The Workers' Party

[Huat-Ah]

Im giving much needed free tips here. I dont want
to associate with those calibres.

Your so call FREE TIPS are GARBAGE. Trying proving to us that you are better than PAP and WP / Opposition.

 

[sengkang]

The Workers' Party

Good morning residents of Punggol East. Swing by to grab your copy of the Hammer Newspaper if you're in the area!

Happening this Saturday! To register, email [email protected].





The Workers' Party Youth Wing (WPYW)

We are off on our very own cultural mapping exercise on 1 August 2015. We hope that through this exercise, participants would be able to learn about the relationship between urban planning, conservation and their relationship with the identity and heritage of Upper Serangoon Road.
Look forward to this and we hope you can sign up and join us on 1 August! To register, email [email protected]. Open to all. See you there!

 

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[h=5]Temasek Review
[/h]9 hrs ·

Support The Workers' Party if you are staying in Aljunied ,Marine Parade, East Coast, Jalan Besar and Nee Soon

The Workers' Party
Political Party

 

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[h=2]theonlinecitizen[/h]News/Media Website

Public service announcement - Those who did not vote in the last election, or are registered overseas but have been staying in Singapore for a while, please check with the register of voters.
‪#‎GE2015‬





Are you eligible to vote? Check against the composite registers of electors
The composite registers of electors for the purposes of the next general election and any election thereafter have been certified and are available for public inspection....
theonlinecitizen.com

 

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[h=2]Daniel PS Goh[/h]I wrote this note more than half a year ago. In this current excited climate, it bears reminding, myself, to not fixate on winning, but to live with the people, even more so now.

Election Fever I. Winning Isn't Everything
I thought I would start writing an election series, since the topic keeps popping up more and more these days in my daily interactions with people.


One of the favourite things people like to talk to me about is how to win in the coming GE. It is quite amazing because it is unsolicited advice coming from people who has never stood for an election. Not that I had, but I don't think about winning, and that is when they get a little upset. An actual conversation that happened recently:

Uncle P: Daniel, I tell you how WP can win and deny the PAP two-third majority. The PAP will give out election goodies, hundreds and thousands of dollars of GST vouchers and rebates. This is why people vote them. You need to promise something even better. I know what you can promise. Promise to convert all 99-year lease for HDB flats to freehold.

Me: No lah. Cannot make such a promise. Impossible to fulfil even if elected and form government.

Uncle P: Just say during the rallies, win already then review.

Me: No no, cannot do that. WP is a responsible party, we cannot anyhow say things.

Uncle P: Then how are you going to win in the next GE? How are you going to win another few more GRCs? How are you going to be MP?

Me: I don't know, winning in the election is seldom on my mind. I just focus on the work to be done like helping the MPs serve residents, organise grassroots events and debate government policy in parliament. I also don't think Singaporeans are stupid. If we do our work well, people will know and decide who to vote.

Uncle P: So you are optimistic about winning?

Me: Mr P, I don't care about winning. I volunteer to do the work without thinking about winning. The irony is that if the opposition parties keep thinking about winning and do and say things so as to win, then we will not win. Singaporeans are smart, they can tell.
Uncle P: So how can you guarantee you will win? The opposition need to win …

Me: You are focused on winning. I think we have very different philosophies.​

And this is my philosophy. I didn't volunteer with WP during and after GE2011 and then join it in order to win elections. For me, politics is about helping the government of the day to better serve citizens through good policies and institutions, and about helping citizens shape the government we desire and deserve.


But don’t you want to win? A political party exists to win elections, right? Isn’t the aim of an opposition party to oppose and bring down the governing party to become the government? It is like football, which football team does not want to win and become the champion? These are questions that posed to me in somewhat upset or incredulous tones.


The analogy between politics and sports, especially football, is very tired. In football, unevenly matched teams compete against each other in a fixed arena obeying a fair set of rules maintained by independent referees to entertain spectators. Yes, some democratic systems approximate this and sadly it reduces the democratic process to a mere spectacle.


I do want WP to win elections, but winning is only part of a larger, longer process. Winning is not about bringing down the governing party. It is the beginning of a new phase, as it opens up more opportunities and space for changing the government’s mindset and helping the people shape the country we want. Winning is not the end goal.


A political party exists to represent and express the will of the people, and winning is part of the process of doing so. The more important work is on the ground, listening, talking, understanding, living with the people so that the party can better represent and express the will of the people.


