I received an email query from a state media journalist:
Hello Reform Party Team,
I’m Eugenia from CNA and am working on a story on the Ang Mo Kio Masterplan which was recently launched. (https://www.amktc.org.sg/ot_masterplan.aspx)
Seeing that the Reform Party contested in Ang Mo Kio GRC in the last election, I’d like to get your party’s thoughts on the plans set out for the area.
Also, I’d like to understand how the COVID-19 outbreak has affected your outreach efforts.
This will be a recorded TV interview, which will be part of a story that will likely air this Saturday.
Please feel free to drop me a call if you’d like to discuss this further. I look forward to hearing from you!
Regards,
Eugenia Lim
Journalist, CNA
As the state media never print our responses or only print what suits them I have reproduced below my response on behalf of the Reform Party:
Dear Eugenia
Thank you for informing me that CNA, a subsidiary of Mediacorp which is wholly owned by Temasek which is run by Ho Ching is going to be putting out a programme glorifying her husband the PM, in the run up to the polls.
You mentioned that Reform Party contested AMK in the last elections. In fact we also contested in 2011 when otherwise the PM would have enjoyed a walkover. We will be contesting AMK again in this election.
In a democracy the PM’s wife does not use state ownership and control of the media to do a puff piece on her husband which in turn will ensure her continued employment as head of Temasek. A position the salary for which in a democracy would be public information.
The pamphlet advertising his “master plan” has the PM’s face on it and his colleagues are clearly in PAP uniform. That pamphlet, which has gone or is going to every resident’s household, and the programme, which will be aired on CNA, is just a mechanism for the PM to avoid the limits on campaign spending and campaigning outside the 9 days legally allowed. The Reform Party cannot put out a leaflet to every household In this period using taxpayers’ money. Nor is it able to use the state monopoly TV channel. In every election we have contested we have been denied the right of reply. When we are asked for our responses or put out a press release the state media have either not published them or else published a single line or a few words, often cut to make what we say appear nonsensical.
Clearly the PM is insecure. As we saw in 2011 and again in 2015 when he spent more than 10 times what we spent per resident on defending his seat ($1.69 to $0.14). This figure of course does not include all the extra free promotion he enjoys by virtue of his control of print, TV and digital media. This is because the PM believes he has a divine right to rule and views himself as “natural aristocracy” and has never had to work for anything in his life and feels incredibly threatened by actual opposition. He is so afraid that he is already using his control of the media and state resources to try and fix this election.
Lee Hsien Loong may have been sheltered from real life for the last few decades because of his family name but that era is coming to an end. The day will come when Singaporeans will realise that a share of the freehold means a share in the enormous rise in value of the land on which their HDB is built. This is worth far more than a so-called Home Improvement Programme which brings shoddily constructed HDB blocks from the 1960s and 1970s up to the 20th century standards of other developed countries, let alone the 21st century. To add insult to injury the upgrades are paid for by the leaseholder and not the HDB. And at the end of the lease ownership of the upgraded property reverts to the Government.
You asked us what the Reform Party plan for AMK is. Firstly we ask that the PM and the Finance Minister finally answer my questions on the value of the reserves, the fake Budget framework, where the money goes that his Finance Minister socks away into long term funds, where the $3.5 billion that has been put into the Productivity Fund has been spent, whether the Government’s obligations to CPF savers are still covered by GIC’s assets, and how much the PM pays his wife. If the PM is able to answer these questions, I will then be able to produce a plan that without raising taxes gives not only AMK residents but all Singaporeans not just new toilets and tiles paid for with their own money but a share of the freehold and a gold Mercedes. Unless of course the black holes in the budget are there because the money has already gone.
Our outreach efforts have been suspended because during what is a rapidly evolving situation, where a second wave of infections is already happening and a third is likely on the way, to do anything else would be highly irresponsible. To us, the safety of residents and our activists comes first. The PM needs to lead like a man and stop trying to take advantage of the situation by holding an election during the worst global public health and economic crisis since 1945.
Regards Kenneth Jeyaretnam
Fight Covid-19 first, Singapore polls must wait — Lee Hsien Yang
APRIL 4 — Singapore has triggered a “circuit breaker”, a partial lockdown, now that cases of local Covid-19 transmissions have overtaken imported cases. Addressing the country on 3 April, Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong said the move to close schools, shops and offices for non-essential services was aimed at pre-empting more infections.
