‘Leaders must be able to take criticism, acknowledge mistakes’: PM Lee

[SMGG]

Originally Posted by stardawn

I wonder why the current PAP government don't even respect their supreme leader's last wish ? If that is the case why should we vote for the PAP ? After all we all great respect for the supreme leader and his team who dedicated their lives in building up the modern Singapore .

fully agree bro, well said

[bonk69]

No good for the future of SG if this news keep on and on without solution

[DisGraceFool]

It really makes me sick how can someone can question his father's will and wishes . It is a big disgrace to the legacy of the LKY .

[ChefJustineQuak]

Originally Posted by bonk69

No good for the future of SG if this news keep on and on without solution

As long as the whites are in power, there is no future

[skyleon]

Q&A: Lee Kuan Yew's legacy, Singapore's future and a family feud

Li Shengwu, the grandson of Singapore's first PM, discusses LKY's legacy and the future of the wealthy island state.



by Lynn Lee and James Leong

4 Apr 2018



The rich and modern metropolis of Singapore is frequently described as an "economic miracle".

When Lee Kuan Yew, the principal architect and first prime minister of the wealthy island state, died in 2015, over a million Singaporean residents turned out to honour his memory and his accomplishments - not the least of was the creation of an effective and largely incorrupt government and civil service, which proved a huge magnet to foreign investors.

But with economic pressures increasing amid a growing appetite for greater democracy, Lee Kuan Yew's complex legacy is coming under scrutiny.

That scrutiny has been given an extra edge over the past few months because of a bitter family dispute between Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong and his two younger siblings about what should happen to the house in which Lee spent most of his life.

This week, a ministerial committee laid out a range of options for the Oxley Road property. But Lee's younger children insist their father was unwavering about wanting the house demolished after his death.

Li Shengwu, who works as an economist at Harvard University in Cambridge, Massachusetts, is the son of Lee Hsien Loong's younger brother, Lee Hsien Yang. Three years after his grandfather's death, Li talks to People & Power about the family feud, Singapore politics and LKY's legacy.

Al Jazeera: Singaporeans first got wind of the family dispute when your father put up a Facebook post titled, "What has happened to Lee Kuan Yew's values?". What were your grandfather's values?

Li Shengwu: You know, it [Singapore] is not sort of robustly democratic, right? There's not great political competition, but at the very least there's got to be competent excellence, there's got to be rule of law, and there's got to be very strict separation of the personal and the public. I think the worry is that this is being eroded quite substantially.

Al Jazeera: Your grandfather didn't really believe in political competition.


Family members at Lee Kuan Yew's state funeral in 2015 [The Associated Press]

Li Shengwu: I think the fair thing to say is that he believed in political competition as a very last resort. He didn't want a model where there were multiple parties, where the parties took turns governing.

But there should be elections - if genuinely everything is going wrong then people should throw one set of politicians out. And that threat ... should serve to discipline the party and keep it from abusing power.

I think the question is whether or not that's a sustainable model. And in particular one worries if the very strong control of the present Singapore, the current legislative supermajority, allows for constitutional changes. All of these things very substantially mute the effects of electoral competition.

Al Jazeera: In your eulogy to your grandfather you spoke about the rule of law and about your grandfather's desire not to have monuments to him. Was it because you believed that certain things would happen?


continue reading here : https://www.aljazeera.com/indepth/fe...071247008.html

[FireDisco]

Simi wealthy island state? Should be called wealthy leaders island state

[bonk69]

Dont make our great leader jump out from his grave and broke in tears again please

[angryface]

I angry at people who always like to complain about PAP but yet they still vote for them .

[wmubygg]

Originally Posted by angryface

I angry at people who always like to complain about PAP but yet they still vote for them .

I angry at people who angry at people who always like to complain about PAP but yet still vote for them .

[skyleon]

Lee Hsien Loong: I can track a person anywhere through the telcos

April 5, 2018


Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong revealed in his response to a student’s question on the government’s collection of individual’s data, that he is able to track a person anywhere in Singapore through the telecommunication companies like Singtel, Starhub and M1:

“Telcos in Singapore know where the concentrations of people are and where they are going. Can we make use of that without tracing this person, with this name … I saw him at this place with this other person …?”

The dictator PM told the students to trust his government to be “ethical” when using the data and that he knows “what he want to do”:

“I think we know what we want to do. How to do it in a way which people find okay, and in a way which is safe … I think we have to feel our way forward… We want to make full use of the information we have in order to improve people’s lives, improve the way our society works, to make it a safer environment for everybody. At the same time, you do not want to do it in a way which is overbearing, intrusive, which is unethical.”

