Dodging the REAL Issues - The Case of Benjamin Lim

I am utterly disappointed by the Minister for Home Affairs (who is also the Minister of Law, which I always feel is totally inappropriate as it may constitute a conflict of interests but this article is not about this) Mr. Shanmugam's statement made in parliament with regards to the case of Benjamin Lim Jun Hui.

Instead of addressing the many valid pertinent concerns raised by the public, on and off-line, he has put up a barrage of fire attacks at The Online Citizen (TOC) and the President of Law Society, Mr. Thio Shen Yi with totally irrelevant petty details of bickering.

Whether there were 4 or 5 policemen went to the school, wearing police uniforms or plain clothes are really irrelevant to the pertinent questions asked by TOC, Mr Thio and the public at large.

It is even more ridiculous for the Minister to cast doubts on TOC's intent by raising the fact that it has reported that the Police refused to comment on the matter when approached!

For whatever reasons the police refused to comment (such as those reasons presented by the Minister himself), it should just say so when TOC asked them! A good and competent Public Relations Officer from the Police would have made simple comment like "We cannot comment on this case as internal investigation is still ongoing." or "We cannot comment on this case as there will be Coroner Inquiry, please wait for the result of Coroner Inquiry"...etc.

The total ignore or silence from the Police is smacked of either arrogance or complete incompetency in Public Relations communication.

The Police has its own Public Relations officers. If the Police refused to answer to TOC's inquiries, then the Minister cannot blame the TOC for reporting so (the truth that the police refused to comment) and the public will have their own discretion to form their own opinion.

So my dear Minister, it is the FAILURE of Police Public Relations officers in responding to the matter in timely manner that created public perception, not TOC. TOC merely reported the NO RESPONSE from the police!

It is of course the prerogative of the Police in keeping silence but it must also understand that keeping quiet will have its consequences and implications.


By the way, the Main stream media also reported 5 officers went to the school! Please lah! Why not fire at the Main stream media as well?

As for the President of Law Society, the point made was the necessity of the police making the arrest at the school! So, don't try to divert from this pertinent question by going into the irrelevant bickering. Do you think it is appropriate or necessary for the police to send 4 or 5 police officers to the school to make the arrest?

There are more important questions raised by the public and I expect the Minister to address them, instead of using diversion tactic to dodge from these questions and public anger:

1) Does the Minister think it is RIGHT (never mind if it is legal or not) for policemen to go to school to arrest students who are just suspects of crimes?

2) Does the Minster think it is RIGHT (never mind if it is legal or not) for the police to interrogate minors without the presence of guardian or legal representative? In fact, is it right for police to deny legal representation or aid to suspects, regardless of age, during interrogation?

These are the two important issues raised by the President of Law Society and they are valid questions to be addressed fully.  These questions raised does NOT constitute sub judice but it is of GREAT PUBLIC INTERESTS.

I hope the Minister could address these real issues instead of wasting time trying to divert attention to inconsequential minor details and bickering.

Oh, by the way, the poor boy was just investigated but NO OFFICIAL JUDGMENT has been made about him just yet. I do not understand why the Minister would insinuate him as "guilty" in parliament just because, according to the police interrogation, he "confessed" to the crime. His confession could be contested in court if there was really a court case but unfortunately, he won't have that trial now. So I would urge the Minister not to put judgment on the poor dead boy in parliament even though he is also the Minister of Law, but he is not the judge nor the case has been heard.

Goh Meng Seng

Writting Off the Contributions of Opposition?

Someone said that none of the opposition parties should take credits for the changes that PAP has made since GE 2011.

I would disagree. I am not afraid nor shameful to take credit for the change in the HDB policies as the one who initiated a hard hitting campaign on Over priced HDB flats, not merely on pricing alone but the intellectual philosophy and discourse against it. Starting from HDB is NOT an INVESTMENT but a HOME to the debunk of PAP's argument of selling off or monetizing HDB for retirement. On top of that, highlighting the social injustice of PAP breaking its social contract when we allowed it to have the power to acquire land from our forefathers at dirt cheap price in return for cheap housing for generations of Singaporeans.

The activists who stood up against 6.9m Population White Paper and CPF's forever low return and increasing minimum sum should be credited for adjustments done to these policies.

SDP has persevered over freedom of speech and eventually PAP relented to put up Speaker's Corner. SDP has also touched extensively on universal healthcare policy and PAP came up with Medishield Life. Even though Medishield Life has lots of flaws but at least it is a first step of response to SDP's initiative.

Maybe he can only speak for his party and yes, WP should not claim any credits for all these policies because it has never led or initiated any public discourse or opinion on any important public policies so far, despite of the fact they have Numerous MPs in parliament and have put up a comprehensive manifesto.

WP MPs have not followed their own policy manifesto closely while debating in parliament. They have not uttered a word on abolishing ISA in parliament while they have written that in their manifesto. They even change their stance on ministerial salary using strange calculations which ended up as million dollar salaries.

So please, if you must comment, speak for your party's ineffectiveness and not robbing away due credits to other parties and activists.

Besides, this person who spoke about "no opposition party should take any credit" of the changes or improvement made was not even involved in the political arena for the past decade. Obviously, he cannot claim any credit to any of the happening, including the awakening in 2006 and the forward march of opposition in 2011 etc. But for him to write off all the combined efforts, sacrifices and contribution in this past decade in one full stroke, I guess that is really arrogant to start with.

Among opposition members and activists, we may have our differences and views but I respect their little contributions in their own ways. Yes, even the mere presence of WP MPs in parliament, though not fully effective (not even as "watch dogs" or "co-drivers"), is a little contribution in itself. This is despite the fact that we would like to see them more vocal and effective in their debates in parliament.

Many people, beside the opposition candidates in GE, have contributed tremendously to the opposition cause. This is especially so for the grassroot activists, spending time, effort and even money without remunerations, definitely without those million dollar deals. (Of course there are some bad apples who are more interested in making money out of opposition politics but let's put that aside). But to make it more effective and worthwhile, those on the frontline will have to put up a good fight, lead the public opinions and discourses on various public policies. Else, the disappointment of these grassroot activists in making such sacrifices will be irreparable.

The worst case scenario is to have a rookie to step up and write off all the efforts and contributions of many others before him. I am quite utterly disappointed.

Goh Meng Seng
 

PAP's Secret Weapon of Winning Elections

Over the Chinese New Period, I met several people who talk about the "Freak Elections Result" in 2015.

From a historical perspective, in a General Elections, any vote swing beyond 5%-6% would be considered as a "Freak Elections Result". However, this may no longer be true anymore.

The following is a tabulation of the increase of voters compared between GE2011 and GE2015. The table include a calculation net of Tanjong Pagar GRC as this was the only GRC not contested in 2011. 

As we can see the increase of the Total Eligible Voters is about 4.77% while the increase in Total Voter Turnout Net of Tg Pg is 5.48%. We have to bear in mind that this is quite a substantial increase (over 1% increase per year) despite the fact that we are facing a low fertility rate since 1990s. Couple with the fact that there is an actual gradual increase of people giving up Singapore citizenship and a deduction effect due to death, we would expect either minimal increase or a zero increment of voters base, or even a negative impact on voters number.

I do not have the time to look through the time series of figures on Death and Migration out of Singapore for the past decade and compared them to the figures of total number of births 21 years ago in correspondence to these figures to get an idea of how would the net effect on voters base for the the various GEs, but I suspect these figures should more or less canceled off. 

However, this is not true at all. There is in fact a "healthy growth" of voters base. The piece of puzzle lies in the number of New Citizenship PAP government has been giving out all these years. 

 

In the above graph, it shows the trend of New Citizenship given out from 2007 to 2014. These figures are not complete as we need 2006 to 2015 data to do a full analysis. I have used an estimation of the numbers of New Citizenship for 2006 and 2015 by assuming that it is the same as 2007 and 2014 respectively for the table below.

We can see from the graph above that PAP has been giving away Permanent Residency like nobody business from 2007 (or even earlier?) to 2010. Even when these stabilized in 2010, the number of New Citizenship issued had actually increased a bit and maintained at above 20,000 from 2012 till 2014. This is despite the fact that PAP has said it is reducing the intake of foreigners since 2012 protests against the 6.9m Population White Paper! PAP has in fact maintained a high number of PRs and New Citizenship issued from 2012 throughout till 2014!

