Singapore GE 2015: SPP-DPP An Uneasy Marriage of Inconvenience

An Uneasy Marriage of Inconvenience

A SPP-DPP alliance wants your vote in Bishan Toa Payoh. But a hyphen does not create a team.

DPP’a Benjamin Pwee had initially left the SPP amid disagreements over the appointment of Mrs Lina Chiam as Mr Chiam’s successor. This rift shows.

For instance, SPP and DPP members have been wearing their own party t-shirts while canvassing for votes in the GRC. Even though they are now running under the SPP banner, Mr Pwee and Mr Hamim are DPP t-shirts, even at the rally.

Furthermore, SPP and DPP personnel have been seen canvassing for votes separately. If the team cannot even work together to canvass for votes, how are they going to run a town council together?

Even the relatively larger Worker’s Party find it difficult to run a GRC town council well – what more a disparate team lacking in party cohesiveness an identity?

One hyphen does not make a team

The current team was a last minute artificial creation. A cobbled together SPP-DPP. But electoral rules do not allow for two different parties to contest as one team.

As a consequence, DPP members Benjamin Pwee and Hamim Aliyas had to resign from their party and re-join the SPP. They will resign from the SPP and re-join the DPP should they lose in the upcoming elections.

What does this say about political loyalties?

Mr Pwee and Mr Hamim could be purely opportunistic in their political membership. Votes at any cost – doesn’t matter my political affiliation. This means that they will shift and change with the political winds.

But even if they are truly committed to this current hyphenated creation, what can they really do? As part of the SPP’s recent rally at Bishan-Toa Payoh GRC, opposition stalwart Mr Chiam See Tong appeared to deliver a short speech in support of the joint SPP-DPP team currently contesting the GRC.

The general thrust of the SPP’s message was that they are more in touch with the ground and less elitist than their PAP opponents. This is easy to say. But as I voter, I want to know – what can you do?

Team Mascot: Chiam See Tong

The team is limited by real issues of succession. Mrs Lina Chiam is a great wife but a poor leader. The SPP lacks competent and convincing leadership.

As a consequence, they continued to rely on an increasingly frail Mr Chiam. Mr Chiam is neither fit nor willing to run for an election – but the party continues to wheel him out at every possible opportunity.

Even on nomination day, Mrs Chiam needed the assistance of SPP’s Assistant Sec-Gen Loke Hoe Yeong, (Mr Chiam See Tong’s biographer), in reciting her speech. He probably wrote her speech as well. 

The visibly frail Mr Chiam was also made to stand at both nomination day and their recent rally. He is the only recognizable feature of the party.

Can voters trust a party that continues to make use of its founder as a mascot?  What will happen when Mr Chiam is no longer able to play even this diminishing role? Neither Mrs Chiam nor Mr Pwee are capable of exercising political leadership. Ironically, the SPP, in its manifesto, pushes for a “worry-free retirement” Mr Chiam See Tong appears denied of such a retirement, at least politically. 

Open Letter to Png Eng Huat (Hougang Town Council)

OPEN LETTER TO PNG ENG HUAT: DID HOUGANG TOWN COUNCIL HAVE A SURPLUS OR DEFICIT?

Dear Mr Png,

On 2 September, you gave a good rally speech on how Hougang town council had a surplus when it merged its account with Aljunied GRC on 26 May 2011.

But as a citizen and voter, I feel it’s my duty to speak up when I’m not sure if it’s the truth. I need to know I can vote people I trust, so I hope you can shed light on this.

I was told that Hougang town council may not be as good as you painted it to be – before 2011, Hougang town council was in deficit every year for 3 years:

FY2008/09 - deficit about $96k

FY2009/10 - deficit about $102k

FY2010/11 - deficit about $92k

You said in your speech that when Hougang TC merged its account with Aljunied on 26 May 2011, Hougang TC had a surplus. But I was also told that actually your auditors said that in the financial year ending 31 Mar 2011, your TC registered a net deficit of about $91k. I find it hard to believe, but is it true? This date is very close to the 26 May date, how come?

Apparently your auditor said they were not sure whether you had enough operating funds for daily operations, and your management had been exploring ways to improve the financial position of Hougang TC. What kinds of ways did your management explore?

There is talk that the surplus in Aljunied was used to cover the deficit in Hougang after the 2011 elections. Could that be the way your management improved the financial position of Hougang TC? I hope not…

Thanks Mr Png for taking time to clear up my doubts. It would also help if you could open your accounts and let the public see the Hougang TC audit reports from 2008 to 2011. 

Then we can know for sure.

Keep up the good work!

A Voter

Singapore General Election 2015: Hougang-Gate

(1)    Png Eng Huat and Low Thia Khiang  declared that Hougang Town Council (HGTC) was always in the black. Not true.

