Sorry Bros "No By-Election " !!! --- Hri Kumar Nair

[Summer]

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http://sg.news.yahoo.com/blogs/sing...ate-election-hougang-hri-kumar-152246090.html



There is no requirement to call for an immediate by-election in Hougang SMC even though the seat is now vacant, …



Member of Parliament (MP) for Bishan-Toa Payoh GRC Hri Kumar Nair said Friday that there is "no requirement" for a by-election to be called immediately in Hougang Single Member Constituency, after its former MP Yaw Shin Leong was dismissed by the Workers' Party (WP).

In a letter to the TODAY newspaper published on Friday, Hri Kumar said that when a parliamentary seat falls vacant, the government should not be forced "to put aside more important national issues to focus on a by-election", unless the vacancy left behind "affects its mandate".

He was responding to a commentary published in the same paper on Monday by nominated MP Eugene Tan, an assistant law professor, which pushed for a by-election to be called "without an inordinate delay", and that it should be automatic, although there are no fixed rules on timing.

Tan argued that even though the decision to call a by-election lies with Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong, it "does not extend to his having an unfettered discretion to delay the calling of a by-election indefinitely". He also said the government should explain its reasons for choosing not to call for one in a reasonable amount of time, as it did in 1987, when it was considering re-delineating the vacated seats of Anson and Geylang West.

In his reply to Tan's argument, Hri Kumar, who chairs the government parliamentary committee for law and home affairs, said Tan's sentiments "ignore(d) the law and the reason behind the law".

"Our parliamentary democracy is based on the principle that elections are fundamentally about voters choosing between different political parties to lead the country, rather than between individual candidates standing in a constituency," he wrote.

"Hence, under our system, if any MP resigns or is expelled from his party, he loses his seat because voters had elected him as a representative of his party. Therefore, when a seat falls vacant, there is no requirement to call an immediate by-election, unless the vacancy affects the government's mandate," he added.

In his letter, Hri Kumar noted that not imposing a fixed timeline along which a by-election should take place helps to hold political parties accountable to their voters for the performance of their candidates fielded, and ensure that they can last their terms as MPs.

"If they do not or cannot, the onus is on their party to take care of residents in that constituency. The Workers' Party knows this. That is why their MPs have taken over Mr Yaw Shin Leong's duties in Hougang," he pointed out.

Drawing a comparison to the parliamentary system in the UK, where MPs are allowed to change parties while retaining their seats during their terms, by-elections must be held promptly when a seat falls vacant because the MP is "the fundamental element of their system".

He added that the WP was only able to force Yaw to leave his Hougang seat by expelling him from the party because it operates under Singapore's parliamentary model.

"The WP could not have done this under the UK model as Mr Yaw would have remained MP for Hougang even after his expulsion, and there would have been no by-election," wrote Hri Kumar. "To call for an automatic by-election now that the Hougang seat is vacant, as Asst Prof Tan did, is to confuse the Singapore and UK models."

Related articles:
- Workers' Party expels Yaw
- 'Brave move for Workers' Party to sack Yaw'
- No surprise if WP wins by-election

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[Alamaking]

Member of Parliament (MP) for Bishan-Toa Payoh GRC Hri Kumar Nair said Friday that there is "no requirement" for a by-election to be called immediately in Hougang Single Member Constituency, after its former MP Yaw Shin Leong was dismissed by the Workers' Party (WP).

Can you read the whole sentence? Omg....

 

[Fook Seng]

If a government cannot hold a simple by-election as part of a democratic process, even in the midst of the most heavily loaded agenda, how good is that government? This kind of arguments cut no ice with the present or even older generations. People only believe real reason, not some concocted reason.

 

[Froggy]

Early morning must for people to use vulgarity.

PAP and your leadership are you guys born without lumparji? Are you guy representing katoeys with no balls? Your are all a bunch off balless representative that we sinkies are ashame of you leadership. World class country kee-lan-jiao-tio-wu-ah. I mean really we Singaporeans can never hold our heads high because of you mother fuckers phua-pak-kia in office.

 

[zeddy]

Hri Kumar said that when a parliamentary seat falls vacant, the government should not be forced "to put aside more important national issues to focus on a by-election",

For the PAP '' more important national issues, means

Squeezing Sinkies for more money

Fixing the opposition

Fixing dissent in the Internet

Issuing Lawyers letters to socio-political blogs

Buying more SBS Buses

Denying Sinkies of their CPF money

Giving Ho Jinx more money to feed her casino addiction

Spreading their backsides to Foreign Thrash

Increase ciggarette prices


KNNBCCB to the PAP..!!!

