The Workers' Party

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[h=5]The Workers' Party[/h]

 

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Gerald Giam

"For unto us a Child is born,
Unto us a Son is given..."

Have a Blessed Christmas everyone!

(Image credit: Michael Tuuk Photography, michaeltuuk.wordpress.com)

 

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[h=5]Yee Jenn Jong, JJ (余振忠)[/h]
"This was the ‘kampong’ that I grew up in. The memories are precious because of the nice neighbours and things we did as we grew up. I am glad that even as new neighbours move in and buildings change looks, the kampong spirit is still strong. People could tell me about their neighbours and about nice things that their neighbours had done for them."

- After house visits to the neighbourhood I grew up in.





A hometown kampong spirit in Opera Estate

joochiattoday.wordpress.com
Earlier this month, we made our weekly house visits to my familiar home 'kampong'. Opera Estate is where I had spent the first 27 years of my life before I moved out to my matrimonial home. Much ha...

 

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[h=5]Chen Show Mao[/h]Youthful exuberance at Paya Lebar. It always gladdens my heart to meet our young residents looking for ways to help the community.

 

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The Workers' Party Youth Wing (WPYW)

Happy New Year!

To kick start the new year we have decided to come up with a monthly online poll. Click on the link below to take part.


Quick poll
[url]www.easypolls.net


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Yee Jenn Jong, JJ (余振忠)

Cool. The mural on Joo Chiat Terrace is featured as one of 25 most popular street art piece of 2013. I had to chance to speak with the owner of the house and about the story behind the mural in my post on joochiattoday.wordpress.com.


The 25 Most Popular Street Art Pieces Of 2013
www.streetartnews.net

 

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Watching Wild Rice's Jack and the Bean Sprout tonight with my cousins. Here with Director Ivan Heng.

 

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Daniel PS Goh

Happy New Year all! Looking forward to Chinese New Year?

Gallopto success in the new spring with your neighbours and friends, welcome the Year of Horse with PECC and MP Lee Li Lian （李丽连）!

 

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Daniel PS Goh

If you miss Breakfast, try some Salt. Not quite the same cup of tea, but it promises an article a day to keep the nasties away.

"SALT aims to become Singapore’s most credible and influential platform that advocates thought-leadership on issues shaping our society."

I am one of the contributors, but, wah siah, "most credible and influential", not sure I can meet such high expectations! I try

SALT: a crucial ingredient | SALT
[url]www.salt.org.sg
SALT: a crucial ingredient0Animal Welfare, Civil Society, Education, Elderly, Environment, Equality, Ethnicity, Family, Freedom of Expression, Giving, Governance, Grey Matter, Heritage, Arts & Culture, Law, Migrant Workers, Poverty, Quality of Life, Rehabilitation, Religion, Society In Action, Speci...


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It was a weekday that we chose to do our biking expedition. What I gathered was a first-hand experience that despite the hilly conditions and sometimes heavy traffic, San Francisco is a bike-friendly city which we can learn from. There are many bike lanes clearly marked out across the city. In some places where it is not possible to have the extra bike lane, the rightmost (slowest) lane is marked as a shared bike and motor vehicle lane, where motorists have to wait behind bikes that are in front of them. And in some suburbs where there were no such markings, I noted that motorists were very conscious of us and gave way to us at road crossings. It made cycling a lot safer. Biking to work seems to be a very common thing in San Francisco, with trains and subways carefully planned to allow bikers to bring their bicycles along with them. Motorists, bikers and public transport commuters seem to follow a code of ethics on how to live with one another.







Cycling through San Francisco - A bike-friendly city
yeejj.wordpress.com
Last week on a stopover at San Francisco en-route to an international conference, I decided to cycle through the city. It seemed to be a popular thing with tourists to cycle to the famed Golden Gat...

 

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Daniel PS Goh

My personal take on the recent hijab issue


Are we ready for the hijab-in-uniform?
[url]www.salt.org.sg
When Muslim girls wearing the tudung in Singapore’s public schools became a major controversy in 2002, many


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The Workers' Party

NCMP Mr Yee Jenn Jong participating in the 22nd Asia Pacific Parliamentary Forum at Puerto Vallarta, Mexico.

