Andrew Ong
On the fifth day of rallies, a crowd of 3,000 comprising mostly of residents from Yuhua SMC gathered at the Jurong East Stadium to listen to its PAP candidate, Ms Grace Fu, who is currently the Senior Minister of State for the National Development and Education.
Aside from her ’3Hs’ plans for Hope, Heart and Happiness which she said she would push for in the newly-carved out Yuhua single-seat ward if elected, the PAP candidate went on an assault by smearing the credibility of the SDP
First speaking in Mandarin, Grace Fu warned voters not to be deceived by the SDP. That though the opposing party is presenting a new slate of better quality candidates at this elections, the SDP remained the same like it was before as the party is led by the same man (referring to SDP’s leader, Dr Chee Soon Juan).
“So the (SDP’s) packaging may be different but the content is the same. Don’t be deceived,” she added and suggested that the SDP was merely using the residents of Yuhua to advance its own political agenda rather than Singapore’s interest.
Then reverting to English, she continued her assault with these rhetorical questions:
“During the global financial crisis, where were they when we needed them most? When we were losing our jobs, where were they? More importantly, do they know you? Do they understand your problems? Have they walked the streets of Yuhua? Over the past 5 years, have they visited you at your home?”
A 50-year old male resident of Yuhua for 8 years shared with TOC that he had met Ms Fu on two occasions when she was MP since 2006. Both were house visits. The resident, a social worker who preferred to remain anonymous said, “I’m satisfied with how my constituency have been managed for the past 5 years and the future development plans ahead. But I believe in having an opposition voice that will help as a check and balance in parliament.”
During the rally, 8 grassroots leaders from the Yuhua SMC took turn to share their personal interactions and experiences serving alongside Ms Fu as the MP. Special guests such as Yu-Foo Yee Shoon, a former MP for Yuhua Constituency and Minister of State for Community Development, Youth & Sports, and Mr Lim Boon Heng, Minister in PMO, spoke in support of Ms Fu’s dedication and accomplishment as a worthy candidate for MP of Yuhua SMC.
Towards the closing of her speech, Ms Fu invited residents to choose the right MP that will represent them in the government when 7 May approaches.
She admitted that the PAP nor she was perfect.
“We’re humans, we make mistakes. We cannot predict the future as we do not have complete information,” she said. “However, we are committed in serving the people of Singapore. But most importantly, we’re committed to protecting the interests of Singapore in the long run.”
As the rally ended with shouts of “Majulah PAP! Majulah Singapura! Majulah PAP!”, a mother living in Yuhua, who’s in her 40s, mulls over her job security. Like many other Singaporeans, she is worried and uncertain about her future and her family’s especially with more influx of foreigners expected in the near future.
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May 3, 2011 at 2:52 pm
Ms Grace Fu: “We’re humans, we make mistakes. We cannot predict the future as we do not have complete information,”
Yes, we make mistakes, but after you made a mistake, admit it, reflect on it and correct it. And not keep quite about it until you are pushed to a corner, and in worst case not even admitting it.
And Singaporeans are not asking you to predict the future, what we want are the PAST information which you should have COMPLETE information. How much we have in our reserve? Information on GIC? etc.. What we want is accountability & transparancy.
May 3, 2011 at 4:35 pm
It is simply naive of the Opposition to go banging on the issue of transparency. There can never be transparency in any government., even with the first world parliament.
You mean, if the govt comes and tell you that we have 900 billion , you are going to believe the figures?
Asking for accounts of this and that or for full disclosure is like like asking Bengno Aquino, who killed his father…until today, everyone is guessing it is Marcos. Even with Cory Aquino as the President, she cannot discover who did what that led her hubby’s murder in public.
Singapore deserves its PAP…simply because our people are just so naive.
May 3, 2011 at 7:00 pm
well, in many so called first world countries, like UK,US, Germany etc, this naivety you talk about is a right the people take for granted. if on occasions transparency was breached, people will go on demonstration and sign up for petitions. just google why and how germany’s minister for defence was forced to resign. it is interesting you should compare singapore with the philippines. i hope you are not going to compare us with libya or somalia next, both failed states.