Even so, I do not quite trust these figures simply because the figures don't really add up as I would expect if the detailed study on Death, migration out plus corresponding new born 21 years would have a slight negative impact on voters base.

If you take a look at the tabulation below, you will see what I mean.

We can see from the table above, with certain estimation and adjustment made, the sole POTENTIAL FULL impact of the increase of New Citizens from 2011 to 2015 is about 3.45%. This is about 2% to 3% lesser than the estimated increase of eligible voters or voters turnout from 2011 to 2015.

This practically implied that on average, there is still a net increase in voters base even when new citizens were taken out of the picture. We may not know the truth but let's leave it as it is.

IPS erroneously concluded that the impact of New Citizens on GE2015 results is just 2% to 3% due to this over simplistic calculations. It is assuming that those New Citizens who came in prior to 2012 did not change their voting patterns in GE2015. I beg to differ.

If you would have remembered, PAP has made a STRANGE announcement right after GE2011 that it is going to pursue a 6.9 million population target by 2030. It is strange for PAP to come up with such "White Paper" when it has just suffered a little electoral defeat in GE2011 with a reduced majority vote. The anger from the voters would have made PAP more wary to announce such plan especially when prior to GE2011, many people, including me, have shown data that the population has increased at an unsustainable rate and it has caused shortage of public housing, crowded hospitals as well as trouble public transport system with major breakdowns of MRT!

It was a very puzzling move at that point of time which many people perceived it as "suicidal" of PAP of doing so. It seems that PAP has "stupidly" exposed the "reason" of all the troubles we had for people to pin point directly at the FTs and New Citizens!

Some how, protests erupted against the 6.9million Population White Paper and anti-FT loud cries were made. And some people started to call such movement or protests as "Xenophobic". PAP wayang a bit and started to say that they will control the total number of inflows but as we can see from the raw data, they had at the same time increased and maintained the total number of New Citizenship issued out each year!

I would say that we have been out-maneuvered by PAP! PAP has deliberately put up the massive population idea to lure or ignite anti-FT and anti-New Citizens sentiments. This will invoke the emotional responses from ALL New Citizens, past and present, not just those 80,000 New Citizens initiated from 2011 to 2015 but including all past New Citizens!

On a conservative estimate of a 10 years cycle of adaptation and naturalization process, the total potential impact of all New Citizens who came in from 2006 till 2015 would be a potential 7.55%! If we assume a 20 years cycle (from 1995 onwards) of "naturalization" for New Citizens may be even higher! (It is believed that the total percentage of "New/Naturalized Citizens" is about 14% in total to population.)

Thu, I would say that it is erroneous to conclude that the impact of New Citizens to be minimal at 2% or 3%. Their impact or influence might have been more than 7% due to the political scheming of PAP in invoking the 6.9m population controversy.

Looking forward to next GE, I believe PAP will continue its aggressive New Citizenship policy or even increase the number of New Citizenship issued per year for the coming decades. I would expect after this article appeared, you will no longer find any data on the time series of total number of PRs and New Citizenship issued for past and future years. 

This is part of the reason why PM Lee is so confident that opposition will never ever be able to win any substantial number of seats in future elections that he is willing to cut down the sizes of GRCs,, increase the number of SMCs as well as NCMPs!

Due to the success of their New Citizens strategy, they believe that they will be invincible in the future GEs!

So my dear Singaporeans, it is time for us to rethink of what we should do next for our country and future. PAP has finally found the "perfect way" to GAME the voting system here. The day of REAL Democracy Reforms will not come if we do not make a concerted effort to push for it. If we, collective as a people, would only think of our own selfish interests instead of the big picture.

It will take a tremendous great amount of time for most New Citizens to realize that we need to break away from a one party monopoly system but for us, could we wait that long?

Goh Meng Seng

Afternote/Updates:

On 18 March 2016, PAP has revealed that there is an average of 18795 new citizenship given out from 2006 to 2015. It means that there is a total of 187950 new citizen voters in 2015 as compared to 2006!

My estimate above has underestimated the numbers and impact. The maximum POTENTIAL impact will amount to 8.1%!

And by the look of it, my suspicion that the total number increase of voters from 2006 to 2015 may be solely or predominantly due to the increase of New Citizens ALONE!

Casino & Social Impact

Sad Stories

I just had coffee with a friend and I was surprised that he started to talk about "Social Problems" to me.

He said that the impact of the Casinos is starting to set in and it is getting worse. I was surprised that he would talk about this because he was never a critic of the Casinos which PAP has built.

He told me that one of his friend who was the brightest kid in his kampung and attended RI in his younger days, has fallen to Problem Gambling after he went to the two Casinos to gamble. He was the Head of Department of a Secondary School but lost his job due to problem gambling and heavily indebted to loan sharks. He fell into depression while his wife threatens to divorce him.

He also know of other cases of Singaporeans fallen prey to problem gambling, like successful businessman who eventually accumulated huge debts due to Problem Gambling.

I told him that he is part of the problem and "has blood in his hands". When PAP decided to build the two Casinos back in 2005, masqueraded them as "Integrated Resorts", he didn't oppose it.

I have put up strong opponent and objections to the Casinos way back then but all these fell on deaf years. PAP still won decisively in GE 2006 and eventually the two casinos went ahead.

I told him that ever since the Casinos were built, numerous families were broken up due to Problem Gambling. It is not merely those gamblers who will face the onslaught but their family members around them would also face the negativity of it.

PAP didn't dare to publish suicide rates and do analysis on the reasons of suicides in the past few years. The truth is, many of victims took their own lives due to Problem Gambling.

Of course, majority of Singaporeans, even when they have heard of these cases of Problem Gambling, have chosen to ignore the problems by brushing it aside as some "other people's problems" until the problems creep up to their doorstep.

Singaporeans have to get rid of their selfish mindset and take a more altruistic social approach in viewing issues like Casinos, police having too much power, building of nuclear plant, TPP and such. They should be more concerned about issues or policies which will affect the Nation and their society.

Else, there will be irreversible consequences which will not only affect them but their future generations.

Goh Meng Seng

What is Trans Pacific Partnership all about?

PAP government has signed the TPP agreement on 4 Feb 2016 WITHOUT any Public Consultation NOR public debates at all.

There is not even parliamentary debate over this important issue and our only labour union NTUC has been acting Deaf, Blind, Mute and Dumb - Hear no Evil, See no Evil, Say no Evil and Think no Evil!

To understand the flaws of TPP, you can lick on the following:

TPP in 10 cards

I shall extract out two parts of which I am deadly concerned about:

The following information is on how TPP could compromise our sovereignty, in effect, selling away our sovereignty to huge MNCs which will dictate on what our laws can and cannot be.

What's ISDS, and why is Elizabeth Warren so upset about it?

Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-MA) is one of the TPP's most prominent critics, and her campaign against the deal has focused on an otherwise obscure provision called investor-state dispute settlement (ISDS). The goal — to mediate disputes between a government and foreign investors — might sound innocuous. But Warren warns that ISDS poses a threat to American sovereignty and could inhibit robust regulation of industries such as banking.

ISDS rules are designed to address a real problem. Suppose an investor from one country spends money building a factory in another country. Then a new government comes to power there and nationalizes the factory. That's unfair to the investor, and in the long run it's likely to be bad for the country with the factory as well. ISDS is an arbitration process that uses trade sanctions to pressure governments to compensate investors whose property is seized.

Obviously, the United States has a robust legal system that doesn't allow this kind of naked expropriation. Nevertheless, the TPP is expected to allow foreign investors to make ISDS complaints against the United States. And Warren argues that could "tilt the playing field in the United States further in favor of big multinational corporations" in a way that would "undermine US sovereignty."

TPP opponents worry that foreign companies could argue that the way America regulates banks, the minimum wage, or the environment constitutes an unjust taking of their property. If an ISDS panel agrees, the United States could be on the hook for millions of dollars in damages.

There are two aspects of ISDS that have raised particular concern. One is the fact that, as with most trade dispute settlement panels, the process is overseen by arbitrators rather than independent judges. Warren worries these arbitrators, who may also represent corporate clients in other cases, will cause panels to be biased toward big companies.

Second, while the ordinary WTO dispute settlement process only allows complaints by governments, ISDS allows any foreign investor to complain. Critics say that removes an important check on misuse of the dispute settlement process.

Defenders of ISDS say Warren's concerns are overblown. The White House notes that there are about 3,000 trade deals around the world with ISDS provisions, including about 50 that involve the United States. According to the Obama administration, the US has only faced 13 ISDS cases under those treaties, and has never lost a case. The White House also says the ISDS provisions in the TPP will have stronger safeguards against abuse than those in previous treaties.