Lee Hsien Loong also revealed that he has been setting up CCTVs in every corner of Singapore to know if there has been a protest in Singapore:

“The Government has placed CCTVs in many public places like void decks, lift lobbies and HDB blocks. We need to know what’s happening in public places, in case there’s a riot or an emergency, we can respond straightaway.”


continue reading here : http://statestimesreview.com/2018/04...gh-the-telcos/

[skyleon]

SDP: PAP does not need to purposely let opposition grow, just respect consitution

Published on 2018-04-06 by The Online Citizen


by Singapore Democratic Party

PM Lee Hsien Loong says that it is not wise for the PAP to “purposely” let the opposition grow. This disingenuous statement must be called out.

To be absolutely clear, the opposition, in the form of the Barisan Sosialis (BS), was strong and had the support of Singaporeans. The PAP, with the cooperation of the British colonial government, had to place BS leaders under mass arrests and detain them without trial in order to remain in power.

Since then, the PAP has undertaken a myriad of anti-democratic measures to ensure that the opposition remains hobbled and unable to challenge it for power.

The withering punishment of news organisations and journalists, and the amendments to the Newspaper and Printing Presses Act through the years reduced a once vibrant mass media to that of officialdom's cheerleaders. Little wonder that they are ranked 151st in the World Press Freedom Index 2017 – a position sandwiched between Ethiopia and Swaziland.

Trade unions and civil society were similarly destroyed leaving an impotent NTUC controlled by ministers. In their place, the government has politicised the People's Association, plying it with enormous sums of money to carry water for the party.

Election laws have been repeatedly altered and the constitution amended to ensure the PAP's continued hegemony. The introduction of the GRC system is but just one instance, allowing the PAP even greater latitude to gerrymander with impunity.

Now the government is arguing that a by-election need not be called if an MP in a GRC resigns, even if she is from the minority race.


continue reading here : https://www.theonlinecitizen.com/201...t-consitution/

[skyleon]

The Greatest Threat to Lee Kuan Yew’s Legacy

April 7, 2018
By Augustine Low

It was meant to damn Thum Ping Tjin and exonerate Lee Kuan Yew. But it achieved neither – as far as the court of public opinion is concerned. Instead the now infamous six-hour grilling of Thum by Minister K Shanmugam has raised more questions than answers.

To begin with, where does Shanmugam and the PAP draw the line? Thum was giving testimony at a Select Committee hearing, he was not being indicted in a court of law. The grilling and interrogation he was subjected to seemed spiteful at times.

Shanmugam as tormentor-in-chief went the whole hog to dubunk allegations about Operation Coldstore. But what about Operation Spectrum, where 22 people were arrested and detained without trial in 1987 for alleged involvement in a Marxist Conspiracy? That is shrouded in even greater controversy and represents a more clear-cut case of injustice, to many people.

Why didn’t Shanmugam delve into Operation Spectrum, which Thum has also deemed fake news? Because he had less ammunition? Because he ran out of time?

Next, we have the question of whether Lee Kuan Yew is above criticism and reproach. Is he a man without human frailties, a man who has done no wrong? It would appear that the PAP thinks it is so, going by how rigorously he is defended, the adulatory speeches made and the PAP-sanctioned books published.

But plough through biographies and psychological portraits of great political leaders and you will find that they are invariably complex personalities with a darker side. Consumed by ambition, they ascended to the heights by mastering and applying the necessary tools of statecraft – by turns cunning, scheming and calculating, at times devious and manipulative.

Is Lee Kuan Yew above the fray? Is he a paragon of virtue? Donning the cloak of self-righteous indignation whenever his behaviour or actions are called into question is not a magic bullet for Shanmugam and the PAP.

Another question that begs to be asked: Can the likes of Thum Ping Tjin taint the reputation and legacy of Lee Kuan Yew through their allegations?

I would submit that the greatest threat to the legacy of Lee Kuan Yew comes NOT from charlatans like Amos Yee and critics like Thum but from within, from the Lee family itself.

The ministerial committee for 38 Oxley Road has outlined three broad options for the property. This is nothing more than buying time and kicking the can down the road. It merely prolongs the saga and things could still implode anytime.

