Wednesday, November 19, 2008

A Petition to Mr. Tan Kin Lian

This is a petition to Mr. Tan Kin Lian to contest in next General Elections.

I have come to know Mr. Tan Kin Lian early this year after hearing about his effort to fight for the NTUC Income policy holders' interests and rights. I have emailed Kin Lian personally to ask him to consider to run for the next Presidential Elections. He is fully well qualified to become an independent Presidential candidate. We met up subsequently but Kin Lian has his reservations about running for Presidential Elections mainly of his wife's preference as well as whether he is not sure whether Singaporeans want a contest at all.

Recently, Kin Lian called me up to help him with his Mandarin speeches at Hong Lim Park, to help those structured products investors to seek fair compensation from these mis-sold products. I have agreed to help him and in the process, I get to know him better as a person.

Kin Lian is a person with great convictions and beliefs in Fairness as well as Social Justice. The reason why he has acted TWICE in a short span of time to stand up for aggrieved insurance policy holders as well as structured product investors is mainly because he believes that they are not been FAIRLY TREATED. In the course of meeting up with him, I do find that he has strong beliefs in good governance in which the government must take care of the people's interests first rather than their own. Most importantly, he has shown great patriotism and convictions for this country. He has even joked that if there are enough people who want him to stand as Presidential candidate and gets elected, he would only keep a small part of the hefty annual salary that the President drawn and donated the rest to the charities around Singapore. He believes that political office holders should not be there just for the money and keep comparing it with private top salaries. A political office is PUBLIC SERVICE, not a commercial post. A decent salary to keep them to live in comfort should be enough and it definitely need not be a million dollar annual pay. This is what Kin Lian believes.

Yes, a man at his age, status and well being, does not need to get involved at all in this political arena and fully understand his position. But from recent happenings, I believe many people's eyes have been opened to see the ugly side of what a lopsided political system could do to us. The government has unfairly sided with big financial institutions even without conducting any OPEN AND TRANSPARENT investigations into the Minibond saga.

When PAP Town Councils lost money in these structured products, tens of millions dollars are considered as "small" (maybe even peanuts) and yet PAP MP still insist that we must be thankful to them for making money in the past! I can understand that even big institutions could lose money in investment especially so when they are mis-sold (yes, as MM Lee says, they should have "walk in with their eyes open") but to present such aloof and arrogant attitude towards the whole matter is unbecoming of ELECTED political office holders! Maybe its because ministers have million or even multi-million dollar annual pay and thus, a couple of ten million dollars are just "peanuts" to them. But for most people who earn less than $50K a year, a couple of 10 million dollars IS A BIG DEAL to them! To add salt to injury and insults, they even claim that WE SHOULD BE GRATEFUL to them! Its not merely about the monetary lost but rather the total lost of humility and SENSE OF PUBLIC RESPONSIBILITY as PUBLIC SERVANTS.

I would say that they SHOULD BE GRATEFUL TO VOTERS whom voted them in to give them the opportunity to SERVE the people. It is their job to manage the funds well because they are elected and paid to do the job.

I feel very sad about such attitude from PAP MPs and ministers alike. They have totally forgotten that they are PUBLIC SERVANTS. And I believe that we should have more people with great status and beliefs in what PUBLIC SERVICE should be to be elected into parliament as an alternative MPs to PAP. I have spoken to Kin Lian about this and although he agrees with what I have said, he still feels that he does not want to get into parliamentary politics if there is no PUBLIC DEMAND for alternatives to PAP. I have suggested to him that I will start a Nation wide petition for a call and show of PUBLIC SUPPORT and DEMAND of him to stand up for our beloved country. If I can get a substantial amount of signatures in the thousands or even tens of thousands signature, I really hope that he could reconsider to lead a group of credible people whom he thinks could serve the country better as Alternative MPs to the ruling party.

And so, here I am, writing to all my beloved Singaporeans, to do your part in signing this petition here if you agree with what I say here and strongly believe in the need of having a credible team of alternative MPs led by Mr. Tan Kin Lian. Mr. Tan Kin Lian has been writing petitions and collecting signatures for all these while for many Singaporeans out there to fight for their rights and interests. It is time that we should do something in return, to petition him to lead a group of credible people to stand up for our rights and interests in parliament. All information collected will be kept in confidence. We need your action and support to create a better Singapore for our future generations.

An Online Petition will be created very soon and if we have the resources, we will go round island to collect signatures for this petition by next month. Watch this space for the next few days for more updates.

Goh Meng Seng

Afternote:

Petition Form for Elected Presidency

If you wish to help to collect 100,000 signatures, please print this form and get 20 signatures. Please scan the completed form (with 20 signatures) and send to the e-mail address shown, i.e. epsingapore1@gmail.com.

www.tankinlian.com/forms/epsingapore1.pdf

Goh Meng Seng

29 comments:

Anonymous said...