 

[Froggy]

Giving Ho Jinx more money to feed her casino addiction

KNNBCCB to the PAP..!!!

Zeddy you talk like this now a days you sure paoto liao, you now can wait for lawyer letter liao.

 

[GOD IS MY DOG]

PAP will gain nothing with by-elections.....................they know they won't win................only more malu only


besides, the opposition will be weaker by 1 seat in parliament without by-elections................

 

[Zatoichi]

Zeddy you talk like this now a days you sure paoto liao, you now can wait for lawyer letter liao.

Not necessarily, I think... because "Ho Jinx" is not an official name for anyone, is it? haha
So that statement can't defame anyone, can it? haha

Similar to whenever we say "LKY", "LHL", "LHY", etc.

 

[winners]

PAP will gain nothing with by-elections.....................they know they won't win................only more malu only


besides, the opposition will be weaker by 1 seat in parliament without by-elections................

That is very true. No matter who they put up to contest against the WP, there is practically no chance for them to reclaim Hougang. So why embarrass themselves? However, by not calling for a by-election, they are also indirectly shooting themselves in their feet because it is not in line with a democratic Singapore.

 

[batman1]

For the PAP '' more important national issues, means

Squeezing Sinkies for more money

Fixing the opposition

Fixing dissent in the Internet

Issuing Lawyers letters to socio-political blogs

Buying more SBS Buses

Denying Sinkies of their CPF money

Giving Ho Jinx more money to feed her casino addiction

Spreading their backsides to Foreign Thrash

Increase ciggarette prices


KNNBCCB to the PAP..!!!

Got time to spend 1 week in parliament talking about minimum wages for PAP ministers but no time for by-election ???
KNNCCB to PAP !!!

 

[Narong Wongwan]

Hougang and Aljunied voters are troublemakers and need to be tekan.
Serve them right for going against heaven's mandate.
Prophet Lee was right, let them opposition ward repent for 5 years.
Next GE to gerrymander and spilt Hougang up to be absorbed into GRCs.

 

[Devil Within]

PAP know that they cannot win back Hougang so they won't want to waste time and money to have WP elected again. Now that Yaw has been expelled and Parliament has one less opposition MP, they won't want to give them back another to replace Yaw.

If PAP think that they can win back Hougang, I guarantee it would be a different story. Such is the behaviour of your "clean" PAP gov.

 

[Narong Wongwan]

60.1% support this clean honest govt and their tactics.

PAP know that they cannot win back Hougang so they won't want to waste time and money to have WP elected again. Now that Yaw has been expelled and Parliament has one less opposition MP, they won't want to give them back another to replace Yaw.

If PAP think that they can win back Hougang, I guarantee it would be a different story. Such is the behaviour of your "clean" PAP gov.

 

[Khun Ying Pojaman]

Looks like Hougang SMC residents are being punished for their "disobedience."

 

[ChaoPappyPoodle]

Hri Kumar - "Our parliamentary democracy is based on the principle that elections are fundamentally about voters choosing between different political parties to lead the country, rather than between individual candidates standing in a constituency"

This is an ignorant argument. Such a statement denies the fact that individuals without party affiliations are allowed to run for parliamentary elections and it also ignores our presidential elections which is an important aspect of our democratic process.

The PAPpies must really be desperate and totally lacking in order to make such erroneous statements. :*:

 

[makapaaa]

http://everythingalsocomplain.com/

[h=2]PAP taking their time to call for by-election[/h]Posted on February 25, 2012 by gdy2shoez
From ‘No automatic by-election in our model of parliamentary democracy’, 24 Feb 2012, Voices, Today

(Hri Kumar Nair, PAP MP for Bishan-Toa Payoh): Assistant Professor Eugene Tan’s commentary “The value of a by-election” (Feb 20) argued that the Prime Minister does not have an unfettered discretion in deciding when to call a by-election and that the “default” position should be that a by-election should be automatic.
Those two claims ignore the law and the reason behind the law. There is a reason the Singapore Constitution does not prescribe any time limit to call a by-election.

