rest of their lives. I understand that if they are eligible for pension and they are still serving, they get both salary plus pension concurrently. (see section 5).
Or did I forget to tell you that pensions are exempt from income tax? This is stated in the Income Tax Act!
It gets better. The Act says that the pension can be commutated. This means that it is paid in 1 lump sum instead of monthly payments for life. The lump sum is equivalent to 175.14 months of pension, i.e. 14.6 years of pension. It doesn’t matter that the minister asks for it because he has terminal cancer and has 3 months to live. He will get 14.6 years of pension paid to him in 1 go, and it will be tax free. If MM’s pension is base! d on 2.5 million (conservative estimate), his commutated pension is $36.5 million. Can buy a GCB with it, without any bank loan!
This is a real scandal. I was horrified when Goh Chok Tong proposed recently that ministers serve 8 years only, and new ones come in. It means that the pool of multi-million dollar pension earners will get bigger and bigger! It will add to the financial burden of future generations of Singaporeans having to pay for the pensions of people who have already been paid too much during their terms of office.
Who in the private sector is entitled to pension? And yet the ministers, etc are collecting tax free pensions on top of their world’s highest salaries. Now you know why George Yeo is fighting so hard to keep his job as minister.
Incidentally, all Admin Service officers, Sr Police & Military Officers and High Court Judges are still entitled to pensions in the same manner. No one else in the Civil Service gets pensions.
A gentle reminder for 2day:
VOTE OPPOSITION PARTIES!!! KICK THE PAPAYAS OUT!!!
THROW PAPAYA SUCKERS OUT WITH THE DISHWATER!!!
Nani, I for one speak of sayang to all my brothers and sisters here in this little red dot kingdom regardless of race. Bythe way, I do not know whether you like our beach here in Singapore, if you do, then take a stroll in the late evening to Pasir Ris or Changi beach and see for yourself first hand the “campers” (not the usual beach campers) there or maybe at Marine Parade beach at some isolated corners and you will find such “campers” there too. Speak to them plainly in your humility which I do believe you can and maybe you will have an “idea” of how did the system gone wrong…maybe you will find somebody used to be a resident in Aljunied GRC among such “campers”.
And for Mat, like most Americans used to say, “Do what you gonna do” and move on and see what will happen on the night of polling results. The results is ordained and nothing can changed that. The next 5 years either for the better or for the worse lies in the hands of “individuals few” to be decided by the “individual many” who have casted the vote.
To all voters whethers Aljunied or other GRCs, SMCs …VOTE WITHOUT FEAR for this is your COUNTRY – this is your BIRTH RIGHTS AS A FELLOW SINGAPOREAN,
and decide what is good for you and your children, children’s children – PERIOD!!!
My girl friend and her family members will vote for WP. They will have additional 4 votes. Me?? Amk – RP!!! Who are they?? I dun care la. Just came back from China business trip. I will vote them even they are not wining.. I hope that PAP will work harder to win my vote back. Dun just said only, do what you promised in the last election. Is the poor, the same?? You should know better.
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Nani, seriously, is there a need for you to be so obnoxious? I think you have stated your stand and of course you have a right to your opinion, but is there a need for you to be so arrogant? OK, so you went to a good school and got a good degree and a good high paying job etc. But don’t forget that you are a human being just like everyone else. What gives you the right to look down on others? I am not attacking your right to state your opinions, but I just think that you should be more sensitive in terms of how you put them across. That’s all. Please consider.
Opposition supporters are just deluded losers who want to change the system because they aren’t smart enough to thrive within it. You guys can say all you want, but it doesn’t change anything. Remember, the sentiment on the internet is not reflective of the sentiment on the ground. Past election results have proven this. I can guarantee you that you will be disappointed tomorrow night. The results will be overwhelmingly in favour of the PAP because the majority of Singaporeans are wise and logical, unlike the rabble-rousers on the internet. I would like to put my neck out and predict a clean sweep for the PAP, but I think that 86-1 will be a good result. Hougang will remain with the WP but with a reduced margin. Overall PAP margin will be around 64 to 66% of the national vote.
On Monday, the world will go back to work, and you will all be left in your deluded little bubbles again until 2016.
Chen Show Mao is freaking awesome. I can’t believe that someone of his stature would want to contest as such a huge underdog instead of joining the juggernaut. He deserves respect.
Please check out what Tin Pei Ling said about Nicole Seah on Facebook (she has since deleted these comments but people took screen shots)
http://www.facebook.com/photo.php?fbid=10150159581846685&set=a.52895001684.76077.594576684&type=1&theater
Maureen K & Melvin Singh, Shameless TNP Journalists & Disgusting TNP
Today at Cooling Day as planned & intiated by ruling govt, all parties & supporters to refrain fm all parties promotion & propaganda.