Respondants, please also indicate your support for Mr. Goh Meng Seng to stand for election again.

Anonymous said...

Mr Goh and Mr Tan,you have the support of everyone disatisfied with the current greedy & arrogant so called leaders of singapore.

And thanks to the internet, we are growing in numbers, much faster than anyone can imagine including PAP.

Have faith in your fellow singaporeans that you will have strong support. The level of disatisfaction with the current administration is so prevalent that even non-political (& ironically glc/media linked) forums like hardwarezone are flooded with posts everyday questioning the govt's actions.

Anonymous said...

Bukit Panjang MP Teo Ho Pin, Co-Ordinating Chairman of PAP Town Councils, top scorer of percentage votes in GE 2006, is smirking at voters that we should be "thankful" only "a little" money is lost by PAP Town Councils.

My dear friend Shin Leong voted for him. Hope he realised his mistake by now. Even in contests where the PAP candidate is sure to win, in fact, especially in contests where the PAP candidate is sure to win, the politically aware voters should give the PAP candidate the vote. All you'll give is a high winning margin, a licence to for them to be smug, and a smirk at you in return.

Singapore Kopitiam - Voices of Singaporeans said...

Hi Mr Goh:

I thought a petition to Mr. Tan Kin Lian to get him to stand for an Elected President election is more appropriate. He is well qualified for the job -- please double check to see if he fulfills all the requirements of an Elected President.

You are welcome to publicize your petition at Singapore Kopitiam Forum:
http://forums.delphiforums.com/sunkopitiam/

Regards,
Victor Sun
Singapore Kopitiam - Voices of Singaporeans
http://forums.delphiforums.com/sunkopitiam

Anonymous said...

he has my vote...

Anonymous said...

Stand for election and I will tick in his box. Serial Number or not!

Anonymous said...

on! tan kin lian for prezy!

Anonymous said...

This is such a bad time to start a petition. It is not that I don't support such a petition, but Chua Sheng Yang recently insinuated that Tan Kin Lian has ulterior motive in aiding the victimised investors.

It would be better to wait till Chua's letter has been blown over. Goh Meng Seng really has a bad sense of timing.

Anonymous said...

"I have come to know Mr. Tan Kin Lian early this year after hearing about his effort to fight for the NTUC Income policy holders' interests and rights." - Mr. Tan Kin Lian states in his website that he was with "NTUC Income in 1977 as the chief executive officer. For the past 29 years, he has built up the business, assets and sphere of influence. From a base of $28 million (SGD), the total assets increased to over $18 billion at the time of his retirement. NTUC Income was a leading life and general insurance co-operative in Singapore."

I am curious about Tan Kin Lian;s effort to fight for the NTUC Income Policy holder's interests and rights? Is there a problem with this now? Why is he only doing this now, and not during his 29 years tenure in NTUC?

Are you suggesting that just because he has been active in the recent event, he is qualified to become the next President. Are you kidding? Well what has Mr. Tan Kin Lian been doing before while he was the CEO of NTUC?

Why the need for an Online petition?

Anonymous said...

"I have come to know Mr. Tan Kin Lian early this year after hearing about his effort to fight for the NTUC Income policy holders' interests and rights." - Mr. Tan Kin Lian states in his website that he was with "NTUC Income in 1977 as the chief executive officer. For the past 29 years, he has built up the business, assets and sphere of influence. From a base of $28 million (SGD), the total assets increased to over $18 billion at the time of his retirement. NTUC Income was a leading life and general insurance co-operative in Singapore."

I am curious about Tan Kin Lian;s effort to fight for the NTUC Income Policy holder's interests and rights? Is there a problem with this now? Why is he only doing this now, and not during his 29 years tenure in NTUC?

Are you suggesting that just because he has been active in the recent event, he is qualified to become the next President. Are you kidding? Well what has Mr. Tan Kin Lian been doing before while he was the CEO of NTUC?

Why the need for an Online petition?

Donaldson Tan said...

anonymous (1.01am),

Mr Tan Kin Lian had already said many times that he does not intend to enter politics. Mr Tan's effort to help aggrieved investors has certainly won a lot of accolades from the community, thus some people would like him to become our elected President.

Your wording suggests that you are ignorant about Singapore's election laws. In order to qualify to run for Singapore's elected Presidency, one must have at least 3 years experience being a CEO at a local company of at least S$100M capitalisation. Moreover, you must have 10 year residency prior to running for the elected presidency.

If Mr Tan Kin Lian wasn't a CEO at NTUC Income, do you think people would even consider to put him on the pedestal and ask him to run for Presidency?

Nevertheless, I stressed that Goh Meng Seng's timing of announcing a petition to ask Mr Tan Kin Lian to run for presidency is badly timed.

