The following article is taken from Today.
PN Balji
IN A country where lines get blurred in so many areas, Nominated MP aspirant Calvin Cheng’s decision not to resign his Young PAP membership the moment he launched his bid to enter Parliament is understandable.
If those lines were clearly drawn into our collective DNA, I am quite sure Mr Cheng would have officially cut his links with the youth wing of the ruling party the moment he had made up his mind that he wanted to enter Parliament.
He did that only after a Today report highlighted the issue on Wednesday.
This 34-year-old media entrepreneur must have felt all that was needed was to be honest and upfront with the high-level committee that sifts through NMP applications and picks people it thinks will make a contribution to debate in Parliament. Mr Cheng says that he told the committee he was an “inactive member” and that the committee did not question him on this.
In defending his decision subsequently, he said his Young PAP membership expired two years after he joined the political organisation in 2006 and that he never even bothered to pick up his membership card. Now here is the real rub. He joined the Young PAP out of … you need to be ready for this word … curiosity.
Let me quote from a letter he wrote to Today: “I joined YPAP in 2006 when I visited the Teck Ghee PAP branch with a friend, and I signed up out of curiosity. Due to many reasons, I never returned.”
My, my … what does this say of this intelligent young man who graduated from Oxford and wants to be a member of the highest and most august chamber in Singapore?
Shall we dismiss this curiosity episode as a case of boyish candour?
I would have not bothered much if Mr Cheng had added this line in his letter: Looking back, I realise how wrong I was to treat my application to join an organisation like the YPAP in such a cavalier manner.
The burden is now on Mr Cheng; he has to prove to Singaporeans that the decision by the Special Select Committee, which includes two ministers and several backbenchers, to pick him is not misplaced.
As for the Young PAP, perhaps it needs to make sure that the people who want to join it do so for the right reasons and not for whimsical reasons like curiosity.
A veteran journalist, P N Balji is now the director of the Asia Journalism Fellowship, a joint initiative by the Temasek Foundation and the Nanyang Technological University.
Read also: 5 out of 9 new NMPs list MM Lee as their “favourite politician”.
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Mr Calvin Cheng in the Straits Times:
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we should grill e select commitee! Did they picked him out of curiosity as well?
I will still hold my guns on Calvin’s performance although I am curious why his YPAP membership did not ring an alarm among the NMP Selection Committee members since NMPs are supposed to be non-partisan. We need more transparency on the NMP selection process.
Hi Andrew Loh #3,
What about the other NMP Terry Lee? He is the President of the Singapore Insurance Employee’s Union and a member of the NTUC Central Committee. I find it hard to believe that a high-ranking NTUC member is not a PAP cadre.
It is understandable that NMPs are not the anti gahmen type, in the likes of Chee Soon Juan, Tang Liang Hong or JBJ. I think they would not even have passed the first screening.
You must also understand that not many people, if at all , who really want to speak up and make a difference want to be an NMP. Because it would be futile to do it as an NMP.
Hence in order to fill the quota for NMPs, they will have to choose the “best available”. Hence don’t be surprised by the choices.
Sorry I deleted my comments accidentally. Here was what i said:
Calvin Cheng’s name was submitted by the Select Committee to the president on 6 July.
On the same day, 6 July, the list of new NMPs was approved.
He resigned from the Young PAP on 9 July – after his name was approved.
Would he have resigned from the Young PAP if he had not been appointed as NMP? And if he was just an “inactive member” of the Young PAP, why did it take so long for him to resign – after he has been appointed NMP, in fact?
Beginning to see the doubts in some of the NMP selection. Alternative voices looks like another wayang kulit. There are always some connection with PAP. Conflict of interest starts to creep in. If one of the NMP’s would be Mr.Tan Kin Lian, I would garantee you, people would immediately have faith in him, not only as an alternative voice, but and opposition voice. Similiar to Mr. Siew Kum Hong’s pattern of speech or Ms Slyvia Lim. NMP must ask serious, strong and impactful questions for the government to answer.
