What has the A Team been doing?

In the last election, the PAP was touting that it had the best A Team and not enough to form a B Team. The A Team is the best, to solve all the problems for the country and people.

How many problems have they solved or how many problems have they created. Which is which? Have they solved the high population problem or created it? Have they solved the high property prices or created it? Have they solved the transportation problem or created it? Have they solved the high cost of living or created it? Have they solved the baby problem or created it? Have they solved the high medical fee problem and shortage of medical professionals or created it?

What do you think?

Punggol East- How the cards are stacked?

Koh Poh Koon is every inch a super talent. His credential is impeccable. He looks a fairly decent chap and could be ministerial material too. And he has the backing of the ruling party and the whole machinery to support his quest to be the next MP. And there is the whole gang of ministers and top talents rooting for him. Would this be enough for Koh Poh Koon to win this election?

Lee Li Lian does not have the string of top notch qualifications to back her up. She is a member of a small opposition party and would definitely lack the resources of the ruling party, but adequate to put up a decent challenge for the job. She has walked the ground, the voters there had given her 41% in the last GE. Would this still be the case or could she add in a few more percentages to tip the scale?

What about the negative parts? The PAP camp would have to face the embarrassing story of Michael Palmer and to explain why they had led the voters down, for troubling them with this by election. This one is going to be sticky and a lot of emotions and subjectivity will be attached to it. The other big issue that the PAP cannot run away from is the AIM saga. This is a very dirty can of worm. And the opposition parties are going to extract every little piece of morsel from it. Not easy to ‘siam’ this one no matter how.

Then there is the whole load of cost of living issues, from influx of foreigners to housing, cars, medical, education, GST, COE, transportation, all providing the opposition a lot of ammunition to fire at the PAP.

What about the weaknesses of WP? It would have to do with her less than sparkling degrees and appointments. She would be more ordinary, more like everyone in Punggol East. She did not have anything to brag about, not even poverty or richest. She is just a person that the people would have to decide whether she is good enough to represent them in Parliament. Of course she would have all the time to do so, may be even resigning to be a full time MP.

The two candidates are stacked in the same way as in Hougang. A brilliant star against an ordinary person. The Hougangkias did not vote for a super talent. They were contented to put Png Eng Huat to Parliament against all odds. In Hougang, the WP was on the defensive with the same problem as PAP in the Michael Palmer affair. The WP was in a much weaker position than in Punggol East.

The additional minus factor against the WP must be the presence of two other contestants. Though they are not seen to receive much support from the voters in this election, but every vote counts. They could take away the few critical votes needed for the WP to unseat the PAP. This could be the most serious factor in this election against the WP. Would the voters cast all their votes for the two major party candidates and reduce the spoilt votes or votes going to the two spoilers? If the voters are clear in what they want, then Lee Li Lian of WP could stand a chance to do an upset. If too much votes are wasted on the two spoilers, then it looks like the PAP will have a better chance to winning. There is no doubt that the two spoilers’ votes will play a major part in the final outcome of this by election.

Punggol East, 4 corner or 2 corner fight?

It is now confirmed that four candidates have submitted their nomination papers and accepted for the by election. Koh Poh Koon(PAP), Lee Li Lian(WP), Kenneth Jeyaretnam(RP), and Desmond Lim(SDA) will be standing for their respective party. Somehow I still look at this as a straight fight between PAP and WP. As for the other two, very likely both will lose their deposits, $16k!
This looks set for an exciting battle with the individual candidate’s credentials being less of an issue as they are all reasonably qualified professionals. The main issue is really more of a battle against the PAP and the side issues will be what had happened recently in the constituency and of course AIM. The latter will be high on the list of the opposition camp to take a good dig at the ruling party.

I am wondering whether there will be any turnout or how small the turnouts will be for the rallies of RP and SDA when the main contestants will be slogging it out in centre court.

How many dirty linens will be aired this time?

Punggol East – A straight fight

By now everyone would have known that the SDP has withdrawn from the by election. This is the best news yet for people who want a straight fight between the PAP and the WP. And yes, it will be a straight fight. No? You mean there are two other possible parties like the SDA and the Reform Party standing as well? Are you sure they are political parties and are you sure they will make any difference? I am quite sure both will lose their deposits if they dare to stay on to fight. Anyway, they are inconsequential, just some side shows that no one needs to pay any attention to.

The SDP could pull in some serious number of votes that will weaken the chance of the WP. That is what the SDP could do if they contest the by election. But it would not be like winning a battle to lose a war. SDP will not win this battle and their participation will cause them the war in 2016 as well. It is better to save the money for the war that is coming. The decision to withdraw will put the SDP in a better state comes the GE. Thanks to their Central Committee, they have saved themselves from a major disaster that would have finished their chances in 2016.

While the whole picture of the by election has changed, the biggest winner is the cyber citizens. They have put enough pressure on the SDP to withdraw. And this is through a concerted effort of reasons and logic that convinced the SDP that going against them would be a great folly. Internet has never been such a powerful and persuasive tool in any general election. In this instance, the persistence of netizens and their forceful logic have forced the SDP to do the rightful. The internet is real and the voice of the internet is immediate, and to be ignored at their own peril. Without the internet, such vital feedback would not come about. The SDP took heed to save an otherwise embarrassing and costly by election.

The other internet brigade has also been very active trying to throw reasons into disarray and advocating a multi corner fight, appealing to the egos of individuals in political parties to try their luck. If this disinformation prevails, a multi corner fight would be inevitable. It seems that the people could not be easily swayed and those trying to support a multi corner fight had lost. Though there were a lot of contradicting views, the stronger view of reasons emerged to rule the day.

What the internet could do, the power of the internet, is much more superior to the main media. The internet penetration is much wider than the main media in a political situation like this. The main media would not be able to do what the internet could do, fresh and constant news or views straight out of the oven. The internet is now a game changer and no amount of internet brigades could distort the picture and the views of an enlightened population of netizens.

Should the WP win this by election, it has the internet to thank for. At least a multi corner fight has been avoided. No need to waste time on the jokers that are willing to throw away $16,000. The voters are smart enough to dismiss them as rubbish. Maybe by the end of the day, both could also withdraw.

Chee Soon Juan the new Zhuge Liang

Chee Soon Juan said he knew that his proposal would be rebuffed by the WP. And he sent his proposals to the WP three times and was rebuffed three times. This was similar to Liu Bei visiting Zhuge Liang three times in order to show his sincerity. Liu Bei’s sincerity was accepted and Zhuge Liang went on to serve him. In Chee’s case, the WP did not accept him.

The brilliance of Chee is shown in this instance in that he knew well in advance that he would be rebuffed. I think not many people are so talented to know of the future, of an act and its consequences. ‘We knew all along…’ So why would he go on and on to send the proposals to WP? To show his sincerity not to the WP but to the voters that he had tried and was sincere to want to negotiate with the WP in a win-win-win situation? One thing for sure, to the WP, his proposal was a lose-lose-lose all the way. I think this part Chee did not know.

Now maybe Chee could tell us if he knows what would be the result should the SDP contest this by election. He must know too, I think. And since he is going to send in the SDP candidate, very likely he would have known that the SDP would win. Otherwise there is no point wasting so much time and effort, and maybe even losing the deposit.

Is the SDP’s plan to contest this election a win-win-win-win-win for all the candidates?