May 3, 2011 at 3:40 pm
Hi, my dear fellow Singaporean voters,
The oppositions are not trying to form a new government after the election. Please don’t mislead their intention by listening to the MIW’s. I can assure you that even you choose to cast a vote for oppositions, your town councils will be still working in process, your bus interchange will still in operation, MRT will not close down in your constituency but if you choose to vote for the MIW’s, I can assure you the influx of foreigners, raising price of HDB flats, transportation and medial bills, cost of living, salary income, etc will still enhancing for many years.
I was quite soft hearted oneday when I heard the news announced that MIW’s knew about our hardship and promised that they will do whatever they can assist us and look into it NOW if we vote for them.
Come on, my fellow citizens, do not be so soft hearted to give in so easily and from that day onwards, I shut down my television, throw away the local media papers and close my two ears. Instead, I went to attend oppositions party rallies. They have brightened up my hopes, my wishes. I have listened to more alternate plans that they have proposed.
This is what I want for the Paliment. I have made up my decision and please do so if you feel the same as I. Gentle reminder, have a good sleep on the 6th with your ears closed within these few days. Go to the polling centre to cast your vote on the 7th with your brain. Focus ! Focus! Focus what you want for our home, our Singapore! Majulah Singapore!
Let’s toward for a real democracy society! Singaporean, I love u!
May 3, 2011 at 4:54 pm
Ms Grace Fu: Do you seriously believe the opposition can do anything to help during the global financial crisis. Would the PAP govt. adopt any of their suggestions or proposals? Did the PAP govt. sought their suggestions or proposals? They are not MPs or ministers drawing high salaries. And what resourses do they have or given? Of course it is the duty of the PAP to solve the problems.
May 3, 2011 at 5:57 pm
Our PM apologies for the mistakes with regards to Public housing and public transport.
Didn’t MBT said that housing is affordable? The PM is indirectly saying otherwise, though he did not mentioned specifically that housing affordability is an concern to citizens.
We did not pay our ministers millions of dollars and hear him say sorry at the end of every 5 years,
May 4, 2011 at 3:39 pm
if not for this coming election and the big turn out at oppositions’ rallies and support, you think he will ‘apologise’? Think he is desperate now…
May 5, 2011 at 4:31 am
I am begining to miss the late Mrs Lee (KY) already. I suspect that she is the only mind that PAP has in the past. She could be the reason why PAP’s past election campaigns are so well organized and coordinated.
This is the first campaign after her passing and you could already see PAP speakers contradicting each other in their rally speeches, how come no coordination on the content, looks like there are PAP1, PAP2, PAP3 etc campaigning instead of PAP
I am not so sure that they worth the millions that PAP said they are worth.
May 3, 2011 at 6:37 pm
I think what Grace is really trying to say is that Opposition parties to be recognized as a force must galvanise their resources to do something positive..like in Malaysia. The Chinese people know that the police there are all corrupt..so the Political parties form their own complaints bureau where the Chinese can go to raise matters and the party stalwarts will carry the fight for justice on their behalf.
Our Opposition parties here all very comfortable in their own jobs or are filled with retirees or low-wage workers without any conviction to do things between elections than during elections.
In that sense, she does have a point.
And I think people won’t begrudge their fat salaries if they are more humble and not carry around this “take it or leave it” attitude. …”aye lai, mai suak”…that breeds arrogance and the sense that not all PAP leaders really care about their constituents…only care for those they think voted for them.
May 3, 2011 at 7:06 pm
grace,
PAP stifled the opposition of any voice/will/action to do anything for the people. it is credit to the PAP that our opposition is in such a state today. so why pretend to even ask where the opposition is all these years? but the people wants an opposition today. we want check and balances, inclusiveness and a pluralistic parliament. abled, passionate individuals will step forth to represent the people. PAP should recognise this is inevitable and part of a true democracy. stop your authoritarian instincts.
May 3, 2011 at 8:08 pm
Is this the new tack of the pap? to admit your shortcomings, apologise, make excuse and promise change and doing all these INSINCERELY to win sympathy votes. you pap are pathetic! Pretending to be concerned? Put your money on the table before you talk. The more you talk the angrier I get.
