Chee Hian: Govt delivering GE promises

In his first battle cry for Punggol East, Chee Hian was reminding the voters of the PAP’s promises in the last GE, in housing, transport, education and health care. He forgot to mention about population increase and the influx of foreigners. But what were these promises? Housing prices have shot through the roof. A huge bubble has formed though no one dares to call it a bubble. Transportation, is it getting better or getting worst? Education, my view is that it is a very subjective issue and its consequences would only be felt in the long run. The immediate pain is the high cost of education in the tertiary level. Health care is great, super great. We are having the best health care in the world. But many would be patients fear using it as it will bankrupt the average Sinkies in double quick time. It is better to go to the sinsehs or self medicate, or leave it to nature to take its natural course.

The biggest bugbear is definitely housing. Boon Wan has quoted another 200,000 units of housing being available in 2016. He is claiming credit for building more flats. In the first place who screwed up the housing issue for the citizens? We do not need a govt to screw up things and then telling the people it is going to fix it and claiming credit for it.

The 200,000 units are too late, and many Sinkies have already been screwed. And the 200,000 units would not be enough if the foreigners keep coming in and are allowed to keep buying and buying, be it private or HDB flats. The foreigners have unlimited funds and are here to make money from the Sinkies that needed a roof over their heads. This is elementary. When every joker foreigner or speculator makes money from properties, it means some pathetic Sinkies would be the ultimate victims, having to pay ever higher and higher prices for something that need not cost so much.

The market forces theory is a big farce. It is govt policy, not market forces that drove up property prices. And as long as the demand from foreigners is not stopped, building another 1 million units would still not be enough. Get it?

Punggol East – A by election PAP cannot afford to lose

The PAP is looking like a party on the decline. It has gone past its golden years when support from the people could be more or less guaranteed. This support has been quite badly eroded over the last few years and it is now clinging onto the hard core supporters and party members to keep it going. The unhappiness against the party could be seen in the last few election results.

Starting from the 2011 GE, it was the first time the PAP lost a GRC and a couple of ministers in one go. If this was not enough, the Presidential Election saw its sponsored candidate winning by a whisker and could have lost if there were less candidates in the foray.

Next came the by election in Hougang when the WP was in a defensive mode. The indiscretion of its MP Yaw Shin Leong, who eventually resigned, was a great opportunity for the PAP to retake the ward. It could not do so and the more than 60% votes for the WP was a very significant statement that the support is for the WP or the opposition.

Now the PAP is presenting the opposition a chance to take away another ward for the same reason. In Hougang, the indiscretion was to the WP’s disadvantage. In Punggol East, the indiscretion is to the PAP’s disadvantage. And there are several other very serious issues that the PAP has to answer and would not be able to answer

Losing Punggol East would be a serious matter, it would be like the confirmation of a trend that the PAP is on its decline. It would be saying that it could retake Hougang but unable to do so. And it is now unable to even defend its position in Punggol East. Losing Punggol East is going to create a very serious impact on the fate of the PAP in the next GE. PAP would have to win to hold on to its political fortune. Otherwise it will see its fortune being chipped away, a piece at a time. And there could be another few by elections on the way before the next GE if the wheel of fortune is to dictate the end of the PAP. PAP must win this by election.

Punggol East – What the voters want

All the candidates will be telling the voters that they are there to serve them. And this is likely to be the first and last time some candidates will be saying this. Once elected to the parliament, some may start to behave as masters and regard the voters as their servants. The master will tell the servants what is good for them, and if the servants don’t like it, just too bad. Wait for the next GE or by election and this lie will be repeated. Vote for me, I am here to serve you.

Even in my blog, often we blogged about asking the govt for help, to look into issues that affected the people badly. Some bloggers would be so cynical and obnoxiously frank to say it was a waste of time. The govt was there to serve themselves, not the people. Don’t waste time, don’t kpkb. The people deserve the govt they elected. I cannot disagree with such truism.

The people deserve the govt they elected. So the Punggol East voters would have to think very carefully who they are electing to represent them in parliament. There are many local and national issues that are affecting the people’s life adversely. Would the elected MP be there to speak up for the people or would they be defending the govt’s policies because they belong to the govt and the ruling party? Or would they be speaking against the opposition for raising the people’s concern and problems in parliament?

No matter what a candidate is promising now, that he is independent and has an independent mind, there is always a whip to make him or her toe the line. When the whip is in force, every MP of the particular party would be kuai kuai speaking for the party and vote for the party even if the bill or policy is not good for the people, even if they personally are not in favour of the bill or policy. They can only speak for the people, defend the people’s interests and vote for policies that favour the people if the policies so happen to be for the people.

How many of the candidates will be there in parliament, representing the people’s interests first and party interests second? How many will be in parliament to represent party interests first and people’s interests second?

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.