A sense of propriety or impropriety

We have heard it all. We know now what the Elected President can or cannot do. We know what he can or cannot say. We even know that for him to say no to a rogue govt wanting to spend the reserves is a lost cause. An EP can only deal with a govt that will play ball and respect the Constitution. A rogue govt will just bundle the EP out of the Istana without any decorum.

We have 4 candidates. One is saying that he will just play his role as prescribed by the Constitution. Period. Another knows of his limitation and will abide by the Constitution but will find other things that are interesting for him to do. Another two are increasingly aware of what they cannot do but will just try to make more noises to be heard. In summary, we have a ceremonial president with a lame duck role to go against a rogue govt. Another Singapore Myth.

In the case of Tan Kin Lian and Tan Jee Say, the awareness of the little things that they can do independently must have dawned on them that they should not be asking for too much pay. What is enough for the kind of jobs that the EP is doing, reading prepared scripts, inviting people and friends for tea, shaking hands and taking pictures and inviting people to his garden? I don’t think the EP could do anything on the most important role he is expected to do. Oh, I forgot that he needs to lend his rubber stamp for the appointments of senior govt officers and a few other things. He can say No!

So Tan Kin Lian feels ‘peh seh’ and say he will take only 50% of his pay if elected. The other 50% can go to charity. Tan Jee Say gone one step further by saying only $500k is enough. They must be feeling quite embarrassed to receive the multi million dollars on the table. They must have looked at the job and feeling very uneasy with the money, maybe feeling shameful too.

It is good that they have some sense of propriety, to know that it is wrong to accept more than what they have contributed. For all the misgivings, I like them for such a sense of honesty and reality.

Paya Lebar CCC banned MP Chen Show Mao

The news that MP Chen Show Mao has been banned from attending a Seventh Moon Celebration is circulating in the internet and social media. Or is it the People’s Association that is banning him from the event? It was reported that the piece of land for the celebration is under the jurisdiction of the PA which is a non political organisation. So like the community clubs, all activities on its land or premises must not be political. MPs are seen as political. Advisors to CCCs or MCs are not political as they are not wearing the MP hat. Whatever, I am embarrass trying to understand the logic and reasoning.

Coming back to the issue, does the CCC or the PA has the right or authority to ban any citizen from attending a function, be it social, cultural, religious or private functions like wedding or birthday celebrations? If anyone is to ban any person from an event, it must be the organisers and their private functions.

The second point to ask is whether such organisations can ban an elected MP from anything at all? Are they the law, the police or the govt? Is such an act a challenge to institution of the Parliament?

One thing I am still confused in this country that is ruled by law. Does the presence of a MP make an event political? Does a wedding become a political event when an MP is invited? Can an MP enter a community club in his capacity as the MP regardless of his political affiliation? Or is an MP a disease, cannot go about interacting with the citizens?

An MP is good enough to sit in the Parliament, the highest legal body of the country, but can an MP be forbidden to enter a community club or attend a community event in any place in the island, a public place or a private home? As a reminder, the community clubs are built by the people’s money, and not somebody’s grandfather’s money. An MP is also a citizen and an elected representative in Parliament.

I think the Presidential hopefuls may want to have a view on this matter. Those attending their public forums may want to pose this question to them. The MP is part of the legislature that makes law for the country. No one or organisation should do anything to insult the office of an MP.

Would our honourable and learned friends try to interpret the law to see if there is any violation in this regard? I think many would rather play it self, so safe that today, the presidential hopefuls seem to be seeing many things that out to be put right in the run up to the election, from who has the right to be sitting in the Istana to what the President should be doing.

PS. It was quite a joke that the MPs of west Malaysia can be banned from entering east Malaysia. Very third world thuggish behaviour.