I don’t see the PAP as an evil empire, but it has problems doing that work now—the talking and living are disjointed from the listening and understanding; they almost look down on the people. If WP becomes like that, and it is not immune, then it deserves to lose. Humility is a virtue in Singapore politics.


So winning isn’t everything. Politics is much more meaningful than that. It should be, or else it will be couched in purely cynical terms of success and failure, or in "mandates" by vote share percentage, like in a narrowly streamed education system where grades mean everything and give one a strong sense of entitlement.


There is creeping cynicism in our politics. The decades of self-interested “adaptation” of the democratic system allowed it to fester (and I’m glad the PM is slowly reversing it by reducing GRC size and increasing SMCs), and the polarising trolling online is not helping. So what can we do? Don’t be fixated on winning, live with the people.


Next: Election Fever II: Anyhow Call Elitism





https://www.facebook.com/danpsgoh?fref=ts

 

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[h=2]Yee Jenn Jong, JJ (余振忠)[/h]
Had a wonderful conclusion to our house visits last night when the last flat we visited was having a 25th birthday celebration and we were all invited to the drinks and food.
Many thanks! The drinks were especially refreshing after 2 hours of walking in the humid weather and after lots of talking.

 

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Daniel PS Goh

Li Lian has relentlessly pursued this issue since her by-election campaign in Punggol East in 2013. Each year in COS during Budget debate, she would raise this issue, each time more heart-wrenching than the last. I remember speaking to her about this, earlier this year, and she asked, "Is there any point raising this issue again in Parliament? The government is not listening." In her typical quick-firing manner, before I could answer, she said, "Yes, must raise." And then she went to talk to a resident. It must be very gratifying for her now, and we are so proud of her.





WP has ‘done a good job’ in Parliament: Lee Li Lian (WITH VIDEO)
Workers’ Party (WP) candidate for Punggol East Lee Li Lian on Tuesday defended the performance of her party mates in Parliament over the past year and a half...
sg.news.yahoo.com

 

[sengkang]

 

[melzp]

Can WP pls publish book OR conduct classes on
Parenting, Filial Piety, Kindness Movement, etc
instead of REPEATING N REPEATING ?

Will your thread be shut if WP loses ALL in GE?

 

[sengkang]

Amazing start to house visits today.


At one of the first few homes, a lady said that she had prepared this painting to be passed to us since last week. Then Lo and Behold, we showed up at her doorstep.


Thank you so very much! Your kind encouragement had given us a great boost to last another night of energy sapping door-to-door visits in a humid weather.

 

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[h=2]The Workers' Party Youth Wing (WPYW)[/h]
Dear friends and supporters,
We are postponing our Cultural Mapping exercise on 1st August and SG100 Conference on 22nd August to October or later. We are now busy preparing for the polls and it won't be good to conduct these events with the looming election influencing the proceedings.


Doing the events later after the SG50 celebrations will also be apt and meaningful. After the fireworks, we can more seriously map what heritage do we have left and ponder what we could and should preserve. After the nostalgic remembrances, we can look more sharply into the future to see what is possible for Singapore.


We will continue with our SG100 Art Competition and hold the selection of the winners during the WP Grassroots Committee's SG50 National Day Dinner for Aljunied, Hougang and Punggol East residents on 23rd August.


Thank you for your support. Please continue to check back here, as we have special People of WP features lined up. See you in October!

 

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WHY I WILL VOTE FOR LOW THIA KHIANG OF THE WORKERS PARTY

Month earlier, my ah ma passed away. As per chinese traditions we held our funeral at our HDB void deck for a weekend.


I remembered very clearly on that Sunday night, Low Thia Khiang dropped by unannounced alone. For the record, we did not know him personally.

Mr Low paid his respects to my ah ma, signed the condolence book and spent an hour plus talking to my family. No media, no reporters around at all. Just himself.

This is what I call sincerity, and for that we are extremely grateful. He wasn't wayang-ing or trying to score publicity points unlike so many other PAP MPs.