Mr. Siew KH and Ms. Slyvia Lim have quite set the bar on questioning or government, I hope these NMPs not just give us a wayang show. Do it with conviction and for the reason of ensuring that they are voices for the weak, the monority, and building a democratic society to be upheld.
Be a first world politican. Prove to society that YOU ARE NOT like that of those MPs who doze off in parliment, who are third world politicians, who are elitist and who are there to take cover behind other MPs.
Alternative voices… We’ll put your actions to the test.
i suppose young PAP is his backup? what do young PAPers do? suck more money?
But after all said. It’s still better to vote in the opposition. :)
Mr. Siew KH and Ms. Slyvia Lim – it’s a shame other NMPs fought little for the masses but only for own benefits and vendettas. i saw online Ms. Jessie Phua spoke the least and attended the least gahmen debates for 2006-2008!
http://www.yawningbread.org/apdx_2009/imp-400.htm
Jessie Phua spoke or asked questions 11 times
Feb 2009 Budget – Min of Community devt, Youth and Sports
Mar 2008 Budget – Min of Education
Feb 2008 Foreign Sports Talents Scheme
Jan 2008 Singapore rowers and national athletes (review of saftey rules and insurance coverage)
Apr 2007 Application for citizenship by foreign athletes
Apr 2007 Male students re-taking GCE A-level (deferment or disruption from National Service)
Mar 2007 Budget – Min of Community devt, Youth and Sports
Mar 2007 Budget – Min of Education
Feb 2007 Budget statement
just quoting, anybody can verify this or is this a joke? i don’t quite believe.
https://www.blogger.com/comment.g?blogID=5117322363621668228&postID=8634672033000517794
“Anonymous said…
Wow can’t believe it!
the other troll, The Lady Melissa is actually one of the new nominated members of parliament (NMP) hahaha
Well granted, he is an Oxford PPE graduate..
July 11, 2009 9:27 PM”
http://theladymelissa.blogspot.com/
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aL8YkIQB3IY
explicitly hints at the identity of the elitist blogger.
NMP scheme is just training ground to give disqueit and aspiring young pap members opportunity to show their talent in parliament so as to keep them entrenched in the party, so no question of them leaving the party after their curiosity dies down. At the same time, pap can cherry pick to field them in the next election. Very shrewd move by the young lee, no wonder he propose NMP to be permanent forever.
If NMP Scheme is used to piggyback PAP cadres into Parliament, this smacks of the Chinese-style one-party state. Bye bye democracy.
People might be interested NMP Terry Lee’s involvement in the Labour Movement. Looking at this record, I find it hard to believe he was not a PAP cadre and whether he remains to be a PAP cadre.
1982- President, Singapore Insurance Employees’ Union
1997- Member, NTUC Central Committee
2006-2009 Board Member, Central Provident Fund Board
1996-1997, 2009-2010 Member, Industrial Arbitration Court Employee Panel
2009-2010 Member, National Wages Council
2009 Chairman, NTUC May Day Dinner
2008-2011 Vice-Chairman, NTUC Scarlet City
2007- Member, CPF Life
2007- Member, Tripartite Implementation Workgroup on the Employability of Older Workers
2007-2011 Co-Chairman, NTUC Membership Committee
2007-2011 Co-Chairman, NTUC Industrial Relations Committee
2003-2007 Chairman, NTUC Jobs and Productivity
2003-2007 Vice-Chairman, NTUC Membership Committee
1998-2002 Member, Singapore Productivity and Standards Board
2002-2003 Member, Medifund Advisory Council
1998-1999 Member, Government Parliamentary Committee for Labour
at the end of the day..i think his agenda is not unlike someone b4…to elevate himself in the social high flyers arena..improve our self image? my foot!
NMP is supposed to be a gd scheme. However, if the selection are for thsoe with similar thoughts with the MP, it fails to do what it sets out to be. Allowing alternative voices. I am dissappointed that SkH are not appt again for the 2nd term. And if the parliament debate ends up singing the same songs by the NMP and the MPs, it is really just another wayang show.