The Tan Dilemma

The Hainanese Clan has invited Tan Jee Say for tea. And someone asked me if the Hainanese Clan be accused of participating in politics? My answer is simply no. The election of the President is a non political event. I know many political science students are covering their mouths to hide the cheeky smiles on their faces. It is not a political event, or the candidates are independent, and have no political affiliations. So be it.

And no one can point a finger at the Hainanese Clan to register as a political party if they want to be involved in politics. Such childish innocence is passé. Who ever dare to utter such a remark today will make himself looking quite foolish.

With the Tan Clan being the first clan to step forward to endorse Tony Tan, the door is left wide open for any clan or association, union or trade organisation to endorse any candidate, and not be accused of dabbling in politics.

This reminds me of the Tan Clan decision to endorse one Tan against the other three Tans. I am sure the other Tans must be feeling very let down by their own clan. They are all Tans and share the same ancestors. Why the favouritism for one against three.

This must be what I called the Tan Dilemma. How did they get caught in such a tricky situation to hurt the feelings of three for the good of one? Have they not heard of the slogan, one for all and all for one, staying united?

Their decision to support one Tan is very divisive. I thought it would be a wiser decision to support all four Tans and let the rest of the Tans vote for whoever they want. An even hand would look more pleasant for all the Tans. Have they compromised their position to treat all fairly and equally?

Can the other three Tans approach the Tan Clan for an explanation and endorsement?

Tan Jee Say taking a big lead in Polls

My straw poll is up for 24 hours and 146 have voted with106 for Tan Jee Say, 24 for Tan Cheng Bock, 9 for Tan Kin Lian and 7 for Tony Tan.

Yes, if this was done by any media, they will blow it as their front page news as if Tan Jee Say is going to win the Presidency. But as many of you have pointed out, a poll conducted here, in the ST, in Reach or in TRE will reflect certain kinds of results reflecting the inclination of the participants. This is only natural and, I don’t have to remind any of you here as you are very rational and thinking people, I would like those who tend to take media reports at face value to be careful about such biases in polls and news.

The result of this poll so far is quite a true reflection of the kind of people visiting cyberspace looking for alternative news. They are informed and wanted to be more informed and would not allow anyone to pull wool over their eyes. For the moment, we can assume that the voters in the poll are quite genuine and this is what they truly wanted. This does not rule out a big block of voters coming in to vote for any one of the candidates here to swing the poll to their favour.

What is clear is that though Tony Tan is claiming endorsements from unions, clans and associations, these too may not say much as to who the members of these organisations will vote eventually. This poll shows that there are other corners of the population that have a mind of their own and some would favour other candidates very strongly, and that candidate may not be Tony Tan.

We still have 5 more days before polling day and we shall watch how the poll goes and how representative is a non partisan and non aligned blog like this one when match to the real election outcome.

Just keep an open mind.

Who will be the next President

Hi,

I have set up a poll on the right to get an indication of who you people would like to see as the next President. Let's see if what we think is a reflection of what the people think on 27 Aug.

Cheers.

Notable quote by Franklin Roosevelt

"The test of our progress is not whether we add more to the abundance of those who have enough. It is whether we provide enough for those who have little."

Franklin D Roosevelt (1882-1945)
United States, 32nd president

How to grow our reserves?

It is a state secret how much of our reserves are CPF money, or the people’s money. Anyone has the figure? I think the CPF component is not small and could be a very substantial portion of our national reserves. And I find this very funny, and very painful. Why is it that the people’s money, your money, my money becomes the country’s reserve? Never mind, it is part of the economist’s formula, to include the people’s money as the country’s money for the govt to crow about while the real owners of the money can only cry about it.

With this in mind, the easiest way to grow the reserves is to make sure that there is more money in the CPF. How to do that? I think we all know the answers. I can make our reserves even bigger and tell you that it is safe, without telling you how much is there as long as the CPF account holders are happy with the monthly statements.

So, how rich are you? Or how rich is the country’s reserves? Your money or someone else money?

I am very frighten of people who claims to be able to grow the reserves.