Opposition: An emerging breed
-
By Elena Torrijos | SingaporeScene – Tue, Mar 29, 2011 6:06 PM SGT
By Seah Chiang Nee
For the first time in years, Singapore's opposition is seeing a little light in a dark tunnel, at least in recruiting the highly-educated.
An impressive number of top scholars and professionals, including a dozen with Masters and Doctorates (PhD), will likely emerge to challenge the People's Action Party (PAP) in the elections expected in May.
It is something Minister Mentor Lee Kuan Yew had long predicted would happen after his political retirement.
He is, of course, still around, but not in the best of health. His prediction of better-quality opposition representatives is slowly coming true.
The PAP has begun to introduce its 24 new candidates who as usual would likely come with high academic or professional records.
This has stood the party in good stead so far, but the opposition may be narrowing the gap.
Not all agree. One opposition politician admitted the going would be tough, "like fighting a tank with bows and arrows".
In the previous election as quoted in the Straits Times, the opposition said 70 percent of its candidates were professionals and graduates.
This time the percentage would almost certainly increase, it said.
A sprinkling of these opposition academic high-fliers comparative to the ruling party's, will be fielded in the coming election.
They are leaders of two parties: Dr Chee Soon Juan (Singapore Democratic Party) who has a PhD in neuro-psychology and Kenneth Jeyaretnam (Reform Party) with a double first in Economics from Cambridge University.
Among other candidates who will stand in the elections are:
* Dr Vincent Wijeysingha (Reform Party), the son of the respected long-standing principal of Raffles Institution, who has a PhD in Sociological Studies from University of Sheffield, England.
* Dr John Yam (Workers Party) who holds a PhD (Australia) and Masters in Business Administration (Scotland) and Electrical Engineering degree (Singapore).
* Husband-and-wife team of government scholars and civil service high-flyers Tony Tan (engineering) and Hazel Poa (maths), who obtained first-class honours from Cambridge University.
* Wong Wee Nam, 63 with a PhD from Imperial College who last stood as a Workers Party candidate in 2006.
Singaporeans are now waiting anxiously to see whether another prominent scholar, Chen Show Mao, will stand as a Workers Party candidate.
Chen, an ex-Rhodes Scholar, has a doctorate in law from America's Stanford University.
Likewise, the ruling party still has tons of achievers joining its ranks, which will take a book to fill.
Is a candidate's degree still important to the 21st Century voter?
The answer is yes probably more so than in most countries. This sacred cow may be around for quite awhile even after MM Lee's departure.
Forty years ago, when I first started reporting elections, the profile of candidates often ranged from bicycle shop owners to factory supervisors — not very highly educated -- like the electorate.
As time passed by, academic levels of both steadily rose to a level when voters would shun candidates without a degree.
For many elderly citizens, the higher the degree the better!
Less enamoured are younger citizens who are blaming their country's ills in the past five years on scholars who planned and carried out policies.
The whole thing was introduced by Lee in the early days. His views on this have not changed.
His government created a scholarship system to not only feed talent to run the political and civil service leaderships but also as recruitment feeder for the PAP.
Its success lies in its ability to reward scholars who join it by offering top jobs with the best pay, with the result that few found it attractive to join the opposition.
Lee had shaped the scholarship system along China's imperial exams for the Emperor to select the best scholars who would be sent far and wide to serve as magistrates and administrators to represent him in governing the large country.
In his latest book, Lee said he believed that, in future, China's leaders would have PhDs and MBAs from American universities.
Several years ago, Lee explained that one reason he had chosen Suzhou to site a joint industrial park was because of its talents.
"Look at China. The bright ones came from everywhere. You can be the son of a farmer or worker.
"If you pass the Imperial Examinations ... you're a xiu cai (county scholar) or a jun shi (military strategist), or a zhuang yuan (top imperial scholar).
"If you are the highest scorer in the examination, chances are the Emperor will want you to marry his daughter.
"When these scholars retire, they go to a place with a milder climate along the Yangtze river." said Lee.
"That was Suzhou, which became a popular place for ex-Imperials to live with their multiple wives and children.
"That's why we chose Suzhou. It succeeded. We were dealing with extremely smart and bright people, brighter than the people we sent.
"Our people have the knowledge; they didn't but they had a fine IQ." Lee added.
That was a tacit admission that Singapore's breed of scholars may not fare well in a changing world against natural intelligence.
Two months ago in a moment of candour, Lee predicted that the PAP's rule in Singapore would one day come to an end.
"There will come a time when the public would eventually say: 'Look, let's try the other side either because the PAP has declined in quality or the opposition has put up a team which is equal to the PAP's and they'll say, let's try the other side'," Lee wrote.
