by Bertha Henson
I DON’T know why Workers’ Party’s Sylvia Lim chose to eat orh luak at the Fengshan hawker centre/market. I’ve never thought any of the stalls were very good at frying up the egg and oyster combo. I prefer the satay bee hoon (open only from 5pm), the $1.30 chicken wing (expensive but very shiok), the pork porridge (there are two stalls run by the same people) and the ah bal ling stall. There is of course bak chor mee, which the market is famous for, with a few stalls side-by-side fighting for patrons. Frankly, I don’t see the difference in quality; all also very good to eat.
So her Instagram post on liking the “taste of Fengshan” had caused a flurry with speculation that she might be moving out of Aljunied GRC to the single-member ward. Even ST got into the act to feed further speculation by reporting on how the rumour was feeding speculation. When my mother read the ST story, she told me huffily that everyone was wrong. It wasn’t going to be Sylvia Lim, she said. It’s some soft-spoken fellow who is some kind of professor. She knows, she said, because the WP hammered her door down one late evening this week (she actually used the word “hammering” when she spoke to the team) and introduced….voila!…. Dr Daniel Goh. She thought he was a Lim at first, until I showed her some pictures of the sociology professor. “Ya, that’s the one,” she said.
The WP’s politicking on the ground has been quite ingenious. It is probably something that WP chief Low Thia Kiang has picked up over the years, especially since radio silence was a reason he gave for his win on Polling Day in GE1991. Everyone was surprised, except the people of Hougang.
Mr Low didn’t always manage to keep a lid on his party though. After his Aljunied GRC win in GE2011, he couldn’t get his Hougang successor MP Yaw Shin Leong to explain his marital indiscretions, which were publicly exposed, to the party leadership. He had to sack Mr Yaw and this resulted in the Hougang by-election, which WP managed to retain with Mr Png Eng Huat. He couldn’t stop a certain Secret Squirrel from leaking party minutes of meetings. He also had to sack Dr Poh Lee Guan, once touted as a WP rising star, because Dr Poh had put himself forward as the party’s Hougang candidate without the party’s knowledge.
But what looked like cracks in the WP facade seems to have been sealed. Most of the talking is being done by chairman Ms Lim and secretary-general Mr Low. Not even the PAP’s constant and shrill attacks over the past two years on the finances of its town council have caused a break in ranks. The town council tangle has gone over people’s heads, especially with the numbers the PAP, the G and even the judiciary, have thrown out to hint at improprieties and non-compliance with financial rules. It looked like something that only bean counters would be interested in, rather than the general population.
On the other hand, the WP’s message stayed consistent. It goes like this: We just took over the town council, so of course things are messy. We didn’t cheat anyone, or you can just set the cops on us. We co-operated with G agencies like the Auditor-General, so it shows we have nothing to hide. And finally, can’t you see we’re trying?????
It now seems that the G and the WP are in a staring contest: Will the G release the grants for the town council or not? Will the WP agree to the terms the G wants to set, such as sending in independent accountants? The wonder is, the people living in Hougang, Aljunied GRC and Punggol East, don’t seem to care much. And here’s where the WP’s studied silence is helping itself – you can’t discuss much about anything if there’s nothing much to discuss.
Yet it should be an issue with residents because $14million in grants that have been held back isn’t to be sniffed at. It can go towards paying for all sorts of amenities and repairs. Wouldn’t they want a resolution before going into the polling booth?
In the run-up to this election, the WP has kept mum, unlike other Opposition politicians. Its silence means that the People’s Action Party cannot use on the party its usual retort about how opposition politicians emerge only once every four years because they crave the spotlight. (In any case, the WP didn’t really need the media profile, given that it has MPs in Parliament which is the country’s biggest all-year megaphone.)
So the WP speaks only when it believes it is to its political advantage.
For example, it announced which seats it was eyeing early in the game, so that everybody else will get out of its way. It didn’t send its top guns to the first negotiation meeting on seats organised by the National Solidarity Party. And it didn’t even turn up for Round 2. In other words, it was acting as leader of the Opposition or the party that shalt not be denied. You wonder whether its attitude grated on the rest, like not giving face, but it seems that they too agreed that WP was supremo uno, making way for it to contest in Marine Parade GRC and MacPherson.
Another example: Mr Low gave a spiel regarding Transport Minister Lui Tuck Yew’s resignation, expertly complimenting the man on the one hand, and taking great swipes at the PAP with the other by raising questions on whether Mr Lui was pushed out and even if he wasn’t, what his retirement says about the G’s oft-repeated stance about collective responsibility.
There is something about keeping quiet; it makes people curious. When they are curious, they will go dig up stuff and find out. Every word and movement is watched for further clues. Hence, Ms Lim’s photo made the rounds online and offline. If this was part of the WP’s campaign, it shows how well it knows the ground. People won’t wait for a formal announcement on the candidates, they want to know now – or they will play the guessing game.
Now what are we to make of the PAP polemics last night from its big guns? Emeritus Senior Minister Goh Chok Tong bluntly warned residents against voting in people to run Third World town councils (WP’s slogan is First World Parliament) while Deputy Prime Minister Teo Chee Hean was downright contemptuous of Ms Lim’s Instagram posting. Was she intending to swallow Fengshan and add to the town council’s deficit, he asked.
