Sad news just in:: SDP has just withdrawing from the by-election

[yellowarse]

NSP and SPP showed signs of opposition unity by declaring their non-interest very early.

SDP with their yes-no-yes-no drama is trying to potray opposition division ok.

Not opposition division per se, but WP's division from the rest of the opposition. LTK's arrogance was startling.

 

[ray_of_hope]

At this point in time, nobody knows the real meaning of WP not responding to the emails. The WP no doubt wanted it that way. That is the purpose of silence, and silence can be interpreted in any number of ways.

What is there to interpret? The purpose of silence is NOT to dignify something.
Simple as that.

 

[yellowarse]

Sorry, being confident that Paul Thambyah will lose his deposit is a sure sign of arrogance.

Now you know what I meant by WP arrogance.

That is the purpose of silence, and silence can be interpreted in any number of ways.

Only 1 way: the WP doesn't give a damn to the other opposition parties.

 

[CPT (NS) BRANDON]

you give RP way too much credit, I'd be surprise if they get any more than 2%

I am giving RP 8% because of Kenneth Jeyaretnam's brand name

If you notice, he has been going around using his father's name (again) just like he did in GE 2011

He claims that Punggol East "was a part of Cheng San GRC , which JBJ contested in 1997"

When he contested West Coast, he highlighted that "Anson, which was JBJ's seat, is part of West Coast"

Some hardcore JBJ supporters will still support KJ.

The funny thing though is that JBJ is associated more with WP than RP (for the old timers)

 

[metalmickey]

2% is also what I expect for RP, that is if its leader now chooses to contest.
He may have felt that if he lost badly he would have good company with him, in SDP.
Now that SDP has chickened-out I will not be surprised if RP follows suit.
If that happened it would be another chicken running out and then spinning some fanciful story about opposition unity.

No, if that happened, if RP pulls out, then we will know that "Opposition unity" applies to SDP and RP. We will not know whether it applies to WP because they have said nothing. Of course, I would also say that for RP to participate in this election would be an extremely bad thing for RP.

Unless RP has a credible showing, in which case it would be an extremely bad thing for WP. But we don't think this will happen.

 

[watchman8]

I am giving RP 8% because of Kenneth Jeyaretnam's brand name

If you notice, he has been going around using his father's name (again) just like he did in GE 2011

He claims that Punggol East "was a part of Cheng San GRC , which JBJ contested in 1997"

When he contested West Coast, he highlighted that "Anson, which was JBJ's seat, is part of West Coast"

Some hardcore JBJ supporters will still support KJ.

The funny thing though is that JBJ is associated more with WP than RP (for the old timers)

After the presidential election, everyone knows how damaging it is to split votes. Now the opposition supporters will consider who amongst the opposition candidates will likely win the most votes, and vote accordingly. The electorate has learning capability.

 

[metalmickey]

"silence can be interpreted in any number of ways."

Only 1 way: the WP doesn't give a damn to the other opposition parties.

I'm not going to put the bad interpretation to WP's silence. In a way that was a good move on WP's part, because contrary to what a lot of people think, I do not believe that WP will lose out by participating in a multi-corner fight. There is no scenario I can think of where WP will lose out if there is a multi-corner fight.

The WP's silence most likely is "I don't have time to deal with this shit now". Which is perfectly reasonable. Because WP is supposed to fix the PAP, not the other opposition parties. A lot has been said and done over the SDP "will they or won't they contest" issue, until we forget that those are actually minor things.

This distracts from the real issue: WP vs PAP.

 

[wwabbit]

The only people that believe WP are arrogant are the haters, so it's not like WP is going to lose any support from being perceived by haters as arrogant.

 

[yellowarse]

Whether you have time to deal with this shit, it's still courteous to at least respond. Not wait for 3 e-mails to be published before giving a perfunctory reply.

That's arrogance.

 

[TuaGow]

can save that $16k for other food and drink activity.

 

[yellowarse]

The only people that believe WP are arrogant are the haters, so it's not like WP is going to lose any support from being perceived by haters as arrogant.

You can console yourself, but many neutrals with no axe to grind with WP find WP's handling arrogant. Of course they also thought it was a political blunder for SDP to go public with the offer.

 

[tanwahp]

Either way, it was a move for unity, and puts the ball firmly in WP's court.

You don't try to put things in people's court as a side motive while calling for unity. That requires you to issue ultimatums which was what SDP thought they had to do and resulted in all these damages. A damage that you recognized.

If you wonder why the opposition cannot unite like Malaysia's Pakatan, then let me ask you if PAS ever threatened DAP if they do not come together or vice versa.

In the end, SDP's unity call to WP became like PAP's upgrading threat. It's a choice which is as good as no choice.

3. WP supporters - I think the majority would like a 2CF - judging by the responses here - for the simple reason that any other oppo party will split the vote, whether it loses its deposit or not.

We can just ask all the forummers here honestly who are really the WP supporters and if they wanted SDP to contest. I can count 3 including myself and none of us wanted SDP to step out.

 

[metalmickey]

We can just ask all the forummers here honestly who are really the WP supporters and if they wanted SDP to contest. I can count 3 including myself and none of us wanted SDP to step out.

I'm a pro-SDP person and I wanted SDP to pull out. Or at the very least, I said that if SDP wants to contest, it should not be for the motive of fucking WP, because that's not going to work.

Glad to see that we agree on something.

 

[yellowarse]

I'm a pro-SDP person and I wanted SDP to pull out. Or at the very least, I said that if SDP wants to contest, it should not be for the motive of fucking WP, because that's not going to work.

Glad to see that we agree on something.

Interesting. You were fucking SDP and CSJ left, right and centre. Recheck all your posts.

 

[yellowarse]

In the end, SDP's unity call to WP became like PAP's upgrading threat. It's a choice which is as good as no choice.

There was no threat. It was an offer to co-operate that was not taken up by WP. CSJ bungled by making the offer public too soon instead of doing it privately.

 

[tanwahp]

Sorry, being confident that Paul Thambyah will lose his deposit is a sure sign of arrogance.

Many things can be interpreted as arrogance. Remember SDP said they had the best candidate in the opposition camp. That might be true or not.

That is why I seldom use arrogant to describe people. It's subjective depending on whether it's true.

What is also very clear is that in this episode, the SDP has not triggered off the multi-corner fight.

Honestly, it might have been better to create a MCF than to flipflop and wishwash.

I know SDP has been criticized for coming in like RP and SDA but so has WP for not giving way. Every party has their critics. Contesting any election in any constituency is the right of everyone including Zeng Guoyuan.

But not meaning what you say is less regarded by most people I know, unless the people you know have a different value system.

 

[aurvandil]

What Maurice wants, Maurice gets.

 

[tanwahp]

There was no threat. It was an offer to co-operate that was not taken up by WP.

And if WP did not co-operate, they will be painted as arrogant. Isn't that a threat?

 

[yellowarse]

And if WP did not co-operate, they will be painted as arrogant. Isn't that a threat?

No. Arrogant or not, it's not up to the SDP to paint. It's up to the electorate to decide.

The arrogance - IMHO - lies in the way WP chose not to reply to SDP's e-mails. If they had responded and kindly rejected the offer, it would have been viewed differently. CSJ would not have bungled and published the e-mails.

Furthermore, CSJ approaching WP and the other parties was entirely in character. He and TSJ both believe in opposition unity.

 

[TuaGow]

those sdp volunteers should ask chee bye kia to refund their money, after being conned to work so long in pe.