May 3, 2011 at 8:59 pm
The PAP had ruled for far too long without check and balance, without transparency, without accountability when matters go wrong (and very wrong). It is time to vote for the opposition as an alternative government and the change agent.
May 3, 2011 at 10:55 pm
When a lowly-paid worker makes a mistake, he can be punished with warnings, pay cuts, dismissal, etc. Our minister simply make a apology and yet gets paid for $1.9 million a year???? How abt returning all those money?
May 4, 2011 at 2:38 pm
actually more than $1.9m, fantastic increments
May 4, 2011 at 12:37 pm
YOU MADE THOSE MISTAKES.
WE ARE MADE TO PAY FOR THOSE MISTAKES.
YOU GET TO PAY YOURSELF FOR THOS MISTAKES.
WHY DO YOU THINK WE ARE UNHAPPY?
May 4, 2011 at 2:37 pm
Well said
May 4, 2011 at 1:06 pm
I am concerned that in the last 20 years of the PAP rule a number of anti-citizen developments have arisen in our Society. This has mostly occurred in our social-legal-police institutions because it is in such arena that societal conflicts are played out.
1)An alarming phenomenon in Singapore is the too close association between elites or elite firms with State Institutions. It has come to my notice that some Law firms close to the Government are able to commandeer State Institutions to hound their clients’ enemies so as to ensure victory in the Courts. This is because with the hounding the other side gets acquainted with the corrupt power of State support and softens its resolve to get justice. The State Institutions that partake in this oppression of the citizenry are the social organizations like AG, MCYS, MUIS and famously the ISD. The ISD in particular seems of late years to have left off focusing on Enemies of the State but now go after enemies of their elite friends. ISD faceless police are ubiquitous even in divorce cases. It is no wonder that they can’t even keep Mas Selamat in his place because of their varied errands for their friends.
2) Many elite professionals in the private sector also hold significant decision making positions in the public sector. These people have a leg in a Law firm and the other leg in Social/Police State Institutions. It seems that the legal/social/police entities indulge most often in such symbiotic relationships for mutual benefits and competitative advantage. Thus you have a Shari’ah lawyer who also sat in the Council of MUIS. He will thus be able to use his Statutory position to aid his fee earning efforts. Again there are cases of lawyers who are also members of Parliament. An MP is supposed to serve the citizenry at large, not a client against his opponent whenever a fee is paid to him by one side. Conflict of interest is no longer of interest in Singapore. Dopplegangers are everywhere. The examples I mentioned are just the tip of the iceberg.
3)Fifty years have seen shameful oppression against opposition personalities, a number of whom have been broken badly by thuggish legal manoeuvres by the Ruling Party and have left politics in Singapore, exiling themselves beyond the reach of the Singapore menace.. The end result is that the ratio of Ruling Party to opposition is about 80: 2. Which shows the efficacy of the mafia in the House.
4)Aside from many other adverse consequences to the citizenry, I tend to think that the singlemost adverse result is the inordinate salaries now received by Ministers because there is no countervailing voices in Parliament because the voices have been killed by the purposeful premeditated repressive acts of the Ruling Party on the oppositions during a 40 to 50 year duration. Can you make a case about this to the appropriate International Tribunal, for crime against Humanity?
5) I feel crowded in, in Singapore these days by massive numbers of foreigners working or staying as citizens. This also is a consequence of a non existent or weak opposition voice in Parliament, the very result of the extra-ordinary witch hunt against opposition individuals carried out decade after decade by the PAP. Our country has been sold off from under our feet without our consent. Because consent making was killed. Can this be formulated as an abuse of Human Rights?
There is an urgency to end this state of the Regime. We happen to live in an era where crime against Humanity has been brought to book in many instances. I know that such crimes are usually the deadly ones like wholesale violent taking over of state resources, rape and genocide. For these latter, the present day response is Egypt and Tunisia with Libya coming up for reckoning.
I leave it to you, the experts among our citizens, to give our predicament in Singapore a name and legal habitation and bring up the matter for adjudication on the International stage. The assault on the Singapore citizen is already recognized by the International community especially the United Nations. It is now necessary to take it to the next step.
May 4, 2011 at 1:24 pm
I received a postcard asking my wife and myself to vote for PAP on coming Sat.
Both postcards had our names and home address!
Where does PAP get those confidential information from???
Is there a breach of confidentiality by the relevant authority that provides the infor to PAP?
Is the playing field level????
May 4, 2011 at 1:35 pm
The roster of electors can be bought by those standing as candidates from the Elections Dept. That’s probably how they got the info.
May 4, 2011 at 2:13 pm
We received 2 postcards from WP (Punggol East) also with our names and home address ….
May 4, 2011 at 2:48 pm
The following took place the day after the elections between 2 senior citizens:
Citizen A: As the cock crows when the sun rises, I told you so
Citizen B: Pls elaborate
Citizen A: I told my son to tell them that we are sorry for the mistakes, that we are human.
Citizen B: What’s your point?
Citizen A: These voters are so stupid and naive, like I always said. They believe everything my son said. . They bought what he said and its 87-0
May 4, 2011 at 4:35 pm
If you are paid so much, you better not make any mistakes!
May 4, 2011 at 8:55 pm
To whom much is given, much is expected.
Authority must be accompanied with accountability. WHERE is the accountability?
May 4, 2011 at 9:45 pm
We are all human and we do mistake,i agree but when the late JBJ was trying to pin point all the PAP mistakes your elites just destroy him completely but nevertheless his name and legacy will stay on as fought for the ordinary Singaporeans or shall i say all walks of life,but you did not listen,now in this GE2011 you are telling singaporeans that human made mistakes,i am in my late forties i have seen a lot of things happening in singapore,when i lost my job in 2006 to be replaced by a FTs has his salary was lower than mine,i approached CDC for job ,nothing came about,finally i managed to get a job for a take home salary S$800 after Cpf deduction TO FEED A FAMILY OF 5 INCLUDING MYSELF,and furthermore i have to take up part time to pay my bills,i was suffering in silence,approached CDC again only to inform me that my case is peanuts compare to others,came across again on my conservancy charges,approached town council,but they send me to small clalims court
May 4, 2011 at 9:50 pm
Where is your oath to take care of ordinary singaporeans,it seems that your party motto is for FTs and PRs,if you win all the seats this election,everything will come back to square one,now there is only one hope that is to vote as much opposition into parliament as they are our only saviour/
May 4, 2011 at 9:57 pm
First order of business is to get the Ministerial salaries scaled down several orders of magnitude to levels like any other country, even the most advanced..Otherwise we would have to account to future generations of Singaporeans as to how we have been fooled so badly: to believe that the Singapore Cabinet is so special that they have to be paid several fold more than their counterparts in other countries.Because they wont be offered lucrative speaking appointments or book royalties, said the PM. Should we compensate them for their mediocrity on the World stage? The other oft repeated argument by the Ruling Party’s spokesperson for paying them over the moon is that it would prevent them from corruption. I think this must be the real reason, an innate greedy predisposition. .
May 4, 2011 at 10:03 pm
if the opposition makes mistakes, PAP makes doubly sure they pay for it. When is PAP gonna pay for their mistakes???
May 4, 2011 at 11:03 pm
So easy for them to say “Opps, sorry”, when the people are actually suffering the consequences of their mistakes. That is EXACTLY why we need opposition teams in the parliament – to make sure the PAP don’t make any more mistakes!
May 6, 2011 at 6:08 pm
Residents of Yu Hua should be asking Grace Fu and the govt…
During the global financial crisis, where were the (PAP)when we needed YOU most? When we were losing our jobs, where were YOU? More importantly, what have YOU done for us? Do YOU understand our problems? You did walked the streets of Yuhua so what? That didn’t solve our problems.Over the past 5 years, you did visit some of us- so what? we still have the same worries! If you and the govt had done your part to genuinely help all the needy ppl, you wouldnt have to worry about the opposition….
May 8, 2011 at 5:51 pm
ms. fu- you claim to had walked yuhua last 5 years, this must be the biggest joke of the election year?????
do u know how many residents were jobless and you recommended any job?
alamak, for your salary, you should be available 24 hours 365 days at yuhua and not distracted with your other jobs.
no commitment no mp, no salary??