IDENTIFY PAP'S WEAKEST LINK IN MOULMEIN-KALLANG GRC - VOTE NOW!
The Moulmein-Kallang GRC is loosely speaking a down-sized version of the Jalan Besar GRC, which is to be dissolved with the retirement of its anchor minister Lee Boon Yang. The new entity will be helmed by Minister for the Environment and Water Resources & Minister-in-charge of Muslim Affairs Assoc Prof Dr Yaacob Ibrahim.
Yaacob is a much ridiculed public figure after heavy flooding, which he explained as “once in 50 years” freak events, took place multiple times. It might be for this reason that RAdm(NS) Lui Tuck Yew has been brought in from Tanjong Pagar GRC to shore up some support for Yaacob, Jalan Besar incumbent Denise Phua and new face Edwin Tong.
Whether the presence of Lui, who is Minister for Information, Communications and the Arts, is sufficient to save the day for the PAP remains to be seen. After all Lui has never stood before the electorate after he entered the parliament through a walkover at Tanjong Pagar GRC in 2006. There are also question marks over Phua and Tong’s ability to win the trust of Singaporeans.
Who is The Weakest Link in Moulmein-Kallang? Your votes will determine.
Candidate 1: RAdm (NS) Lui Tuck Yew
Highest Education Qualifications
Degree in Chemistry, Trinity College, UK
Career
1983 | Officer, Republic of Singapore Navy (RSN) |
1999 | Chief of Navy, Republic of Singapore Navy (RSN) |
Jul 2003 | Chief Executive, Maritime and Port Authority of Singapore |
Apr 2004 | Deputy Secretary (Land), Ministry of Transport, |
Jun 2005 | CEO and Board Member, Housing and Development Board (HDB) |
Government Office
May 2006 | Minister of State, Ministry of Education |
Apr 2008 | Senior Minister of State, Ministry of Education; Senior Minister of State, Ministry of Information, Communications and the Arts |
Apr 2009 | Acting Minister for Information, Communications and the Arts |
Nov 2010 | Minister for Information, Communications and the Arts |
Candidate 2: Edwin Tong Chun Fai
Highest Education Qualifications
LLB (Honours), National University of Singapore
Career
1995 | Allen and Gledhill, now a Partner |
Other Key Appointments
Honorary Legal Advisor, Singapore Medical Association,
Honorary Legal Advisor, College of Family Physicians
Honorary Legal Advisor, Singapore Table Tennis Association
Candidate 3: Denise Phua Lay Peng
Highest Education Qualifications
MBA Golden Gate University (San Francisco and Singapore Campus)
Career
1991-2000 | Human Resource Director,The Wuthelam Group |
1993-2004 | Regional Managing Director/ Consultant, Centre For Effective Leadership (Asia) |
2000-2004 | Founding Chairman, Wecan (Worldwide Collaborations On Autism Needs) Training Arm Of Arc (Part-time Volunteer) |
2000-Present | School Supervisor, Acting Principal (Full-time Volunteer), Pathlight School |
2005-Present | President (Full-time Volunteer), Autism Resource Centre (Singapore) |
Present | School Supervisor, Eden School |
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Dear Friends
ReplyDeleteI am sending my friends this because I feel that it is important that
you hear what happened to me personally, and how Mr Lui reacted to me....
I'm now going to recount the dialogue word-for-word as it is still
clearly playing itself over and over in my head.
Me: Could you please tell me why I should vote for you?
Mr Lui: You should NOT vote for the Opposition because they ...
Me: The Opposition? No, I want to know about you. Please tell me why I
should vote for you.
Mr Lui: You should vote for the PAP because we ....
Me: The PAP? No, no. I'm not interested in the PAP or the Opposition.
I'm interested to know about you. Why should I vote for you?
At this point, Mr Lui shot me a look of pure anger, waved his hand
about in the air, declaring, "We could spend all night talking about
me!", pointed to the newsletter and snapped, "It's all in the the
newsletter!" He then swung round and stormed off.
I remember standing there, in total shock, wondering what on earth I
had done wrong to deserve such an intense reaction. I watched as he
couldn't get beyond two or three steps as he was stopped by someone
else wanting to meet him. I watched as he switched on his smile, said
a few polite words, thrust the newsletter into her hand and
disappeared, still angered. (Those who know me well, know I did my MA
in nonverbal language, and know how accurate I am with "vibes".) I
watched as his posse scurried after him, not one of them daring and/or
caring to turn to look at me or say goodbye, not one of them.