For that, Mr Low, you can count on my entire family to vote for you in the upcoming GE.

http://www.allsingaporestuff.com/article/why-i-will-vote-low-thia-khiang-workers-party

 

[sengkang]

Daniel PS Goh

Election Fever III: Celebrating Contribution vs. Claiming CreditI wrote this in a post in August 2013:

Some stuff has been going around the Net since NDR about how WP came up with some of the proposed changes announced by the PM, and a friend asked me this morning how come WP not given credit. Friend also asked me what I think of the PM adopting "your" idea of doing away with PSLE T-scores and using a wide band with more DSAs that JJ and I wrote about. Following was my answer, transcribed from a conversation that was more colourful.


​

No lah, first of all, it would be presumptuous and plain silly for me to claim credit for anything. I have been reading widely (MSM articles, blogs, scholarly work, etc) and thinking about the issue, so have JJ. And we both discussed and came up with an argument for it. The intellectual commons gave rise to the idea. We are merely co-creators, part of the crowd-sourcing process. Ideas don't belong to individuals; they circulate and get worked by different people. We should move away from this whole super-talent, brilliant idea rubbish. Anyone who suggest he/she is a talent, don't trust him/her.

The real talent is someone who knows how to listen and then put things together for the benefit of everyone. PM is our PM, so it is his responsibility to be a super-talent in this respect, to pick up from the intellectual commons to make the necessary policy changes. As initially disappointed as I was with the NDR, and still am, I think he is doing a pretty decent job. The OSC could be seen as a big "listen-in", but the OSC is an occasional "listen-in" and I don't think political parties should be involved. WP is part of the parliamentary process that is the regular "listen-in" for the government. The point is not that WP, PAP, SDP, AOs or NGOs came up with the ideas; the point should be how well the government is crowd-sourcing to do the best to benefit all Singaporeans; the point is that the rest of us would do our part by joining in the debate.

I don't know whether someone in the Civil Service picked up the idea from us and then it worked its way up to the PM. I don't care to know. If so, I am happy to have contributed to nation-building. If not, I am still in happy agreement with the tweaks. I suspect it was a good coincidence, perhaps a logical convergence. Regardless, I will still continue to make new arguments and reevaluate old ones. Ignore anyone trying to play the credit game (or the blame game of saying WP didn't do squat, which is the other side of the coin) and don't try to get me involved!

I am reminded of it because some of the usual suspects jumped on my post celebrating Li Lian’s contribution to the debate on equalising help and support for single parents and accuse it with the tired refrain of "claiming credit". This is not even a nuance; there is a big difference between celebrating contribution and claiming credit.

The problem with overly-partisan supporters on both sides is that they see everything in terms of “claiming credit”. So the overly-partisan PAP supporter would shove Grace Fu and Irene Ng to your face when WP supporters celebrate Li Lian’s contribution and chide you for claiming credit, or the overly-partisan opposition support would poo-poo Grace and Irene and claim with arrogant certainty that the government won’t have changed its policy if not for WP’s Li Lian.

Who are we, who am I to give credit? We should stop thinking like we are high-almighty judges or examiners who could discern cosmic cause-and-effect. Come down from pedestals and soapboxes. In the end, the only one that gets the credit for doing good policy is the government, and the one that gets the credit for listening and considering feedback is the government. That is because it is their role to do so. The rest of us, the public, the MPs, are just doing our part. Let people be happy and proud of our work, be it you are with Grace, Irene or Li Lian. Celebrate the fact that at last the single parents might get equal benefits, celebrate our contribution to the process.

Why is this important for GE? It is important because WP's contribution to policy changes and reversals will be discussed during the GE, so will the PAP's role in getting these policy changes comprehensively discussed, effectively implemented and properly explained with all the complexities involved, so will SPP's and SDP's contribution to parliamentary and public discourse. Each party will celebrate their contribution and express how they will seek to continue to do so.

The public will evaluate each party's and the candidates' past and potential contribution in the true sense of the word e-value-ate. Relative value will determine the vote, or so I hope in my wish for the rational electorate to remain so. Rubbishing anyone's celebration of contribution as claiming credit will only cloud the discussion and subvert the rational electorate.

[h=5]Daniel PS Goh
[/h]July 29 at 5:22pm ·

Li Lian has relentlessly pursued this issue since her by-election campaign in Punggol East in 2013. Each year in COS during Budget debate, she would raise this issue, each time more heart-wrenching than the last. I remember speaking to her about this, earlier this year, and she asked, "Is there any point raising this issue again in Parliament? The government is not listening." In her typical quick-firing manner, before I could answer, she said, "Yes, must raise." And then she went to talk to a resident. It must be very gratifying for her now, and we are so proud of her.