And it's important to note that ISDS can't actually force countries to change their laws or regulations. The most an ISDS panel can do is impose a financial penalty.

The next part deals with drug patents and how TPP will compromise our Healthcare Cost by giving extensive power to huge Pharmaceutical Companies.

The problem with drug patents in TPP is much more devilish than I initially thought.

It prevented Generic drugs from being available as there are clauses that set the barriers to it, even AFTER the patent expires.

For biologics, it applies the barriers HIGHER and for other drugs, it allows the original patent holders to just TWEAK the formula and thus, extending the patent longer.... ever green extension of patents forever!

Why are some public health groups opposing the TPP?

Public health groups such as Doctors Without Borders and the AIDS research group amfAR have warned that the TPP could delay the introduction of generic drugs, boosting drug prices and ultimately costing lives. Here's how that could happen.

Laws in the US and around the world grant patents and other legal privileges to the first company to invent a new drug — a reward to encourage research and development. After these legal protections expire, other companies can make cheap generic versions of the drugs.

Of course, big pharmaceutical companies hate this competition. So they've lobbied for the TPP to include rules delaying the introduction of generic drugs into the market.

For example, one proposal would expand the types of inventions that are eligible for patent protection to include modifications of existing drugs. Critics say this would make it easier for drug companies to engage in "evergreening," a process where drug companies make minor modifications to their products in order to extend the effective length of patent protection.

The TPP requires governments to extend the term of patent protection if the patent office processes a patent application too slowly, or if regulators delay approval of a pharmaceutical patent.

Another provision concerns complex drugs called biologics. Before these drugs can be introduced to the market, the Food and Drug administration requires drugmakers to prove they are safe and effective. Often, data from one drug's clinical trials is useful to other companies wanting to introduce competing, biologically similar drugs. But a controversial US law requires competing drug manufacturers to wait 12 years before they can use this data in their own applications. That makes it harder for generic drugmakers to get into the market, raising prices.

The Obama administration reportedly pushed for language requiring that all countries adopt a similar 12-year requirement. That was surprising because Obama's own 2016 budget suggested reducing the exclusivity period to seven years. Ultimately, US negotiators didn't get what they wanted; the final text of the TPP requires countries to provide five to eight years of data exclusivity for biologic drugs.

In short, the TPP can be expected to reduce competition and therefore raise the prices of drugs in some TPP countries. The deal probably won't have much effect in the US, where biologics already receive 12 years of protection and the law is relatively friendly to evergreen patents, but it will have a bigger impact in other TPP countries.

Singaporeans have to get themselves more involved and concerned about this implementation of TPP as there is absolutely NO ESCAPE Clause once it is signed and ratified by parliament.

PAP government did not put up the full text for public information and scrutiny, most probably for fear of massive objections.

If you want to know the exact text of TPP which Singapore is one of the signatory countries, you may not find the details in any Singapore portal. Countries who signed this pact are supposed to put up information for public debates so to get consensus and parliamentary ratification but PAP didn't even want to talk about it, lest hold any public debate or consultation.

You could find the exact text and details from New Zealand government website. Only more responsible government will be transparent and open about their dealings, instead of hiding in Such black box operations

You can find the Full text in the following link to New Zealand government website:

http://www.tpp.mfat.govt.nz/text


Now you would understand why massive people around the world would march and protest against TPP or its similar agreement which was imposed on the European Unions.

This so call trade pack is not merely a simple trade pack but a whole list of legislation which will sell off our rights to cheaper Healthcare and our Sovereignty. It will not only affect us alone but for ALL our future generations.

It is up to Singaporeans to get themselves information on all these important trade agreements being signed QUIETLY away, selling our future to the big corporations of the world. Go to your MPs and demand an explanation or lodge your complains against TPP. Do it and put pressure on PAP to think twice about ratifying this TPP.

Goh Meng Seng

Core Values - Our Lack of it (II)

When I was traveling to visit a friend during the Chinese New Year period, someone called out to me, "Are you Goh Meng Seng?" I returned my greetings and thought that this was just another the usual meeting with a Singapore supporter.

But I was proven wrong. This meeting with Michael, proved to be different from others. At the very least, we spent about 20 to 30 minutes chatting on the sidewalk of the busy MRT station.

Michael told me he is an opposition supporter despite the fact that he is a civil servant. The sad thing is that he said he is preparing to migrate out of Singapore to Japan. This is not the first time I met a supporter who will tell me that they are migrating out of Singapore, to Australia, New Zealand, Canada, US etc. The last one I met before Michael was Jack at Cantonment Police Station when he was getting his certificate of good conduct from the police so to facilitate his migration!

Naturally, I asked Michael why would he and his family want to migrate to Japan? If all supporters like him were to migrate out, then who do we have left behind to give opposition their continuous support?

Michael explained that he is doing all these for his children. He has been to Japan and was  impressed by their education system. They teach "VALUES" to their students, not just subjects or "living skills" like how to deal with internet and the New Media.

I was stunned by his words. I thought there are no other Singaporeans like me who would talk about "VALUES" or the lack of it in our education system. In fact, from top down, Political Leaders to civil servants and commoners, wrong values were transmitted in various subliminal messaging through the political system and pop culture. One of the reasons why I decided to step into opposition politics was due to my rejection of PAP's vote buying exercise via using ASSET ENHANCEMENT HDB UPGRADING carrots. It is basically telling Singaporeans that your votes and soul could be sold or bought by such pork barrel politicking. I did not want my children to live under such system which cultivate such BAD VALUES. Thus, I decided that either I fight PAP to change this system or I shall resign myself to making more money and prepare myself to leave this place; for the sake of my future generations.

In fact, I have decided to let my daughter to study in Hong Kong instead of Singapore, purely because of my rejection of PAP's indoctrination of BAD values through the education system. The massive brain washing via distorted history books and slanted National Education which mixed PAP's propaganda into various messaging.

I do not see the day I could successfully eradicate the PAP's system of self interests and self preservation. But at least, I tried and am still trying.

And Michael is right, our education system has stopped cultivating our shared common morals and good values with regards to Morals, Equality, Fairness, Humanity, Social Justice, Social Responsibility and Democracy.  Even our National Pledge was treated just as an empty promises of the State and ruling party everyday; rightfully so because PAP has openly declared that this National Pledge is nothing and has no value at all but just a Highfalutin ideals which we should just ignore.

Our education system is more interested in Elitism, to filter out the "bright" Scholars with high IQ, never mind if he or she has any morals or core values to begin with, so that PAP could just put them into civil service and eventually into their party to serve their political monopoly.

Michael told me that many civil servants, high ranking civil servants, are looking into migration out of this place we call Singapore. I was surprised because no matter what, civil servants, especially those high ranking ones, were the ones who helped created the current system! Why are they migrating out of their own creation?

They are just here to work and meet their KPIs which may or may not give the best results that the society needs but definitely serve their own promotions and bonuses. They saw the flaws of the system in many instances but the Top down management would just discourage any dissidence towards the Elite Scholars. Thus, when their time is up, they would just leave Singapore, for the sake of their children.

Michael also told me that the stifling academic environment will not provide the kind of First World education that Singaporeans deserved. He said that he has known various foreign lecturers employed by the local universities had their contracts or tenure shorten or discontinued just because they have made unflattering remarks on local politics, PAP and its policies. The lack of academic freedom would compromise the standards of learning dependent on critical thinking.

Our education system basically discourages critical thinking while promotes conformity or group thinking. This is why Michael felt very pessimistic about the future of his children if they were to remain here in Singapore.

My little conversation with Michael has to end as I was late for my visit. But this little conversation with Michael sets me thinking on the future of Singapore.

Education is the foundation of every Nation and it involves not merely economic importance but also the cultivation of our Nation's Soul. This Soul will determine how our society will look like, how our National Identity will be forged or disintegrate. Any political system's effectiveness will depend on this cultivation of the Nation's Soul, its cultural and social consensus based on the values it holds. But somehow, our Good Core Values are serious lacking while bad influences like political propaganda have been on the rise.

Without the Freedom to Think with strong cultivation of Core Values, there will only be Mind Slaves left in the country.

Goh Meng Seng

Core Values - Our Lack of it (I)

I know many people have been sharing that video about "Majulah" and it seems to suggest that Singaporeans do not have National Identity because we forgotten about the word "Majulah".

