TR EMERITUS

Dear Residents of Holland-Bukit Timah GRC, We refer to the letter you received from the PAP. This is our e-letter response. The PAP is trying to steal this election by deliberately calling an election during the present COVID-19 pandemic. Since Parliament was dissolved from 23 June until today 7 July, there have been 2,670 total cases (200 imported cases, 72 community-linked cases, 66 community unlinked cases, 2,512 dorm residents). The COVID-19 pandemic is far from over. This election needs to deliver a robust set of opposition MPs in Parliament to steer Singapore’s response to the COVID-19 which has been mismanaged by the PAP. The PAP talks about jobs but in the wake of COVID-19, what are the jobs available for our graduates and unemployed apart from temporary assignments taking temperature, safe distancing and traineeships? Traineeships are not jobs. The PAP team speaks of a green lung in Holland Bukit Timah, yet they distribute their candidate booklets placed in plastic bags! How environmentally friendly is that? They say one thing and do another. Now they are sending you a letter, while trees in the neighbourhood are being pruned to the limbs by the tree cutters. The SDP will accelerate the installation of solar panels in public spaces, and significantly increase R&D funding on solar projects. We will incentivize our residents in Holland-Bukit Timah to recycle and reduce waste so that we can significantly upgrade our commitment to reaching the targets signed by Singapore at the Paris climate agreement in 2015. Our Jewel Changi is an expensive investment in terms of construction at 1.8 billion, but also in terms of consuming excessive amounts of energy. The SDP and PAP differ in the type of society each party envisions. The SDP believes in helping the marginalised, the poor in society especially during the COVID-19 pandemic and beyond. The suspension of GST, the RESTART (Re-Employment Scheme and Temporary Assistance for the ReTrenched) and $500 as retirement income for those aged 65 years and above are a key part of our campaign. In suggesting these proposals, we have made it clear that there is no need to increase tax or introduce a new tax to fund SDP’s initiatives costing $16.1 billion as there is at least $18.6 billion of unused income from investment returns on our reserves. They politicized the management of COVID-19 task force by appointing themselves and promoting themselves in front of the media. Now they have called for an election to legitimize their own missteps. It appears that POFMA has emerged as a means of political distraction to mask PAP's inexperience and poor track record. But what is happening is that the PAP indulges in hate speech against those who hold different political views - something that has been built up over many decades via PAP propaganda and the media framing of its critics. This negativity has been internalized by many of its supporters and contributes to their rabid tone both offline and online. SDP’s Holland-Bukit Team is qualified and will be effective in carrying HBT constituency’s voice into Parliament. When in Parliament, we can help steer the response to COVID-19 and also the economy for a safe and prosperous Singapore by ensuring robust checks and balances. Yours faithfully, Dr James Gomez, Alfred Tan, Min Cheong, Tan Jee Say Team Holland-Bukit Timah .  Read More →

Excellent article by Martin Wolf of Financial Times on the key basic qualities needed in a successful and stable modern developed-economy democracy. How many of these qualities do we have in our society and polity in Singapore and if not, why not ? Vote wisely for the parties that will best bring about this kind of future for our children and grandchildren. And do not be disheartened by just this weeks election freak, Covid election results, ill-timed to benefit the incumbent rather than the nation, whatever it might be. Our journey to such a successful society is a long term one. The truth of the people’s will will emerge clearly in the next two elections, when the true quality of which political leaders can bring us there and really make the far reaching changes needed to meet these key basic social needs will be plain to see. “ In a democracy, people are not just consumers, workers, business owners, savers or investors. We are citizens. This is the tie that binds people together in a shared endeavour. In today’s world, citizenship needs to have three aspects: loyalty to democratic political and legal institutions and the values of open debate and mutual tolerance that underpin them; concern for the ability of all fellow citizens to lead a fulfilled life; and the wish to create an economy that allows the citizens and their institutions to flourish. ... Every citizen should have the reasonable possibility of acquiring an education that would allow them to participate as fully as possible in the life of a high-skilled modern economy. Every citizen should also have the security needed to thrive, even if afflicted by the ill luck of illness, disability or other misfortunes. Every citizen should have the protection at work needed to be free from abuse, both physical and mental. Every citizen should also be able to co-operate with other workers in order to protect their collective rights. Successful citizens should expect to pay taxes sufficient to sustain such a society. Corporations should understand that they have obligations to the societies that make their existence possible. The institutions of politics must be susceptible to the influence of all citizens, not just that of the wealthiest. Policy should aim at creating and sustaining a vigorous middle class while ensuring a safety net for everybody. All citizens, whatever their race, ethnicity, religion or gender are entitled to equal treatment. Citizens are entitled to decide who is allowed to come and work in their countries and who is entitled to share the obligations and rights of citizens with them.”   Yeoh Lam Keong    * The author is a former GIC chief economist and adjunct professor at the Lee Kuan Yew School of Public Policy.      Read More →

