A contest on who committed the most lapses

GE2015 is looking like a contest to showcase which party committed the most lapses under their watch. For the moment it is looking like a contest between WP and PAP as only these two parties have direct responsibilities over the citizens as their representatives. And also a very important point to note, both parties may have committed lapses, but both did their jobs with good intentions, with very decent and upright people, so no crime has been committed so far.

So far if one is to read the main media the there are more lapses committed by the WP than than the PAP. If one is to read the social media, there are more lapses committed by the PAP than the WP. To be fair, it is necessary to look at both media for a balance picture and I did that and find that the lapses are about equal on both sides.

Let me just list down 10 lapses of the PAP, could be more but it would be too tiresome to belabour the point as both parties committed equal numbers. It can be 10 versus 10 or 20 versus 20 or 100 versus 100.

Ok, here are the 10 lapses of PAP not in any order of merit:

1.     Infrastructure not ready for huge influx of foreigners, train stoppages

2.     Need more transparency to know how Temasek and GIC are doing

3.     Losing the Singaporean core

4.     AGO reports on PA’s grassroot organizations

5.     Not returning the people’s savings as promised

6.     PMETs losing jobs and replaced by foreigners with fake or half past six degrees

7.     Shortage of hospital beds and high medical cost

8.     AIM saga

9.     Spending billions to provide scholarships to foreigners

10.                         Signing of CECA

And here are the 10 lapses of WP, also not in any order of severity.

1.     AHPETC – Cannot manage town council

2.     AHPETC – Cannot manage town council

3.     AHPETC – Cannot manage town council

4.     AHPETC – Cannot manage town council

5.     AHPETC – Cannot manage town council

6.     AHPETC – Cannot manage town council

7.     AHPETC – Cannot manage town council

8.     AHPETC – Cannot manage town council

9.     AHPETC – Cannot manage town council

10.                         AHPETC – Cannot manage town council

So the score card is 10 versus 10. The people can now judge the merit of the case and how good the two parties are. I could make it 20 versus 20 if the above is not convincing enough.

Oops, I wrote the above last week. Now there are so many new developments about the AHPETC’s case. The managing agent is found to have made excessive profits or profiteering. And WP has been accused of rewarding their friends and supporters with big contracts to make money. This kind of things never happened in super clean Singapore under the PAP. The PAP never believed in rewarding their friends and supporters or profiteering, let alone collecting more money from the people.

Strange things are happening. How can political parties reward their friends, supporters and kaki lang with contracts and profiteering some more? Ask the PAP, their track record is so clean and perfect. That is why they can stand on high moral grounds to poke at WP. Now on one side we have righteous people, good hearted people, immortals, natural aristocrats and nobles and the ordinary not so rich people on the other side. The good side is pointing the guilty finger at the ordinary people. And according to Vivian Balakrishnan, wealthy people are unlikely to be corrupt even when they worked for free.

So, what do you think?

Has the PAP abandoned Aljunied GRC?

Tharman said the PAP’s team or suicide squad for Aljunied GRC has a fighting chance. Boon Heng also said he is quietly hopeful. These are most uncharacteristic of the PAP. PAP always sent a team to win, the strongest team they could gather. What is this talk about a suicide squad? The team, other than super talented Yeo Guat Kwang, is all newbies. Has PAP running out of talent or ministers, or if not ministers of state, to helm this GRC, the fortress of George Yeo and Lim Hwee Hua?

In 2011, the PAP team had two ministers and a minister in waiting. That was the confidence it had then, and thinking that Ong Ye Kung would get an easy ride into Parliament with George Yeo anchoring the team. Now the strongest candidate is the most industrious MP, famous for the 64 appointments he held in Yeo Guat Kwang.  Yeo Guat Kwang is now the leader and anchor of this suicide team, meaning ‘pau si’ team, to go on a mission and not hoping to come back alive.

What would the people of Aljunied think of this team? Is this the best the PAP can afford or willing to sacrifice to take back Aljunied? Or the PAP has already concluded that there is no point putting in a serious challenge? Or is it that no minister or minister of state would want to risk themselves going to Aljunied?

