12/03/2012

Bedok/Punggol Branch Chairman – Do not harden hearts




The speech by Bedok Reservoir-Punggol Branch Chairman Victor Lye as reported in the media is most interesting. What he said were important. What he did not say were even more enlightening. I will adopt a ‘read between the lines’ approach to understand the gist of his speech.

The title as reported, A need to ensure PAP does not ‘harden hearts’ is as good as confirming that hearts have been hardened. He referred to the Hougang voters as a case in point. How and what did the PAP do to harden the hearts of the Hougang kias is interesting though no one is talking about it. This is the first admission of this fact.

His recommendation to win back Aljunied is to go with the flow, knowing that it is the national desire for alternative voices in Parliament. How is he going to do it? ‘In Aljunied, we must be prepared to argue for policies that are different from the Govt, even if they are somewhat similar to the Oppositions’. This is simply genius. The Aljunied voters will get an opposition in Parliament no matter who they voted. And this opposition will speak against the PAP policies, right or wrong, because the people want an opposition to do just that.

He also addressed the issue of transport and housing which he said was a perception that these policies were aimed at maximising profits. Really, if it is just a perception then it should not be a problem. Just communicate and explain and the perception will change and the problems will go away.

His other recommendation on transport is that Singaporeans should be put ‘at the heart of the policy while achieving operating efficiency’. Read between the lines, Singaporeans were not put at the heart of the policy while achieving operating efficiency. Is that the case?

His concluding statement for winning back Aljunied, ‘we need to make clear that we have candidates with the right party values’. What are these values? I am sure, very sure, that George Yeo had all these values. But he still lost. Now I am not sure who the PAP is going to put up that is better than George Yeo, that have understood PAP values better, to win back Aljunied.

Anyway, it was an amazing speech with a lot of revelations. It is good that the media reported the speech almost in full. Good speech, and good understanding of the problems or perceptions of the problems PAP is facing.

20 comments:

  1. Too late! Too much damage has been done. People have been crying all these while but no one want to hear. They all busy with money making.

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  2. What were these grassroots leader doing all these years while hearts had been hardened? Were they patting each other's back for supposedly well done jobs or feeding wrong kind of feedback to the MPs? It was just a matter of listening to only the good stuff.

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  3. Hehe.....Mr Bean impressed and got CONvinced.
    Aljunied Voters prefer real Alternative Representation and not Fake One lah.

    Why Mr Bean never scold the PM talking about economic growth when the People ONLY WANTED COST OF LIVINGS TO BE REASONABLE. AND NOT TO BE RAISED WITHOUT CONSIDERATION ABOUT THE PEOPLE' ABILITY TO COPE WITH IT?

    The Prime Minister conveniently asked a few questions and the PAP Members became dumb founded. Are there no thinkers in the PAP Audience? Or they are all loaded with money that none of them faces the many problems others not in the Audience are beset with.
    From the telecast shown, most did appear well fed, heavy and dull.

    Chairman Victor Lye seemed confident of taking back Aljunied.
    Me optimistic that Singaporeans will want a better society with a more balanced representation of MPs from the various Alternative Parties.

    What do You think?

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  4. George Yeo got PAP values or not? He lost because got PAP values or because not PAP values?

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  5. Playing to the gallery.
    Shouldn't such a speech be given behind closed doors to the PAP faithfuls... instead of being made public?
    Trying to pretend PAP has repented?

    Before voting PAP, please always ask yourself .... how does it benefit me the citizen?
    e.g.
    Even if we had $100 trillion dollars cash in our Singapore Reserves, do you think the PAP will do anything to benefit the citizens with that money?

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  6. According to many, George Yeo is the Greatest Thinker in the PAP.
    According to the Official Medias, he was a philosopher.
    And
    the Philosopher was the First Full Cabinet Minister to be kicked out by Aljunied Voters and he brought along two Female Hevyweight Colleagues with him.

    Me am of the that he was brought down by his two Female Candidates. My sympathy for his poor luck to be with them.

    patriot

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  7. My apology,

    'Me am of the that.......' should read, 'Me am of the view that......'

    patriot

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  8. Stop blaming women.
    George Yeo was voted out by a people yearning and learning to be free.

