I have come to know Mr. Tan Kin Lian early this year after hearing about his effort to fight for the NTUC Income policy holders' interests and rights. I have emailed Kin Lian personally to ask him to consider to run for the next Presidential Elections. He is fully well qualified to become an independent Presidential candidate. We met up subsequently but Kin Lian has his reservations about running for Presidential Elections mainly of his wife's preference as well as whether he is not sure whether Singaporeans want a contest at all.
Recently, Kin Lian called me up to help him with his Mandarin speeches at Hong Lim Park, to help those structured products investors to seek fair compensation from these mis-sold products. I have agreed to help him and in the process, I get to know him better as a person.
Kin Lian is a person with great convictions and beliefs in Fairness as well as Social Justice. The reason why he has acted TWICE in a short span of time to stand up for aggrieved insurance policy holders as well as structured product investors is mainly because he believes that they are not been FAIRLY TREATED. In the course of meeting up with him, I do find that he has strong beliefs in good governance in which the government must take care of the people's interests first rather than their own. Most importantly, he has shown great patriotism and convictions for this country. He has even joked that if there are enough people who want him to stand as Presidential candidate and gets elected, he would only keep a small part of the hefty annual salary that the President drawn and donated the rest to the charities around Singapore. He believes that political office holders should not be there just for the money and keep comparing it with private top salaries. A political office is PUBLIC SERVICE, not a commercial post. A decent salary to keep them to live in comfort should be enough and it definitely need not be a million dollar annual pay. This is what Kin Lian believes.
Yes, a man at his age, status and well being, does not need to get involved at all in this political arena and fully understand his position. But from recent happenings, I believe many people's eyes have been opened to see the ugly side of what a lopsided political system could do to us. The government has unfairly sided with big financial institutions even without conducting any OPEN AND TRANSPARENT investigations into the Minibond saga.
When PAP Town Councils lost money in these structured products, tens of millions dollars are considered as "small" (maybe even peanuts) and yet PAP MP still insist that we must be thankful to them for making money in the past! I can understand that even big institutions could lose money in investment especially so when they are mis-sold (yes, as MM Lee says, they should have "walk in with their eyes open") but to present such aloof and arrogant attitude towards the whole matter is unbecoming of ELECTED political office holders! Maybe its because ministers have million or even multi-million dollar annual pay and thus, a couple of ten million dollars are just "peanuts" to them. But for most people who earn less than $50K a year, a couple of 10 million dollars IS A BIG DEAL to them! To add salt to injury and insults, they even claim that WE SHOULD BE GRATEFUL to them! Its not merely about the monetary lost but rather the total lost of humility and SENSE OF PUBLIC RESPONSIBILITY as PUBLIC SERVANTS.
I would say that they SHOULD BE GRATEFUL TO VOTERS whom voted them in to give them the opportunity to SERVE the people. It is their job to manage the funds well because they are elected and paid to do the job.
I feel very sad about such attitude from PAP MPs and ministers alike. They have totally forgotten that they are PUBLIC SERVANTS. And I believe that we should have more people with great status and beliefs in what PUBLIC SERVICE should be to be elected into parliament as an alternative MPs to PAP. I have spoken to Kin Lian about this and although he agrees with what I have said, he still feels that he does not want to get into parliamentary politics if there is no PUBLIC DEMAND for alternatives to PAP. I have suggested to him that I will start a Nation wide petition for a call and show of PUBLIC SUPPORT and DEMAND of him to stand up for our beloved country. If I can get a substantial amount of signatures in the thousands or even tens of thousands signature, I really hope that he could reconsider to lead a group of credible people whom he thinks could serve the country better as Alternative MPs to the ruling party.
And so, here I am, writing to all my beloved Singaporeans, to do your part in signing this petition here if you agree with what I say here and strongly believe in the need of having a credible team of alternative MPs led by Mr. Tan Kin Lian. Mr. Tan Kin Lian has been writing petitions and collecting signatures for all these while for many Singaporeans out there to fight for their rights and interests. It is time that we should do something in return, to petition him to lead a group of credible people to stand up for our rights and interests in parliament. All information collected will be kept in confidence. We need your action and support to create a better Singapore for our future generations.