Our parliamentary democracy is based on the principle that elections are fundamentally about voters choosing between different political parties to lead the country, rather than between individual candidates standing in a constituency. In general elections, the issue is which party should form the government.
Hence, under our system, if any Member of Parliament (MP) resigns or is expelled from his party, he loses his seat because voters had elected him as a representative of his party. Therefore, when a seat falls vacant, there is no requirement to call an immediate by-election, unless the vacancy affects the Government’s mandate.
Nor should an MP’s resignation or expulsion force the Government to put aside more important national issues to focus on a by-election. This model enables the Government to focus on governing Singapore well and improving the lives of Singaporeans. It has resulted in stability and progress for Singapore for half a century.​

Some things on the ‘national agenda’ obviously require more urgent tending to than the residents of Hougang, like issuing lawyer’s letters to clear your name after accusations of nepotism, for example. God knows how long the government will dawdle on the empty Hougang seat since WP’s Yaw Shin Leong got sacked for alleged affairs, whether it’s stalling for time to plan its take-back strategy or deliberately playing mind games before calling for Nomination Day and catching the Opposition when they’re least prepared. A ‘party-centred’ system doesn’t adequately explain why there’s no deadline to call for a by-election, since this constitutional dilly-dallying seems to work solely towards the ruling party’s advantage. It’s like a teacher waiting to spring a pop-quiz but not telling you when, only to do it on the eve of school holidays. It’s not clear what our government’s ‘Mandate’ is that its importance overrides replacing an MP. We would expect a more satisfactory response than ‘there are many other issues on the national agenda right now’.History may explain why the ruling party is taking its own sweet time when it comes to throwing dice in a by-election. In particular, a landmark Anson one in 1981 which was won by a certain JB Jeyaretnam (from WP), called rather unexpectedly when the seat was left vacant by Devan Nair ascending to presidency. The PAP’s reasoning for calling it was that ‘the people of Anson should not be without an MP, not when the impending elevation of Mr Nair to the presidency is an event that the party can, and indeed plan for – unlike say the sudden demise of an incumbent.’ i.e the PAP took responsibility for plucking an MP out of the ward and a by-election, though risky, appeared to be a fair course of action to take. The outcome of that decision (JBJ being the first Opposition MP) will go down the annals of history, wedge its way up the anus of PAP’s conscience till this day, but will never be documented in our social studies textbooks.4 years later JBJ lost his seat after being imprisoned for allegedly falsifying WP accounts and was barred from standing for elections. Then DPM Goh Chok Tong declared that there was no need for an immediate by-election, citing his primary concern as ‘getting the economic recession out of the way’. In 1992, however, Goh Chok Tong, then PM, called for a by-election on his own accord, to ‘inject new blood into the PAP’s ranks’ for Marine Parade GRC. It was also a token gesture to allow JBJ to contest after his ban, but only after the Aug 31 1991 general elections were pushed forward to seemingly avoid having JBJ (still banned then) fight in it. 1992, the last time we had a by-election, was a window-dressing campaign that PAP won by a landslide margin, for rather obvious reasons since the PM had to RESIGN to contest in it. It was also a vulnerable position for the PAP since announcing that both DPMs Ong Teng Cheong and Lee Hsien Loong were down with lympathic cancer (Both Deputy Prime Ministers have cancer, 17 Nov 1992), which suggested that if GCT were kicked out Singaporeans would have no one to lead them. As PM, then, one has the liberty of calling for by-elections for the functional purpose of replacing an MP (which hasn’t been done since Anson), pulling in promising foot soldiers like Teo Chee Hean, or to prove your mettle to the Opposition like a seasoned boxer putting his championship title up for grabs by sparring with midgets.In 1999, a call for a Jalan Besar GRC by-election was rejected again by PM Goh as it would distract the country from its ‘efforts to recover from the economic crisis’. The reason for the vacant Jalan Besar seat was the shameful departure of a certain MP named Choo Wei Khiang, who was jailed for cheating. The GRC mechanism and ‘economic crises’ made sure that PAP continued to reign, despite the team at JB seemingly ‘letting down’ voters by harbouring a crook in their midst all this time, just like WP putting a serial philanderer on the pedestal. It’s tempting to draw parallels between Choo and Yaw here; The former went on to become Table Tennis Chief despite his jail record. Nobody knows if we’ll ever hear of Yaw again, and all he presumably did was cheat on his wife, and not, you know, BREAK the law or something.In 2008, the by-election issue was raised again by JBJ, who demanded that the constitution be more specific on when this could be held (within 3 months). This followed the sudden death of MP Ong Chit Chung of Jurong GRC. Sadly, JBJ himself died shortly after filing a request to the judiciary to explain why the constitution was so irritatingly silent on the timeline to call for by-election. The writer of the letter above Hri Kumar Nair was himself vocal in a parliamentary debate over the fate of Jurong GRC back then, saying that it was ‘sensible to keep things flexible’ and not ‘tie the PM’s hands’. That would mean, of course, that he could drag it all the way till the next GE if he wanted to if it was not in national interest to hold a by-election. An online poll, however, indicated that a slight majority of residents were in favour of a by-election then, but with the GRC’s back-up MP system and a dusty old book to justify the lack of urgency and allow buying time to stock up campaign inventory , what does it matter what the people think? What happened to ‘The people of so-and-so should not be without an MP?’ If the PM believes that 4 MPs can do the work of 5 following the death of Dr Balaji in 2010, why have 5 MPs in Cheng San-Seletar GRC at all? If an MP in a SINGLE ward mysteriously disappears or dies, through no fault of his party, what happens then? If residents can do without a representative, as what this lack of urgency is telling us, why should we even bother voting one in the first place?So, by elections, as history has shown, are by no means emergency buttons to push whenever an MP seat is vacated for some reason, even if it seems to be written in the law that way. In the case of Anson in 1981, it was more an ejection button for the ruling party. In 1992, it was fashioned as an party refresher. And from the way this deliberation over Hougang is dragging, this political instrument is probably being sharpened to serve a more ominous purpose as we speak.

