Shame on you, Mr Fredric Fanthome!

I wasn’t too bothered when Mr Fanthome’s reply to Singaporeans’ adverse reaction to the PAP’s proposed ‘cooling off day’ first appeared on the P65 blog.

That is, until I found out that Mr Fanthome, unlike true Singaporeans who had to bear the brunt of PAP rule and policies for decades, was one of those new ‘citizens’ recruited by the PAP to suppress the voice of Singaporeans like myself. Many Singaporeans believe that new citizenship are so readily granted to foreigners, who do not have to sacrifice years of their lives to serve National service and who were largely unaffected by many of PAP’s draconic policies dating back to the 60s, was because the PAP need new blood to bolster their ranks and their share of the votes for the next election. A quick fix if you will. If you can’t get your own people to support you because you have failed so abysmally, simply recruit new followers to edge out the old timers. Whether or not these new recruits will have the same loyalty as citizens born and bred in Singapore doesn’t seem to be an issue the PAP are concerned with.

In fact, when PR Zhang Yuan Yuan went back to China and publicly declared her loyalty and support for mother China, the PAP seemed unfazed and even went so far as to DEFEND Yuan Yuan’s actions! That was a marked contrast from the way the PAP used to treat citizens merely suspected (usually falsely) of being communists. Now they are actually defending one of their pet PRs when she publicly declared support for China. How low will they go just to secure votes from new ‘citizens’?

Now, back to Fredric Fanthome… In his blog, he wrote that:

“There will be more freedom in the coming elections – podcasts will be allowed, the internet will be abuzz – and the government is also putting in place measures to ensure the presence of at least 18 non-PAP members or about a fifth of the house in the next parliament regardless of election results. That is remarkable by any standard. No other country gives losing parties anywhere near as much voice.”

Fanthome’s ignorance of Singapore’s history and politics makes me shudder in horror. Is this the sort of ‘talent’ that the PAP wants? Is this the sort of ‘citizen’ that the PAP so shamelessly court, just to edge out true Singaporeans who have sacrificed their time (decades) for the country?

Mr Fanthome, allow me to enlighten you. First of all, the internet has always been abuzz. No thanks to the PAP. The real reason is simply because the PAP cannot control the internet completely. Thus, they make a show of tolerating it.

And are you truly so … obtuse as to believe that the government’s measure to ensure at least 18 non-PAP members in the next parliament to be a sign of more freedom for Singapore?!? If you are truly that obtuse, I don’t know if I can use sound reasoning to get through to you. Let me use a parable instead:

Ah Huat is a gambler who frequents the Turf Club. A old-timer with many connections within the racing circuit. A streetwise gambler who can spot bull-shit a mile away. One day, he brings his young friend, Ah Beng to the club. Ah Beng is young and naive. He didn’t have Huat’s experience nor street wisdom. Now, at the club, there’s a big-time horse owner, Mr Beh. And Mr Beh, sensing Beng’s naivety, told Beng that he (Mr Beh) is going to let Ah Beng win the next race by arranging a certain horse to win. But why? Ah Beng wanted to know. Mr Beh told Beng that’s because the Turf Club believes in fair play and sportsmanship, so that noobs like Beng can win occasionally too.

Ah Beng, being the young sucker he is, went to his old friend Ah Huat and told him gushingly that the Turf Club believes in fair play because Mr Beh is letting people win by arranging for the right horse to win!

Ah Huat listened quietly for a minute, then he slapped Beng on the head. “Are you an idiot?? Don’t you know that if Mr Beh told you with certainty what horse is going to win, it means he FIXED it so the horse can win! It has nothing to do with fair play! It isn’t fair play anymore if he ‘ARRANGED’ for the horse to win!”

Mr Fanthome, wake up your idea. Please do not be naive like Beng, ok?

And Mr Fanthome, you said ‘No other country gives losing parties anywhere near as much voice’. Are you in earnest? If by ‘as much voice’, you are referring to the numerous times the PAP has attacked, jailed and sued their critics to bankruptcy, then yeah, no other first world country has that sort of track record.