This is a FALSE Premise; a FALSE proposition which made use of your initial feelings to guide or misguide you into thinking of something which is of little relevance.

Our National Identity has been weaken due to many reasons; the massive influx of foreigners which benefited from the stability and good environment and infrastructure which we and our forefathers have built and protected by going through our National Service but in the end, we felt SHORT CHANGED in every aspects of life Singapore by the PAP government, from Education, Healthcare, Politics of False promise of Democracy, CPF to jobs. These are the fundamental reasons why we felt cheated and thus, reluctant to pledge our lives to defend and Die for our Nation.

The video is an attempt to give false proposition to distract the fundamental flaws of PAP's Rule, whereby they just treated the National Pledge which we so used to say every morning before going to class as some "Highfalutin" ideas which they are not interested in achieving for us as a Nation!

What we seriously lack as "CORE VALUES" in our National Identity is not "Majulah" but the disillusioned National Pledge which we used to believe in!

This is the reason why I have started the very FIRST National Pledge reciting in GE2006 last WP rally at Serangoon Stadium, to remind everyone the false promises of building of a Democratic Society for us and our future generations, the false promises of bringing Equality and Prosperity to ALL of us, Singaporeans!

Let us not be led astray by this "Majulah" nonsense but remember each and every word of our National Pledge:

We, the citizens of Singapore,
pledge ourselves as one united people,
regardless of race, language or religion,
to build a democratic society
based on justice and equality
so as to achieve happiness, prosperity
and progress for our nation.

Goh Meng Seng

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Impact of New Citizens Voters

In one of the CNY gathering, someone expressed the view that opposition can no longer attack Foreign Talent policy because there are over 14% of New Citizen voters this round and by next round it may just continue to rise. It will be suicidal for opposition to attack Foreign Talent policy.

However everyone round the table agreed that this Foreign Talent policy or rather New Citizen policy is a double edged sword for PAP.

I opined that it is not only a double edged sword to PAP but also to Singapore social political stability as well.

Imagine that the conflicts we may have with the three biggest group of New Citizens, PRC, INDIA and Philippines. These new citizens may only be name as Singapore citizens but deep down their hearts, they are still emotionally linked to their "mother land". This was demonstrated by the overwhelming responses of some New Citizens when leaders of India or China paid Singapore a visit.

If there were conflicts between China and India (as they have fought border wars before) or China and Philippines over Spratley islands, whatever decisions made by the government of Singapore would not please all these New Citizens. These New Citizens will still be emotionally attached to their mother land and may react vigorously against any adverse decisions made against their mother land.

True blue Singaporeans will only care about our own country's interests but these New Citizens may not think that way. Conflicts between the different groups of New Citizens may arise and we will be stuck with internal strife.

That is a plausible and horrible scenario for Singapore but is PAP ready to handle such situations?

Goh Meng Seng

2016年 丙申年 新年致词

通常年关除夕我都会高高兴兴的撰写贺年词给所有的朋友和支持者，但今年的心情有一点沉重。

林俊辉小弟弟因过大警权被滥用而自杀，使我和我党内的同僚都感到非常沮丧。我也很难想象林家上下目前的心情是何等的悲伤。我在此谨代表我，我家人和我党人民力量党给与林家由衷的慰问。

身为人父，看着我那十几岁的女儿成长，是我人生最大的满足。将心比心，如果有一天我女儿也遭受如此无法理喻的警察国度粗暴的对待而致精神崩溃，我也一定会心如交割。这种给与警察无比大的权力，实行几乎畸形原始的司法权，以先行假设有罪而定论，施行各种手法，包括精神羞辱的手段去迫使逼供成招的制度，是我们社会的共业。

过去有多少不公义的事发生，我们都选择了沉默。当民权一再被削落而警权被无限的扩大时，我们也继续沉默。直到警权变成霸权，失去了监督和平衡。这就成了我们的共业。

不要以为林小弟的死是个孤立事件。他的死其实就是凸显了我们这畸形警权制度的弊病。有多少人每一年都在承受这过大警权的肆虐。所以在悲伤之余，我们必须继续秉持着我们对五权分立的观念，不懈地去争取我们理想制度的实现。

在这除夕夜，我也受到台南地震所震撼。我希望台湾的朋友们能凭着他们以往的毅力，克服灾害所带来的悲伤和痛苦。我为台湾的朋友祈祷，希望能拯救所有被困的灾民，把伤亡减少至最低。

最后，在这年除夕，我诚心的祝福各界朋友和支持者，在来临的一年，身体健康，出入平安。感恩你们这些年的支持和鼓励，希望我们在新的来年会活得更好。

吴明盛

2016 Chinese New Year Message

Normally at this time of the year, I would be happily preparing my Chinese New Year greetings for all my friends and supporters, but today, my heart is heavy and saddened.

Benjamin Lim committed suicide because of the inappropriate use of police force and this has made my party colleagues and I extremely depressed. I could not imagine how the Lim family could possibly feel anything good about this festive season with such overwhelming sorrows of their lost son. On behalf of my family and my party, I would like to offer our heartfelt condolences to the Lim family.

As a father of a teenage girl, it is my greatest joy to watch my girl grow up. However, if one day, my daughter was to be brutally abused and ill-treated by this ridiculous police state until she has mental breakdown, I would also be totally devastated. Thus, I empathize with the Lim family of the loss of their son. This system of overwhelming police power which was allowed to exercise the most primitive deformed kind of police procedure, based on the first premise of guilty before proven innocence, extended its power to use whatever force including mental humiliation to extract confession, is in fact our common karma.

Benjamin Lim’s death is not solely an insolated incident. His death is in fact an amplification of the absurdity of this system of excessive police power. Every year, there are numerous people who have suffered under this excessive police power. Thus, in the midst of sorrows, we should resolve to fight for our ideal system based on our belief in the balance of powers through the Separation of Five Powers.

On this eve of Chinese New Year, I am also shocked by the devastating impact of the earthquake in Tainan. I hope that our Taiwanese friends could overcome the pain and sufferings with their determination and willpower. I will pray for our Taiwanese friends, praying for the speedy rescue of the trapped and injured. most importantly I will pray for the minimum casualties for this unfortunate natural disaster.

Last but not least, on this Chinese New Year Eve, I sincerely wish every friends and supporters, good health and safe travel in the coming year. Thank you for all your support over the years and I hope we will have a better life in the coming one.

Goh Meng Seng

The Rule of Law - A Matter of Principle

The Rule of Law - A matter of principle

Very few people really understand the term Rule of Law in Singapore and they are more emotionally swayed rather than looking at things from the perspective of Rule of Law.

When I decided to stand up and protest against the cruelty and ill treatment of Amos Yes back then, many friends privately tried to dissuade me from doing so.

They opined that he is an idiot, rude, no big no small, "deserve it" and most importantly I will risk losing support and votes by "defending" such an idiot.

It made me ponder for a long while. I told all my friends and well meaning supporters that I do not like Amos Yee as well and I agree he is really a spoilt brat. However I find the police and government abuse of the system, using the whole government controlled machinery to crucify him just because most people find annoyed by him, is more intolerable than his acts of defiance on the net.

I said that even if it is a big bad criminal who have raped or murdered anyone, he should still have the proper treatment under the rule of law instead of mental torture.

My protest of his ill treatment doesn't mean I support his rude behavior but rather I am defending a proper system of legal procedure which takes human rights into proper account. I am against Mob Rule and totally intolerable of it.

Obviously I am the only STUPID politician who sticks his neck put for Amos Yee which by political calculations, a vote losing move. Not even the MPs in parliament with lawyers care to talk about the intolerable systemic torture the police state exert on a juvenile, while should I bother? It is definitely not a "politically correct" thing to do!

True enough, there are lots of attacks from the White and Blue camp on my appearance in the protest held in HK but I care less. Sometimes as a politician of conscience, we will have to choose between being politically correct of making the right choice and our matter of principles in doing the right things. We have to garner our own Moral Courage to do the right things.

I stick to my guns and persevere. I may be made to look stupid once but at least I can sleep with my conscience clear at night.

A leader should not be slave to the votes he seek but lead the votes that seek him.

Goh Meng Seng

The Murderous Police State

The job of the police in investigation, is to FIND OUT THE TRUTH and not "EXTRACTION OF CONFESSION". There is a fine thin line of VAST difference between the two.