Anonymous said...

Dear Mr. Goh,

I think you it might be better for you to lead an opposition party and Mr. Tan contest for the president post. His caring heart and willingness to work for the ordinary people is what a good president ought to be. It is a shame to pay million$$$ a year for someone just to distribute cookies to boyscout or the likes. I believe Mr. Tan can contribute a lot more and truly safeguard the national reserves for Singaporeans.

Anonymous said...

Ya Mr Tan has my full support to stand for election as MP and also to groom a team of like-minded capable team to act as an alternate party to the ruling party. Thete is hope now for our country!!!

Anonymous said...

It would be best if Mr Tan can form a team with a few other outstanding independents/bloggers, like NMP Siew. That way he will not be subjected to all the pressure himself, and the team members get to feed off one another's positive exposure.

Anonymous said...

Agree with Ark.

Mr Goh, to be frank, you do not have a really good reputation in the political arena. By starting this petition, it shows that you do not have a good acumen for politics too.

I admire your courage and perseverance, but it would be in the best interest for everyone if Mr Tan could be left to make his own decisions.

Anonymous said...

Siew Kum Hong is also one of the more sensible NMPs around. Actually, there are some PAP MPs are who pretty responsive to the ground too, such as Lee Bee Wah and Lilly Neo. Why are most of the PAP MPs hardly responsive to the man on the street? Sigh...

Anonymous said...

This petition will give the financial institutions and their friends a gd excuse to rubbish TKL's motives for helping investors.

And to link him with yr political ambitions.

Back off Goh Meng Seng if you want to help the investors recover their money.

We have seen CASE, SIAS etc jump on the bandwagon. This is another: an opposition politican trying to take adv of TKL's gd works for his own motives?

A conspiracy theorist might point out that GMS may be trying to sabotage TKL's gd works for the benefit of the banks.

What bettter way than to make TKL lookpolitical?

Pls do not go ahead with the petition.

Anonymous said...

When the opposition keep quite, people say they are useless. When they try to do something to help, people said they try to take advantage of the situation! So how? Sad right? Meng Seng, don't be bordered by those navie people. Keep up the good work. You have my support.

Donaldson Tan said...

I support the petition, but to announce it now is simply bad-timing. You should have waited 2-3 weeks after Chua Sheng Yang's letter has been forgotten...

Anonymous said...

It doesn't really matter since those who want to will bring up the letter anyway, the important is that Mr Tan must be firm in his position.

Anonymous said...

Seriously, I have no problem agree to the petition of having nominate Mr. Tan KL as our president.

However, I have doubt if this is politically right move? If you still remember Devan Nair and Ong Teng Cheong if you get what I mean.

I think it would be better to form a conservation party and having Mr. Tan KL to unite all opposition instead. There, he would not be so alone in his quest to ensure good changes and to the better of Singapore in whole.

I suspect, if he is to become president (I am confidence he will), he will very much fighting alone.

Lastly, I wish to know from Mr. Goh what are you going to do for Singapore if you get elected? Are you considering to contest at the west regional this coming election? Thanks

If it is not convenience to answer here. My email is mob_1001@yahoo.com.sg.

Dr. Albert

Anonymous said...

You are wrong My Goh. Tan Kin Lian this guy is full of agendas. He is an attention seeker. You honestly had been manipulated by him.

Anonymous said...

You all should form a 3rd force by galvanising bloggers,professional,NGOs to fight the pap. Merely staying in NSP,SPP or WP won't help much.The old SDP is much better , you can see they garnered 40+ % in the GE.

Anonymous said...

My friend forwarded this link for me to read. Very well written and a lot of good talk. I got 1 question,can someone help please? Where can I find out who is Tan Kin Lian and what merits he did for the people?

Anonymous said...

Teo Ho Pin owes all Singaporean an apology for wrongly losing S$16 million of our blood and sweat money. With his arrogant attitude towards to people, he should resign as he has disappointingly failed the voters.

Anonymous said...

Fully agreed with your view. Singaporeans need change now and as the ruling party no longer listens anymore. I am keeping close watch and will be attending the rally next Saturday.
We need a people's President, PEOPLE POWER!

Anonymous said...

Singaporean must bravely stand up and face the change. For a developed nation, we must have responsible citizens to speak out and decide for the future of Singapore. Only then, we won't be ridiculed by other countries as timid, soft-spoken,...

Anonymous said...

Watannaporn,
Suggests you attend the rally next Saturday afternoon at Hong Lim park, and you may ask around.

samuel1991 said...

Hmm..... It is better to keep this as confidental if not like the Andrew or dunno what guy whom asked to reveal his "底细" by PM Lee. The last thing I would like to see is Mr Tan being fixed by PAP as he stood for Presidential election like the other guy on 2005.