Singapore GE 2015: Rebutting Tan Jee Say on ESM Goh as an Overstayer

Why ESM Goh Is Not An Overstayer?

Recently, Tan Jee Say told the media during the introduction of SingFirst candidates that ESM Goh Chok Tong is an overstayer in this election. It is not only wrong but unfair to the man who served as the second prime minister of Singapore.

ESM Goh Chok Tong has been in politics since 1976. For nearly 40 years, he has been serving in various key roles such as Senior Minister of State for Finance, Minister for Defence and Minster of Trade and Industry before becoming Prime Minister. He has a wealth of experience that few could match.

Indeed, the past 40 years was not smooth sailing as several challenges confronted Singapore. There were at least 3 economic recessions (1985, 1997 and 2001) and a major disease outbreak (2003 SARS crisis). It was Mr Goh Chok Tong and his cabinet colleagues who were closely involved in tackling those challenges that helped brought Singapore out of those dark moments.

His years of leadership in those years of crises make him an undisputed choice to assist PM Lee to mentor the next generation of leaders. It is indeed Singapore’s good fortune that he is still willing to stand for election again when he could already retire. His passion and dedication to Singapore is truly admirable.

Frankly, it is becoming more difficult for me to take Tan Jee Say seriously. Calling ESM Goh an overstayer is simply disrespectful. After all, Tan was ESM’s principal private secretary for five years. The only decent thing a former subordinate could do is to show some bit of respect for a former superior. Where is Tan Jee Say’s basic courtesy towards his former boss when he called him an “overstayer”?

More importantly, Tan Jee Say is an attention-seeker only interested in his personal political agenda. By calling ESM names, he is able to draw more media attention to himself and his fledging political party. His attention-seeking streak goes way beyond that episode. He tried to run for Member of Parliament in the 2011 general elections, gaining extra prominence because he was the former principal private secretary to ESM Goh and someone whose economic plans was endorsed by a senior civil servant in UK. When he was unsuccessful in his bid, he promptly resigned from the Singapore Democratic Party to run in the 2011 presidential elections. It was clear to me back then that there was not an iota of commitment in this man to either the SDP or the residents of Holland-Bukit Timah GRC. All he had in his mind was to have a platform to bring fame and glory to himself. After 2011, he has been making numerous appearances in Hong Lim Park criticising the Government but not offer any practical solutions except to keep spending more and more. He has now set up his own political party with policy proposals centered on spending money derived from unguaranteed expected returns from investing Singapore’s returns.

The onus is on voters in a democracy to exercise due diligence to examine what each and every political party is saying. I believe that the record speaks for itself. ESM’s lifetime of service to Singapore is evident to all Singaporeans. There is no need for us to take a political opportunist seriously.

Singapore General Election 2015: Freak Election Results

This is a cool video we came across from a Citizen Sane. It is aptly titled "A Sanity Check".

Starring ... PM Lee Hsien Loong, Minister Chan Chun Sing, Minister Tan Chuan-Jin, Minister Heng Swee Keat, Ms Sylvia Lim, Mr Pritam Singh, Mr Tan Jee Say and Everyday Singaporeans.

SingFirst Ignores Netizens' Facebook Questions

While researching the pedigree of Singapore's newest political party SingFirst, we discovered that the Secretary-General of the party is none other than Mr Tan Jee Say. Mr Tan is a vocal opponent of the Government, and he is a former senior civil servant, principal private secretary to the Prime Minister (Mr Goh Chok Tong) and a former presidential hopeful.

 

 

During our research, we came across an article by The Real Singapore in which Mr Tan Jee Say deliberately made misleading statements about the salaries of Singaporean workers. We view the statement as "deliberately misleading" as Mr Tan Jee Say is a former senior civil servant and would have been well acquainted with the facts of the matter. A simple check online with jobs portals like JobStreet would have proven Mr Tan Jee Say wrong.

 

Desiring to give Mr Tan Jee Say an opportunity to clarify his statement, we contacted Mr Tan via his party's Facebook page on 18 December 2014. Since then, his party has continued to post more articles on their Facebook page, but have chosen to ignore our questions. Interestingly, we are not the only ones asking for him to clarify his statement. Despite the overwhelming number of people prompting him to respond, Mr Tan Jee Say has remained silent.

 

It always puzzles Singapore General Elections (GE) 2016 why opposition parties always expect their questions to be answered by the Government, but when it comes time to answer questions posed to them, nothing is ever forthcoming. The Worker's Party of Singapore is also famous for this.

 

It is ironic that SingFirst and the Worker's Party are calling for the Government to be open and transparent and to answer questions posed by Singaporeans, but they themselves do not live by the same code.

 

The Sad Truth about Tan Jee Say

The Sad Truth is that Tan Jee Say is a liar

In a 24 March 2013 article published on The Real Singapore, Tan Jee Say related an incident where a middle-aged woman approached him while he was campaigning two years ago. According to Jee Say, the Singaporean waitress in a restaurant told him that "five years ago, she earned S$1,500 a month as a waitress. How come she now only earns S$800?”  Tan Jee Say then goes on to blame the problem on government’s decision to rely on foreign migrant workers.
 

The sad truth is that self-proclaimed “senior civil servant in the Ministry of Trade and Industry”, “former principal private secretary to the Prime Minister” and recipient of a “Singapore government scholarship”, failed to tell the whole truth.

 

While it may be true that a PRC waitress (we cannot confirm this as he has failed to provide any verifiable information) is paid less than a Singaporean worker, the truth is that there are foreign worker levies. Hence, while the PRC waitress may be paid less, the cost to the employer is as much as (if not more than) that of a Singaporean employee. On top of that, the government has also imposed quota restrictions that forces employers to hire Singaporeans so that they can hire foreigners.

 

I find it difficult to accept that Mr Tan Jee Say does not know all this. As such, I can therefore only conclude that Tan Jee Say made the statement in a deliberate effort to mislead the public. In fact, if you check the JobStreet website, waitresses are being paid between $1,650 and $2,000 per month.

 

Do you want someone who misleads the public for his personal gains in Parliament? The answer is a definite "no!"