WP has ‘done a good job’ in Parliament: Lee Li Lian (WITH VIDEO)
Workers’ Party (WP) candidate for Punggol East Lee Li Lian on Tuesday defended the performance of her party mates in Parliament over the past year and a half...
sg.news.yahoo.com

 

[sengkang]

Yee Jenn Jong, JJ (余振忠)

Another great evening of house visits.


A kind resident gave us some muffins which I passed to our appreciative helpers. A resident whom we only just met yesterday even joined along in our visits today, dressed in WP Blue.


Finished the night with my favourite beef Kway Teow at a coffeeshop in the heart of the soon-to-be defunct Joo Chiat SMC which I had visited over 40 times during GE2011. Sure brings back memories of an exhausting campaign then. Looks like it may become an even more exhausting one this time

 

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Yee Jenn Jong, JJ (余振忠)

What a difference a week can make. 7 days has passed since THE much awaited Report and my legs are aching from daily house visits.

I have long gotten over the disappointment of the disappearance of Joo Chiat SMC and more determined to climb the mountain that lies ahead.
Met a lady with two cute dogs this morning. She told me both were abandoned and in poor condition when she adopted them. This one which she is carrying had very bad skin condition. The Chihuahua in the background could not even stand up as it was kept in a small cage previously. Now both are happy and healthy. She said it took a caring heart and lots of patience to make make them well again. Thought for the day...Be kind to your pets if you want to keep one.

 

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[h=2]Daniel PS Goh[/h]Happy Nurses' Day! Today is very special day to me because my mum is a nurse. She has been one since before I was born, for over 40 years now. I remember growing up visiting hospitals and clinics she worked at, where I learned to love the smell of bleach, and with anatomy books that moulded my Kafkaesque imaginations of dismembered limbs and strange deaths. She is retired but can't seem to quit nursing, as it defines her whole persona, so she is still working part-time doing what she loves: drawing blood, giving injections and administering treatments while keeping records religiously.

The 2013 Population White Paper hit a personal nerve when nursing was referred to in a footnote as a low-skilled job that was difficult to off-shore. It corresponded with my experience of seeing the immense respect that my mum received as a nurse in the early decades collapse to general condescension in the 2000s. It was great that the Health Minister, DPM and PM all apologised very quickly and corrected the view. But I have the lingering suspicion that many highly educated technocrats still do not see the deep skills of nursing that the Ministers cited. Hope I am wrong.


What deep skills? For me at least, my mum exemplified kindness and charity, a penchant for service and concern for the vulnerable, the tear that would flow down the cheek and gave her resolution to care. She showed me a world of knowledge that could go both ways--detached treatment of systems and the soulful application of personal healing--and taught me being human and humane lies in the balance of both. She had that special quality of making patients serene with her easy confidence and chatty sincerity, such that she was in high demand when needles are involved.


She wanted me to be a doc but I changed direction from science to social science in university. She still doesn't understand why, and she doesn't know she had shaped me profoundly. Happy Nurses' Day Mum!








Specially for Nurses | Nursesday
If a nurse has touched the life of a loved one, or yours, join us and thank them with a heartfelt message. Post and hashtag #nursesdaysg on Facebook, Instagram or Twitter, and they’ll see it here.
nursesday.sg

 

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[h=2]Gerald Giam[/h]Visited residents at their homes in Fengshan SMC this afternoon, then made our rounds at the famous Blk 85 Fengshan Centre. Encouraged by the support shown by residents. WP will definitely be back to contest!

 

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[h=2]Yee Jenn Jong, JJ (余振忠)[/h]
Thanks for the drinks!
Finished another evening of house visits and settled down with the team at a nearby coffeeshop. When we wanted to pay, we were told that the drinks were already paid for by someone from another table. He turned out to be a Mr Ong who just wanted to show us his support. Thank you, Mr Ong!

 

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The Workers' Party

"The Workers' Party will be attending the opposition meeting on Monday. We've looked at the indications of interest so far and the likely three-cornered fights that we will be facing. We identified three constituencies where this might happen: Fengshan SMC, MacPherson SMC, as well as Marine Parade GRC." Chairman of The Workers' Party, Sylvia Lim

 

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The Workers' Party

We are so heartened by the warm welcome at Fengshan SMC and East Coast GRC during our Hammer Outreach this morning. We will definitely be back here to contest.