Today some members of the public told me this, they are very angry about this case. When there was a riot in Little India, the police acted like wimps, didn't know what to do or just simply running away from the rioters. But when they handle a child, a teenager, they turned into big bully... simply bully kichi until the child committed suicide! The contrast is just too huge for them to be forgiving.

However, the problem is nobody thinks that way when the whole state machinery, including the state police, prosecutor, mass media etc came down hard on another teenager Amos Yee. If more people had made enough noise and protests, the police might have been forced to review their SOP but we failed to do so as a Nation. So the rouge police state carries on their SOP with the defence of the PAP ministers and MPs to deny anybody early access to legal assistance while in police custody and interrogation!

And a young life was lost with only patronizing statements from the state.

We as a Nation, have blood in our hands, for allowing such primitive and inhumane system which deny basic human rights of legal representation to extend unlimited powers of police intimidation, coercion for confession via interrogation techniques exerted by the overwhelming police power.




When Amos Yee was ill treated by the State Police, put through the torture of interrogation and remained in IMH, many people didn't see the problem of such act by the police state. Even when people like me protested against such treatment, even though I do not agree to his rude behavior, were scorned at and criticised.

When it comes to Benjamin, the same police state tactic was used upon this poor child who was even younger than Amos Yee. The only difference is that this young boy could not take the pressure and committed suicide. Then there is this uproar.

The irony is, the same old technique has been used by the police over and over again, regardless whether you are a teenager or adult. Cruel techniques were used to extract unwilling confession from the ISD detainees but nobody squeaked. Few people squeaked when Amos Yee was treated badly by the same police state just because people are more intolerant of his rude behavior than the rouge police state.

Few Singaporeans see the need to speak up against the rouge police state because they are blinded by their own fear and prejudice. Singaporeans have little sense of social justice until something really bad goes wrong. Singaporeans also lack the empathy to understand that by not standing up to the tyrannic police state, they will become part of the justification of the murderous system. Yes, Singaporeans, by keeping quiet all along with all the injustice happening throughout the decades, are guilty of letting this bloody system grow and take the life of a teenager.

Pastor Martin has this to say about the COWARDICE of the Germans under the Nazi:

First they came for the Socialists, and I did not speak out—
Because I was not a Socialist.
Then they came for the Trade Unionists, and I did not speak out—
Because I was not a Trade Unionist.
Then they came for the Jews, and I did not speak out—
Because I was not a Jew.
Then they came for me—and there was no one left to speak for me.

And the same can be said about Singaporeans as well:

First they came for the Socialists, and I did not speak out—
Because I was not a Socialist.
Then they came for the Trade Unionists, and I did not speak out—
Because I was not a Trade Unionist.
Then they came for the Student Activists, and I did not speak out—
Because I was not a Student Activist.
Then they came for the Opposition, and I did not speak out—
Because I was not an Opposition.
Then they came for the Social Activists, and I did not speak out—
Because I was not a Social Activist.
Then they came for the Young Rascal Amos Yee, and I did not speak out—
Because I was not a Young Rascal like Amos Yee.
Then they came for me—and there was no one left to speak for me.

I do not think Benjamin will Rest In Peace when the whole society is guilty in part to the murderous police state.

Goh Meng Seng

Response to PAP's change of political rules

Response to PAP's change of political rules

The Prime Minister has announced a few changes to our political system, basically centered around NCMP scheme, down sizing GRC, increasing number of SMCs and rules regarding the Elected Presidency.

People's Power Party is founded on the principles of political reform based on Separation (and Independence) of Five Powers, namely Legislative, Executive, Judiciary, Selection/appointment and Impeachment Powers.

The Elected Presidency

One important advocacy of our founding beliefs is to entrench and enhance the Elected Presidency so much so that, certain powers or government institutions should fall under the charge of the Presidential Office. We are advocating the institutions of Impeachment powers, Selection/appointment powers to come under the purview of the Elected Presidency. Namely, the Elected President should take charge of the following institutions and functions:

1) CPIB
2) Election Department
3) Public Service Commission (PSC)
4) Appointment of judges
5) Ombudsman Commission
6) Equal Opportunity Commission
7) Appointment of key office holders in Temasek Holdings and GIC

On top of that, the President should have the veto powers to block any legislation which he deems detrimental to the nation’s interests. Such veto can only be overturned by subsequent two-third approval of parliamentary votes.

Thus, the reform for the Elected Presidency could be more extensive than what the Prime Minister has proposed.

Although we welcome the proposal of putting the racial balance into consideration for the Elected Presidency, but we object to the proposed increase of power given to the Presidential Advisory Council. The appointment of the members of this Council should not be decided by the ruling party or Cabinet. It should be the sole prerogative of the Elected President to appoint his own Council. Furthermore, the Elected President is elected and empowered by Singaporeans and he should have the full power to make decisions in the interests of the Nation He should be the one who will answer to the Singaporeans who voted him, not the Advisory Council. Thus, the Advisory Council cannot overshadow the powers of the Elected Presidency.

GRC, NCMP and Proportional Representation.

We welcome the announcement of downsizing the GRC. We feel that the correct size for the GRC system should be 3 to 4 seats per GRC.

However, we do not see the necessity of having any SMC nor NCMP if our proposal of Proportional Representation is implemented.

No matter how PAP tries to package it, NCMP has little legitimacy under the current setting. They will always be considered as second class members of parliament or just simply "backdoor MPs".

The advantages of Proportional Representation system coupled with the full GRC system will truly give Singapore's Parliament Plural Voices while prevent the loss of Ministerial caliber members of any political party which would become the ruling party or part of a ruling coalition.

Proportional Representation system guarantees intense contest and competition of ideas and ideals whereby multi-corner fights would not be frown upon or "avoided". It will enhance political competition and consensus building based on plural voice and representation in parliament.

The current system has tremendous flaws. Beside discouraging healthy competition and contests, it also post a danger of instability. If the ruling party lost a GRC, it may risk losing one or two of its good Ministers altogether. This will not provide the kind of political stability and continuity which we need.

The Proportional Representation system also mitigates the problem of the Tyranny of Majority Rule. It would allow individuals or groups with specific focus to contest and chance of getting into parliament to contribute to the plurality of debates. Example, if a group of Nature lovers or Green activists were to be elected into parliament, they will provide a diversity in the debates in various development plans, providing the Green Views instead of subjecting our Nation and future generations to the ills of a monolithic discourse pushed by the ruling party.

Thus, we urge the ruling party to reconsider their plans to change the political landscape to take a serious long term view on the Nation's political stability by adopting a more comprehensive and bold stance of political reform, which is beyond party politics, to ensure that our Nation adopts the best democratic system based on the fundamentals of Separation of 5 Powers.

Goh Meng Seng
Secretary General
People's Power Party

NCMP Saga --- The Backdoor Monkey Tussle

It is quite amusing to watch how the NCMP saga unfolded. Both sides just play politics.

As usual, one side White will play the big bad wolf bully while the blue side play victim card again. It is even more amusing that WP which has rarely moved motion of debates, had done it again just for its own party vested interests and agenda. Well, of course PAP forced it to. Well before you guys accuse me of being biased, can you find any other motion of debate carried out by WP on other more,important issues, like human rights issues or matters which concerns how PAP treated activists or imposed unfair measures on New Media or even shutting down TRS?

Personally I do not see any problem of Lee Lilian declining the NCMP seat. It is her prerogative to do so. I would also not take up NCMP seat because I view it as getting into Parliament via the back door. As far as I know, LTK used to hold the same view as I do. He has put on public record of his stance about NCMP.

So it is just very puzzling to me that LTK actually moves the motion of debate in parliament just to get his other WP candidate Daniel Goh to replace Lee Lilian as NCMP!

Well both LTK and I may not object to other people taking up NCMP seats while we ourselves would view it as a insulting backdoor path into Parliament, but to go the extend of an extra mile to FIGHT for a NCMP seat for another party comrade is totally shocking to me.

It is just like a dog begging for the backdoor to be opened for another dog to get into the main house! Pretty shocking to me for people to actually support such an act in the name of Democracy!

If it is all about Democracy, then we should instead debate about what kinds of political system we should install to enhance the Balance and Separation of Power. How the Election system and Electoral processes should be enhanced. Should we have Proportional Representation? Should we enhance the power of the President by putting Auditor General, Corruption Practice Investigation Bureau (CPIB), the Judiciary Appointment, Public Service Commission Elections Department etc, all under the Presidential Office and limit the terms of Presidency to a maximum of one term?

