Originally posted by angel3070:What fucking shit are you talking about?
We are mobilising people to vote for opposition, end PAP rule, take back our country, not asking people to vote for us in elections.
You got see opposition members using vulgaries on their sites?
Support PAP also don't talk fucking shit lah.
that is a hopeless one track mind, stupid post.
Veteran opposition MP Mr Chiam See Tong had issued a short statement on a revamped Singapore People Party’s website opposing the “cooling-off” day.
Mr Chiam said the “cooling off” period is no more than “an attempt by the PAP to stave off the pressure put on it by the opposition.”
He described the move as one step backwards for democracy and added that “if Singapore is to follow Australia, Italy,etc in having a”cooling off” period then, we should know the polling date 6 months to 1 year beforehand.”
Besides the revamped website, the SPP also adopted a new slogan: “Singapore for Singaporeans” which is likely to struck a chord among many Singaporeans.
Immigration is likely to be the single most important issue which many Singaporeans are concerned about or unhappy with.
Due to the ruling party’s liberal immigration policies, the number of foreigners in Singapore has increased to 36 per cent of the population, up from 14 per cent in 1990.
The percentage of native Singaporeans out of the remaining 64 per cent of the population is unknown.
There are more than 20,000 new citizens and 90,000 PRs last year.
Given the rising resentment and frustration on the ground at the relentless influx of foreigners into Singapore, the opposition need only harp on the issue to swing the votes in its favor.
Unfortunately, with the electoral machinery in its hands, the PAP can always introduce last-minute rules and changes to cripple the opposition.
As Mr Chiam rightly pointed out, the election is unfair to begin with as the opposition is kept in the dark about the date of the polls while the PAP knows about it well in advance.
The electoral boundaries are also announced only in the last-minute thereby hampering the opposition’s preparations for the polls.
Furthermore, the mainstream media, police, civil service, grassroots organizations and all other state institutions are firmly controlled by the ruling party in one way or another.
The situation in Singapore is akin to a soccer match between Brazil and Singapore with the referee, linesmen and even the technicians in charge of the field on the side of the former.
First elected to parliament in 1984 when he defeated National Development Minister Mah Bow Tan at the polls, Mr Chiam See Tong will be celebrating his 25th year as an MP together with his constitutents this Saturday.
The event will be held at an open field near Block 119 along Potong Pasir Avenue 1. The expected turnout is 1,000 people, including leaders of other opposition parties. The dinner costs $30 per person.
View SPP’s new website here
A Singaporean by the name of Paul Chan had written to the Straits Times Forum today expressing concern that the “cooling-off” day as proposed by Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong will only service the “shift the goal posts further” from the opposition.
PM Lee announced last week that an additional “cooling-off” day will be introduced in the next general election on the eve of polling day itself to enable voters to make a “calm” and “rational” decision and to prevent “public disorders” from happening.
All mass rallies, door-to-door visits and public displays of party logos are banned on the “cooling-off” day. The ban will also be applied to the internet where websites of political parties and socio-political blogs are expected to adhere to the new rule.
However, the traditional broadcasts of various parties as well as reports on the election in the mainstream media will continue on “cooling-off” day.
Mr Chan wrote that the “cooling-off” day is unnecessary “if the ruling party believes that MPs should win over voters’ trust during the four to five years between general elections.”
He added:
“On the other hand, if voters cannot judge the competence and performance of their MPs over the same period, would it make them think calmly over the electoral choice with one extra day? If new candidates of opposition parties can convince voters of their capability and integrity during the nine days of campaign, would one day to ‘cool off’ make any difference?”
The state media has been defending the “cooling-off” day on the grounds that Australia, Italy, Indonesia and other democracies have similar forms of “cooling-off” period before polling day itself.
Mr Chan opined that the comparison is not appropriate or meaningful unless “the mainstream media accords equal time to the electioneering activities of all political parties, instead of focusing more on incumbent Cabinet ministers.”