What about Aljunied voters hoping to be represented by a minister? No minister would want to represent them? Has the PAP abandoned them?

What about the daily barrage at the WP failing to do a good job in running the town council? Does the PAP believe that they have cooked up a convincing case to demolish the WP as incompetent? If so, should not the PAP be confident enough to send in a serious team led by a minister to retake Aljunied?

Maybe they are still hoping for a minister to step forward to lead this team. Boon Heng said the team is still not finalised, meaning it can change. Maybe they are tapping the ground and if the feedback is favourable, they will put in a minister. If not, at most they could lose is their most industrious MP whose defeat would lead to 64 vacancies to be filled, and a few newbies that can be the next batch of nomads in the 2020 GE.

This is the first time in the history of the PAP that they have fielded a team in a GE with the presumption that it would lose. How things have changed and how the fortune of the PAP has changed.

If I read Victor Lye’s comment in the press interview, he did not think so. He took the press to task for calling the WP’s team as heavyweights and the PAP team as lightweight, underdog. Obviously he disagreed. In his view the PAP is a heavyweight team and the WP team is not.

I just got this feeling that the writing is on the wall. Aljunied GRC would remain as the WP’s stronghold after the GE. Maybe they would field Boon Heng on nomination day to make a difference. His highly charged emotion would touch many hearts and win him many votes just like LKY’s tears on Singapore being kicked out of Malaysia. Boon Heng’s tears could have the reversed effect, instead of being kicked out of Aljunied, he could win Aljunied for the PAP just like Hsien Loong did in 2011. Looks like Boon Heng is PAP’s secret weapon for Aljunied. A former minister is still a minister.

SG50 Jubilee currency notes – Once in 50 years!

I went to the bank to exchange my old drippy notes for the crispy Jubllee notes. At the exchange rate of one to one it was a steal. I was so glad to receive the new notes and the two folders that the teller apologetically told me dad a printing error in the name of the President. In the folder it was spelt Yusok Ishak instead of Yusof Ishak. I put on a frown to show my displeasure for receiving the folders with typo errors and then asked the teller if I could exchange it for a new corrected copy. The teller replied that it would take some time but as an interim measure they would be issuing stickers to stick over the error and I could go back to collect them when ready. Quite a clever idea, paste over the error and no one will known.

I pretended to be very disappointed and would come back for the stickers.  Quietly I was telling myself how lucky that I could still get the copies with errors in them. For collectors, such errors are not easy to come by and the value of the folders, not the notes, will fetch a much higher price. And this error is not just a once in 50 year error. It may not happen again with this experience. Next time they would get a computer to double check to make sure there would be no human errors in any issue.

For the collectors, they must thank the MAS for this little miracle to enhance the value of the collection. It is a kind of gift to all Singaporeans, the folders would appreciate in value much more than the notes. Come to think of it this could be a kind of Jubilee present for the people, an intended error.

In the kopitiam I was sitting next to a group of regulars all getting so excited about the Jubilee notes. Everyone was so happy with this windfall.  ‘Mo tin tin fat tat’. More votes for the govt for their ingenuity. Thank you, thank you, they echoed.

Then another regular came running and planted himself on an empty seat, panting and looking all excited. ‘I got the stickers, I got the stickers’, he exclaimed. ‘Oh good, show us, we are dying to see the stickers.’

‘Wait, wait, there is a new sticker for the picture of the President.’

‘What?’ Everyone was taken aback.

“Let me explain. They discovered the picture of the President was wrong. 50 years ago, the President was younger and no moustache. So now they printed new photos of a young President to stick over the old ones, no moustache.’

Wow, this is really ‘bee tang’. Everyone jumped up and started to clap. ‘Huat ah, huat ah.’  Now the notes would surge in value many more times than the covers.

I congratulate myself for queuing for 3 days for the notes. Now I am looking at a small fortune.  5 sets of notes, all got wrong photos of the President.  Thank you, thank you.

PS. Hope the dumb asses don’t accuse me of spreading rumours. I must state in advance here that this is only a joke, not true ok. Can take joke or not?