But instead, we have WP members wasting time in begging and debating on a feature which is invented by PAP as a means of mockery to our Democratic system! I am in total disbelief of such monkey show going on in parliament... well, the Chinese Monkey Year isn't really here yet!

Goh Meng Seng

Drawing the Lines and Strengthening the Core Values

I had a meeting with a friend and naturally, the friend was concerned about my position on WP and its Town Council saga. This friend wasn't really a WP supporter at all but more concerned about the impact and repercussion my party and I would suffer if I kept my position and openly criticise WP.

I told my friend that I am reading Hitler's book, My Struggle and his argument against parliamentary Democracy is quite challenging to me, someone who have strong belief in Democracy. Hitler argued that politicians in the parliamentary Democracy spent most of their time in trying to appease the mass, instead of doing the right things. The mass, to Hitler, were mostly people who lack the knowledge, wisdom and intelligence. Thus, in the end, Democracy would end up with a bunch of actors trying to play to the gallery of "fools".

While in modern context, most people have decent education and with internet, information flow is fast and swift but the situation isn't that much different from the past. It seems that even when people are equipped with all these, most people are still more emotional than logically Thinking when it comes to politics. This works both ways towards the ruling PAP as well as opposition.

Ultimately, politicians or political players are more interested to play to the gallery and do or say whatever things that appease the voters while keeping mum on things which may be right but would most probably agitate the voters and thus, making them losing votes in the end.

On top of that, I have one baggage of WP. LTK is deemed to be my mentor in my early involvement in politics. The Chinese believe, once a mentor, always a father, (一日为师，终生为父）and I would be seen ungrateful if I attacked him and his party.

It makes me think hard and the story of how the Qing Emperor, Dao Guang (道光) convinced Li Zexu (林则徐) to take up the role as special envoy to end opium trade in China. Dao Guang arrested Lin Zexu's teacher and mentor, who happened to be the Emperor Dao Guang's teacher and mentor as well, for indulging in smoking opium. It was a crime for court official to smoke opium.  The teacher was remorseful and told Lin Zexu that the reason Emperor did this was to show his resolve in stopping the opium trade.

In Chinese, it is termed as "大义灭亲",  placing righteousness above family loyalty.

All in all, what matters are principles and values I hold dearly, whatever else, come and go like the smoke in the wind. I have repeatedly said that I may not trust PAP at all but neither do I trust WP under the current leadership. I may be against PAP but that doesn't mean I am an ally of WP.

This is especially so, by words of LTK (walking his own path as he considered other opposition parties as not partners walking on the same path 道不同不相为谋 ) and actions of WP under his leadership during the last GE, have shown that WP does not consider others as its allies.

Most of the other opposition parties would only choose to keep quiet over many things which they do not agree with WP, for the very fear of losing votes, but I will not.

I do not want to end up like what Hitler has said about the politicians in a parliamentary Democracy, an actor who is only plying for votes instead of speaking up for the right things.

I may lose a lot of votes by doing this in the short term, but I will make this a strong foundation for PPP in the long term. A party that will not compromise on its integrity and role as the guardian of public interests as one of the primarily core values of its political struggle.

PPP believes in the balance and separation of 5 powers but keeping quiet and choosing not to speak up for fear of any repercussion, be it from the ruling party, WP, WP supporters or otherwise, is NOT an option at all. Speaking up with the righteous mind when we see something not right for the country or public interests  being compromised, is the only way to uphold the values of the party.

While some of my own party members are fearful that by making such a stance would make us "look bad" or worse, "lose votes", I would have to convince them that for every vote that we get, we must get it from the right cause, instead by means of cowardice and scheming political acts. If voters do not trust us, then it is only right for them not to vote us.

This may take a long time for us to win any seats, if any at all, but integrity of our belief should not be compromised.

So my clear message to all opposition supporters and voters, please do not expect us to keep quiet if we saw something which doesn't work for Singapore's interests or public interests. We chose to come into politics for that purpose, to safeguard Singapore's public interests and well being, not to be actors of political wayang shows.

And regardless of whether it is the ruling party PAP or WP or anyone else who is seen to be doing things which compromise Singapore's interests, we will speak up without fear nor favour.

In our belief of Balance, Separation of 5 Powers, we need to cultivate people with backbones made of steel in all aspects; i.e. The Legislative, Executive, Judiciary, civil service, newspapers reporters and editors, CPIB, PSC, citizenry and all. And we take upon us to start with speaking up with our backbones straighten and do the right things instead of just playing the right music merely to win votes.

So let the lines be drawn clearly. We will not tolerate anyone, be it from ruling party PAP or WP or even our own party members, to do things that compromise Singapore's public interests and well being.  Those in power, or entrusted with power, no matter how big or limited it is, should be kept in checked, regardless of whether it is White or Blue or otherwise.

Goh Meng Seng

The Uneasy Rise of the Mafia Superpower - China

The recent kidnapping of dissidents from Hong Kong by the alleged personnel connected to the Chinese Government or the Communist Party (CCP) is the last straw that breaks the camel back of the silent tolerance of Hong Kongers, after 4 staff and shareholders of the now famous Causeway Bay Bookshop were "disappeared" or "kidnapped" by means of "entrapment" outside of Hong Kong.

Naturally for Hong Kongers, they were more concerned about the breach of the "One Country Two Systems" when the Chinese cross its border to arrest dissidents without any legitimate warrant whatsoever. They are more worried about the impact on their Freedom of Expression and human rights violated by the Chinese authorities, which has promised 50 years of unchanging system for Hong Kong.

But for a Singaporean, a Singapore Politician having my family residing in Hong Kong, it means pretty much more than that.

China, under the current leadership of President Xi, aspired to be a Superpower under the slogan of "China Dream". It is no coincidence that China is going full steam ahead to build quite a number of Aircraft Carriers which would mean a sharp rise in its long term defence budgets and commitments.

The West, in particularly Americans, have openly put forward their worries of the "Chinese Threats", despite repeated "assurance" by the CCP leaders that they will be a peaceful rise of a new power in the East.

A weapon in the hands of the responsible will mean good, but if it ended up in the hands of the Mafia, it would mean disaster in the making. How do you determine whether a country is under a responsible government? It would simply from the actions it have taken in the past and present.

Unfortunately, the Chinese authorities have underestimated the negative impact of such covert operations against five dissidents in Hong Kong. Entrapment of these people within their own border (i.e. Shenzen) may be tolerated but kidnapping them in foreign country, Thailand, is totally an act of gangsterism.

The worse part is to violate an international agreement which it has signed for the peaceful return of Hong Kong sovereignty under One Country Two systems would raise eyebrows. If the Chinese government couldn't even keep simple promise like the Sino-British Declarations and keep to its own agreement of One Country Two Systems and observe the legitimacy of Basic Laws, how could anyone believe the China Communist Party could keep to any other international treaties or be a responsible member of the International community?

CCP is acting like a Mafia, through and through, using such despicable methods which only gangsters will use to deal with their adversaries or dissidents. Could you ever believe the words of a Mafia, or a Mafia government in this case?

Thus, if you look at these events, which may seem to be a "domestic" issue to Hong Kong, you will realize that we are dealing with the uneasy rise of a big and powerful country under the rule of a Mafia party. They will disregard any international treaties signed, lest verbal promise of any sort to anybody. They will disregard other countries sovereignty by doing whatever they like in and out of these countries, covertly. They will disregard all principles of rule of law and they basically don't have any in their land.

And yes, we in Asia, especially a small country like Singapore with massive investment in China, should start get worrying about the rise of this big gangster in Asia.

It would seem to me that the rise of China's military power will indeed spell trouble for Asia if we continued to have a bunch of gangster communists running it. If CCP ever has its dream of building 4 or more aircraft carriers in the next one or two decades materialized, it will sure flex its muscles recklessly in the region, in such an irresponsible way as it has shown in this few cases of abduction of dissidents.

I believe this case will definitely further caution the Taiwanese of this rogue regime and strengthen the perception that the Communists cannot be trusted at all. Taiwanese will be even more wary about reunification with China under such a Mafia rule.

Having said all these, I believe that the decision of abducting dissidents from Hong Kong and Thailand was made by the middle management of the Chinese government. It would be unimaginable to have President Xi to make such stupid decision because the potential international political repercussions will definitely be too great a price to pay for just getting their hands on a couple of unknown dissidents outside its borders.