Mr Fanthome also referred to the PAP’s 66 percent win in the last election and translated it to mean a strong mandate. Please don’t talk cock lah, Fanthome! As an old citizen who has lived here for decades, I can tell you that many Singaporeans did not get to vote in the last election! If there isn’t universal suffrage, I wouldn’t be so quick to point out that a 66 percent out of the limited number of voters they allowed to vote equates to a ‘strong mandate’.

And this passage from Mr Fanthome’s blog betrayed his ignorance. Not just ignorance of how things truly are in Singapore, but ignorance of how the rest of the world operates. He wrote:

“The electricity never fails, the transport system works, the drainage system works. You
can drink water from the tap without worrying about getting a tummy ache.”

Please lah… Can’t you lie better than that, Mr Fanthome?!? How long have you lived in Singapore? Truly? Here. I have a link with a report about blackouts in Singapore. But you said ‘electricity NEVER fails’! Can I call you out now? Liar, liar, pants on fire…

http://forums.sgclub.com/singapore/power_supply…

Transport system works? What do you mean by ‘work’? You mean the laws of physics work in Singapore, and cars can run just like in any other country? Which first world country do not have a working transport system? Perhaps if you have lived in parts of India where they are still in the difficult process of building proper roads, you are amazed to see cars running smoothly along Singapore roads. But as citizens of a supposedly first world country, who have to pay the leaders obscenely bloated salaries, we kinda expect our buses and cars to be able to run. There’s nothing spectacular about that. In fact, I would go so far as to say our leaders haven’t done a satisfactory job making sure we have a comfortable public transport system, instead of just a ‘working one’. Especially since they are paid so much more than their counterparts in other First World countries. Hell, if I pay my staff exceptional salary, then I expect exceptional results, and not just a passing grade!

And the remark about drinking water… Please lah… In other first world countries, you can also drink their tap water! What’s so phenomenal about that? And because we have something that other countries have, and where their leaders are paid so much less for providing that, you are telling us (citizens who have lived here for decades) to worship the PAP as if they are the best thing since… well since we had electricity and tap water.

With new citizens like Mr Fanthome in the youth cadre of the ruling party, I find our future bleak indeed.

2nd Dec “Damned if you do, damned if you don’t”
Posted in: Uncategorized by Fredric Fanthome
This seems to summarise the position of any politician/political organisation in power – especially if they’re making what by most reasonable people would be taken as considerable effort to deal with a difficult problem. An opposition, it appears, must find, willy-nilly something to nit-pick and criticize, regardless of the overall good of the proposals being offered.

Currently we have two important proposals that are making news – one internationally given its massive impact on global security – and the other locally given it’s impact on local elections.

Obama’s proposals regarding troop deployment in Afghanistan appears to me to be the best possible course of action in the face of an intractable problem. Given a diffuse, well armed and highly motivated insurgency combined with an ineffective and corrupt central government, he has decided to greatly increase the resources on the ground to enable rapid military action and set a clear timeline so that all the players are aware that they have to get results within a definite period and things cannot be allowed to drift interminably.

The Republicans, unable to fault anything else in the plan and needing to find fault in something, I presume, latched onto the “definite timeline” as a blunder and now are banging a drum about how this will play into the hands of the Taliban who will lie low till the Americans leave and then come back.

It’s not like the strategy of bombing them in 2001 and skirmishing aimlessly till 2008 because resources were diverted to a grand shock and awe display in search of dreamed up WMD (Bush’s strategy) worked. I’d think setting a clear timeline will help the Afghan government and NATO forces in the country work with more purpose and so actually do more good than their just hanging about forever without a clear path to a peaceful future.

Strikes me that no matter how sensible the proposal, the opposing party simply has to find something to fault.

The other issue, of course is the Singapore government proposal regarding the “cooling off day” before polls.