Based on the TC’s own accounts, HGTC had operating deficits of $96,000 for 2008 and $102,000 for 2009 and $92,000 for 2010 (ending Mar 2011). Fact is they have been spending more than their income every year.

(2)    Png Eng Huat and Low Thia Khiang said that Hougang had a surplus when it merged with Aljunied. Half-true-deliberately misleading. 

(3)  Low Thia Khiang declared that there was no need for Hougang to merge with Aljunied. Not True.

Any book-keeper or accountant will tell you that the financial state of the TC is determined at the end of each year when the  income collected each month and expenses spent each month are totalled and squared. For instance, if you look at your own finances in a year, on the month you get  your bonus, you probably have a surplus. But when you add up the expenses against your income for the months in the rest of the year, your bankbook and bills will tell you whether you are spending more than you earn or not and whether you have savings (surplus) or debt.

What Low and Png did was to carefully select a month (May 2011) at the start of the financial year (which starts on 1 Apr 2011) to create a false picture of a surplus when in fact their finances reflected a pattern of deficit in Hougang which began in 2008. But by merging the Hougang accounts with Aljunied, they ensured that this will be buried from public view.

The TC’s own auditors, Kelvin Wong & Co,  on Mar 2011 stated that there is uncertainty over the adequacy of operating funds and that the HGTC’s so called surplus is just a snapshot and is not a good reflection of the TC’s finances because bonuses, property tax, GST expenses, etc were included in the financial report. In short, he is saying to Hougang TC that you are rich on payday, but actually you are in debt  because you have not settled all your bills and still spending more than you earn.

Singapore Election 2015: Why I Continue to Support the PAP

An amazingly simple but powerful video by a PAP supporter on why she continues to support the PAP. She gets it right by saying that much has improved since 2011 and that only by working together with the Government can we continue to achieve as a nation.

Pro-Opposition Supporter: Why I will not vote for Bernard Chen!

Although I am pro-opposition, I will not vote for WP’s disappointing candidate in Macpherson. NSP gets my Vote!

Many of my friends have said that they are envious of me—a resident in Macpherson SMC—because the number one opposition party The Workers’ Party is coming to contest in my area. I am spoilt for choices, they said, and don’t have to settle for “non-choices” such as The Reform Party, SingFirst or the Singapore Democratic Alliance.

But I beg to differ. I told them three reasons why I will not be voting for the Workers’ Party in this coming election.

First, WP is insincere in contesting in Macpherson SMC. I have done my due diligence to research what is the reason they are contesting in Macpherson SMC but I couldn’t find anything. It is clear to me that WP is only interested to come to Macpherson because it was part of Marine Parade GRC. And they are contesting in Marine Parade GRC only because Yee Jenn Jong’s beloved Joo Chiat SMC is absorbed into MP GRC. Otherwise, they wouldn’t even be here at all! If they were sincere, they would have been working the ground for Marine Parade GRC, including Macpherson, over the last few years. From what I can see, their sincerity extends to only Joo Chiat SMC.  

Second, Bernard Chen is an election greenhorn. I might have considered WP if they fielded a person who is at least familiar with Macpherson. But from what I have found, Bernard does not stay in Macpherson.  From his Facebook, he has been seen more in Hougang and Aljunied than in Macpherson. Since the WP believes so much in working the ground and engaging the residents, why send someone who doesn’t hasn’t been in the constituency regularly? My sense is that the WP is merely fielding him in Macpherson for his baptisan of fire into politics. If so, don’t expect me to vote for someone whom his own party don’t expect to win but here for the experience.

Third, I don’t trust Bernard Chen to run my town council. According to his blog, he has only worked for less than one year. To my surprise, he has even fewer working experience than me (I started working in September 2011) at 29 years old! Does someone who has so little years of working experience able to manage a town council when his more senior colleagues in the WP already has so much problems? Low Thia Khiang and Sylvia Lim have said they were inexperienced in the financial matters as it was their first time and they would do better. Then why are they sending a greenhorn? Will he give the same excuses that he is unfamiliar in running the town council when he screws up? And the stakes are higher in Macpherson because there are so many elderly who live there. If the lifts don’t work and cannot be repaired in time, I shudder to imagine the consequence. In comparison, NSP’s Cheo Chai Chen was a former MP for Nee Soon Central SMC from 1991 to 1997. For what NSP is worth, at least they showed sincerity and seriousness by fielding a veteran who was an actual MP. Despite the troubles in NSP, I am keeping my options open and see what NSP’s Cheo Chai Chen will offer in the upcoming days and explain why he is a better candidate than PAP’s Tin Pei Ling.

WP might make a compelling choice in other places, but definitely not for me in Macpherson.