After weeks of worry, many Singaporeans are now relieved that more stringent measures are being taken to keep them safe from the Covid-19 virus. Yet there remains a strong feeling that the nation is being forced to split its focus at a crucial moment in this health crisis. On 7 April, as people prepare to hunker down at home under the “circuit breaker”, the People’s Action Party (PAP) will be pushing through the Parliamentary Elections (Covid-19 Special Arrangements) Bill.
The Bill is an indication the PAP is putting its interests, and Lee’s, above those of the country and the people it rules. The ruling party seems to be still obsessing over how to call an early election while it has a full year left in its term, during a pandemic the World Health Organisation (WHO) has called “the worst enemy you can ever imagine”.
For someone who urged Singaporeans to “trust that you are not working for personal gain, but for national interests”, Lee’s refusal to rule out an imminent election is baffling.
Since PAP’s defeat is an improbability, why the hurry to the polls? Does it fear the repercussions of the recession that is in the offing? The question needs to be asked: has the government been too reactive and doing too little, just to avoid alarming the people or limit the economic damage? To what degree have its actions been blinkered by its desire to hold an early GE?
At this time, Singapore deserves the undivided attention of the PM and his entire team, to honour the sacrifices of our medical frontliners who face the daily risk of infection. Instead, the ruling party is spending precious time and mental energy on electoral arrangements while new clusters of infection are popping up.
The world has sung Singapore’s praises for its handling of the Covid-19 crisis, citing the many lessons learned during the fight with SARS in 2003. During the SARS outbreak, schools were shut 26 days after the first patient was detected. This time, it has taken more than 70 days since the first Covid-19 case was reported on 23 January. Singaporeans cannot be blamed if they wonder: if SARS was a lesson, why this inordinate delay?
There were a total of 238 cases of SARS in 2003. Covid-19 cases reached the 1,000 mark on 1 April, and now numbers 1,114 (as at 4 April). This is not just any fight. Covid-19 is dramatically more contagious than SARS, and it has been fiendishly difficult to break the chain of infection. Distracted by the push for an early election, did the PAP take its eye off the ball? Do Singaporeans feel the government is putting the welfare of its citizens above all else?
Governments around the world have declared emergencies and about one third of humanity is locked down. Singapore has seemed slower to respond, couching its incremental measures in euphemisms, such as “circuit breaker” and “home-based learning”.
After Lee’s announcement on Friday, a panel of his ministers expounded at length on why these new measures are justified now. Yet Singapore remains at DORSCON Orange. Memes and jokes exploded online and spread through messages, poking fun at the DORSCON status and the colour of Lee’s tie, whether it was orange or red and the true signal of the state of the nation.
Singaporeans should be very angry that the current leadership seems to have misplaced priorities and are also seemingly deaf to grim realities. Definitively ruling out an election for the next few months will lay people’s fears to rest.
Lee asserts that he needs a strong mandate to handle the Covid-19 pandemic. He has 12 months remaining on his watch, and a supermajority in Parliament with 93 percent of seats to boot. Is this existing mandate not sufficient for him to lead Singapore at this time?
With the special Bill, the ruling party is continuing to signal an early election. If called while Covid-19 infections are not fully controlled, an election while Covid-19 is raging will put lives at blatant, unnecessary risk. A risk the people of Singapore, civil servants, the police, volunteers and others involved in the organisation of an election, did not ask for. Mandatory voting means the vulnerable, in particular older folks and those with preexisting conditions, will be forced to court danger.
What Singapore needs right now is a singular, all-consuming focus to take every necessary measure to beat Covid-19. An election during Covid-19 could cause cases to spiral faster.
If there was a time to yearn for the decisive, straight-talking Lee Kuan Yew and the leaders of old, it is now. Being straightforward and open was always the hallmark of Lee Kuan Yew. The PAP of the past acted in the interests of Singaporeans and placed the greater good as its top priority. Singaporeans did not doubt this of the founding fathers of modern Singapore. Such trust needs to be earned by each successive generation of leaders.
*Lee Hsien Yang is a Singaporean business executive. Prior to his business career, he trained as an engineer and served in the Singapore Armed Forces. Lee is the younger son of Singapore’s first Prime Minister, Lee Kuan Yew, and the younger brother of the current Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong.