Chiam and Chee back in the limelight for all the wrong reasons

http://news.asiaone.com/news/singapore/chiams-weigh-chee-he-wanted-chiam-be-figurehead
Chiams weigh in on Chee: He wanted Chiam to be a figurehead

Singapore Democratic Party founder Chiam See Tong and his wife Lina (L) have taken issue with an account of their 2011 meetings with current SDP chief Chee Soon Juan.

Photo: The Straits Times

Singapore Democratic Party founder Chiam See Tong and his wife Lina have taken issue with an account of their 2011 meetings with current SDP chief Chee Soon Juan, with Mrs Chiam saying yesterday that it "needs clarification".

In an e-mail to The Straits Times, Mrs Chiam said she wanted to set things straight as the account in the SDP's 2015 newsletter, The New Democrat, was being circulated during the opposition party's walkabout in Bukit Batok.

"Hence our objection as there was an understanding that the details of the meetings should be kept confidential if the whole thing fizzled out. We kept (our) side of the bargain," she said, responding to queries about an article by political scientist Derek da Cunha on news site six-six.com yesterday.

Dr da Cunha had given a different take on the talks from SDP, saying he had communicated with the Chiams, who "do not wish to be used to further one man's political ambitions". Mr Chiam was a one-time mentor to Dr Chee before he was ousted from SDP in the 1990s. He went on to set up the Singapore People's Party.

SDP supporter Wong Wee Nam had written in the party's newsletter about the 2011 meetings, in which he said Dr Chee had tried to bring Mr Chiam back to the party.

Dr da Cunha said this was a distorted version of the talks. Quoting Mrs Chiam, he said SDP had proposed to have Mr Chiam return as honorary chairman, essentially as a figurehead.

"Given the condition that the proposal had to be accepted within one week, among other terms, it was a non-starter," Dr da Cunha wrote, citing Mrs Chiam.

He added that this approach of "making proposals which are really empty gestures... has been a consistent approach of the SDP under Dr Chee's leadership".

He also said the Chiams and Dr Chee had not reconciled.

Asked about this, Mrs Chiam said yesterday Dr da Cunha's article had "all the facts pertaining to the (meeting)".

She urged people to read the upcoming second volume of Mr Chiam's biography "to get a balanced perspective of the whole SDP saga... before making any conclusions".

http://www.six-six.com/article/the-chiams-set-the-record-straightPUBLISHED
05 MAY 2016 3:01PM SGT
By Derek da Cunha
Singapore People’s Party’s (SPP) Chiam See Tong and Lina Chiam want to clarify reports that had been put out by supporters and members of the Singapore Democratic Party (SDP) of what transpired in meetings between them and representatives of the SDP back in early 2011 (hereafter referred to as “the 2011 meetings”).

One such report was written by a member of the SDP’s Healthcare Advisory Panel, Dr Wong Wee Nam, in a chapter to the 2015 book Teacher Thinker Rebel Why: Portraits of Chee Soon Juan.

In rationalizing why the SDP initiated the 2011 meetings with the Chiams, Dr Wong asserted that the “public perception” was that Mr Chiam was “a one-man show” and that this “needed to be addressed”. He went on to further state that Mr Chiam “needed to show Singapore he was magnanimous and had big ideas”.

In email correspondence with this writer, however, it was clear that the Chiams felt that this portrayal of Mr Chiam amounted to an unwarranted attack on him. More to the point, it was also a distortion of the facts.

In Mrs Chiam’s words, “Mr Chiam and SPP have always been interested in ways to collaborate with political parties”. Her remarks are supported by the fact that it was Mr Chiam who was instrumental in the establishment of the Singapore Democratic Alliance back in 2001 which, at its outset, had four component political parties. Similarly, in the run-up to the 2011 general election, Mr Chiam held talks on possible collaboration with, among others, members of the Reform Party.

In the same chapter of Teacher Thinker Rebel Why, Dr Wong made the following claim about the 2011 meetings: “The fact that he (Dr Chee) was willing to let Chiam See Tong come back as a leader to a party that Soon Juan had invested all his youth and kept afloat with all his sacrifices says a lot to me about his dedication.”

This claim that in the 2011 meetings Dr Chee was prepared to make way for Mr Chiam to return to the SDP as its leader was also made by SDP member and parliamentary election candidate Bryan Lim at an SDP election rally at the promenade next to UOB Plaza on September 7, 2015.

Reading from a prepared script, Mr Lim was emphatic in saying: “No one can deny that Dr Chee had willingly made way for Mr Chiam to head the party, the party he had made so much (sic) sacrifices for. My friends, if this isn’t a display of Dr Chee’s selflessness then I don’t know what is.”

These claims made by the SDP and its supporters that in the 2011 meetings Dr Chee was willing to let Mr Chiam return to the SDP and head the party has been disputed by Mrs Chiam.

She provided a clarification to this writer of what was offered by the SDP. “Among their [the SDP representatives] proposals was that Mr Chiam should return to SDP by himself to take on a non-CEC position as Honorary Chairman, or a similar position that will acknowledge his role as the founder of SDP,” she said. Nowhere did she say that there was a proposal by the SDP for Mr Chiam to return to the party as leader, i.e., as a person with power.

Mrs Chiam also made clear that the SDP representatives had laid down terms and set a deadline for their terms to be accepted. “Given their condition that the proposal had to be accepted within one week, among other terms, it was a non-starter,” she made clear.

This approach of making proposals which are really empty gestures, laying down terms and setting deadlines which the other party had to accept, has been a consistent approach of the SDP under Dr Chee’s leadership.

Here, it is worthwhile recalling that in the lead up to the Punggol East by-election in January 2013, Dr Chee tried to apply pressure on the Workers’ Party by releasing the contents of three letters the SDP had sent to the WP to have a meeting on possible collaboration in the by-election. The SDP also announced its own deadlines for when a meeting would be held.

Subsequently, Dr Chee publicly floated the idea that the SDP and WP collaborate in the by-election where the SDP would field a candidate and, if that person won, he would take the seat in Parliament, while the WP would be assigned the far less glamorous, more demanding, job of managing the Punggol East town council.

Going back to the Chiams, Dr Chee’s candidacy in the Bukit Batok by-election has reignited unpleasant memories of their dealings with Dr Chee and his close associates. There is clearly no reconciliation between the two sides. And, it is also evident, that the Chiams do not wish to be used to further one man’s political ambitions.

Who cares what this paraplegic and his wife think?

Not reconciled? Well….so what?

Im not reconciled with the Chigger or the Gay Albino Cunt either….BFD!!!

Lina Chiam again ? She die die must throw a spanner into the works on the eve of polling.

The timing couldn't have been better.

SPP is a spent force. Thank you for the wonderful memories, but Lina is not Chiamst. Like Loong is not Leeky.

Bunch of opposition jokers fighting over nothing whrn they barely achieved jackshit in their lives.what is sdp?nothing but a worthless party that cant do jackshit.like machiam they are fighting over a 300 billion dollar company walmart or something or founder of facebook.if sdp was Facebook I would sue the shit out of chee for 3 billion.reconcile?wtf is this marriage counseling?

The PAP has lots of puppets in the Opposition camp and Lina is one of them.

mojito said:

SPP is a spent force. Thank you for the wonderful memories, but Lina is not Chiamst. Like Loong is not Leeky.

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What has Chiam accomplished?

Bonut said:

Lina Chiam again ? She die die must throw a spanner into the works on the eve of polling.

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I agree. It goes to show how selfish her family party was. Her attack on SDP, on the eve of polling day, proves she put her aspiration above Singaporean and SDP supporters. I am utterly dissappointed with the Chiam now. Why can't she and her hushand STFU and retire gracefully with good legacy?

http://yoursdp.org/news/wong_wee_nam_a_near_historic_event/2015-04-02-5980
WONG WEE NAM: "A NEAR-HISTORIC MOMENT"
HOME / 2015 » APRIL » 2
Singapore Democrats

In his chapter in the book Teacher, Thinker, Rebel, Why? Portraits of Chee Soon Juan, Dr Wong Wee Nam recounted his effort to bring Mr Chiam See Tong back into the SDP fold:

Some time towards the end of 2010, Mr Chiam See Tong was having some problem in the Singapore Democratic Alliance of which he was Chairman. The differences finally reached a stage when he had to leave the SDA and withdraw his Singapore People’s Party from the Alliance.

On 20 December 2010, at the Face-to-Face Forum organised by The Online Citizen, Mr Chiam met me and said he wanted to talk to me. He invited me to his SPP Christmas party and later on to have coffee at his residence. At his house he revealed he intended to contest a GRC and wanted me to consider joining his team. I told him I had a better idea and invited him, his wife, Lina, and my friend, Bentley Tan, to my house a week later to listen to my proposal.