Australia has a mandatory three-day “cooling-off” period before polling day. However, Australia has a minimum campaign period of six weeks for federal elections compared to only nine in Singapore.
Furthermore, the Australia Constitution ensures that all political parties have equal access to the media to broadcast their message to the voters.
The Australia media ranks high in media freedom and independence on the World Press Freedom index conducted yearly by respected international NGO Reporters without Borders compared to Singapore.
It was ranked 16th in the latest report released this year compared to 133th for Singapore which is ranked below neighboring countries Malaysia, Indonesia and Thailand.
An article written by YPAP member and a new citizen from India Fredric Fanthome defending the “cooling-off” day drew a massive outcry from netizens.
Mr Fanthome had described online critics of the PAP as “anonymous hordes” who took delight in spraying “venom” at the government and urged the opposition to provide “constructive criticism” of policies instead of “opposing for the sake of opposing”.
If oppositions have confident in this coming election, what is a day cooling off for them, they should not be mincing over such trival small issue, they should be starting telling the citizens what they can do for them with real objectives that can be attained. If they keep on opposing and criticising govt policies and changes, they are nothing, but merely common Singapore Folks at the Kopi tiam.
Election involves both the ruling and opposition parties thus it is pretty unfair for the ruling party to decide to have "cooling off" day without in agreement with the opposition parties.
This is so typically tyrannical, high handed of the bloody hopeless, forever money sucking ruling party !!!! To all the negative stuff they do to us the people of Singapore, the ruling party will reap what they sow. There is such thing as retribution. As it is, we see retribution taking place in that particular family already but they refuse to change for the better. Instead, they suck even more from the people.
I am not in support of any oppositions. To those who are extremely against the oppositions, please be objective to put in effort to understand that the ruling party is forever sayings things which may or may not be true about the opposition parties.
Moreover, the PM who is from the ruling party is not in a good position to take charge of the Election Dept. Can the ruling party guarantee that they have been playing fair in election when they have the ruling party's PM in charge of the Election Dept????
Originally posted by angel7030:If oppositions have confident in this coming election, what is a day cooling off for them, they should not be mincing over such trival small issue, they should be starting telling the citizens what they can do for them with real objectives that can be attained. If they keep on opposing and criticising govt policies and changes, they are nothing, but merely common Singapore Folks at the Kopi tiam.
Diam lah! Don't waste time post here, go and get more business for yourself
Originally posted by angel7030:If oppositions have confident in this coming election, what is a day cooling off for them, they should not be mincing over such trival small issue, they should be starting telling the citizens what they can do for them with real objectives that can be attained. If they keep on opposing and criticising govt policies and changes, they are nothing, but merely common Singapore Folks at the Kopi tiam.
Do you even read the articles and try to digest it at all? Or do you simply type as you wish and hope to hit the jackpot in the dark?
By Kor Kian Beng from Straits Times
NEWS of a proposed change to the electoral campaign process has revived speculation of a looming general election.
Last week, Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong broached the idea of a one-day ‘cooling-off’ period – right before Polling Day – for voters to think over their voting decisions.
Amid the buzz over an election which is due by early 2012, Insight finds out who’s eyeing what.
For now, the spotlight is on the next move of opposition veteran Chiam See Tong: Will he stay put in the Potong Pasir single-member constituency (SMC) or will he leave to contest a group representation constituency (GRC)?
If Mr Chiam vacates the ward, who will he appoint as his successor: his wife, daughter or a member of his Singapore People’s Party (SPP)? Since late last year, Mr Chiam, 74, has expressed his desire to lead a GRC team at the next polls.
His likely choice is believed to be Bishan-Toa Payoh GRC because of its proximity to Potong Pasir. In a sign of his intent, Mr Chiam went on a walkabout at the Bishan MRT station in September.
Mr Desmond Lim Bak Chuan, secretary-general of the Singapore Democratic Alliance (SDA) chaired by Mr Chiam, says it is targeting Pasir Ris-Punggol GRC too.