Predictably there’s been a hullabaloo raised by the opposition who claims vary from it being “a sign of the lack of confidence of the PAP” (Mr. Desmond Lim Bak Chum of the SDA) to it being “designed to hurt the opposition” (Mr. Gandhi Ambalam of the SDP) – not to mention the usual vitriol by the anonymous hordes online who randomly spray venom at every government move from behind pseudonyms.

I don’t see how the move is particularly advantageous to the PAP (or any single party). One argument being touted is that the fact that political broadcasts and news reports are allowed is unfair as the media is “in the hands of the government”. Well, if we assume that is the case, then by the same measure, the population will disregard anything the media puts out in that period, and moreover, it would actually be incensed by any blatant misuse of the media – and hence vote against the PAP rather than for it. Hardly a disadvantage. If I was an opposition candidate I would rubbing my hands in glee at the prospect of being able to ride the crest of such an anti-government wave.

Unless of course the opposition mouthpieces are insinuating that the average voter is either (a) not intelligent enough to see blatant misuse – which I think is a rather arrogant (and incorrect) opinion to have about the voter, or (b) couldn’t care about it and will vote for the PAP anyway – in which case, it hardly matters what the opposition does, because apparently the voter will choose the PAP regardless.

What if the government had decided to allow campaigning on polling day? Given that the opposition believes that a 24 hour cool-off period from campaigning is disadvantageous, it stands to reason that doing the opposite – allowing campaigning all the way on polling day should be feted by them. However if such a move were made, I am sure the opposition would be up in arms, claiming that the superior manpower that the PAP can bring to bear on polling day outside the polling stations to campaign for the “last minute” vote would be an unfair advantage. Thus, no matter which direction you move the “stop campaigning” deadline, the opposition will find a way to claim it to be “designed to hurt the opposition”.

I don’t see how the 24 hour cool-off period is designed to bolster the PAP and damage the opposition. Elections – at least where there is no vote-rigging and the voters are not bought or commandeered – as happens in several “democratic” countries- are not won on the eve of polling nor even in the 10-day campaign period – but in the 5-6 years prior to the day of voting – on the basis of progress achieved by the incumbent and alternatives on offer by the challengers.

Besides, the rules for the election have to be seen in an overall context. There will be more freedom in the coming elections – podcasts will be allowed, the internet will be abuzz – and the government is also putting in place measures to ensure the presence of at least18 non-PAP members or about a fifth of the house in the next parliament regardless of election results. That is remarkable by any standard. No other country gives losing parties anywhere near as much voice.

Taking it all as a package, the coming election will give opposition parties and voters a lot more room to create and consume “sound and fury” in the 9 days before the cooling off day – and also lead to a real increase in plurality in the parliament afterwards. As far as I can tell, far from designing the process to harm plurality and democracy in Singapore this is a move that significantly helps it – and such unilateral measures from a party in power is unthinkable except in Singapore. So instead of constantly finding fault with every measure or decision taken by the government– almost as a knee jerk reaction – where the default is “oppose” and then some reason is found to justify it, it would be good to see politicians being more discerning – supporting initiatives that are good for the people and opposing those they see are harmful – rather than just opposing everything

Robert Tan
December 2nd, 2009 at 8:54 pm

All these changes to the political landscape would not have been necessary if the Elections Department had not come under the control of the PAP PM’s office.And that the PAP did not come up with the Group Representative Constituency (GRC) System of course.

The Elections Department has to be independent to be fair to all political parties.There is a need for an Independent Elections Commission.You see, in Singapore, Elections are not Free and Fair.

This is coming from a retired Civil Servant mind you.I am very much older than you and I was at the steps of City Hall during seperation.I have seen Singapore change over the years.And I have Grandchildren.Where were you all this while?

Fredric Fanthome, you are a new citizen to this country and you probably do not understand or have no semblence of the dynamics behind and the history of the Group Representative Constituency (GRC) System.

You are one of the 4500 new Grassroots leaders from overseas that the PAP has recruited and probably the 1000 that the PAP has recruited recently.My grandfather migrated to this region when it was a British Colony.We lived through history.

Why is a new Citizen schooling us Singaporeans on how the country should be run?

