Politics

Seah Kian Peng, the Chairman of the Deliberate Online Falsehoods Select Committee found himself in hot water after alleging over the weekend that Ms Teo Soh Lung, an ex-SDP candidate was an SDP member and her views of Singapore being still part of Malaya were representative of SDP's position. The Singapore Democratic Party came out strongly denouncing Mr Seah's lousy attempt at smearing their reputation by associating them with Ms Teo's statements regarding Singapore's independence status and clarified that Ms Teo Soh Lung was not a member of the SDP. 

The most ironic of all, Mr Seah Kian Peng, the man tasked with combating Fake News in Singapore has himself spread false information about the SDP without doing his due diligence. In a statement put out on Monday afternoon, Mr Seah tried his best to distance himself and gave a lame explanation of how he assumed Ms Teo was still a SDP member since she ran as their candidate prior. He then urged everyone to be civil in their comments and shirked responsibility from the reputation damage the SDP has suffered as a result of this incident. 

All these comes just as a few Singaporean activists were criticised by certain segments of Singapore for meeting with current Malaysian Prime Minister Dr Mahathir Mohamad to discuss democracy and politics in Singapore and the region. 

How are we going to form an opposition coalition if people are unhappy with each other? 

A few days ago, Reform Party's Kenneth Jeyaretnam took to Facebook to vent his frustration with Workers Party's Leon Perera. The latter had called RP a "fringe party" after knowing that it attended an overseas meeting without other opposition politicians. It is uncertain if there was indeed some prejudice in this but it does not bode well for Singaporeans if our opposition parties engage in petty online spats. 

What's going to happen? Can't they reconcile for the sake of building a more united voice that truly represents Singaporeans?

See more of his post below: 

A group of opposition activists met with Malaysian Prime Minister Mahathir Mohamad yesterday to talk about democracy and freedom in Southeast Asia. Among them were exiled activist Tan Wah Piow and historian Thum Ping Tjin, aka the man who was grilled for 6 hours by our dear Minister Shanmugam.

And a bonus? The meeting lasted for 1 hr 20 minutes. Let's look back at PM Lee's meeting with Mahathir which lasted only 30 minutes and let it sink in. We shall not say much.

The opposition activists looked up to Mahathir as he established the Pakatan Harapan, overcame the hurdles, claimed a shocking victory and won the hearts of Malaysians. For that, they are convinced that Mahathir is a beacon of hope for countries struggling for democracy. As activist Tan Wah Piow expressed: “Malaysia is now shining this beacon which is probably stealing the limelight from Singapore. I think that’s what worries them. Singapore is becoming (an) outdated, archaic society with its dominant party controls".

They have also invited Mahathir to speak at a conference on building democracy in SEA next year. 

But what else did they discuss during the meeting? What does this mean for Singapore? Are we entitled to think that there is more, if not some hope for an opposition coalition in Singapore? 

Do you believe that you own your house? Or even your car? Do you believe that your house is an asset? Netter Benjamin weighs in on the matter:

"'When you buy a car, how long can you use a car for? Is it a rental car, or your car? A 99-year lease is far longer than 10 years. It is yours. It is an asset. It is owned by the homeowner.' This is what National Development Minister Lawrence Wong said when asked if the 99-year lease on HDBs is actually a form of long-term rental.

We are forced to sell the cars we "own" after ten years, as compared to other countries where they own the cars for as long as they are alive/until the car is sold off. Even if we really believe we are owners of the cars, the lease agreement confirms that HDB is the lessor and the buyers are lessees. 

Is Lawrence Wong blatantly lying to us? Does he think that the citizens of Singapore are stupid enough to take his word as it is?"

Credits to Benjamin for his thoughts on the matter.

It seems that every few months, a Malaysian Minister will voice out on why Pedra Branca, or Pulau Batu Puteh to them, does not rightly belong to Singapore. The latest to voice out is Johor's Menteri Besr Osaman Sapian, who slammed the previous state government for the loss of Pedra Branca to Singapore. He claimed that the then Barisan Nasional state government "kept quiet" when Singapore erected a telecommunications tower on the island, also known as Pulau Batu Puteh, in 1997.

He also claimed the previous administration did not object to the plan by Singapore to reclaim the sea area off the island. So, the government of the day there starting their blame game early already, and of course, picks on Singapore as a convenient excuse to be in the centre of the storm.

What the good minister forgot that the ICJ awarded Pedra Branca way back in 2008. And in their ruling, it was clearly stated that Singapore had already been a presence on Pedra Branca since the 1800s. So, what Malaysian presence is he talking about? Stop it lah!

By now, every single Singaporean would have known what sort of 'freebies' they will hope ot get after last noght's National Day Rally (NDR). Of course, these freebies are more commonly known to Singaporeans as half chicken wing. We all get some first, before we give a whole chicken back to the government. So, what's in store this year?

Ah Loong said there are more dual income families now, so more are eating out instead of cooking, and thus drives up cost of living. So his Solution is build more hawker centre. Eh Bodoh! People forced to have double income because the cost of living is spiralling out of control. He now blames us for driving up the cost of living! Lower the damn rental rates for the hawker lah!. So out of touch. And hawker works long hours and rental is crazy. Who wants to be hawker?

Then comes the HDB houses. Finally, Ah Loong had to come clean that leases for old flats will be up in the near future. In effect, we are not owners of our own homes, the ones we have been paying for using our mythical CPF money. They clean our CPF paying for something we will never own, and demands we have to meet a ridiculuous minimum sum to withdraw our CPF when we retire. Our money! And we don't even have control over it.

And the HDB? Now Ah Loong saying we have new Voluntary Early Redevelopment Scheme (VERS). This one pays so much lesser than SERS, so we will get money, but so much lower? How much lower? Of course it won't be announced yet. They have to think how to break this gently to Singaporeans.

All that's been said in this rally seems to be put together out of a desperation to deceive.That's what we all are. Deceived and taken for a ride by a government that pays its stakeholders obscene amount of money to deceive us.