Mr Lim, who led the SDA team in the GRC at the 2006 polls, says someone from the same team is being prepared for the possibility of contesting a new SMC carved out of the six-man GRC.
This was in the light of a package of political changes to the Nominated MP, Non-Constituency MP and GRC schemes announced by Mr Lee in May this year.
The changes will result in fewer six-member GRCs by the next election. There will also be at least 12 SMCs, up from the current nine.
Pasir Ris-Punggol GRC is also eyed by the Workers’ Party (WP), which is led by Hougang MP Low Thia Khiang.
The WP has also been spotted in Bukit Panjang, Bukit Timah and Yishun, and is said to be targeting new areas such as Bishan-Toa Payoh GRC.
During an interview with The Straits Times in March, Mr Low said the party is looking at previous constituencies that it contested in the 2006 polls.
Aljunied GRC is likely to remain the top ‘hot spot’ for the party. It sent an ‘A’ team led by chairman Sylvia Lim to take on the People’s Action Party team led by Foreign Minister George Yeo. The WP secured 44 per cent of votes there.
As for the National Solidarity Party (NSP), its president Sebastian Teo says it is eyeing three GRCs – Jurong, Jalan Besar and Tampines – and three single-seat wards in Yio Chu Kang, Nee Soon Central and MacPherson.
He says the party started working the ground in MacPherson in March this year and has already covered 60 blocks so far.
Why MacPherson? It is because of its proximity to Jalan Besar GRC, which the NSP contested at the last two polls, says Mr Teo. The NSP’s vote share rose from 25.5 per cent at the 2001 elections to 30.7 per cent at the 2006 polls.
Reform Party (RP) chief Kenneth Jeyaretnam tells Insight his party is ’seriously considering’ the two single-seat wards of Chua Chu Kang and Joo Chiat, and also two GRCs in Hong Kah and Tampines.
The NSP, which was in the SDA until it left in 2007, had contested the Chua Chu Kang ward and Tampines GRC, while Joo Chiat was the battleground for the WP’s Dr Tan Bin Seng.
Would the RP’s plans lead to possible three-cornered fights in these wards?
Mr Jeyaretnam, who took over as RP leader this year, says he will talk to all opposition parties to avoid such a fight.
But he also calls on the Government to release the Electoral Boundaries Report ‘now or at the very least, more than six months before the next election’.
As for the Singapore Democratic Party (SDP), there are indications it could be eyeing Bukit Panjang SMC again, which it contested in 2006.
SDP, which has been selling its newsletters in the Bishan-Toa Payoh GRC, launched a petition campaign in October opposing the proposed sale of a wet market in Fajar Road to the Sheng Siong supermarket chain. – Straits Times
Republished from Straits Times on 11 December 2009
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People here can understand you better when you type like this
skali the cooling off day backfires haha. These issues that dog pap goes deeper than just cooling off for one day. Oh how naive....
But on the other hand, cooling off day got holiday or not?
Lee Kuan Yew must die.
Who will gain and what’s at stake – Additional day of non-campaigning for next General Elections
December 15, 2009
By Bhaskaran Kunju
After concluding his attendance for the Commonwealth Heads of Government Meeting (CHOGM) in Trinidad and Tobago early last week, Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong made a surprise announcement regarding the next general elections.
PM Lee proposed a change to the pre-electoral proceedings by including an extra day of non-campaigning just before the polling day. As it stands campaign proceedings are carried out all the way till the polling day itself when no campaign activity is allowed.
One of the reasons, cited by PM Lee for the change was for voters to take time out to think rationally before making their decision on whom to vote for after an emotionally charged campaign period.
He said,” I think 24 hours after the last excitement of the election campaign period, the rallies, the door-to-door campaigning, the adrenaline flowing, the clash in the mass media as well as in person, perambulating vans blaring away loud speakers, it’s good to have 24 hours to just calm down, think about it – tomorrow we vote.”