 

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Daniel PS Goh

My article on "Walking the Global City: The Politics of Rhythm and Memory in Singapore" has just been published in the Space and Culture journal. If you are interested, please download it here: http://www.danielpsgoh.com/

Also, I'll be giving a lecture that is a spinoff from the article, titled "A Brief History of the Politics of Walking the City", at the Singapore Art Museum this Saturday, 18 January, at 2pm. This is a work in progress. And it is for the Singapore Biennale 2013 Mapping series of talks organised by the Museum and National Library Board. Please register if you are interested (link below)


Singapore Biennale 2013
[url]www.singaporebiennale.org
The ‘Mapping’ series of lectures and artist talks is jointly organised by the Singapore Art Museum and National Library Board on the occasion of the Singapore Biennale 2013. Engaging elements of social sciences, cultural anthropology and arts and design, this series encourages a multi-layered


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Gerald Giam

[h=5]"The fare hike has also come despite train breakdowns having become a regular affair, further compounding the frustrations of commuters, who are frequently affected by such service quality and reliability lapses.

We are disappointed that the fare hike will take place three months before the concession schemes for low-wage workers and people with disabilities are to be implemented. We call for the fare hike to be delayed until the new concession schemes are implemented."[/h]Workers’ Party Statement on Public Transport Fare Review Exercise
wp.sgThe Workers' Party (WP) welcomes the new and enhanced concession schemes to make public transport more affordable for people with disabilities, senior citizens,

 

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[h=5]Straits Times Supper Club interview - Part 1.

"Yes, of course there are trade-offs, but health-care costs are increasing and if the Government does not increase its spending, someone has to pay for it. What is the trade-off for the Government not increasing spending? It is individual Singaporeans having to pay a lot more."
[/h]Gerald Giam: 'Rethink philosophy behind health-care financing'
[url]www.singapolitics.sgNon-Constituency MP Gerald Giam is the Workers’ Party’s point man on health-care issues. In Part 1 of this Supper Club interview, he speaks about what he thinks should be

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[h=1]14-01-18: PECC CNY Food Distribution[/h]<abbr title="Sunday, January 19, 2014 at 12:28am" data-utime="1390062516" class="timestamp"></abbr>


Our first event of the year, Lunar New Year Food Distribution! A welfare outreach initiative to needy families in Punggol East. Credit goes to our sponsors and volunteers for their effort since 2013.

Photo credit: Jacky Koh Chee Koon

 

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Daniel PS Goh


"The concessions, however, should not be used as a sweetener to make the latest fare increases palatable."

http://wp.sg/2014/01/<wbr>workers-party-statement-on-publ<wbr>ic-transport-fare-review-exerc<wbr>ise/

 

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[URL="https://www.facebook.com/workersparty"]The Workers' Party

[/URL]In Part 2 of this Supper Club interview, Non-Constituency MP Gerald Giam of the Workers’ Party talks about whether he sees a shift in the Government’s policy approach, the difference between being moderate and sitting on the fence, and his personal life.


Gerald Giam: 'We’re a moderate party, not fence-sitters'
[url]www.singapolitics.sg
In Part 2 of this Supper Club interview, Non-Constituency MP Gerald Giam of the Workers’ Party talks about whether he sees a shift in the Government’s policy approach, the difference between being moderate and sitting on the fence, and his personal life.


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[h=5]Daniel PS Goh shared Jason Lee's status.[/h]<a class="uiLinkSubtle" href="https://www.facebook.com/danpsgoh/posts/10151883731241430?stream_ref=10"><abbr title="Sunday, January 19, 2014 at 3:23pm" data-utime="1390173805">Yesterday</abbr>

Crisp, clear and cutting

Josephine L M Teo is taking cheap political potshots at WP which indicates that PAP is indeed fearful of WP. Let me try replying Minister Teo as a member of the public.

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Josephine Teo: "First, they claimed credit for the concessions. That’s always easy. Except someone else did the real work of sorting out the math and getting the balance right."

--- How is stating the fact considered as claiming credit? Didn't WP and the public lobbied for years for concessions to be granted to the groups of people under the new and enhanced concession schemes? Of course, someone else had to sort out the math or do you expect WP to sort it out for the PTOs and the government?