Well I guess at the end, it is our vote of confidence to the party that really counts, isn’t it. SG has become mature and sophisticated. If this persists, i think it is possible that the rating is just continue to slide futher. For that, time will tell.
we like to complain about singapore environment doesn’t encourage young people to be politically active. from the comments above, it seems like it’s not the government that’s being harsh on engaged youth, but his fellow peers.
let’s say an engaged youth feels sufficiently interested / curious about politics to bother signing up for a political party.
scenario 1: he joins YP. he is active in it. he has some views that are critical of PAP that he wants to take to a higher level. he applies to be an NMP. the select committee lets him through. the people doesn’t — labels him as partisan, boos him off the NMP stage.
scenario 2: he joins YP. he is not active in it as he found it not be suitable for him. he applies to be an NMP. the select committee lets him through. the people doesn’t. same as above.
scenario 3: he joins workers’ party youth wing. he is active in it. he applies to be an NMP. the select committee lets him through. the people applauds him. forget about double-standards.
anyhow i think it’s what the nmp say in parliament that’s important, not where they come from. after all, we have Minister who came from Roundtable, aka roughly an offline version of TOC, who are now saying more conservative things than his fellow ministers.
PAP’s credibility is being torn to shreds in the Internet Age.
I’ve torn the Police Force’s credibility to shreds,and am now in the process of tearing IMH’s credibility to shreds. :D
this young man is smart, he joined ypap to forward his career, now he just have to suck up at parliament sessions as nmp…woah.. great way to grow his status and business.
Did he hide his PAP membership or did the select committee ask about his past PAP membership? Hmmmm Does it matter? :)
this guy is indeed shrewd. but hey, he did not list MM LEE as his favorite politician. besides, Oxford educated should be 10 times smarter and perform 10 times better than his locally ed critics here.
aiyoyo
another abang scenario?
tired of these type of elites,
not sure how next generation going to survive the world outside red dot?
aiyoyo
Did they ever state WHO were on the selection committee?
I fear that the selection committee wasn’t “independent” in the first place.
How would a “independent” selection committee selection “independent” NMP then?
I’m sure the sequence of events would have been exactly the same if it was Young WP instead of Young PAP…
I had included tags for sarcasm in my earlier post but they did not appear… fellow readers, please take note.
If he is not from Oxford will he be selected?
Another case of putting eliteism above passion.
We dont need more elite just people with a heart to serve others. They must also have stay in HDB before and take buses/MRT to work.
I always wonder how the elite can understand the aspiration and struggles of the common people?
They dont even know the smell of a pink slip in the letter box asking for town council or phone bill payment!
Must change name card to include Nominated MP below name. At least for a few years. Prestigious!
After all, how many only? Limited collection what. Including elected single seat MPs, elected GRC (ride on coat-tails) MPs, walkover MPs, opposition MPs, NCMPs, NMPs less than 100 only in the whole of Singapore!
Isn’t it prestigious?
boy oh boy……the name list of Nominated MPs are getting “exciting”.
PAP is always looking out for “immaculate candidate” with “immaculate family members”.
If then, how is Jocelyn Yeo & Beatrice Chia got nominated? (Maybe desperately to fill the quotas as someone mentioned).
1) Jocelyn Yeo (former swimmer): Her dad was convicted for molesting.
2) Beatrice Chia: Her husband, Mark was ex-husband of Vernetta Lopez.
It might not matter to the public if they are just any ordinary people but in PAP politics, it Does.
Who are the panel of judges for NMP?….It’s better for them to judge Singapore Idol instead.
24) Gilbert Goh
///We dont need more elite just people with a heart to serve others. They must also have stay in HDB before and take buses/MRT to work.
I always wonder how the elite can understand the aspiration and struggles of the common people?
They dont even know the smell of a pink slip in the letter box asking for town council or phone bill payment!/////
Ya, it is good they have walk the path to know. “You never know what it is like until you are in one’s shoe and walk around in it” as Atticus said in To Kill A Mockingbird.