TNP shamelessly advertises for PAP esp Aljunied have a 2page special on Aljunied PAP Warrior abt candidate Ong Ye Kung. Any proper non bias media responsible who stays neutral who have put equal coverage of both PAP & WP as fair reporting. Yet TNP shamelessly promotes PAP Aljunied star on cooling off day as written by Maureen
Their emails: maureenk@sph.com.sg and melvin@sph.com.sg.
Should public voice their resentment of bias promotion and abuse of electoral rules where TNP promotes party.
Theresa Wee
The residents of Aljunied need to do their part for Singapore – by REJECTING the WP’s brand of emotional, sentimental politics, and vote with their heads! If they vote out George Yeo, all Singaporeans will suffer as it will be very difficult to replace him… the government will suffer. The WP is just trying to further its own selfish ambition at the expense of the residents of Aljunied. Forget all this nonsense about wanting to be an insurance policy or a co-driver. The WP’s sinister hidden motive is to take over the government, period. And they are using the people of Aljunied for this aim. If Aljunied falls for their tricks, all of Singapore will suffer.
There you go again you PAPaya sucker, stirring shit as usual.
Since you enjoy doing this you’d better grow another layer of
skin and stop crying father crying mother when readers start
throwing shit at you.
VOTE WORKERS’ PARTY!!! KICK THE PAPAYAS OUT!!!
KICK PAPAYA SUCKERS OUT TOO!!!
Is this the best that you can do? Throwing personal attacks at me? I’m not allowed to voice my opinion? If you don’t agree with what I said, kindly provide an argument of your own, and support it with evidence and examples. Don’t simply resort to personal attacks. It makes you look like a low-IQ baboon. No wonder you are unhappy with the current system in Singapore. It doesn’t support idiots.
Of course you are allowed, I said it before and I say it again. And, am I not allowed to voice my opinion? Same-same, right
PAPaya sucker? Personal attacks? Sure? Don’t look now but guess who’s resorting to that you arse-sniffing dog?
VOTE WORKERS’ PARTY!!! KICK THE PAPAYAS OUT!!!
KICK PAPAYA SUCKERS OUT TOO!!!
As usual you are stooping to low-level personal attacks without any logic at all. You have not even been able to come up with any intelligible arguments. You are just a donkey. If you dislike what’s going in Singapore, that’s fine, but don’t drag all of us down with your defeatist, cynical and bitter attitude. You just want a free ride due to your own laziness and incompetence, and instead of blaming yourself for being a failure in life, you choose to blame the PAP, the FTs, the elite, etc etc etc. You are worth nothing and your opinion is worth nothing. Like I said, you can say whatever you want, but NOTHING will change because the opinion on the ground is VASTLY different from the opinion on the internet.
We have seen this before.
Why are you even bothering with Nani? Isnt it obvious that he is one of the smug, elite PAP apologists who is deeply terrified of any change in the status quo? He fears that if things change, his network of inner-circle contacts and favours will dissipate into thin air. All he can do is rant about people being lazy and incompetent, how arrogant!
You are so chicken-shit scared that your beloved PAPaya masters are going to lose Aljunied that you have come here again and again crying and begging for your PAPayas to be given a reprieve, that they not be booted out, that Georgie Boy be allowed to keep his indecently-salaried job and not be put in the employment line. Well PAPaya sucker it ain’t gonna happen, residents in Aljunied like the rest of Singapore, have woken up and are aware of the lies and false apologies of those scum wearing white. Cum 7 May you and your good-for-nuttin’ pals are gonna lose and lose big. They will be steamrolled out by the voters of Aljunied together with 2 or 3 other GRCs and a handful of SMCs. On 8 May a new dawn will begin for the people of Singapore. And loud-mouthed elitist types like you will climb down from your pedestals to lick the people’s feet, crawling like the dawgs that you are.
In the meantime take a good look at this video and experience your marbles quaking: http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=mqdMzzCIWdY#at=13
1 thing more:
VOTE WORKERS’ PARTY!!! KICK THE PAPAYAS OUT!!!
KICK PAPAYA SUCKERS OUT TOO!!!
Mat ah Mat, because of your reply to Nani, I had to read through Nani’s post which are full of shit. That really make me sick. I was not a anti-PAP but I now I feel that I am getting towards that after reading his post.
Nani, pls stop copy those comment from the newspaper and publish here. LHL already apologise and you as a supporter should not go against his view.
Mini, your awakening is right on time for the elections.
VOTE OPPOSITION PARTIES!!! KICK THE PAPAYAS OUT!!!
KICK PAPAYA SUCKERS OUT TOO!!!