I worried for the PAP ministers

I am sure all of you have heard what they were saying. Were they coherent? I would not want to be rude to say that they sounded gila or in medical terms more like bi polar. I can’t believe that they are normal for the things they said were simply delusional, and they are the best talents of the country worthy to be paid in the millions, fit to run the country for the next 50 years. My only conclusion is that their drinks must have been spiked.

In the last couple of days you have heard Chok Tong’s famous quip about ‘chasing after meat’ thrown by the opposition parties. The people were furious. We are not animals or dogs. And Vivian’s wisdom quote that people who are working but not asking for incentives are either very wealthy or corrupt. Why would he make such a sweeping statement that could offend so many good people who really do community services out of goodness, not for incentives or money, and definitely not corrupt. And all the not wealthy people working for free must be corrupt or what? Maybe he has never met anyone in his life working for free, to serve the community without being corrupt.

Tharman said his half past six team in Aljunied GRC stands a fighting chance against the heavy weights of the WP. When a PM potential minister like George Yeo plus a minister plus a minister to be, plus a Parliamentary Secretary were not good enough, this team of minnows got a fighting chance? He really believed Singaporeans are so daft?

There were many other funny quotes even from the PM and DPMs that bordered on disbeliefs. But nothing beats Chok Tong’s call for the people to give the PAP a bigger mandate, to do what?

To bring in more foreigners to replace local PMETs?

To sign more CECAs?

To control what the people can read, see or say?

To keep the people’s CPF money longer, forever?

To force the people to buy Medical insurance until they are 110 years old?

To continue to give billions to foreign students in scholarships?

To buy affordable public housing and pay for 30 years at half a million or more?

To pay the ministers millions and the people living from hand to mouth?

To get beaten or bullied, discriminated or replaced by foreigners?

To bring fear back?

To pay millions to the elite?

To increase population to 6.9m, 10m or more?

Does Chok Tong and Hsien Loong really believe that the people are so daft and would vote the PAP to be the govt with a bigger mandate to continue doing the above?

What have they been eating and drinking? I am really worried for them. Or are they suffering from Bi polar Syndrome? They don’t seem to be their normal self and talking incoherently to themselves?

What do you think? Would you give PAP a stronger mandate?

PS. They have ascended to Maslow's 5th Level of Needs. They have surpassed the 4th Level of Self Actualisation. The 5th Level is Self Delusion.

When PAP in minority position

Parliament has been the playground of the PAP for five decades. In Parliament, the PAP rules with absolute majority and the opposition could hardly be seen, heard or noticed. The PAP dominated all debates and any opposition that tried to make a stand would end up as a victim of jeering and sneering and dismissive laughter. The unfortunate ones would either be thumped down or suffered the glare of cold steely stare.

It is a very frightening experience for the opposition candidates in Parliament if they are emotionally unprepared for the ordeal. The sheer majority or the volume of sneering laughter would be enough to cower them into submission. Would the PAP ever be in a position of minority and how would they react?

The NUSS Political Dialogue gave a glimpse of what it would be like to be in the minority for a PAP MP. Sim Ann was the sole representative in a panel with 9 opposition leaders and a clever and mischievous moderator that was friendly to the PAP side but not without needling at the PAP. Actually it was all done with good humour without being offensive and dismissive like in Parliament. The moderator, Viswa, an ex NMP, knew how it felt.  Ooooohh…  He had first hand experience of the most menacing kind. Kishore said Viswa was slapped by the dictator.

With the nine opposition leaders taking their stand against the PAP, and with an audience that acted like the backbenchers of the majority in Parliament, laughing, jeering and sneering, Sim Ann must be feeling how it was like in Parliament for the opposition MPs. It was one against not only 9 opposition leaders but also the gallery. The PAP’s voice was a lonely voice in the crowd and often not well received. At one stage a group broke into loud laughter in the midst of Sim Ann’s commentary that disrupted her composure. ‘What was that, did I make a joke?’ or something like that was her response.

What would it be like if the current situation in Parliament is reversed after the next GE? It could be comical when the cold glare would come from the new ruling govt, accompanied by jeets and sneers. Low Thia Khiang and Sylvia Lim should start to practice this art of killing by staring in Parliament. Jee Say should also learn this trick.