As long as there is bickering over the fate of 38 Oxley Road, as long as PM Lee Hsien Loong refuses to accept the finality of his father’s last will and testament, as long as Lee Hsien Yang and Lee Suet Fern remain in self-exile, as long as Li Shengwu is unable or unwilling to return home because of contempt of court proceedings against him, as long as Lee Wei Ling simmers with discontent, we have the House of Lee in tatters. And that remains the greatest threat undermining the legacy of Lee Kuan Yew.



continue reading here : http://theindependent.sg/the-greates...n-yews-legacy/

[skyleon]

An evaluation of PAP’s mid-term performance: The quality of political leaders (Part 2)

Published on 2018-04-07 by The Online Citizen


by Kwok Fangjie

Last week, I had argued that we were already mid-way into the current Parliamentary term and the People's Action Party (PAP) did not do well in terms of bread and butter issues. This week, I will look at things from a different angle – the quality of today's political leaders.

As Dr. Gillian Koh from the Institute of Policy Studies noted, the younger generation of political leaders will need to navigate the country in a more complex global landscape. Given so, would the younger Cabinet members be ready to take on such a challenge in steering Singapore to greater heights?

How effective has Singapore become under our highly paid 4G leaders?

The lack of planning by the government cannot be more aptly seen in the hospital bed shortage. While the number of hospital beds grew by 2500 from 1980 to 2014, the population grew by more than 3 million in the same period. The quality of healthcare has similarly declined, with 22 patients infected from a hepatitis C outbreak at Singapore General Hospital in 2015.

Although this problem has been partially alleviated with the upcoming Sengkang General Hospital, this predicament simply cannot be imagined during the era of the 1G PAP leaders? A similar situation was present in the supply of HDB flats although I will not go further into that topic.

In July 2017, transport minister Khaw Boon Wan claimed in a forum that train reliability has improved three times since he took over from Minister Lui Tuck Yew. Less than 4 months later, the worst breakdown happened due to flooding as a result of falsified maintenance.

While he chided the CEO in his ministerial speech, there was no further action taken against top management despite calls for the CEO to resign. This is again in contrast to Lee Kuan Yew's stance that "Everything.. just has to work. If it doesn't work, I want to know why, and if I am not satisfied, and I was often not, the chief goes and I have to find another chief. Firing the chief is very simple"


continue reading here : https://www.theonlinecitizen.com/201...eaders-part-2/

[skyleon]

High court dismisses application for by-election to be held in Marsiling-Yew Tee GRC

PUBLISHED 2 HOURS AGO UPDATED 1 HOUR AGO

Yuen Sin


SINGAPORE - The High Court has dismissed a legal challenge that called for three MPs to vacate their spots in Marsiling-Yew Tee GRC, and for a by-election to be held.

Singapore Democratic Party (SDP) assistant treasurer Wong Souk Yee had made the application to the High Court after Madam Halimah Yacob resigned as an MP from the constituency to run in the September presidential election, which she won in a walkover.

Speaking to reporters after the ruling, SDP chairman Paul Tambyah said that SDP is "very disappointed" with the ruling. The party will study the judgment and consult with Dr Wong and her lawyer Peter Low on whether to appeal against it.

In his ruling on Monday (April 9), Justice Chua Lee Ming said that there is no legal provision for the sitting MPs in a GRC to be compelled to vacate their seats in Parliament, when only one spot has been left empty in their GRC.

He also disagreed with Dr Wong's lawyer Peter Low, who claimed there was inconsistency between the Constitution and the Parliamentary Elections Act.

Mr Low argued that if a by-election cannot be ordered, the Parliamentary Elections Act should be interpreted such that all MPs of the GRC have to leave their spots when one or more seats are left empty, or when no remaining MP is a minority candidate.

He cited Article 49(1) of the Constitution, which states that when "the seat of a Member... has become vacant for any reason other than a dissolution of Parliament, the vacancy shall be filled by election".

Need to prove legal basis to call for Marsiling-Yew Tee by-election: AGC
But the judge, who heard the application on January 22, rejected such an interpretation of Article 49(1). The alleged inconsistency between the Constitution and the Parliamentary Elections Act does not stand, said Justice Chua in his ruling, and the rest of the MPs in the GRC are not required to vacate their seats in such a situation.

He was not persuaded by Mr Low, who argued that Article 49(1) of the Constitution does not include the requirement that a by-election can only be called if all seats of the GRC fall vacant.


continue reading here : http://www.straitstimes.com/singapor...ng-yew-tee-grc


See told you guys your case will surely be thrown out .

[Snell]

I pity the residents of Marsiling . Got no MP to represent them in parliament .