I had asked a simple question. I was not expecting rocket science for
an answer or any deep psychological profile to be shared. Just a
simple answer from the heart would have sufficed, or even a more
measured response. But not anger, never in a million years would I
have thought anyone would have, or could have, responded to my simple
question with anger.
And I feel sad. Sad that after all these years, what people have been
saying has finally been proven true to my face, literally. I then
turned to the Moulmein newsletter, ploughed through it in the hope
that perhaps there was a lot about Mr Lui in the newsletter. No, there
wasn't. Not a thing. Instead, I was left very impressed with the
Moulmein Citizens Consultative Committee, the various Neighbourhood
Committees and the Residents' Committees - all of which I am sure will
not disappear if there is a change in leadership.
So I sat down, and penned an email, which I have since sent, to Mr
Lui. I chose to be polite and measured in the email, and not angry nor
accusatory because to be angry would have been to stoop to Mr Lui's
response towards me, and that would not do anyone any good. If he's
going to continue as Minister (and it does look like he's on the PAP
fast-track if he's voted back in), then really, he needs to hear, he
needs to understand, he needs to be educated. And he needs to learn
how to answer simple, non-threatening questions!
It's such an irony that prior to the dissolution of Parliament, he was
the Minister for Information, Communications and the Arts.
You'll find the email below and Mr Lui's response (in reverse order).
PS: Please see exchange of emails in second post.
Exchange of email between Mr. Liu and voter (in reverse order). Continuation of previous post.
ReplyDelete---------- Forwarded message ----------
From: Tuck Yew LUI (MICA)
Date: 22 April 2011 16:53
Subject: Re: Moulmein Walkabout
To:
Dear - ,
I am sure this may not apply to you given that you have now taken the
trouble to write this note but unfortunately I encounter some people
whose minds are made up and whose main intent seem to be to slow us
down in our outreach. And nothing, we say, no explanation we give
whether to do with cost of living, etc will ever be good enough.
The pragmatic way to deal with this is simply to disengage at an
opportune moment.
Don’t worry, it didn’t leave a sour note with me nor a poor impression of you.
Regards,
Lui Tuck Yew
Sent from my iPad
On Apr 21, 2011, at 10:18 PM, "-" wrote:
Dear Mr Lui,
We met briefly at the walkabout at xxxxxxxxxx last evening.
Unfortunately, I seem to have upset and angered you which was not my
intention at all.
If I appeared rude or aggressive in any way, then I apologise. I don't
usually take too well to answers that are off-tangent, they tend to
confuse me, and I always re-direct answers back to my original
question which often means that I can appear too direct or clinical
and therefore somewhat aggressive. As a teacher by training, I have
always emphasised the importance and merits of listening carefully and
answering to the point questions that are addressed to my students.
I hope you understand that this is the first time in my life as a
Singaporean I may be asked to vote. I take that responsibility very,
VERY seriously, weighing all factors involved. Each political party
has its own aims and objectives and track record (or none where some
of the opposition are concerned) all of which I am very well aware of.
The ONE thing which is not clear, and which is difficult to determine,
is the individual politician - the person who will represent me in my
constituency. It is this individual politician that I am genuinely
interested to know. I need to know and understand what this individual
can bring to the table.
That is why I was so keen for you to convince me why I should vote for
you. Not why I should not vote for the opposition. Not why I should
vote PAP. But why I should vote for you. I was genuinely interested to
hear your answers. Instead, not only did I not get direct a reply from
you, I caused you to turn away in anger. Maybe it was the end of a
very long day for you, maybe my tone and questions threw you
off-centre. Either way, it left a sour note behind, I believe, for
both of us.
Right after you left, I immediately sat down to read the Moulmein
newsletter cover to cover (the bits in English) exactly as you
suggested I should do to find out more about you. Unfortunately, it
doesn't shed any light on your as an individual or as the leader of
Moulmein. It tells me instead about the wonderful grassroots teams and
wonderful committees that have come up with truly great ideas, which I
like very much. But it doesn't tell me about you. And so I am still
left clueless.
The questions I asked you will be the same questions I will be asking
whoever decides (if at all) to stand against you in the elections. If
the opposition candidate is equally stumped and/or angered by me, then
you can rest assured that I will be forced to find another way to come
to a decision well-thought through.
Before I end, I would like to stress that I am not against the PAP in
any way, nor am I for any particular opposition party. I am merely a
Singaporean, proud and excited at the thought of a chance at finally
being able to exercise my right to vote.
With Regards
---End of message----
If this is a typical example of the next generation of ministers who will rule Singapore, the average Singaporean will surely face greater and greater hardship going forward. So vote wisely for your children's sake.