Dear John,
I refer to your letter and would like to state that the organising committee has certainly not left SDP out. This is the first in a series of political presentantion cum discussions that we have organised. Participants are picked on their area of expertise or interest.
SDP has been slated for 2 topics and they are (1) "Humans Rights vs Politics and its relevance to modern day Singapore" and (2) "How to pick outlier issues as key platform issues in Singapore politics and hope for the best."
Yours sincerely
Myint Soe
Organising Secretary
NUSSPA
ps. good to have you back in Singapore.
Sunday, 24 October 2010
Singapore Democrats
24 October 2010
Jasmine Toh
President
NUSSPA
Dear Ms Toh,
I am given to understand that the National University of Singapore Students' Political Association (NUSSPA) has organised a forum entitled “Economic Growth: At What Cost?” where you have invited speakers from the People's Action Party (Ms Indranee Rajah), Workers' Party (Mr Yaw Shin Leong), Reform Party (Mr Tony Tan) and Nominated MP Associate Professor Paulin Tay Straughan.
It is unfortunate that the Singapore Democratic Party has not received an invitation from you to speak at the event. We would like to be represented at the forum.
You may know that the Singapore Democrats have been at the forefront of speaking about the economic situation in Singapore. In fact we have laid out our Economic Alternative Programme for the country here.
We have even dedicated an entire section to discussion the growth-at-all-cost model in our Programme. I am sure you will agree that our concerns are highly appropriate for the topic that you have chosen for your forum discussion.
We have also been the party that has actively reached out to youths in Singapore. In fact, we visited campuses at NUS, NTU and SMU last year in. Our Chairman, Mr Gandhi Ambalam, and Honorary Secretary of our youth wing, Mr Jarrod Luo, had written to NUSSPA in 2009 asking for an opportunity to address your fellow students (see here). However, to date NUSSPA has not invited the SDP to speak at any of its event.
I believe that we are the only political party to have so actively and keenly tried to reach out to our university students. Given this fact, I am certain that you are able to appreciate our disappointment of not being invited to speak at this forum.
We hope that NUSSPA will be even-handed in dealing with political parties in Singapore and not discriminate against certain parties and viewpoints. Your members will be done a disservice if an active party like the Singapore Democrats are not allowed to address your fellow students, especially when other opposition parties are invited.
We hope that you will reconsider your decision and extend an invitation to the SDP to address your students.
Please note that this letter will be posted on our website (yoursdp.org) as the subject matter is of public interest. Thank you and I look forward to hearing from you.
Sincerely,
John Tan
Assistant Secretary-General
Singapore Democratic Party
I refer to your letter and would like to state that the organising committee has certainly not left SDP out. This is the first in a series of political presentantion cum discussions that we have organised. Participants are picked on their area of expertise or interest.
SDP has been slated for 2 topics and they are (1) "Humans Rights vs Politics and its relevance to modern day Singapore" and (2) "How to pick outlier issues as key platform issues in Singapore politics and hope for the best."
Yours sincerely
Myint Soe
Organising Secretary
NUSSPA
ps. good to have you back in Singapore.
Sunday, 24 October 2010
Singapore Democrats
24 October 2010
Jasmine Toh
President
NUSSPA
Dear Ms Toh,
I am given to understand that the National University of Singapore Students' Political Association (NUSSPA) has organised a forum entitled “Economic Growth: At What Cost?” where you have invited speakers from the People's Action Party (Ms Indranee Rajah), Workers' Party (Mr Yaw Shin Leong), Reform Party (Mr Tony Tan) and Nominated MP Associate Professor Paulin Tay Straughan.
It is unfortunate that the Singapore Democratic Party has not received an invitation from you to speak at the event. We would like to be represented at the forum.
You may know that the Singapore Democrats have been at the forefront of speaking about the economic situation in Singapore. In fact we have laid out our Economic Alternative Programme for the country here.
We have even dedicated an entire section to discussion the growth-at-all-cost model in our Programme. I am sure you will agree that our concerns are highly appropriate for the topic that you have chosen for your forum discussion.
We have also been the party that has actively reached out to youths in Singapore. In fact, we visited campuses at NUS, NTU and SMU last year in. Our Chairman, Mr Gandhi Ambalam, and Honorary Secretary of our youth wing, Mr Jarrod Luo, had written to NUSSPA in 2009 asking for an opportunity to address your fellow students (see here). However, to date NUSSPA has not invited the SDP to speak at any of its event.
I believe that we are the only political party to have so actively and keenly tried to reach out to our university students. Given this fact, I am certain that you are able to appreciate our disappointment of not being invited to speak at this forum.
We hope that NUSSPA will be even-handed in dealing with political parties in Singapore and not discriminate against certain parties and viewpoints. Your members will be done a disservice if an active party like the Singapore Democrats are not allowed to address your fellow students, especially when other opposition parties are invited.
We hope that you will reconsider your decision and extend an invitation to the SDP to address your students.
Please note that this letter will be posted on our website (yoursdp.org) as the subject matter is of public interest. Thank you and I look forward to hearing from you.
Sincerely,
John Tan
Assistant Secretary-General
Singapore Democratic Party