You have probably no clue about the Defamation Suits that the PAP exclusively uses to silence and bankrupt its’ detractors.

Are you aware of the Internal Security Act that the PAP uses to put its’ opponents behind bars?Do you know that we have the longest held political prisoner in the world?

Are you aware of the constant redrawing of boundaries at every elections?It is called Gerrymandering.

Do you know that there is a sizable amount of Singaporeans who have never voted in their lives?Do you know that it was mooted at one point to give the educated and chosen few two votes to dilute the masses?

Are you aware that the PAP government gives a cash ‘gift’ during the elections?Isn’t this vote buying?

Or threatening citizens with the withdrawal of the Lift Upgrading Programme (LUP)?Isn’t this Pork Barrel politics?

Why can’t the PAP release the Electoral Boundaries in advance?Why does it only release it within days of Nomination Day?Is it because it wants an advantage of almost 5 years on walking the ‘ground’?

Why can’t the PAP release the dates of the General Election?

When will this continuous attempt to manipulate the already opaque and unfair electoral process ever end?

Were you in Singapore to see the reportage during elections?I have seen countless elections, I have even manned Polling Stations.We are very far from having a free and pluralistic media that reports fairly on all contesting parties.

Unfortunately, as long as the rules and regulations continue to be changed to benefit the PAP, elections in Singapore will remain a charade staged by the ruling party to hoodwink the people once every four or five years.

Non Partisan Retired Civil Servant
P.S. Please do not sue me for defamation.

Views of 'Wilyy Nilly' from the ST Forum
December 3rd, 2009 at 1:53 am

Thank you Mr Robert Tan, a true Singaporean.And also ”To Increase Your Dwindling Viewership”.

More comments from the “anonymous hordes online”.This is from the Straits Times.

augustus_cesar:

When PAP cannot take the heat, it legislates changes in its favour. Electoral campaign is not a robotic process devoid of true passion and emotion such as that witnessed in PAP rallies. A cooling-off day will allow the PAP-controlled media to run amok with indirect campaigning on behalf of the PAP to alter public minds, and to allow PAP to practically have the last say.

Any lingering expectation of Lee Hsein Loong bearing a more manly stature of leadership than his 2 predecessors should now be laid to eternal rest. Cowards simply do not make good leaders.

dustmask:

The PAP always changes tactics to suit their cause by stifling the opposition to using methods that they (the opposition) are strong in. Previously, they banned campaigning on the internet when they realised the opposition was savvy in that front. In the last election, the WP attracted huge crowds at the Serangoon Stadium on the eve of polling day and that caused a shift in the %age of votes in favour of the opposition (although WP didn’t win). Now, rallies, door-to-door visits, etc. are not allowed on the eve of polling day. Wow, first time in the world – Uniquely Singapore!

darkestknight:

Generally sick of this “false” democracy that we are living in. With so many walkovers, and unfair election practices, no wonder the government rules us with an iron hand. Democratic in name, communist in fact!

But, amidst all these acts of cowardice and unfair competition, the extra day off is extremely good piece of news! For any constituency that is “walk-ed (all) over”, it means 2 days’ off, which easily translate to a possible short trip overseas.

jamesng27 :

I had a very strong feeling that this cooling day will also be the day when some assistance packages.enters our bank account…$$ money come $$ come

gordonli:

I am very very sceptical about this proposal, and indeed all changes to our political system in general. Instead, PM Lee should focus on REAL changes such as abolishing the GRC system, enshrining in law the prohibition of pork-barrel politics, taking the electoral committee (which draws constituency boundaries) out of the PM’s Office, reducing the electoral deposit required per electoral candidate, and making our presidency a truly elected one where the electorate has CHOICES!

richesse:

They do not have to worry about me having to ‘cool-off’ or insult my intelligence as I have already long decided how to vote in the next GE. Election gimmicks galore, pfff!! Why not just spare the charade and make every constituency a 20-person GRC eh? Oh I forgot, there has to ‘exist a form of fairness’ in our political arena. The tooth fairy must exist then…