An Online Petition will be created very soon and if we have the resources, we will go round island to collect signatures for this petition by next month. Watch this space for the next few days for more updates.
Goh Meng Seng
Recently, Kin Lian called me up to help him with his Mandarin speeches at Hong Lim Park, to help those structured products investors to seek fair compensation from these mis-sold products. I have agreed to help him and in the process, I get to know him better as a person.
Kin Lian is a person with great convictions and beliefs in Fairness as well as Social Justice. The reason why he has acted TWICE in a short span of time to stand up for aggrieved insurance policy holders as well as structured product investors is mainly because he believes that they are not been FAIRLY TREATED. In the course of meeting up with him, I do find that he has strong beliefs in good governance in which the government must take care of the people's interests first rather than their own. Most importantly, he has shown great patriotism and convictions for this country. He has even joked that if there are enough people who want him to stand as Presidential candidate and gets elected, he would only keep a small part of the hefty annual salary that the President drawn and donated the rest to the charities around Singapore. He believes that political office holders should not be there just for the money and keep comparing it with private top salaries. A political office is PUBLIC SERVICE, not a commercial post. A decent salary to keep them to live in comfort should be enough and it definitely need not be a million dollar annual pay. This is what Kin Lian believes.
Yes, a man at his age, status and well being, does not need to get involved at all in this political arena and fully understand his position. But from recent happenings, I believe many people's eyes have been opened to see the ugly side of what a lopsided political system could do to us. The government has unfairly sided with big financial institutions even without conducting any OPEN AND TRANSPARENT investigations into the Minibond saga.
When PAP Town Councils lost money in these structured products, tens of millions dollars are considered as "small" (maybe even peanuts) and yet PAP MP still insist that we must be thankful to them for making money in the past! I can understand that even big institutions could lose money in investment especially so when they are mis-sold (yes, as MM Lee says, they should have "walk in with their eyes open") but to present such aloof and arrogant attitude towards the whole matter is unbecoming of ELECTED political office holders! Maybe its because ministers have million or even multi-million dollar annual pay and thus, a couple of ten million dollars are just "peanuts" to them. But for most people who earn less than $50K a year, a couple of 10 million dollars IS A BIG DEAL to them! To add salt to injury and insults, they even claim that WE SHOULD BE GRATEFUL to them! Its not merely about the monetary lost but rather the total lost of humility and SENSE OF PUBLIC RESPONSIBILITY as PUBLIC SERVANTS.
I would say that they SHOULD BE GRATEFUL TO VOTERS whom voted them in to give them the opportunity to SERVE the people. It is their job to manage the funds well because they are elected and paid to do the job.
I feel very sad about such attitude from PAP MPs and ministers alike. They have totally forgotten that they are PUBLIC SERVANTS. And I believe that we should have more people with great status and beliefs in what PUBLIC SERVICE should be to be elected into parliament as an alternative MPs to PAP. I have spoken to Kin Lian about this and although he agrees with what I have said, he still feels that he does not want to get into parliamentary politics if there is no PUBLIC DEMAND for alternatives to PAP. I have suggested to him that I will start a Nation wide petition for a call and show of PUBLIC SUPPORT and DEMAND of him to stand up for our beloved country. If I can get a substantial amount of signatures in the thousands or even tens of thousands signature, I really hope that he could reconsider to lead a group of credible people whom he thinks could serve the country better as Alternative MPs to the ruling party.
And so, here I am, writing to all my beloved Singaporeans, to do your part in signing this petition here if you agree with what I say here and strongly believe in the need of having a credible team of alternative MPs led by Mr. Tan Kin Lian. Mr. Tan Kin Lian has been writing petitions and collecting signatures for all these while for many Singaporeans out there to fight for their rights and interests. It is time that we should do something in return, to petition him to lead a group of credible people to stand up for our rights and interests in parliament. All information collected will be kept in confidence. We need your action and support to create a better Singapore for our future generations.
An Online Petition will be created very soon and if we have the resources, we will go round island to collect signatures for this petition by next month. Watch this space for the next few days for more updates.
Goh Meng Seng
