Kenneth Jeyaretnam attacks WP

‘Reform Party Chief Kenneth Jeyaretnam has launched a tirade against the Workers Party (WP) for not doing anything for Punggol East residents’. This is quoted from an Editorial in TRE.

Kenneth has a double first from Cambridge, so he must have a very intelligent mind. So, why is he attacking the WP and not the PAP? I think the reason is simple, he must have thought that the WP is the front runner and he is competing with the front runner in the election. Only by beating the front runner can he win the contest. He cannot be attacking a loser to be the next best loser in the contest. That would be quite a silly thing to do.

Given that Kenneth is an intelligent man, he must have read the situation very well. He claimed that he had done more for Punggol East than the WP and had raised the stalled renovation work at Riverdale Plaza and the WP had not done so. What could the WP do when it is not the MP of the constituency, not the ruling govt, not the

Town Council? The best the WP could do is to kpkb just like he had done and that is about it. It is the job and responsibility of the MP and Town Council to get the job done. Why didn’t Kenneth attack the PAP for the stalled renovation work?

Maybe he already knew that the PAP will lose this by election. So there is no need to waste time pulling the PAP down. It is a contest between Kenneth’s Reform Party and the Workers Party.  I hope this is true. But I am no double first so I am unable to see the picture as clearly as Kenneth. PAP sure lose this time if Kenneth is right.

The voters could see more of Kenneth going after the WP. But Low Thia Kiang is likely to ignore him as his target is the PAP. So the WP would be attacking the PAP in full force and allowing the RP to attack them on the flank. Hope Low Thia Kiang is right and the attack by the RP will not cause any dent to his campaign.

COE and high property prices are daylight robbery

Why must Sinkies pay $100k for a piece of paper to buy a car? Why are public flats built by the govt using public funds, using govt land or land acquired at the price of peanuts be priced like freehold landed properties? When a flat can be had for $200k or less, why should it be costing $600k or $1m?

Sinkies are being robbed just to own a car or a roof over their heads. And it is not going to get cheaper. Why? Are Sinkies willing to live with this kind of daylight robbery? Who are the beneficiaries of these robberies? Is it a good thing, a good govt policy?

The biggest angst is that many of the beneficiaries or profiteers, some called them investors, are foreigners, PRs etc. And the silly victims are the poor Sinkies. The Sinkies have no choice but to buy a roof over their heads. Why are Sinkies been put into such a lose lose situation? Who causes these financial burdens to be loaded onto the Sinkies, the citizens of the country while foreigners laughed all the way to the banks?

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?