My masters? LOL. I am not a member of the PAP and they certainly are not my masters. They are my servants and they have been doing a damn good job of it. I’m not worried about George Yeo or anyone else. But for you to be saying that you want to celebrate George Yeo’s defeat, well it just shows how retarded and moronic you are. Think properly please. What will gain from losing George Yeo? What will Singapore gain? So, why will you celebrate if he is voted out? You are just out to prove a point.. nothing more than a brainwashed, partisan fanatic totally incapable of independent thought. You accuse the PAP of producing propaganda. Well you have clearly fallen for the WP’s propaganda.
The PAPayas are not your masters? You could have fooled me! Then why are you behaving like you are their slave, dum-dum? And sucking up to them even more than a slave does. They own you serf, body and soul, and you don’t even know it. Pity. No one with an ounce of self-respect will stoop so low and grovel at their feet the way you do, sucker. Extremely low self-esteem! Very unbecoming too!
Not worried that your PAPaya master Georgie Boy will lose the election together with his useless team of whities? Fool Me Hah? Why then are you spending so much of your time pleading and begging Aljunied voters to give their votes to your masters? You can carry on fooling others but stop fooling yourself, you damn idiot. Right here right now you are still begging and pleading on Georgie Boy’s behalf and you are not conscious of it!
What will Singapore gain and what will I gain when Georgie and team fall? Well, a whole new team of opposition mps to represent us and speak up for us in parliament for one. For another, a team of reliable members in parliament to check on your PAPayas and the shits that they have been doing and are still doing. And how about this, blockhead, a breath of fresh air for a bonus?
Nani, you seems like disagree with MM.
1) If GY is sooo important and no one can replace his role, pls advice who in your mind can a minister that is not so important and can be replaced? MBT, KBG, Ong KS or Vivian?
2) Or we may be wrong as our almighty gov should put GY under LHL or LKY so we will have GY safe during this election?
3) Maybe our PAP had made a mistake of having GRC system? One man sooo good but the rest of the member lousy will sabo the good one. What do you think? Should we feedback to PAP to scrab the GRC system?
Nani, don’t waste your time arguing with an idiot. they say that when you argue with an idiot, it makes you an idiot too.
Forgot again,
VOTE OPPOSITION PARTIES!!! KICK THE PAPAYAS OUT!!!
KICK PAPAYA SUCKERS OUT TOO!!!
Don’t give up. This morning, talked to an old uncle. He still remembers the last time how PAP won Aljunied and he fears the same. I told him not to give up or lose hope. People, please keep on engaging your fellow citizens to vote for the opposition. All of us can make a difference. Its not yet voting day, we are not candidates, we can still do our part by engaging our fellow Singaporeans.
@calvary141
Careful, tai tai aunties have a lot of grassroots support and they make up the masses who have yet to awaken from their sleep.
The rest of you who can see through their game – apologising at this juncture to win sympathy votes – please don’t be fooled yet again.
Why apologise now, why not two years ago when there were already loud rumblings on the ground?
The apology is a politically calculated one.
Come on, awake! The human spirit of justice and fairness has to prevail over fear and cowardice.
LHL don’t blame me when GY is out.
Blame the GRC for the many liabilities riding on GY coat tail
Blame your GDP policy with crowded MRT and unemployed PMET
Blame your high pay MP for not forgiving a low IQ boy
Blame your higher pay ministry for the 50 years flooding
Blame your very high pay DPM for Mas Selamat escape
Blame your very very high pay MM for telling us to repent
Blame your party unfair treatment to taxpayer in PP and HG
Blame your Pride And Prejudice
Just don’t blame me
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If GY really loses Aljunied to WP, he should thank Lim Hwee Hwa and Cynthia Phua, the two ladies who have shown no compassion to the sufferings of the poor, the handicapped and the underprivileged ( even threatening legal action ) of Aljunied residents. This also exposes the flaw of GRC system : a good minister who has to bear the brunt of and be dragged down by his no good team mates !
Someone please Tweet [http://twitter.com/] and CoveritLive [http://www.coveritlive.com/] .
You should be able to Tweet on mobiles then we can swing them all out on CoveritLive!
Surely Twitter and CoveritLive are not banned?!
“After Anson, after Potong Pasir, after Hougang, there will be Aljunied!”
Bloody awesome. Sounds like a general leading his troops into battle. And I thought George Yeo was supposed to be the general!
WP team looks much better on paper than PAP team. The only two impressive candidates there are GY and Ong Ye Kung. The other three, especially Cynthia Phua, are clowns. All five of the WP candidates look impressive, even Faisal and Pritam, who has really come into his own in the last 1 week or so with his passionate speeches. In contrast, Cynthia Phua looks like a clueless and obnoxious tai-tai / auntie.
WP NEEDS to win in Aljunied. Singapore can’t afford to lose these 5 opposition candidates.Sylvia is an awesome person who deserves to be an elected MP.