From Channel Newsasia:
Singapore’s Electoral Boundaries Review Committee convened
By S Ramesh
HANOI: Singapore’s Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong says the Electoral Boundaries Review Committee has been convened.
Typically, the prime minister appoints the committee just before a General Election to review the electoral division boundaries and recommend changes.
The committee examines the growth of the voter population from the last General Election and recommends the number of Group Representation Constituencies (GRCs) and single-member constituencies (SMCs) and their boundaries.
Speaking to the Singapore media on the sidelines of the ASEAN Summit in Hanoi on Saturday, Mr Lee said he has issued the instruction to convene the committee and it is being chaired by the Secretary to the Cabinet, Tan Kee Yong.
Prime Minister Lee’s revelation comes hot on the heels of a speech made by Senior Minister Goh Chok Tong on Friday at a university forum that the political buzz will increase in Singapore as many Singaporeans believe that the General Election will be held later this year or early next year.
Prime Minister Lee weighed in with this to say: “I don’t think it is any surprise. Elections are due some time before February 2012, so if you haven’t got the signal by now, something must be wrong with you.”
On when the report by the Electoral Boundaries Review Committee would be out, Mr Lee said Singaporeans would have to wait and see.
The release of the report is seen as one of the clearest signals of a General Election around the corner.
For the 2006 General Election, the report was released about seven weeks before Nomination Day.
With changes to the Parliamentary Elections Act in Singapore to increase the number of SMCs from the current nine to 12, and to reduce the size of some of the GRCs, especially the ones with six MPs currently, the final report of the Electoral Boundaries Review Committee would be very much looked out for by current Members of Parliament and the opposition parties, some of whom have already been reserving the GRCs which they want to contest in.
Prime Minister Lee also revealed that he expects to bring in quite a number of new candidates and several potential office holders to contest in the upcoming elections.
He said: “I expect to bring in quite a number of new candidates and several potential office holders and they will strengthen my leadership team.
“But I am not announcing elections today. But there will be time to introduce them and get to know them.”
On the latest Cabinet revamp announced by him on Wednesday, before he left for the Hanoi summit, Mr Lee said it is a reshuffle with the cards which the government presently has.
He said: “It’s a reshuffle with the cards which we presently have. For the ministers, as I said in my comment, it is a logical consequence or move which we set a couple of years ago when I appointed Lui Tuck Yew as Acting Minister and when I brought in Shanmugam as the Law Minister and Second Minister for Home Affairs. So gradually we are bringing them into positions and putting them in place.
“(For the) Parliamentary Secretaries, (their promotions) is a reward for performance and contributions. They are all deserving and I think they will continue to work hard in the same portfolios they have been hitherto, because I haven’t reshuffled them. Beyond that, we will wait till I bring in new cards, which means I bring in new candidates, which will be in the general election.”
Singapore’s leaders have said that out of the next General Election, the country must produce Singapore’s fourth Prime Minister and a core team of younger Ministers who will take over from the present team.
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Looks like it is the beginning of the end of PAP rule. Thanks God for that.
Please don’t reshuffle the cards, burn them instead.
We have found a new candidate who has the potential to be the 4th Prime Ministar He is one of my sons. If you don’t get the hint by now, something must be wrong with you.
Looks like someone from Sinda might be joining in the party soon.(my assumption)
I am quite surprised by GCT’s speech as picking a new PM, when the present team can’t even solve the problems at hand.
The reactive nature they have for what they earn.
Shows how well they are connected to the ground. Seems like another deflection.
i think the pack of cards will only grow bigger, maybe that’s why ERP increase? old cards got upgraded, new cards come on board.
just in time for the old “birds” to avoid any form of accountability when alternative parties make that a rallying point. but this itself can be made a rallying point, why vote for a party that does not take any responsibility? they can also use this as a reason to give the new team a chance to prove themselves.
why put people in position of power when they are not keen to serve the people? have the current team brought any improvement to your lives?
Jeez, watching the pm go through an interview is like watching a blind bull run around inside a china shop. so rude and ineloquent.