A former Reuters correspondent and newspaper editor, the writer is now a freelance columnist writing on general trends in Singapore. This post first appeared on his blog, www.littlespeck.com on 26 March 2011.
-Yahoo! News Sg
-
always good to have good candidates but they must have the penchant passion to serve the citizens too.
-
Mar 31, 2011 - Straits Times
PAP new faces flamed onlineBut they say they will focus on working the ground for electionsBy Rachel Chang & Robin Chan
Ms Tin Pei Ling, seen here speaking to the media after a press conference at the PAP's headquarters on Monday, has had pictures from her Facebook account posted online. Netizens have also raged over the 27-year-old's youth, and alleged that she was being fielded because of her husband's position as principal private secretary to Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong. -- ST PHOTO: NG SOR LUAN
NEW People's Action Party (PAP) candidates may have been prepared beforehand for a frosty reception in cyberspace, but the speed and malice with which some of them are being picked apart online have come as a shock.
Within days and sometimes hours of their introduction to the media as PAP candidates, private pictures and even court documents have been dug up and disseminated online, and forums lit up with debate and speculation.
Although the new candidates admit that the sound and fury of cyberspace has taken them aback, they say they are trying to tune out the most vicious comments and focus on working the ground for the coming general election.
The two female candidates introduced thus far have been the subject of the most intense scrutiny online.
Pictures from the Facebook account of the PAP's youngest female candidate, 27-year-old business consultant Tin Pei Ling, showing her posing with a Kate Spade shopping bag or with her husband on holiday, were posted on various websites and blogs.
Netizens have also raged over her young age, and alleged that her being fielded was due to her husband's position as principal private secretary to Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong.
In the case of Ms Foo Mee Har, the Standard Chartered banker, an application for a bankruptcy order against a Mr Bernard Chan, who netizens claim is her husband, has spread to various forums.
The fact that she became a Singaporean only in 2008 has also come under heavy fire online.
For Dr Janil Puthucheary, another new candidate whose status as a new citizen has also ruffled feathers, what surprised him was 'how readily people are willing to make stuff up'.
'If the forums are to be believed, I have betrayed both my 'Malaysian' wife and my 'dead' father,' he quipped.
For the record, he pointed out that his wife is Singaporean, and his father, former Internal Security Act detainee Dominic Puthucheary, is still alive.
The latter was detained in 1963, before Singapore became independent. The Internal Security Council then comprised representatives from Singapore, Malaysia and Britain.
During Dr Puthucheary's introduction as a new candidate last week, he told the media that he once promised his wife not to enter politics, but later sought her permission to do so.
As for criticism that he did not serve national service, as he became a Singapore citizen at the age of 35, the paediatrician said he has been in public service: 'I've spent the last 10 years saving kids' lives.'
Both female candidates told The Straits Times that their focus is on their grassroots work and reaching out to residents.
Ms Tin has now made her Facebook pictures private.
Ms Foo did not want to respond to online comments about her husband, Mr Chan, apart from saying that he works as a general manager at an information technology firm.
Separately, a Straits Times check revealed that Mr Chan has never been made bankrupt and that the bankruptcy order against him, brought by Standard Chartered Bank, was later withdrawn.
Political observers interviewed by The Straits Times were split on whether the online firestorm is par for the course in politics, or has crossed the line.
Former Nominated MP Siew Kum Hong, for example, spoke out against the personal attacks on Ms Tin, writing on his blog that 'this is not what I want Singapore politics to be like'.
He told The Straits Times that the 'unfounded insinuations' made about her 'are quite offensive and to my mind beyond the pale'.
However, he defended the role of socio-political websites and Internet forums in subjecting political candidates to rightful scrutiny of their public statements and track records.
Some online have justified the attacks on Ms Tin and other new PAP candidates as mud-slinging which is to be expected in politics, in Singapore or elsewhere.
It has also been pointed out that the PAP itself has a rich history of lobbing verbal grenades - and worse - at selected political opponents.
But Mr Siew argued that the two are separate matters: 'The PAP has been and will be judged by those actions. Many do not agree with those actions and accordingly take a negative view of the PAP. But those of us on the Internet will also be judged by our actions.'
As for any actual impact that the cyberstorm may have on the new candidates or the PAP at the polls, Nanyang Technological University associate professor Cherian George believes that there may be none, as the Internet could just be 'making visible what was being said in countless conversations in elections past'.
'We can probably trust in Singaporeans' ability to distinguish relevant arguments from cheap shots,' he added. -
In the olden days, pple are are simple minded. PAP easy to control the people.
Today, things are complex, pple are educated, internets/news/radios are easily available and accessible. Young educated people wants to voice out the unhappiness to pap. It is a different battle ground now. PAP cannot use the same tactics on its pple. Pple wants change for a better life.