But I wonder Kenneth Jeyaratnam (the one currently being hero-worhipped on the other TOC topic), CSJ (the one now safely exiled in another country and taking pot shots at us stupid cowardly people who stayed behind), et al, also lived in HDB and take the bus etc?
Can the forumer help check NMP Joscelin Yeo. Is she one of the grand child of Wee Kim Wee?
I agree with Gilbert.
As a leader, you need to have a vision and perhaps, the interview could have done more justice by asking about the visions of the nominated people.
His biggest achievement was to enter Oxford; I wonder how well he is able to relate to people.
I also wonder, what would be the effect of all NMPs coming from Young PAP or PAP related background in terms of ….. well, i am sure u all know what i mean….
Whoa! YPAP membership must have been ticket/passport to NMP post lah!
What’s wrong with curiosity? you guys are making too big a fuss out of this.
I think there’s comcerned that he joined NMP out of curiousity too. Or to further a personal agenda.
why he did not just want to run for real election and dnt be a nmp?
or pap have not chose him yet for the real election?
CURIOSITY IS A GOOD THING DUDES.
just like a visa card…members do have privileges…
I think he told select committee he was an inactive member and they didnt think it was a problem. Low thia kiang is one of the members, wonder whether he opposed it.
anyway, balji’s article is stupid and childish…to pick up on the word curious and hammer it. curiosity is a good thing like pple here said.
good 1, now all jobseekers should also say the same when asked: “why do you want to join this company?”
:)
You people worry too much. The new batch Pappies-appointed NMPs might just ask wonderful and practical questions.
Question such as :
- How come we don’t have street, road and MRT after LKY, GCT, HoJinx and Sissy Loong ?
- HoJinx has graciously stepped down, shouldn’t we award her medals for her great contribution to Singapore reserves ? I mean if it is others running Temasek, we will have lost all our reserves. The fact that she only lost few billions in our reserves show how smart and business-savvy Hojinx is.
- How come we only lost $58 billions by Temasek holding not $100 billions ? Doesn’t that mean Temasek still conservative and do well within its benchmark ?
- How come our government is so kind to give rebates and progressive package ? Will that not develop crutch mentality for the citizens ? The citizens are not elite not us who will not develop complacency and crutch mentality. We are highly educated and worth every penny compare to the pathetic citizen.
- How come the gahmen’s salary on the whole, including me, NMP’s salary, still not look as attractive as the private sector ? Can we peg it against the private sector just like our ministers ?
- How come the citizen like to complain and whin about minister’pay and NMP’s pay ? Shouldn’t we come out law to arrest those who repeatedly question the garmen’s moral right and entitlement to unlimited paycheck ?
- The MRT is still not packed like sardine, can we request government to allow more foreigners here to improve the GDP as well as to make each trip of MRT fully utilized ?
- Most importantly, when is the gahmen’s next salary increase, and how much ? The more the better, least we get corrupted.
Your honour, with that kind of high-quality questions asked, no wonder the NMP’s scheme will ever be so successful ! And the questions asked are so much better than those of ex-NMP Siew !
Bugger replied in a letter to TODAY to defend his position and mildly attack Balji.
He tried to first do damage control by saying he personally told Teo Ser Luck of his intention to resign and tried to get the resignation done the night of the interview. Then he says logistical problems such as not knowing which branch and already night time so cannot get it done in time. Sounds more like an appeal letter that offers lame excuses, IMHO.
Then he goes on to write an essay about curiosity – defining it and adding quotation after quotation – before concluding that curiosity is a necessary human trait.
Fella misses the point (intentionally?) that Balji’s critique is about the fact that any curiosity should have been to find out about Young PAP BEFORE joining and not join as a member only in name. A curious but sincere person would have terminated their membership once they realised they could not contribute – for whatever reasons. Same goes for the NMP position, you need to go in with a firm position yourself and not for pupilage purposes, otherwise the term of office (2 years) is just for learning – which is a waste of the seat and taxpayers’ money.
I also noticed that for all his essay-writing skills, he did not elaborate on the ‘civic groups’ he ‘got busy with’ that prevented him from being actively involved in the Young PAP – one can only speculate that either there were none or they were hardly significant involvement.