You CAN promote all the pap mp to minister it doesnt matter but i got a feeling yOu will get a surprise gift by LOYAL singaporeans very soon
Singapore now is no longer a nation that trust its ruling party. In the past few years, we witnessed the ruthless Leegime ruining the life of many Singaporeans with many problems coming in host. 40% of our land now has foreigners clinging on tightly giving us very little breather. Their arrogance were well supported and rewarded by PAP who brought them in to dilute Singaporeans power. This election is indeed a watershed, it is a day Singaporeans versus PAP. It is us survive or they survive. There is no compromise when every single livelihood is at stake under the hand of PAP. Vote PAP OUT!!! or lose all the lifetime of chance for betterment of our Singaporean comrades.
Smoke screen detected. Isnt the Presidential Election due 1st before the GE? Nathan got ‘elected’ in 2005 just before GE 2006. And the ruling party is known to have a liking for using the PE to test the ground for a GE. or has the ground soured so much that they already expect what they’re gonna get and thus are entering damange control mode?
I not only want a change in govt.
I want a brand new President and not a 3rd term PAP crony whose been living it up for almost 12yrs now.
“I really don’t know what I’m defending the country for”.
I couldn’t agree more.
As I feel I will no longer be any better off if PAP wins, why would I vote for PAP ?
Why Feb 2012 when IT HAS BEEN EVERY Years and the last GE in 2006 was his first as PM losing 1/3 to newbie Opposition and young candidates? Has LHL insidously changed the GE rules during his term and lengthen it to SIX Years instead?
2012 minus 2006 = 6 years Mr. Mathematician Statistician okay!
The ruling party has no choice but to call for elections either Dec 2010 or by early 2011, so as to avoid clashing with the Presidential elections.
I read the situation as PAP not going in with a very good hand.
The key issue appears to the Foreigner issue, namely the indiscriminate import of foreigners, which has resulted in wage suppression, and chronic unemployment situation amongst PMETs who were unfortunately retrenched in their 40s.
I predict a nationwide groundswing of at least 7% against the PAP.
I believe in the ability of the PAP.
However, for this election me and my relatives are voting for the opposition so as to spur them on to be better.
OR as someone put it the spurs are not stuck into the PAP’s hide.
The PAP have indeed a thick hide to over-pay themselves and having so many senior ministers drawing million-dollar salaries.
7% drop in votes for the pigs is nothing.
It will not change anything.
We need more opposition MPs.
They will drive the pigs to work for singapore.
They are easily change unlike the pigs.
They are not expensive.
And we need to get rid of the many lazy pigs and expensive pigs in the current govt.
Santa
I know it is still early to wish or christmas. But please please hear me, I wish that the election will give PAP a rude shock. And most importantly LkY will suffer a heart attack after knowing the result. So he could join his wife to complete their loving story.
So that everything come to a full circle. Thanks
@SC, you may still believe in the “ability” of the PAP. But I don’t because they only the materials things to show for and none else. Because all of their other ‘humanity’ stuff on offered have always been mostly showcasings.
Just try to help someone to get in Legal Aid Bureau and you’ll find out more. Try MCYS too. And did you know that it was…
1. Social Welfare Dept inherited from the British who DID really help the poor? So it WAS the “SWD”!
2. It then became The Ministry of Community DDEVELOPMENT And so was the MCD!
3. And then The Ministry of Community DEVELOPMENT Youth and Sports? And so was the MCDYS!
4. And now it is the Ministry of Community Youth and Sports? And so is now MCYS but without the DEVELOPMENT FOR Community! WHY???
I can go on with more in many other areas. But this ‘tip of the pap ICEBERG’ is enough for now!!!
From High Command,
Operation started: SAVING GENERAL LEE
The ground is sweet for the oppositions never sweeter.
The onus is on the level headed and rational oppositions to drive home all the negatives against the ruling party to make a total impact.
Pleeeeze no talking cocks and ancient mariners ra ra show during the hustings,the NTU student had shown that Goh Chok Tong is lost and living in the past and the young voters are ready to swing the Pendulum without fear for the oppositions.(THIS IS THE GE OF CHANGE)
The door is wide open the PAP armor is exposed WE the people must ATTACK and go for the KILL(metaphor) and reclaim our Nation before the door closes and reopen for more useless FTs.(true talents always welcome).