The brief campaign period during General Elections is easily the most active period in Singapore politics and it wouldn’t be wrong to state it as being emotionally charged as well. So while there is some truth in that, it would be quite off the mark to conclude that the voters are just as emotionally affected to the point where they are judgement is clouded and rationality impaired.
The last two elections have seen it’s fair share of emotional highs from Dr Chee Soon Juan’s public tangle with then Prime Minister Goh Chok Tong in 2001 and the highly charged battle with Worker’s Party candidate James Gomez in 2006.
While these events were widely carried and reported in the mainstream media and in cyberspace there was very little emotional spillover into the electorate. If anything the only resultant from the latter, was a largely negative turnover for the PAP for their role in the James Gomez saga with the public mostly being put off by the constant taunting by the incumbent party while the Worker’s Party carried on with their duties.
It was a miscalculated strategy that very nearly backfired. But most importantly it showed how discerning the voters were in setting aside emotions and logic.
Nevertheless the worry over emotional spillovers is something that has been present for the PAP quite sometime especially given the relatively large turnouts the opposition rallies command as opposed to that of the PAP. Just one day before polling day in 2006 PM Lee acknowledged this phenomenon but brushed it aside as nothing more than mere curiosity.
He said, “”Coming back from Pasir Ris-Punggol last night, I saw my son at the dinner table and asked him ‘where have you been?’ ‘Ang Mo Kio Workers’ Party rally.’ ‘What were you doing there?’ ‘Wanted to know, brought friends, 20 of them from school in uniform and went to hear.’ I asked him ‘what did you hear?’ Don’t know what they were talking about but every time they said something, they cheered – he said that. I said ‘why don’t you come to the PAP rally?’ He said ’so boring and logical’. So I think it’s okay. Many more (are) like that, want to hear but when it comes to the moment to vote and decide, I think they know what’s in their interest.”
However even within the realm of curiosity it will be difficult to discern between emotions and rationality and that’s something that the PAP has been able to catch on to.
In a P65 Blog entry one of the writers, Fredric Fanthome, criticised those who had found fault with PM Lee’s proposal. He suggests, that “opposition mouthpieces” who cry foul at the new proposal, since political broadcasts and news reports during the cooling off day will be in favour of the government as the media is “in the hands of the government”, are insinuating that voters are not aware of the media ‘misuse’ and in the process belittling voter intelligence.
Firstly, his drawing of conclusion is one that is clearly lacking in understanding of the socio-political scene of Singapore, as seen in his rudimentary argumentation process. However he is always free to choose to write whatever he wants in his blog.
But notably, going by that run of conclusion, then low ‘voter intelligence’ is also being insinuated by the PAP since there is now apparently a need to ‘cool off’24 hours before polling day lest they be so irrational that they get taken in by emotions and theatrics and not vote lucidly.
The actual truth could be much more mundane, that is that no one, neither the opposition nor the incumbent party, really has anything tangible to benefit from it. The opposition parties on one hand have always favoured the internet as the medium of choice, something that will be difficult to regulate outside of official party broadcasts.
Even PM Lee acknowledged it, “On the Internet, it’s grey and also the policing is not so straight-forward but even then, in principle we should say today is a quiet day. I cannot control several million videos on youtube but your website, what you’re putting up in your own name, I think that should end the day before the cooling-off day,”
But the possibility that state owned media, which will be fully functional regardless of the election period, still holds the upper hand in the dissemination of information, tilts discourse in favour of the establishment. How effective this will be however will only be seen in practice. A 24-hour period may ultimately not even be enough for a cooling-off period should the concerns of emotional highs be in fact real.
The only telling sign of this new arrangement is that the PAP is indeed playing safe over the possibility of emotional envelopment of issues by the opposition. Especially given the fact that, relatively enough leeway is being given in the next elections as opposed to the last when podcasts were disallowed and the Internet treated with much dread.
With the changes in the electoral system as proposed earlier this year coupled with the domestic worries over immigration and financial woes, there is every likelihood that the next elections could be quite unpredictable all the way till polling day.