Xi must understand that the growth of power must be accompanied with the evolution of a responsible government which will be highly regarded by its international peers. Else, it will only spell instability and distrusts of CCP and China for many years to come.

Goh Meng Seng

Singapore SHOULD NOT loosen those "Property Cooling Measures"

A very Happy New Year to everyone! This is my first political post for the New Year 2016.

Right before 2015 ended, REDAS  (Real Estate Developers Association), in anticipating a slow down in the property market for 2016, has openly urged Singapore government to ease off the "property cooling measures" so that property prices may not dip too far.

PAP government has responded that it is not going to ease the cooling measures any sooner but I guess they do not really understand that these so call "cooling measures" which they have put up are actually "anti-speculation" measures.

They do not seem to understand that these measures should be a PERMANENT feature for Singapore instead of a policy option for manipulating the property market.

REDAS represented the developers as a lobby group and obviously, they are lobbying the government when they are going to lose money. But they did not make any noise when speculation was riff and property market booming and overheating with them, the developers making tons of money!

We have to get the fundamentals right when it comes to housing and land policy for Singapore, especially so when Singapore is just a tiny little red dot with limited land resources.

The "Anti-speculation measures" (what they call or misrepresented as "cooling measures") are the right tools to prevent the following:

1) Turning Singapore into ATM for foreign and local speculators. When a country has limited land, it is obvious that there will be a lot of money to be made by speculating on the property market. Foreigners and local filthy rich people with huge amount of funds will buy up properties to stock and expect it to rise in near future so that they could reap off quick profits from such speculation. The side effect is that property prices and rentals will skyrocket and it would become out of reach of locals as such unhealthy inflationary pressure on the property prices are totally unrealistic and out of sync with the salary levels of local normal Singaporeans who just need a roof over their heads.

2) Lopsided funding to the property market will increase risk to the Financial system. This is especially so when the prices of properties were pushed up due to speculation. The Financial system will become extremely vulnerable if too much funds were channeled into the property market. If there is a crash, the problem of negative assets and insolvency may just collapse our whole Financial system.

3) A crowding out of financial resources, due to overheated property market, from productive commercial and industrial activities may be detrimental to the healthy development of the country's economy. When people think that there is quick money to be made by property speculation, they will divert their resources into property speculation instead of investing in productive economic activities.

4) Speculation in property market as in rapid transactions is unhealthy for the Economy as it does not really produce anything substantial except inflationary pressures for the economy. i.e. It is the same four walls of bricks that went up from 300K to 1 million, without any substantial productive additions to the economy.

5) Suppliers or Developers should be prevented from HOARDING properties so to manipulate property prices. Thus the additional stamp duties imposed on developers if they could not sell the properties within 5 years, is justifiable. This will prevent property prices to be "sticky upwards".

We have only a limited land size and the government's priority is to make sure that land is properly distributed so that every Singaporeans could afford a roof over their heads. The government's priority is NOT to make sure property developers or speculators make money. It is definitely NOT the government's responsibility towards foreign "speculators" disguised as "investors".

Property transactions and speculations may be a quick addition to GDP figures but it basically does not produce anything substantial to the economy except inflation via inducement of asset inflation to rise in rentals.

The two main measures of moderation on the overall debt-salary serving ratio and additional stamp duties are good in curbing speculations by keeping out speculators while making sure people do not over stretch themselves in buying a property they could ill afford to.

However, contrary to REDAS expectation, such measures are basically not enough.

Germany is exceptionally strong in industrial engineering basically because they curb property speculations. They impose more drastic rental and property price controls to prevent people from property speculations. It controls the percentage that the rental or property prices could increase annually.

This not only curb speculations but in fact, prevent too much financial resources being drawn into property speculations. Instead, people are more willing to invest in industrial production and engineering.  This is how Germany grows to be the strongest economy in Europe.

In contrast, Japan used to be a industrial giant but due to excessive speculations in its property market, it just collapsed and didn't manage get back into shape after more than a decade.

Singapore should not use property speculation as a means to boost economic GDP figures. It should learn from the Germans instead, to impose more stringent measures to curb property speculations. If the government's priority is to Singaporeans' affordability to a home for their families, then it is only logical to make sure that increase in property prices should not be more than the increase in the salaries of normal Singaporeans:

The valuation of property prices should be indexed to the salary index of Singaporeans. This is especially so for HDB flats.

Goh Meng Seng

Challenge to Rule of Law – Mob Rule

A police report has been lodged by the Organizing Secretary of People’s Power Party, Mr. Augustine Lee, against Calvin Cheng over his remarks that we should kill off family members and children of terrorists. I supported Augustine’s move to lodge this police report. The police has confirmed that there are several police reports made against Calvin Cheng.

It took me quite some time to ponder over this issue of Calvin Cheng. I believe in Freedom of Expression with responsible speech towards the society. There have been lots of cases whereby both PAP and activists have raised issue with hate speech. Most of the time, PAP-related offenders were just let off with just mere warning whilst offenders who were critical of PAP governance were charged. Eg. Amos Yee. The Sedition law has somehow been over used by both sides. When someone lamented that we should lodge a police report against Calvin Cheng under Sedition law, I hesitated.

I felt that what Calvin has done is MORE than Sedition. What he has done is actually inciting violence against innocent children and he is basically challenging the well established Rule of Law we have in Singapore.

Well, not everyone who challenge the current rule deserved to be charged and put behind bars. Eg. Those who are against unfair law or simply law that people feel out-dated. It is definitely alright to challenge laws which we think need to be changed for the better, but not for the worse. Definitely not to challenge the law to become illogically violent.

Most people may just laugh off Calvin bigotry logic of wanting to kill children of terrorists but the truth is, such practice of killing whole family, extended families, associates, teachers, classmates etc was practiced in Ancient Chinese dynasties. This is called 诛九族 (massacred the nine relations of the offender). This is the subtle cultural mindset we had in our Chinese blood, to believe that it is “officially legitimate” to have such practice as the ancient Emperors have legitimized it. I believe Calvin must have thought that such method is legitimate as Chinese Emperors had used such method before.

The danger lies here. Singapore has a huge population of Chinese who might buy that kind of logic from Calvin even though our law is pretty clear that the family of criminals, less so of children, should not be regarded as criminals and punished as such. Some people may just extend that kind of logic and started to take law into their own hands and turn it into Mob Rule.

During this period of sensitive time, our multi-racial and multi-religious society is at its most vulnerable. There are already Chinese heard berating Islam loudly and deliberately in front of Muslims. We do not need public figure like Calvin Cheng to add oil to the fire, knowingly or unknowingly.

Due to the nature of Chinese inherited culture, it is easier to convince Chinese that it is legitimate to kill off innocent family members of criminals. We even have idiom to describe the legitimacy of such act, “斩草不除根，春风吹又生” (literally means if you do not cut off the roots while clearing the weeds, it will grow again when spring comes). Calvin Cheng might have mistakenly taken this as that "profound logic" that he professed to support his proposition of killing the children of terrorists.

We definitely do not want our society to turn into chaos like what happened in US, England and Europe whereby people mindless attack Muslims with the belief that they have everything to do with the terrorist attacks or terrorism, just by the mere supposed association of religion with the terrorists. Such situation of Mob Rule once started, is difficult to stop.

Thus after weeks of thinking through this issue, I come to the conclusion that such advocacy, which sound ridiculous to some, is dangerous and pose a potential problem in breeding Mob Rule in Singapore. It should be stopped and as a public figure, Calvin Cheng should retract it else the state should make its stance clearly against it.

Goh  Meng Seng

Ideological Fundamentals of Democracy

Is PAP "Indispensable" ? And thus Opposition parties are "Redundant"?

These questions were raised in one of the discussions I had with some opposition members. Some have started to doubt the value or "righteousness" of the existence of opposition since 70% of voters have voted against opposition. And they felt that these voters see PAP as the GOOD government which is "indispensable" and opposition parties are just "trouble makers" or "bandits", the "bad guys".

Opposition members may of course think we are the "good guys" but 70% of voters have "voted against" us. Thus in absolute terms, are we really the "bad guys" and PAP the "good guys" who are indispensable for the good of Singapore?

It is an interesting question put forward to us in the midst of facing "massive rejection" from voters.

My answer to this question is not so simple. First of all, voting PAP may not mean "voting against" opposition. There may be a lot of varied reasons that voters voted for PAP although they might still think we need opposition. The fear of losing PAP as government is one of such reasons. From the look at some of those "guilty conscience" eyes while doing our rounds it is really possible that they didn't know their voting pattern may end up this way. It may be a "freak elections results" to many swing voters.

