Source: TR Emeritus
Deny PAP a 2/3 majority at all cost!
That is what I want to see first and foremost at the upcoming elections. It is absolutely necessary for the common Singaporean for our survival, and I will list 3 reasons why below:
1. Prevent PAP from bulldozing policies thru parliament
I was infuriated when the Population White Paper (PWP) was passed in parliament with 77 pap mps voting for it, and one pap MP abstaining due to his absence. As if Singapore is not already crowded enough, the pap want to raise the population up to 10 million? Ask yourself, has your life gotten more and more uncomfortable in these recent years, with the crowds everywhere, cost of living rising thru the roof and frequent mrt breakdowns due to the ever increasing population? And yet the pap wants to bring in even more people for the sake of ‘growth’? No wonder only pap mps voted for it, for everyone else can see how absurd it is to want to increase the population even further. There are plenty more policies bulldozed thru in parliament simply because of the pap majority like minister salaries, restrictions on websites like the online citizen etc. Do you trust the pap to pass policies that would benefit you, the average man on the street if they continue to have their 2/3 majority? I shudder to think what policies that would be detrimental to Singaporeans would be passed by the pap if they get a 2/3 majority for another 5 more years.
2. Accountability and taking responsibility for mistakes.
Transport woes. Cost of public housing shooting thru the roof due to insufficient flats being built. Mas Selamat. Sengkang columbarium incident. These are all incidents that everyone knows. There are plenty more of such incidents where the government made mistakes. Did anyone from pap take responsibility at the time? Did anyone from the pap commit hara kiri as suggested to the worker’s party by khaw boon wan? Did he commit hara kiri when HDB under his watch accept a bid from a commercial organization for a plot of land designated for religious purpose, only to do a u-turn and ‘undo’ the mistake after the residents kicked up a fuss? Did he commit hara kiri for the Brompton bike incident? It is this lack of accountability that really irks me. When their opponents make mistakes, pap members would fall over themselves to attack them, but when mistakes appear in their own ministries, either they sweep things under the carpet hoping that people will forget, or they come up with excuses like ‘once in 50 years’ to escape responsibility. Again it is because of the simple fact that pap has majority in parliament that they can continue to get away with mistake after mistake, and continue collecting their million dollar salaries. Should we as taxpayers continue to allow mistake after mistake by the ruling party without ever holding them accountable? I have not even touched on the secrecy surrounding the investments of Temasek and GIC, but Philip Ang has done a very good job of highlighting that, so I would not.
3. Part time mps that only spend part of their time on their residents.
It is common knowledge that many pap mps hold other high paying jobs. There are doctors, lawyers, engineers amongst the pap ranks. Ask yourself this: if these mps are already so well paid in their other jobs, would they still be motivated to fight for their residents’ rights? Would they even be bothered to take the time to understand the worries and concerns that their residents have? Would they be able to empathize with their residents about issues concerning the costs of living when they are already earning mega bucks in their cushy jobs outside of their responsibilities as mps? When worker’s party’s Lee Li Lian defeated the so called ‘son of Punggol’ it is a clear indication of the fact that people have voted for the candidate whom they feel is more in touch with them and who would understand better their concerns, rather than some elite high flying professional who is so disconnected to the ground that he thinks ‘everyone drives a car’ in Singapore. Do you want a part time pap mp that works for residents only at the weekly Meet The People’s sessions and is happily earning the 15-16k MP allowance, while at the same time drawing big bucks from his/her high paying job? If pap gets 2/3 majority again, it would again be plenty of such elitist mps that we would see, for that has been pap’s typical candidate so far. However if we vote more opposition mps into parliament, you can see from the example of WP that all their mps are full time mps, with Chen Shao Mao even quitting his job as a high flying lawyer to concentrate on his mp job. Which would you rather have?
There would be plenty more reasons why we should strive to deny pap the 2/3 majority in the upcoming election. I only listed those above so as not to make this article too long. I plead with my fellow Singaporeans to look around you and your environment, and ask yourself if what you see and experience is really what you want for the next 5-10 years. You have the power to change the composition of our parliament soon. Please exercise those powers, and deny pap a 2/3 majority for the reasons stated above. It’s for your own sake, not mine.
Carra
* Submitted by TRE reader.
*Note:
Deny PAP a 2/3 majority at all cost!