    Is George Yeo a philosopher?
    Please!
    Likely, he was an apologist for PAP policies. Some might even say a PAP spin doctor?

    For such an alleged free spirit and philosopher, it would seem that he is busy making a good living in the private sector.

    What's the matter George?
    You found out the hard truth?
    That the PAP cannot and will not "transform" itself?
    Remarkable how quickly you came to this conclusion AFTER we voted you out of office.

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  9. well, I doubt Chairman Victor Lye's
    comments can come to any good. Firstly,You must remember, they have the party whip to ensure their members are in line (so how to change). A good example is ex MP Tan Cheng Bok who dared to be different but what happen to him??? Even , if they bring up issue opposing views, it this a "Wanyang Kulit" show. Secondly, the ministers have been paid handsomely, my question is do they really know the difficulies and the problems the citizens are facing .
    Hougang people have decided and this must be an accumulations of their frustrations over the years.
    Look at THe shity Times Today, PM defends 3 core values, my concern is on openness to foreigners and meritocracy. To what extent they are going to open to FT. On meritocracy, my observations are some ministers in the past may not be up to the mark and yet they are on the job.
    So whatever they say, take it with a pinch of salt unless you see action , lah!!!!

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  10. How to assemble another solid team to pit against the WP in next GE. Don't forget that the last team was very strong. Who wants to risk their career and reputation? That's the question.

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  11. Victor Lye can lead a team of newbie talents if all the smart ones refused to contest in Aljunied.

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  12. I think this guy has an ego-driven desire to be noticed, and validated.

    Its a psychological need. Humour the poor man, before he goes home drunk and beats his kids and forces himself on his wife, and the maid ;-)

    A lot of people are already pissed with the PAP. Chances are, these are already lost ballots.

    Then there are citizens like me -- who simply don't give a shit. As long as Singapore is rocking and awesome, who cares who is "the authority" in-charge of the place?

    Singapore is rocking and awesome because profit-seeking opportunistic privateers are essentially given free-reign to serve their customers and relieve them of all that sexy "disposable income". It is THE PRIVATE SECTOR which brings all the goodies, not the thugs in government.

    Party with booze, frisky gals and loud music: GOOD PARTY

    Party with assholes making speeches based on political doctrine: BAD PARTY.

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  13. When a party get too strong, its grassroot leaders feel that it was because of their effort. So they think they deserve all the parises and rewards. They do not "see" "feel" and "hear" the ground. The outcome is always failure. Mark my words.

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  14. /// Me am of the view that he was brought down by his two Female Candidates. My sympathy for his poor luck to be with them.
    patriot ///

    And this same female minister was undone by the huge outcry over the building of workers' dormitory in Serangoon. And these same foreign workers are the ones who were on strike.

    Should not have built those dormitories.

    Should not have employed those foreign drivers.

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  15. Victor Lye is saying that everything the PAP did was not right with Hougang. Which means those at the top had calculated wrongly that sidelining Hougang was the only way to force them to vote PAP.

    Strangely, we in Hougang know this decades ago. That is why we keep voting for WP against all odds, threats, punishments and bribes.

    I have a feeling that Victor Lye is not going to go far within the PAP. It is a slap in the face for the PAP, particularly the old man.

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  16. And what is that guy who did not win in Hougang doing in the smrt drivers' union? Is he also a director somewhere?

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  17. That discarded guy in Hougang is going to ride on someelse's coat-tail into Parliament by hook or by crook.

    Just wait and see.

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  18. Chances of ridibg on soneones' coat-tail to power is diminished.
    Even those willing to stand at the Ground where one got trounced repeatedly will have a similar result liked Potong Pasir.

    The Next Round will not be lucky for many lackeys, instead they will be frown upon and some maybe despised right into their faces.

    You will get to see it for Yourself.

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    Replies
    1. Sorry!

      'trounced repeatedly will have a similar......'
      should be 'trounced repeatedly will NOT have a similar......'.

      Apology

      Delete
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    ReplyDelete