Fear of losing PAP as government may be construed as PAP to them, is "indispensable" as a "good government" but this may not be "right" although 70% of voters think this way.

From a philosophical point of view, there are two schools of thoughts in Chinese Confucius teaching. You either believe human beings are inherently "good" people or "bad" people. I believe human beings have the tendency of turning bad, no matter how good he or she was initially.

That is also the basis of Western concept of "Power Corrupts, Absolute Power Corrupts Absolutely".

Since there is no "absoluteness" in the "good" of any human beings, then it must be the case that there is no "absolute" good governance of anyone, any kind, over time. If that is so, how could any ruling party be "indispensable" in any sense?

Thus the value of Democracy exists. Democracy is built upon the unreliability of human goodness and the belief that the tendency is for human to become bad over time, under the spell of power. This has been proven empirically in history. Even the BEST Emperor of Qing Dynasty might have been a "Good" Emperor for the first few decades but the last decade of his rule, became "Bad", partly because he turned senile or that he was too full of himself or over confident that he started to refuse to listen to his court officials.

To extend such belief of the unreliability of human good nature, we will conclude that what we need is a whole system of governance must be constructed with the concept of Separation of Powers so that Real Checks and Balances are being institutionalized in it. It would mean that parliamentary diversity as a means of Checks and Balances is totally inadequate.

This is the ideological foundation of People's Power Party's Democratic Vision for Singapore.

Goh Meng Seng

SGH Hep C Outbreak: Systemic Deficiency, Human Resource Mismanagement & Proper Compensation

For Immediate Release Date: 09 Dec 2015

SGH Hep C Outbreak: Systemic Deficiency, Human Resource Mismanagement & Proper Compensation

We refer to the report put up by the Independent Review Committee (IRC). We are glad that the report has shed some light on the timeline of events and the weaknesses of the current system.

However, we noted that all the stakeholders, including the various departments in SGH and Divisions in the Ministry of Health, lack a fundamental sense of urgency in handling this outbreak. It took more than two months for SGH and the divisions of MOH to determine that this outbreak is a serious case that warrants a Serious Reportable Event (SRE). It is even more amazing that it took more than one month for the CEO of SGH to decide to hold a face-to-face meeting with MOH to report on the seriousness of this case and to decide on whether to make public the outbreak.

The key method of controlling the outbreak of such diseases is first to isolate or quarantine the source of infections followed by timely announcement to the public of the outbreak. It is apparent that both the SGH and MOH staffs and management did not regard timely public announcement of the outbreak as an important measure for public safety.

This is unacceptable as we expect MOH and its group of hospitals to have learned from 2003 SARS outbreak that timely public announcement is one of the most important measures in curbing further massive infections. We view this as a serious systemic problem inherent with the current bureaucratic practices which needs to be addressed thoroughly.

We also note that the IRC has stated that there were serious lapses in the hospital’s staff whereby they have not adhered to established protocols as basic as hand hygiene which subsequently caused contamination to other medical equipment. We suspect that this is a symptom of a bigger fundamental problem of MOH’s Human Resource policy.

Our hospitals have employed a substantial number of foreign healthcare providers over the decade. This is due to various reasons which include increasing demand of hospital care due to explosive population growth in the past decade. We also learn that many locally trained nurses have left the industry due to unfavorable shift work schedule.

Nursing is a professional job but apparently the salary scale for nurses in Singapore is only half of the salary scale paid by Hong Kong hospitals. It is apparent that MOH has allowed hospitals to employ cheap foreign substitutes from Third World countries instead of making the effort to look into the shortage of Singapore nurses seriously. Training and certification of nursing in these foreign countries may fall short of our expectations and this might have compromised the safety and standards of our healthcare system. This may well be the reason why SGH nurses have breached even the most basic requirement of hand hygiene.

People’s Power Party strongly advocate a change of mindset, HR policy and hiring practices. Nursing is a profession that involves the matter of life and death. It is not the so-called “low skilled job” as opined by PAP Minister. Nurses should be professionally remunerated and at the same time, more stringent requirement, far more demanding than the mere paper qualification from Third World institutions, should be set out in the employment of foreign nurses. They should be put through the similar tests or examinations that our local nurses have gone through before they become qualified nurses. We also recommend that the shift scheduling system be standardized according to other uniform groups and essential services.

It is only when our hospitals start taking nursing as a serious profession which makes a great difference to life and death, instead of treating it as “low skilled job”, then we could avoid the risk of having more unfortunate medical incidents such as this current Hepatitis C outbreak.

Last but not least, we urge the Minister of Health Mr. Gan not to avoid the important issue of compensation to the victims as well as their families of the dead patients. This is a serious healthcare crisis and a proper compensation should be made to all those affected. This is the least SGH and MOH should do in being accountable to the whole saga.

Goh Meng Seng
Secretary General
For People’s Power Party CEC

PAP's Elitist Entitlement Mindset and FAILED Meritocracy

Prime Minister Lee has recently lamented about "Singaporeans' entitlement mindset" but I would say that he should take a good look at himself in the mirror as well as his backyard of Elitist cronies.

Through over 50 years of autocratic rule, his party has created a whole system of pseudo Meritocratic Cronism which lacks the very fundamental principle of ACCOUNTABILITY that TRUE Meritocracy is built upon.

Those so call "High Flyer Scholars" along with the various cronies in the whole system has taken the strong foundation which our forefathers have built up, for granted. These people milk and feed upon the wealth of the system with no accountability nor shame with FULL ELITIST ENTITLEMENT mindset. They abuse the Key Performance Indicators (KPI) to the max by setting dubious standards which put up pseudo accountability system which most of the time rewards themselves with undeserving salaries and increments. Worse of all, when they indulge in doing whatever they can to meet these KPIs so that they could gain their perks and rewards, instead of doing good to Singaporeans as a whole, they have instead brought more undesirable results to the Nation as a whole.

It started right from the Top Political Leadership. When GDP growth is the single most important KPI used to judge whether the Ministers should get hefty bonuses and salary increment, we end up with the Growth At All Cost strategy which resulted worse quality of life for Singaporeans.

The same applies to many other sectors under PAP Government control. Look at SMRT. The trouble started when Saw just have that singular pursue to increase profit so that she could increase her bonuses and salaries throughout the years of her "glorious years". She went to such an extent that SMRT maintenance has been grossly compromised.

We thought that with her departure, we would get better people to run the system but we were proven wrong by PAP. They sent an Elitist PAPER GENERAL who has ZERO Corporate experience in running a train service to run the show! This elite continue to enjoy increment in his salaries while the train services continue to suffer numerous small and major breakdowns throughout the years! Yet, by using some OUT OF REALITY TOUCH KPI, he tried to justify how the train system and services have "improved"!

He has totally disregard the reality that Singaporeans have experienced on the ground and SMRT just avoid the label "breakdowns" whenever they can by putting up a false front of "delays" to mask away the reality! This is how they tried to GAME the system of KPI!

Similar thing happened to other GLCs like NOL. Another PAPER General was sent there and he continued to enjoy millions of dollars paid every year, with increments, while the company continues to bleed profusely! How? By showing that he is able to "cut cost"! But that doesn't help as the company continues to suffer great losses over the years and eventually, Temasek Holdings is going to sell it off!

It is a total shame that we are going to sell off our Nation's Flagship and key assets. NOL has special iconic value for a nation like Singapore which pride itself to be one of the busiest port in the world! But these Elites have no shame. Why? It is because they only have this Elitist Entitlement Mindset and they could just explain their GROSS incompetency away by hiding behind that KPI system.

PAP must understand that KPI should be a means to an end, to serve the people and Nation, not just a silly ploy for people to get hefty bonuses and salary increments. One may excel in ALL KPIs set but in the end, due to the methodology used in achieving these KPIs, they may create more harm than good to the Nation as a whole!

Most importantly, PAP must understand that no matter how elite you are in paper qualifications, if you do not have the necessary skill sets and knowledge of the business, you will fail! This especially true for top civil servants, government scholars and Army Paper Generals! If PAP continues to abuse the system of GLCs to feed their elitist cronies instead of assigning such important positions to people with real talents and expertise in the various fields, Singapore will be doomed with the fake Meritocracy buried under the dubious KPI system.

Goh Meng Seng