That is what I want to see first and foremost at the upcoming elections. It is absolutely necessary for the common Singaporean for our survival, and I will list 3 reasons why below:
1. Prevent PAP from bulldozing policies thru parliament
I was infuriated when the Population White Paper (PWP) was passed in parliament with 77 pap mps voting for it, and one pap MP abstaining due to his absence. As if Singapore is not already crowded enough, the pap want to raise the population up to 10 million? Ask yourself, has your life gotten more and more uncomfortable in these recent years, with the crowds everywhere, cost of living rising thru the roof and frequent mrt breakdowns due to the ever increasing population? And yet the pap wants to bring in even more people for the sake of ‘growth’? No wonder only pap mps voted for it, for everyone else can see how absurd it is to want to increase the population even further. There are plenty more policies bulldozed thru in parliament simply because of the pap majority like minister salaries, restrictions on websites like the online citizen etc. Do you trust the pap to pass policies that would benefit you, the average man on the street if they continue to have their 2/3 majority? I shudder to think what policies that would be detrimental to Singaporeans would be passed by the pap if they get a 2/3 majority for another 5 more years.
2. Accountability and taking responsibility for mistakes.
Transport woes. Cost of public housing shooting thru the roof due to insufficient flats being built. Mas Selamat. Sengkang columbarium incident. These are all incidents that everyone knows. There are plenty more of such incidents where the government made mistakes. Did anyone from pap take responsibility at the time? Did anyone from the pap commit hara kiri as suggested to the worker’s party by khaw boon wan? Did he commit hara kiri when HDB under his watch accept a bid from a commercial organization for a plot of land designated for religious purpose, only to do a u-turn and ‘undo’ the mistake after the residents kicked up a fuss? Did he commit hara kiri for the Brompton bike incident? It is this lack of accountability that really irks me. When their opponents make mistakes, pap members would fall over themselves to attack them, but when mistakes appear in their own ministries, either they sweep things under the carpet hoping that people will forget, or they come up with excuses like ‘once in 50 years’ to escape responsibility. Again it is because of the simple fact that pap has majority in parliament that they can continue to get away with mistake after mistake, and continue collecting their million dollar salaries. Should we as taxpayers continue to allow mistake after mistake by the ruling party without ever holding them accountable? I have not even touched on the secrecy surrounding the investments of Temasek and GIC, but Philip Ang has done a very good job of highlighting that, so I would not.
3. Part time mps that only spend part of their time on their residents.
It is common knowledge that many pap mps hold other high paying jobs. There are doctors, lawyers, engineers amongst the pap ranks. Ask yourself this: if these mps are already so well paid in their other jobs, would they still be motivated to fight for their residents’ rights? Would they even be bothered to take the time to understand the worries and concerns that their residents have? Would they be able to empathize with their residents about issues concerning the costs of living when they are already earning mega bucks in their cushy jobs outside of their responsibilities as mps? When worker’s party’s Lee Li Lian defeated the so called ‘son of Punggol’ it is a clear indication of the fact that people have voted for the candidate whom they feel is more in touch with them and who would understand better their concerns, rather than some elite high flying professional who is so disconnected to the ground that he thinks ‘everyone drives a car’ in Singapore. Do you want a part time pap mp that works for residents only at the weekly Meet The People’s sessions and is happily earning the 15-16k MP allowance, while at the same time drawing big bucks from his/her high paying job? If pap gets 2/3 majority again, it would again be plenty of such elitist mps that we would see, for that has been pap’s typical candidate so far. However if we vote more opposition mps into parliament, you can see from the example of WP that all their mps are full time mps, with Chen Shao Mao even quitting his job as a high flying lawyer to concentrate on his mp job. Which would you rather have?
There would be plenty more reasons why we should strive to deny pap the 2/3 majority in the upcoming election. I only listed those above so as not to make this article too long. I plead with my fellow Singaporeans to look around you and your environment, and ask yourself if what you see and experience is really what you want for the next 5-10 years. You have the power to change the composition of our parliament soon. Please exercise those powers, and deny pap a 2/3 majority for the reasons stated above. It’s for your own sake, not mine.
Carra
* Submitted by TRE reader.
End of Article
*Note:
The MP did not abstain from voting but was missing when the voting started. That ballsless MP is Inderjit Singh.
