Politics

The Reform Party's Kenneth Jeyaretnam has slammed Singaporeans for being "the biggest fools" for continuing to enable the PAP despite its incompetence. In a Facebook post on 4 Mar, Kenneth Jeyaretnam shared Chan Chun Sing's remarks on how there is no conflict of interest even though the newly appointed auditor-general, Goh Soon Poh, is also the wife of Senior Minister of State, Heng Chee How. 

Like many Singaporeans, Jeyaretnam found it outrageous that there is no conflict of interest at all. Probably in a fit of anger, he lambasted Singaporeans for being stupid in supporting the PAP and encouraging them to be so arrogant. 

"The PAP have become so arrogant after 60 years in power that they believe normal checks and balances and conflict of interest rules don't apply to them. The same set of self-serving hypocrites drunk on entitlement because of the belief that they are the best stay in power forever. And Singaporeans are the biggest fools for enabling them. Nothing is going to change at the next election!"

Unless... Haha. We all know lah.

In case you missed it, a video of Lee Bee Wah's speech in Parliament had gone viral in the last few days. In the video, Lee Bee Wah paid tribute to the Budget 2019 drawn up by her party. 

Her speech is fully in Mandarin, and in the speech, she used the analogy of Ah Kong and Ah Seng. This is basically her way of reminding Singaporeans how generous Ah Kong is to Ah Seng. At the end of her speech, she said that all her residents were grateful for the help the government has bestowed on them, and that no other governments in the world can do that. But her carry balls antics can only get her far. She has drawn flak from almost everybody, including her residents one might think. 

Most said that her analogy was misplaced, as Ah Kong always take our money first, and then just give us back $300 every 4 years, the millions they have taken were safely used for other pressing issues not related to giving back to Ah Seng, including paying for Ah Kong's cronies their multi million dollar salaries. 

Lee Bee Wah have truly reached the lowest level of embarrassing as a Singapore Politician. 

The Singapore Government have come out strongly against claims put forward by the Opposition Workers Party in Parliament that the appointment of a new Attorney General has a conflict of interest flavour in it. This is because the new AG, Goh Soon Poh, is the wife of Minister of State Heng Chee How. 

The feeling of conflict of interest is not a new one among Singaporeans, as this is not the first time that someone with links to the Singapore government have been appointed to top posts in Singapore. Among the most notable ones are of course Ho Ching, the wife of PM Lee Hsien Loong. She is of course the CEO of Temasek, the government's investment arm. Apart from her, they are others, notably SingHealth CEO Ivy Ng, who is the wife of Defence Minister Ng Eng Hen, NHB CEO Chang Hwee Nee, the wife of Heng Swee Keat, and Surbana Jurong CEO Teo Eng Chong, husband of Josephine Teo.

The government refuted this by saying that those people are appointed based on their capabilities. Which goes to say that Singaporeans are expected to believe the government mantra of them having searched the globe for talented individuals, and they found that the most talented are also those married to Singapore Ministers, the elite of the elites.  

Chan Chun Sing has finally explained to Singaporeans why it is not good to "indiscriminately sack people". In a speech during the Committee of Supply debate yesterday, Kee Chiu said that learning from mistakes will help Singapore's public service improve and grow.

He is aware that mistakes are bound to happen even if things may seem very well-planned. "When things go wrong, the public service will work hard to fix the mistakes and seek to do better."

He promised Singaporeans that there are responsible leaders who learn from their lapses and hold themselves accountable. He therefore thinks that it is unwise to indiscriminately sack those who, after their setbacks, are more eager to do better.

"If we do not address the mistake head on at the respective levels, but instead choose to indiscriminately sack staff or leaders every time something goes wrong, then we will have a weaker system over time."

On the contrary, Kee Chiu thinks that it is a big mistake to sack people with lapses as it will make them disheartened and afraid of taking risks or new challenges.

Now, Kee Chiu may have been trying to appease Singaporeans but somehow it sounded like an excuse. While it is inevitable that mistakes happen, there should also have some kind of punishment. If not, people will simply continue to take unnecessary risks without considering what is at stake for Singaporeans.

Mistakes can be forgiven. People do learn their lessons. But do not test the patience of Singaporeans by expecting us to understand every time they make a mistake.

If life was simply about making mistakes and apologising for those mistakes, then we definitely do not have to pay these people more for doing what others can do better.

Senior Minister of State for Trade and Industry and Education Chee Hong Tat has come out strongly in Parliament against allegations by WP's Pritam Singh that the Merdeka Generation Package was rolled out to time perfectly with election cycle, saying that it was misleading to say so.

WP had indicated that ground feel was that there are many people who equated the Merdeka Generation Package was rolled out to give an unfair advantage to the ruling party, as the goodies are always rolled out just before an election period. Chee strongly retorted that this was politicking by the Opposition, whom he pointed pit had always asked for goodies to be handed out to Senior Citizens, but when they are rolled out, Chee said the opposition claim the move was an election tactic. 

No matter what both parties say, they always seem to be some sort of goodies handed out to sweeten the ground before an election cycle. This trend is noted by Singaporeans from every walk of life, no need for politicians to argue about this in Parliament. In fact, it is so accepted, that it has become a Singaporean way of life. Singaporeans know that the best time to get complaints attended to is just before an election period. 

SDP recently had their campaign kick off event, held at Mandarin Orchard Hotel. This was after a last minute cancellation of venue. You can read more about that here: SDP Campaign Kick Off Venue Canceled Booking 26 Hours Before Event, JTC Gets Defensive

Now according to Straits Times, the venue operators, KCCV (Kingdom Community Church Ventures) has since apologized to JTC for citing a 'JTC Inspection' as one of the reasons of cancellation. KCCV has also contacted SDP to apologize, while also offering to pay the difference between venue rental costs as well as the cancellation fee of the party’s caterer.

On SDP's website, they released a statement saying that they have since accepted KCC's apology. On the afternoon of 26 February 2019, SDP chief Chee Soon Juan and Organising Secretary Mr Jufri Salim met with Pastor Vincent Lun of KCC. Mr Lun has apologized for the matter and SDP also accepted the apology and considered the matter closed. 

However, they are still awaiting for JTC to apologize for "wrongly accusing SDP for being “totally irresponsible to conflate this issue with the on-going investigations” of the KCCV's premises."

You can read the full statement here:

Dr Chee Soon Juan and SDP Organising Secretary Mr Jufri Salim met with Pastor Vincent Lun of KCC this afternoon. Mr Lun had contacted Dr Chee and asked to meet.

At the meeting, Mr Lun apologised again on behalf of KCC Ventures and said that was no sugar-coating the matter – it was wrong on their part to have cancelled the SDP's event on 23 Feb the day before and accepted full responsibility over the matter. He also compensated us for the expenses incurred as a result of the change in venue.

The SDP has decided to accept KCCV's apology and considers the matter closed.

That leaves the other outstanding issue with the JTC who had wrongly accused the SDP of being “totally irresponsible to conflate this issue with the on-going investigations” of the KCCV's premises.

As can be seen from the KCCV's statement, it was KCCV who had drawn JTC into the matter – not the SDP. In its statement, the KCCV said that "The fault lies solely with us". The organisation has done the right and decent thing and apologised for its error.

We expect the JTC to also do the right and decent thing and await its apology.