What’s the bet that the WP won’t respond?
http://themiddleground.sg/2015/08/15/wonderful-parrying-wp/
I DON’T know why Workers’ Party’s Sylvia Lim chose to eat orh luak at the Fengshan hawker centre/market. I’ve never thought any of the stalls were very good at frying up the egg and oyster combo. I prefer the satay bee hoon (open only from 5pm), the $1.30 chicken wing (expensive but very shiok), the pork porridge (there are two stalls run by the same people) and the ah bal ling stall. There is of course bak chor mee, which the market is famous for, with a few stalls side-by-side fighting for patrons. Frankly, I don’t see the difference in quality; all also very good to eat.
So her Instagram post on liking the “taste of Fengshan” had caused a flurry with speculation that she might be moving out of Aljunied GRC to the single-member ward. Even ST got into the act to feed further speculation by reporting on how the rumour was feeding speculation. When my mother read the ST story, she told me huffily that everyone was wrong. It wasn’t going to be Sylvia Lim, she said. It’s some soft-spoken fellow who is some kind of professor. She knows, she said, because the WP hammered her door down one late evening this week (she actually used the word “hammering” when she spoke to the team) and introduced….voila!…. Dr Daniel Goh. She thought he was a Lim at first, until I showed her some pictures of the sociology professor. “Ya, that’s the one,” she said.
The WP’s politicking on the ground has been quite ingenious. It is probably something that WP chief Low Thia Kiang has picked up over the years, especially since radio silence was a reason he gave for his win on Polling Day in GE1991. Everyone was surprised, except the people of Hougang.
Mr Low didn’t always manage to keep a lid on his party though. After his Aljunied GRC win in GE2011, he couldn’t get his Hougang successor MP Yaw Shin Leong to explain his marital indiscretions, which were publicly exposed, to the party leadership. He had to sack Mr Yaw and this resulted in the Hougang by-election, which WP managed to retain with Mr Png Eng Huat. He couldn’t stop a certain Secret Squirrel from leaking party minutes of meetings. He also had to sack Dr Poh Lee Guan, once touted as a WP rising star, because Dr Poh had put himself forward as the party’s Hougang candidate without the party’s knowledge.
But what looked like cracks in the WP facade seems to have been sealed. Most of the talking is being done by chairman Ms Lim and secretary-general Mr Low. Not even the PAP’s constant and shrill attacks over the past two years on the finances of its town council have caused a break in ranks. The town council tangle has gone over people’s heads, especially with the numbers the PAP, the G and even the judiciary, have thrown out to hint at improprieties and non-compliance with financial rules. It looked like something that only bean counters would be interested in, rather than the general population.
On the other hand, the WP’s message stayed consistent. It goes like this: We just took over the town council, so of course things are messy. We didn’t cheat anyone, or you can just set the cops on us. We co-operated with G agencies like the Auditor-General, so it shows we have nothing to hide. And finally, can’t you see we’re trying?????
It now seems that the G and the WP are in a staring contest: Will the G release the grants for the town council or not? Will the WP agree to the terms the G wants to set, such as sending in independent accountants? The wonder is, the people living in Hougang, Aljunied GRC and Punggol East, don’t seem to care much. And here’s where the WP’s studied silence is helping itself – you can’t discuss much about anything if there’s nothing much to discuss.
Yet it should be an issue with residents because $14million in grants that have been held back isn’t to be sniffed at. It can go towards paying for all sorts of amenities and repairs. Wouldn’t they want a resolution before going into the polling booth?
In the run-up to this election, the WP has kept mum, unlike other Opposition politicians. Its silence means that the People’s Action Party cannot use on the party its usual retort about how opposition politicians emerge only once every four years because they crave the spotlight. (In any case, the WP didn’t really need the media profile, given that it has MPs in Parliament which is the country’s biggest all-year megaphone.)
So the WP speaks only when it believes it is to its political advantage.
For example, it announced which seats it was eyeing early in the game, so that everybody else will get out of its way. It didn’t send its top guns to the first negotiation meeting on seats organised by the National Solidarity Party. And it didn’t even turn up for Round 2. In other words, it was acting as leader of the Opposition or the party that shalt not be denied. You wonder whether its attitude grated on the rest, like not giving face, but it seems that they too agreed that WP was supremo uno, making way for it to contest in Marine Parade GRC and MacPherson.
Another example: Mr Low gave a spiel regarding Transport Minister Lui Tuck Yew’s resignation, expertly complimenting the man on the one hand, and taking great swipes at the PAP with the other by raising questions on whether Mr Lui was pushed out and even if he wasn’t, what his retirement says about the G’s oft-repeated stance about collective responsibility.
There is something about keeping quiet; it makes people curious. When they are curious, they will go dig up stuff and find out. Every word and movement is watched for further clues. Hence, Ms Lim’s photo made the rounds online and offline. If this was part of the WP’s campaign, it shows how well it knows the ground. People won’t wait for a formal announcement on the candidates, they want to know now – or they will play the guessing game.
Now what are we to make of the PAP polemics last night from its big guns? Emeritus Senior Minister Goh Chok Tong bluntly warned residents against voting in people to run Third World town councils (WP’s slogan is First World Parliament) while Deputy Prime Minister Teo Chee Hean was downright contemptuous of Ms Lim’s Instagram posting. Was she intending to swallow Fengshan and add to the town council’s deficit, he asked.
What’s the bet that the WP won’t respond?
http://themiddleground.sg/2015/08/15/wonderful-parrying-wp/