Anyone needs a change of air around here?

handy2008 :

Why introduce a rule and use the excuse that other countries have this rule, we should then introduce it. And when it come to welfare or benefits that other countries have and not, the excuse is Singapore should not follow blindly. This cooling day benefits the ruling party than the opposition. But by now, most Singaporeans have made up their mind who they should vote in the next general election.

bornloser: They only know how to win with the opposition’s hands tied. Can’t they learn to fight fair and square and find out what their real support is?
You end up with ministers who give all the bullshit figures to the public; whose forte is to find excuses for their shortcomings instead of doing the real business of serving the people.They are giving their butts to be kicked.

ErniesUrn: Our PM only seems to have only acheive to plant seeds on doubt on the electorate with this ‘cooling off’ gimmick.

Seriously, why do I have such a cowardly PM. Can’t he just be a man and hold elections free and fair without twitching the rules each and everytime GE comes.Worse, not everyone gets to vote everytime. What kind of democratic country is this?!Dissapointing display of leadership. He is loosing the populist vote.

Get real: How do you and the Government mysteriously discover that for some ghostly unknown reasons all voters need a cooling off period to decide on their votes? Clairvoyant or mind readers of citizenry or are we all irrational like you?.

Changing the rules of the game evidenced desperation and lack of confidence of the incumbent – NOT the other way around you claimed.

The opposition can take on them any day – barring electoral witchcrafts or chicanery. We seen that in GRC already, haven’t you?

Jim: The government is very creative in introducing such changes. However I wish they should be using their creativity and energy in formulating better public policies and other measures to help ordinary citizens instead!

Rainnix: Having a “cooling-off” day is telling opposition that it is the day where PAP can campaign, oppositions cannot. Why is that this rule change is before the election when it should be AFTER the next election?Is Lee Hsien Loong so afraid to lose?

Neil Bishop: Of course LHL (aka Dear Leader, aka Larry son of Harry) is afraid to lose. If the PAP were thrown out of office the new government would be able to publicise (1) the true extent of the Temasek and GIC losses, (2) the exact undeclared shareholding of the Lee Family in Temasek and (3) the true amount pumped into Temasek and GIC by the PAP to bolster returns over the past 30 years. The Lee Family cannot afford the truth about their mismanagement and maladministration to become public knowledge.

Dear One & All…: Please go to this website video and see if you see any parallel and connective spins with The Truth About Dubai’s Shiek’s EXCESS in his Kingdom!!!… Especially by his HIGHLY Paid minister od development in answer to Western INVESTIGATIVE JOURNALIST!!!…

And know WHY Liesky is so so afraid of investigative journalism!!!… Because he always have something to hide from us. Do True to Goodness and Honesty people… EVEN National leaders… need to hide… with GARBAGE VERBAGE???
Please SEE and Hear for yourselves people of Singapore…
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UUW9MWLIQYw

"You have not been brainwashed by the media in your lifetime, nor voices and lives controlled in every manner by the PAP to understand the citizen behavior. You are not in the continuum of true-bred citizen lives as you are dealing with the hearts and souls of the Nation. You will never understand the underhanded politics, the money politics and many polices the PAP use to control and stay in power.

For many citizens the release of pent-up frustration and anger, irrational as it may seem in the rhetoric of expression, which can only be released through cyberspace, is not something to be disregarded.

Your support of PAP, officiously and beguilingly, using your superb intellectual rationality of argument could be perhaps perceived as treason to the hearts of many true-bred citizens in this forum who value dearly the sacrosanct meaning of citizenship and nationhood...

... I hope you are not one of those dogs in YPAP who serve as grass-root leader for self-interest (free HDB parking, priority of HDB selection, etc) as I know of many in my life-time."

Excerpt from A rebuttal to YPAP Fredric Fanthome by a new citizen and former PAP supporter: A Chorus of change for Singaporeans

Link to full article: http://www.temasekreview.com/2009/1...c-fanthome-by-a-new-citizen-chorus-of-change/