Myth 1: Politics has nothing to do with the man on the street like me. Clarification 1: Yes, politics do affect everyone. Politics affect political parties. Political parties affect parliamentary seats. Parliamentarians in those seats affect parliamentary debates. Parliamentary debates affect national policies, laws, acts and strategies. All those, in turn, affect taxes, costs of living, quality of living, rebates, opportunities, barriers and futures of the country's citizens. Myth 2: Opposition parties in parliament will destroy the country. Clarification 2: Destruction of a country is not easy as long as there are stringent checks and balances in a country. A multi-party parliament will make a country harder to destroy as no individual or group can make all the flawed, risky or rash decisions that may be destructive to the country and its citizens. Myth 3: Opposition parties may be corrupt. Clarification 3: Compared to a single-party parliament, a multi-party parliament is a much tougher environment for corruption to take root because every parliamentarian may have someone else from another political party looking over the shoulders to check for any under-the-table dealings. Conflicts of interests may be easier to expose due to cross-examinations, and checks and balances of each party's policy proposals, affiliations, and networks of associates, friends and families. Myth 4: Opposition parties will raid the reserves and bankrupt the country. Clarification 4: Only a handful of people in the country knows the exact state of finances of the country right now. Without cross-examinations and legitimate inspections by a multi-party parliament, there is no way to prove beyond reasonable doubt if the monies of the country are always being put to good use for the interests of the country. Therefore, it is wiser to have different parliamentarians from different political parties guarding the national reserves of the country. Myth 5: Opposition parties are inexperienced to lead the country. Clarification 5: Such said experience can only be accumulated when a person is elected into public office. Denying more opposition parties into parliament means a smaller pool of experienced parliamentarians to draw ideas, suggestions and national leadership from. If the pool dries up, the country may be leaderless. Myth 6: Opposition parties are unqualified to lead the country. Clarification 6: Anyone, including opposition party members need legitimate public office appointments in order to lead the country in legal capacities. Parliamentary seats grant them the first level of such public leadership. Terms of public office are periods of time where voters can assess, retain or boot out unsuitable parliamentarians or leaders for the country. Myth 7: Opposition parties may have ulterior motives to lead the country. Clarification 7: A multi-party parliament may be more effective in stopping any individual's or group's ulterior motives from becoming realities through cross- examinations of policy proposals. Myth 8: Opposition parties have not done anything for the country. Clarification 8: Opposition parties have been doing what they can under existing laws of the country. They cannot do any more unless they have parliamentary seats and thus the legal authority to cross-examine documents, data and resources only available to public office holders in order to have the necessary information to formulate or cross-examine policy proposals. Myth 9: Supermajority in a parliament is not important. Clarification 9: Any political party with a supermajority in parliamentary seats in any country may be able to push through flawed, costly or even dangerous policies without the necessary checks and balances. If a policy is dubious, it is in the interests of the country to veto the policy and scrutinize it further rather than passed through the parliament via supermajority votes. Myth 10: A single political party do everything. Clarification 10: Every single political party in the world has its own party values and ideological biases. That means everything it says or does will have loopholes and weaknesses that its values and biases can blind its followers from. A multi-party parliament can reduce loopholes and weaknesses of policy proposals through cross-examinations of information and parliamentary debates. Myth 11: A certain political party seems to attract more talents than other political parties. Clarification 11: Talented people are not easy to recruit and retain to serve for any cause in any part of the world. A single political party may only attract certain types of talents for public office. A multi-party parliament may attract more diverse talents to join public office. The country needs more diverse talents to be leaders for 2020 and beyond in order to thrive. Myth 12: The government under a certain political party gives me money, rebates, handouts and goodies. Clarification 12: A government is an elected caretaker of a country's monies. It collects, saves, invests, pays out, and distributes monies in accordance to policies passed in parliament. A government does not possess any money on its own and thus cannot "give" what it does not own. A multi-party parliament may also distribute the same or even more money, rebates, handouts and goodies if policy proposals are thoroughly cross-examined or even optimized. Myth 13: It is scary to see the Members of Parliament quarreling on the media over policies. Clarification 13: Debating, not quarreling, policy proposals is a key function of all parliamentarians. Policy debates bring out constructive changes in policy proposals that can translate into better lives for the citizens. Loopholes and weaknesses within those proposals may be detected, corrected or reformed if more political parties get to cross-examine them thoroughly. Myth 14: The country would be vulnerable and defenseless if parliamentarians are locked in conflict over policy debates. Clarification 14: One of the roles of the country's civil service to keep the country safe and functional while policies are still being debated or formulated. All civil service branches, including military, law enforcement, healthcare, administration and utilities have their respective standing orders and protocols to ensure the country's survivability and continuity during those times. Myth 15: Voters should be grateful to certain parliamentarians and continue to vote for certain political parties. Clarification 15: Without diminishing the contributions made by such parliamentarians, the country has already rewarded these parliamentarians with generous remuneration packages. These can also be viewed as completed transactions where services rendered have been paid for. Without being intoxicated over the memories of the past, the country can then move forward with new contributions from new parliamentarians and the country will reward or punish them accordingly to their new contributions to the country. Myth 16: Votes are not secret in a General Elections. Clarification 16: So far, there is no compelling evidence to show that votes in the country's General Elections have been compromised in any way. If votes are found to be so, the country will need to hold a re-election or risk losing the country's status in the international community as a democracy.    Mohd Helmi Bin Abdullah      Read More →