Overall, not a good impression as this newly minted NMP of questionable impartiality has preferred to defend his words and actions when shit hit the fan rather than be honest and forthcoming with the details.
This guy’s answer is so superficial. Why not he just be honest and tell us that he just want money in the bank and maybe we will understand.
Notice that this guy stresses his Oxford University degree. He wants to project the image that he is “smart”. I think he wants to command respect from people.
Why wasn’t Mr Tan Kin Lian nominated??? Is PAP afraid that he may grill them in Parliament?? This NMP scheme is all a big wayang….to ensure that PAP stays in power.
#41) Daniel
Daniel, this guy can’t even bluff professionally, wonder how he can even get himself into parliament to talk, maybe just trying to fill up those vacant seats only lah.
The select committee is composed almost of PAP. Who heads the committee? Why the PAP controlled media is silent over this important question that lingers in the minds of the people?
The NMP scheme is anachronistic, going back to the British rule when successful local businessmen/cronies were appointed by their colonial masters to legislative councils/assemblies to check the surging tide from the people for freedom and democracy.
Similarly, the PAP autocrats are trying their level best to postpone the yearning of the citizens for a open, forward looking, creative and innovative society. .
“It is understandable that NMPs are not the anti gahmen type, in the likes of Chee Soon Juan, Tang Liang Hong or JBJ. I think they would not even have passed the first screening”: Nothing surprising.
The point is this: that being a part of the PAP (via its many tentacles) is the first step to passing the screening test.
All in all, we should not even be discussing the NMPs. Who can say with certainty that having the NMPs is what the citizens want? I sincerely hope former NMPs like Jessie Phua and Siew Kum Hong can put this to the test by standing for the next election as independent candidates. This will be a good gauge to see what the citizens think of the NMPs and whether these NMPs have made a difference to their well-being that are worth crowing about. What’s the point of being paid to question the government if that is all they do in their years in office?
No JC, NMP was never a good scheme for the people. It is only good for the government – to hoodwink us into believing that they care enough to listen to alternative views.
ruka ; being curious and signing up with a political party is very much different from being curious and get selected to be an NMP. Wise people have taught us that “curiosity kills the cat”. Will his curiosity as an NMP kill the people? I worry.
This dude is smart and knows where his bread is buttered. If he really
want to contribute to the political discourse and development, why join
the PAP? He should be an activist with WP or even better the SDP. He must have
thought there must be some beneficts derived by joining the ruling party and also
believe in their party politics. I don’t buy that he join out of curiosity.
Perhaps,when he wasn’t invited for tea, the next best thing would be the
backdoor NMP.
Hello brothers / Sisters, just let him continue to do wayang in the parliament or call him to step down now. A show is a show in this scheme. So remember to vote for opposition in this coming election.
It is now so obvious that the emperor will not want to listen to those who dare to tell him that he has no clothes on. So he banished those truthful and patriotic souls and surround himself with yes-man opportunists. Sad very sad indeed that the once mighty PAP has to stoop so low to cling onto power. They have not only lost their moral high ground, they are playing cheats.
tiredsingaporean ,
“Daniel, this guy can’t even bluff professionally, wonder how he can even get himself into parliament to talk, maybe just trying to fill up those vacant seats only lah.”
but then since when the PAP cronies and sycophant manages to bluff convincingly. The only time they can bluff pathetically is in the Kangaroo Times, aka Shitty Times. In the web, all their lies and bluff can expose easily and we doesn’t even need a university degree to expose them, let’s alone a Oxford one.
“wonder how he can even get himself into parliament to talk,”
Hmmm, since our clowns like to worship those from prestigious university, he will have no problem seeking attention. All he need to do is to follow Thio Su Mien’s footstep stating her credentials asserting why she deserves attention and respect. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zWNfkA-vVNo
he can just say:
“Just listen to me. I deserve to be heard and respect because I appear in Page 73 of some Oxford’s book. I am Oxford Alumni today, tomorrow and in history.”
Where is his humility?