 

[makapaaa]

In other countries, such mockery of the democratic process and trampling of the people's rights and interests by the ruling party would have certainly led to massive protest and possibly resignation of the govt. In SG, th 60% are still smiling meekly.

 

[kingrant]

If he is brave enough to ask his party next time to field him in a SMC then we'll see whether the people vote for him or his Party. I'll bet my bottom dollar in my CPF that he will lose and so will his Party.

Yaya's like him who creep in under the coat-tails of his masters like to talk big as if they are LKYs. He should crawl out from under his protective cover and face the Opposition, anywhere! We'll teach this Mama a lesson.

Hri Kumar - "Our parliamentary democracy is based on the principle that elections are fundamentally about voters choosing between different political parties to lead the country, rather than between individual candidates standing in a constituency"

:*:

 

[Summer]

/


there is a trend to use Baey Yam Keng and Hri Kumar Nair as Spokepersons

to test water ...


Nair said :


Member of Parliament (MP) for Bishan-Toa Payoh GRC Hri Kumar Nair said Friday that there is "no requirement" for a by-election to be called immediately in Hougang Single Member Constituency, after its former MP Yaw Shin Leong was dismissed by the Workers' Party (WP).

In a letter to the TODAY newspaper published on Friday, Hri Kumar said that when a parliamentary seat falls vacant, the government should not be forced "to put aside more important national issues to focus on a by-election", unless the vacancy left behind "affects its mandate".


what he meant Hougang SMC "small little red dot" only .


Only 23,176 turnout to vote . Of which 8, 065 voted for Desmond


and 14, 850 voted for Yaw . Those who did not turm - up basically " boh -chap "




Hougang SMC's numbers

Hougang Single Member Constituency :


http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hougang_Single_Member_Constituency







Hougang Single Member Constituency (Hougang SMC) (Traditional Chinese: 後港單選區;Simplified Chinese: 后港单选区) is a Single Member Constituency whose borders roughly enclose the town of Hougang, located in the north-eastern area of Singapore. The boundary includes a portion of Hougang and is an opposition held seat with its Member of Parliament the Workers' Party's Yaw Shin Leong. The constituency was formed in 1988 and was held by the People's Action Party (PAP) until the 1991 general election, when the ruling party lost the seat to the Workers' Party. The seat is one of the two opposition seats of the Parliament of Singapore in the country. Despite Singapore's current dominant-party system, Hougang SMC has been difficult to recapture by the PAP since losing the constituency in 1991.

Low did not contest his seat in 2011's general election, choosing to head a GRC team at Aljunied Group Representation Constituency.

On 15 February 2012, Yaw Shin Leong was expelled from the Workers' Party, leaving a vacant seat for Hougang SMC.[1] A by-election is expected to be called soon.

 

[refulgence]

Hougang and Aljunied voters are troublemakers and need to be tekan.
Serve them right for going against heaven's mandate.
Prophet Lee was right, let them opposition ward repent for 5 years.
Next GE to gerrymander and spilt Hougang up to be absorbed into GRCs.

This is highly probable, in view of past practices.