At that meeting, we explored how we could help Mr Chiam leave a lasting legacy. With his problems with the SDA, all of us acknowledged that the public perception of Mr Chiam as a one-man show needed to be addressed. We wanted the public to remember Mr Chiam as the leader he was when he fought his first political battles and built SDP into a potent force, not someone who could not hold the SDA together. He needed to show Singapore he was magnanimous and had big ideas.

Bentley and I thought that the best organized and most resilient party at that moment was the SDP. They had a very dedicated and focused team, strong ideological backbone and intellectual muscle, and good resources. From what we sensed, they were not averse to working with Mr Chiam. In their annual dinner, their thirtieth anniversary magazine and at rallies, Mr Chiam was always acknowledged as the founder. In their video presentation about the party, that fact was always emphasised.

Both of us felt that if Mr Chiam rejoined the SDP to contest the GRC it would be a momentous and historic moment. He would be like a patriarch returning home to his roots. It would be the ultimate symbol of opposition unity. There would also be sense of reconciliation and closure. We believed the reaction from the public would be positive.

We assured him we could get Soon Juan to accept the idea. The Chiams agreed to an informal meeting with Soon Juan to see how they could work the thing out. I contacted Soon Juan and gave him a summary of my proposal. He agreed readily to meet up with the Chiams.

As election fever was in the air, with reporters snooping around, we decided the meeting should not be in public and chose the then Assistant Secretary-General John Tan’s house as the venue.

When we met at John’s house in January, the initial awkwardness gave way to a frank and cordial discussion. We proposed that Mr Chiam return to SDP as a mentor-like leader to lead a team to contest a GRC. No decision was reached that night and everyone was asked to return home and think about it.

A subsequent meeting was held at Trishaw Coffeehouse in Hotel Royal. In a matter of days, Chee and Chiam no longer had any reservations about meeting in public. Mr Chiam suggested this place because it was nostalgic as his old SDP had used it for their CEC meetings and made many important decisions there. That night again no firm conclusion was reached.

Two weeks later, there was another meeting at the coffeehouse. Mr Chiam finally said he was keen to go with the proposal to contest the next GE under the SDP. Dr Chee had no objection. He even showed that he had thought the whole thing through by bringing out a master plan listing out the sequence of events for Chiam’s homecoming. He would draft out Chiam’s speech to be released the following week on the SDP web-news at 6pm. This would be followed by Chiam’s official return at the SDP Annual Dinner...
Read Dr Wong's chapter titled "Soon Juan: A Personal Perspective" as well as other contributors' views of, and dealings with, Dr Chee. The book will be launched on 11 April 2015, Saturday.
To pre-order a copy, please click here or email us at: [email protected]

The book is retailed at $20 and proceeds from the sales will go to the SDP's GE campaign. So get your copy and let's get Dr Chee and SDP into Parliament!

Stop reading at Derek da Cunha

This led to Facebook pages like Fabrications About The PAP (FAP) and Falsehoods Led by Opposition Parties (FLOP) to say SDP’s Chee Soon Juan “lies” and suggested that Chee had used the photograph of him and Chiam to “fake the impression that Mr Chiam has patched up and endorse him (Chee).”
The Facebook posts are below:

I always feel that Chiam did not know how to power play that time which resulted in the entire CEC going against him.

It is time to stop tapping on Chiam's image for any election. He has dwindled into the twilight and nobody really cares. He can't even speak or utter a whisper at the election rally and has to be carried around. Let's face the fact that election is best fought on self-capablity and capacity instead of coat-tailing someone else image.

Chiam was a dick. That's why most people who worked closely with him ended up leaving him. Those who adore Chiam are usually people who have little personal interaction with him beyond shaking hands and posing for selfies.

Lina Chiam is a bitter old woman ...she thought that Chiam working for the PAP would ensure her a luxurious retirement. Alamak, they got screwed by the PAP.

JohnTan said:

Chiam was a dick. That's why most people who worked closely with him ended up leaving him. Those who adore Chiam are usually people who have little personal interaction with him beyond shaking hands and posing for selfies.

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did you enjoy sucking his cock whilst admiring his wife?

winnipegjets said:

Lina Chiam is a bitter old woman ...she thought that Chiam working for the PAP would ensure her a luxurious retirement. Alamak, they got screwed by the PAP.

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obviously a mole and unlike the middle ground, she wasnt slapped with a police report for making a politican statement on cooling day.

virus said:

did you enjoy sucking his cock whilst admiring his wife?

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I can do a lot better than an ugly hag like Lina. Chiam and Lina really deserve each other.