MPs' absentee from Parliament

[Goh Meng Seng]

I have found an interesting finding here:

http://dchua.com/record-of-mps-absent-so-far-in-the-11th-parli

Over the past week after work, I've been working on a little side project to hone my ruby scripting skills and I'm ready to release it today.
I've written a script in ruby to parse through all the parliamentary reports from http://www.parliament.gov.sg/Publications/votes_11thParl.htm (at of time of processing 27th April 2010 report is the latest) and extract out the name, ward and date of absentee from each individual report and dump it into a SQLite database.

Some interesting facts:

1) Since the 11th Parliament started till the sitting on the 27th April 2010, there has been 928 absentee records.

2) The top 5 absentees in Parliament are:
Mr Lee Kuan Yew - 46
Dr Balaji Sadasivan - 38
Prof. Thio Li-ann - 38
Dr Loo Choon Yong - 28
Mr George Yong-boon Yeo - 25

3) Mr Low Thia Khiang (Hougang - Workers Party) have not been absent since the 11th Parliament commenced. Mr Chiam See Tong (Potong Pasir - Singapore People's Party) 13 times. Ms Sylvia Lim (NCMP - Workers Party) 6 times.

4) The top 5 wards which has the highest number of absentees in Parliament are:
Nominated Member - 146
Tanjong Pagar - 90
Pasir Ris-punggol - 75
Ang Mo Kio - 69
Aljunied - 62
West Coast - 56

5) The top 5 Parliament sittings with the most number of absentees are:
12th April 2007 - 28 (33.333% of Parliament)
24th March 2009 - 24
19th August 2007 - 23
20th August 2007 - 23
22nd Jan 2008 - 22

I'm releasing the database under the Creative Commons 3.0 license, so you are free to use the data for any purpose (analysis/data visualization/etc.) without any restriction Although I'd love it if you would share with me where are you using the data
Grab it in either formats:
SQLite
CSV
Update: Here's my ruby script for those who are curious. (If you run this on your own, you might notice that RAdm Lui's records are slightly misnamed. I had to manually edit those records to clean up the name for the released database. If you can improve on the script, I'll appreciate it too)
Disclaimer: Due to the nature of a computerized and automatic processing, there may be some inaccurancies in the data collected, although as far as I know it, the initial parsing doesn't seem to output any errors/discrepancy. If you've found something wrong, please contact me so that I can fix it.

 

[wrcboi]

this is a very serious matter if no proper excuses are given...absent or falling asleep...

i reckon 66.66% people will not mind at all...

sad case have to prepare for the worst from till the 2015/6 election

 

[Sideswipe]

what I am more interested are how many bills LTK and CST have introduced in Parliament, how many are rejected at which readings, how many are actually passed.
think the results will tell us that Mr Low and Mr Chiam might as well don't attend Parliament at all.

 

[scroobal]

Both have been repeatedly voted in by the people of Potong Pasir and Hougang. Chiam for 26 years and Low for 19 years. While there are clowns that have done progressively worse in each GE outing.

Now you know why control of media works - ignorant and gullible people tend to follow the local press and swallow everything they hear and see.

Parliamentary bills is not easy to raise. When Chiam wanted to raise a parliamentary bill for compulsory formal education, the govt was so embarrassed that they quickly did it. The only MP to raise a private bill is Walter Woon as an NMP.

You should not talk about things you are ignorant about. Expecting 2 opposition candidates against a majority of 90% is a non event. You must be mathematically challenged as well. Even a primary 6 kid can figure that one out. Those odds have never been broken anywhere in the the world. Prove it and we know that you know what you are talking about. In Walter's case, they were intimidated because of his known strength in constitutional law and they also appointed him as an NMP.

If you say that Low backed out or appeared cowardly when challenged about sacking WKS, I would agree that it was fair comment and a view that has legs. If you say that Chiam failed in providing continuity for his party, most people would agree.

You better get your wife to check your comments before you write rubbish again. Please don't ask me which part you don't understand again or I think which part is wrong.

.

what I am more interested are how many bills LTK and CST have introduced in Parliament, how many are rejected at which readings, how many are actually passed.
think the results will tell us that Mr Low and Mr Chiam might as well don't attend Parliament at all.

 

[halsey02]

what I am more interested are how many bills LTK and CST have introduced in Parliament, how many are rejected at which readings, how many are actually passed.
think the results will tell us that Mr Low and Mr Chiam might as well don't attend Parliament at all.

You should be thankful that they are there, if not your life will be steamrolled over by the People's Affordable Party and you will be joining the ranks of those, who fly off buildings & hitting the trains while in motion.

 

[fivestars]

Hockien Pien say

Chia liao Bee, pay so high do nothing. No point to have suck MP. Better vote opposition in. Those PAP MP low quality.

 

[lianbeng]

mc cannot meh?
unless he keng mc lah.

 

[Sideswipe]

Both have been repeatedly voted in by the people of Potong Pasir and Hougang. Chiam for 26 years and Low for 19 years. While there are clowns that have done progressively worse in each GE outing.

Parliamentary bills is not easy to raise. When Chiam wanted to raise a parliamentary bill for compulsory formal education, the govt was so embarrassed that they quickly did it. The only MP to raise a private bill is Walter Woon as an NMP.

You should not talk about things you are ignorant about. Expecting 2 opposition candidates against a majority of 90% is a non event. You must be mathematically challenged as well. Even a primary 6 kid can figure that one out. Those odds have never been broken anywhere in the the world. Prove it and we know that you know what you are talking about. In Walter's case, they were intimidated because of his known strength in constitutional law and they also appointed him as an NMP.

If you say that Low backed out or appeared cowardly when challenged about sacking WKS, I would agree that it was fair comment and a view that has legs. If you say that Chiam failed in providing continuity for his party, most people would agree.

You better get your wife to check your comments before you write rubbish again. Please don't ask me which part you don't understand again or I think which part is wrong.

.

my last line is typed in jest. I don't really mean anything.

Scroobal think too much, he try too hard thus he even rebut my "nothing" words effortfully...

 

[scroobal]

Even if you can't comprehend what you wrote or can't comprehend what I wrote, it good to make clear what is rubbish and what are fair comments. Others do read forum contents and can make up their mind. The first post was on absentee MPs and the main offenders were PAP MPs. Yet you take potshots when they are not in the item of discussion. I have seen you in the past making extravagant claims, misquoting sources or appearing to be knowledgeable without a clue.

I am sure you will be mindful what you say in future and be less frivolous with such comments.

Running against monolith and an oppressive govt is a huge challenge in best of times and tend to be a zero sum game. Words of encouragement once in a while will be good. If you are happy with the PAP then be upfront. If you are upset that the Opposition members tend to do better than Chee and SDP despite being less confrontational, then raise your points and lets see your viewpoints and reasoning. I suspect its the last noting your past posting and your zest for a boycott.

I knew you could not come up with a single example of opposition bills raised with such odds.

By the way, you remind me of a school bully when confronted claiming that it was all a joke.

my last line is typed in jest. I don't really mean anything.

Scroobal think too much, he try too hard thus he even rebut my "nothing" words effortfully...

 

[jw5]

This issue should be raised by MPs during a parliament session, particularly as he will be able to point out the empty seats and even count them.
Saying this outside parliament is as good as saying that it's very hot these days, even if he tells it to a newspaper reporter.