-
Political arena is always about mudsling in Sg.
Singapore Sling.
-
It would be nice if all opposition parties form a coalition party to fight head on wth pap.
-
So that there wont be any 3 corner fight (pap advantages), it is one to one fight.
-
Originally posted by likeyou:
It would be nice if all opposition parties form a coalition party to fight head on wth pap.
can't be. All are different parties a few may be but not all. But it will be nice they co-ordinate their effort to avoid 3 or multi-corner fight.
-
Originally posted by Clivebenss:
can't be. All are different parties a few may be but not all. But it will be nice they co-ordinate their effort to avoid 3 or multi-corner fight.
Come Clive, lets go and meet their their secretary and have a meeting set up at puhket to form a single party.
-
Originally posted by likeyou:
Come Clive, lets go and meet their their secretary and have a meeting set up at puhket to form a single party.why Phuket? They need my friend's villa?
-
Originally posted by Clivebenss:
why Phuket? They need my friend's villa?
Phuket better as no spy can listen during the meeting. hehehehe -
Originally posted by likeyou:
Phuket better as no spy can listen during the meeting. heheheheor they can go Bali..
-
Originally posted by Clivebenss:
For Dr Janil Puthucheary, another new candidate whose status as a new citizen has also ruffled feathers, what surprised him was 'how readily people are willing to make stuff up'.
'If the forums are to be believed, I have betrayed both my 'Malaysian' wife and my 'dead' father,' he quipped.
For the record, he pointed out that his wife is Singaporean, and his father, former Internal Security Act detainee Dominic Puthucheary, is still alive.
The latter was detained in 1963, before Singapore became independent. The Internal Security Council then comprised representatives from Singapore, Malaysia and Britain.
During Dr Puthucheary's introduction as a new candidate last week, he told the media that he once promised his wife not to enter politics, but later sought her permission to do so.
As for criticism that he did not serve national service, as he became a Singapore citizen at the age of 35, the paediatrician said he has been in public service: 'I've spent the last 10 years saving kids' lives.'
Both female candidates told The Straits Times that their focus is on their grassroots work and reaching out to residents.Read this, the most insidious defence of all. Putting words in people's mouths!!!
He is the one to be feared.
-
Originally posted by alize:
Read this, the most insidious defence of all. Putting words in people's mouths!!!
He is the one to be feared.
what can you expect from PAP?
-
Originally posted by Clivebenss:
what can you expect from PAP?
Hatchet Man come out later.
-
Originally posted by Nelstar:
Hatchet Man come out later.
in his Hatchetman mobile.
-
Originally posted by Clivebenss:
in his Hatchetman mobile.
http://www.thinkcentre.org/article.cfm?ArticleID=2036
He's still alive and kicking.
FEAR.
-
Originally posted by Clivebenss:
in his Hatchetman mobile.
-
Originally posted by Clivebenss:
always good to have good candidates but they must have the penchant passion to serve the citizens too.
the person who qualify the above is non other tha Dr Lily Neo -
I am getting sick n tired of seeing all the candidates be so highly educated. Must they have PHD? Must come from best schools?
Come on !
I want a commoner ! Somebody from the grassroots. I bet somebody who is uneducated can do a better job than somebody who is educated from the elite and high class society. I want to see ban mien sellers and ordinary blue collar workers stand for election, everybody people - somebody who understands poor people like me.
I am sick of seeing highly educated people in the ministries commanding high salary.
Bill Gates, Mark Zuckerberg and Steve Jobs never pass out from their respective universities, yet they are the most successful people in the world.
-
hmmm.
i believe that every word people say in the past would come back and haunt them in the present.
i remembered how the PAP looked down on the opposition candidates as a bunch of not-as-highly-educated people, saying that the best are already taken up by the PAP.
So, who do they end up filling their ranks with? 27 yr old greenhorn, with at most 5 yrs of working experience.
and opposition are now attracting highly educated PHD holders. And not just any phd issued by some unheard-of university, but rather, top notch uni such as stanford.
-
Dr Junil, my word for you is you avoid the NS. You save kids live is because you are well paid for your work done. it is a job!! you are not doing national service. Maybe you should serve the NS first before you open your mouth!!. only mentally sick, handicapp can avoid NS in singapore, not a man!!
-
are the local mbas here just as good?
some of the foreign campus here are top ranked.
check chart @ www.sggraduate.com
-
the light in the tunnel could be a train
-
Originally posted by reyes:
Dr Junil, my word for you is you avoid the NS. You save kids live is because you are well paid for your work done. it is a job!! you are not doing national service. Maybe you should serve the NS first before you open your mouth!!. only mentally sick, handicapp can avoid NS in singapore, not a man!!
Gays and transsexuals also.