By the way, is MP Baey Yam Keng claiming credit too?
Link: https://www.facebook.com/<wbr>photo.php?fbid=1015186202496162<wbr>5&set=a.10150419042831625.3570<wbr>70.530146624&type=1&theater

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Josephine Teo: "Then, it criticises the Government, for directly funding programmes like the Bus Services Enhancement Programme.

It also opposes operators getting more fares through the adjustment.

But, it wants better services.

It conveniently avoids the question of how better services are to be paid for."

--- It is my turn to scratch head, Josephine. The public do not expect the PTOs to provide First Class Concierge Services, but we expect the PTOs to run their buses on time with minimal breakdowns of their train services. Is "better services" too complicated to comprehend? As for the Bus Services Enhancement Programme, it is the PAP Government's own doing. If they had not opened the floodgates which resulted in the unbearable influx of new immigrants and foreign workers prior to the upgrading and expansion of the infrastructure and public transport system, do we even need this BSEP?

Why is it ridiculous for the government to use taxpayers' monies for direct funding programmes and SIMULTANEOUSLY insisting on ordinary Singaporeans to cross-subsidise the PTOs by means of another fare hike? Please read this article written by Philip Ang:
http://<wbr>www.theonlinecitizen.com/.../<wbr>justification-for.../

Of course there are many more well-reasoned articles based on facts and statistics if you care to search online.

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Josephine Teo: "In WP’s world, these things can all be achieved without more effort and resources.

Not in the real world."

--- I think in PAP's world, it is even easier as "these things" can be achieved with ZERO effort and resources by simply raising the fares or passing the costs to the public without seriously considering the increased burden on ordinary Singaporeans. Don't the PAP Government know that transport fare hikes will lead to price increases in other necessities which in turn will inflate the cost of living further?

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Josephine Teo: "As most reasonable commentators agree, the current package of fare increase coupled with significant concessions is to be lauded."

--- Oh, who are your reasonable commentators? Your grassroots, your ardent supporters, your State-controlled media or PAP's affiliated academia? Why not take a look at these commentators here and hear them out?

@[193723290658124;783168535046<wbr>927;;9:https\://www.facebook.com/luituckyew/<wbr>posts/783168535046927]

@[193723290658124;785527538144<wbr>360;;9:https\://www.facebook.com/luituckyew/<wbr>posts/785527538144360]

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Josephine Teo: "One million plus commuters stand to benefit – and many have said they appreciate it."

--- One million plus commuters stand to benefit, but what about the 4.4 million commuters who will end up paying more? So who are the ones really benefitting from this fare hike?

Please read this article by Leong Sze Hian:
http://<wbr>www.theonlinecitizen.com/.../<wbr>the-alternative-news.../

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Josephine Teo: "Finally, WP does it again. They demanded that the new fares start only when new concession schemes kick in July for low-wage workers and persons with disabilities. Would have been better if they read the reports carefully - transport vouchers of between $30-$80 are going to both groups from Apr to tide them over. And everyone else who needs extra can get additional vouchers year-round."

--- This is WP NCMP Gerald Giam's reply to TODAY newspaper.

"After WP's statement on the transport fare review, TODAY newspaper asked for my response to the Government's offer of transport vouchers in the interim period to tide low-wage workers and people with disabilities over until the new concession schemes kick in. This was reply to them:

We are aware of this plan and we had considered it when issuing our statement. However, the take-up rate for public transport vouchers has been low in the past, mainly due to the hassle of applying for them and the small amount offered for each voucher. It remains to be seen whether these interim transport vouchers will be very different.

We are of the view that the concession schemes should be launched before any fare increases take place, so as to give eligible commuters time to become aware of and apply for the concessions. Why was the PTC in such a hurry to approve and implement the fare increases?"

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Josephine Teo: "Gerard Ee and his team deserve our thanks for taking on this incredibly difficult job.

WP should just give its unqualified endorsement of their great work done."

--- Sorry, the people think otherwise. Perhaps Gerard Ee and his team had incurred more wrath than thanks from the people and the people surely do not wish for WP to give its endorsement - whether unqualified or qualified - for a bad decision made.

This is the peoples' reply to Gerard Ee and his team, the PTOs and the PAP Government:

Mass protest on 25 Jan (Sat) at 5pm at Hong Lim Park against transport fare hike
https://www.facebook.com/<wbr>events/611510145562860/
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Finally, are you still scratching your head wondering, "Why are Singaporeans so angry?".