MAJULLAH SINGAPURA!!! LAND of the LIONS and HOME of the FREE!!!
soon leekingyou would mobilised the armed forces the way he mobilised for his wife funeral and best of all every xpenses is billed to temasek kris
and remembered leekingyou golden sentence
ÍF I CAN SLAUGHTERED 200,000 just to save MY party and the 2 millions loyal pap voters…
why not?
reshuffle the recards? what for? For all those NSactive or NSmen out there, we know very very well that LP = PL meaning LPPL right?
Give me 10 good reasons why I should vote for PAP.If there is a swing of 10% votes to oppositions, it will be a good lesson because they are too arrogant esp. goh chok tong
http://www.smh.com.au/opinion/politics/a-loathsome-deal-that-should-be-given-bargepole-treatment-20101028-175lw.html
The Lee family, which runs Singapore’s faux democracy, has proved one of the region’s most consummate oligarchs.
The Singapore government’s paws are over every big enterprise in the island state, which has been described unkindly as a shopping mall with a vote in the United Nations.
Advertisement: Story continues below When you add up the arms and agencies with holdings and cross-holdings in the exchange, the Singapore government owns more than 30 per cent of the SGX. The exchange’s annual report lists as a director Lee Hsien Yang, the second son of old Harry Lee and brother of Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong.
The state’s sovereign investment arm, Temasek Holdings, has a big stake in the exchange, and its chief executive is Ho Ching, the Prime Minister’s wife. Temasek is basically owned by the Ministry of Finance.
The regulator of the exchange is the Monetary Authority of Singapore, which doubles as the central bank. It is chaired by former prime minister Goh Chok Tong.
Immediately, there are legitimate perceptions of a conflict of interest as one government instrumentality is supposed to be having oversight of the stock exchange which, in turn, is required to deliver a healthy return to investors, including the government. It is into this carefully confected fiefdom that our securities exchange is being foisted.
Ho was responsible for a few disastrous investment decisions for Temasek. She plunged heavily into Shin Corp, which was partly owned by the family of former Thai prime minister Thaksin Shinawatra. In Bangkok, protesters burned effigies of Lee and Ho and the deal was a factor in bringing on the political crisis that led to Thaksin’s ouster and an investigation of the legality of the transaction.
Last year Ho was to have been replaced as chief executive by the former boss of BHP Billiton, Chip Goodyear, but she has clung on because his differences with the board could not be resolved.
The joint announcement from the ASX and the SGX about the impending merger was a masterpiece in promo babble. There was much about ”expanded platforms”, ”leveraging”, ”skill sets”, ”global markets”, ”organic growth” and, of course, the ubiquitous ”brand and franchise”.
The idea is that the chairman-elect of the SGX, Chew Choon Seng, would chair the combined exchanges. Australia’s David Gonski would be deputy chairman. The chief executive of the Singapore exchange, Magnus Bocker, would run the dual operation. Structurally, this is a takeover, not a ”partnering”, as the announcement would have it, although it is claimed that both exchanges will remain separate legal and locally regulated entities.
How does that work in reality? Is the one entity allowed to have different rules on disclosure and its frequency, corporate governance, short selling and broker practices?
Michael Evans of BusinessDay has been pointing out some of the difficulties. One recent feature of the SGX has been the listing of Chinese companies incorporated in Bermuda with their assets held outside Singapore. While the sun shone, everyone made hay but, when things turned cloudy, the defaults piled up. Accounting standards were not what they were supposed to be and investors have been left to whistle in the wind. Evans quotes Dean Paatsch, a risk analyst, who warns of a ”race to the bottom” in the rules governing listed companies in the Asian region.
Because of this laxity, Chinese companies listed in Singapore are out of favour. Paatsch has a colourful turn of phrase: ”A lot of the exchanges will be prepared to drop their skirts to allow lower standards for Chinese companies to list.”
He added that our market traded at a ”governance premium” because it was better regulated. How that governance premium can be maintained while the pressure is on to list and trade stock in Australia at the insistence of the Singapore overlords has not been explained.
We are all familiar with the shoddy human rights record of Singapore. Australia’s is not perfect, either, as Lee Kwan Yew delights in pointing out. But we have yet to get to the stage of government ministers suing opposition leaders for defamation and driving them out of parliament with petitions for bankruptcy. Newspapers and magazines have also had expensive verdicts against them for criticising the government.
The Lees say they have brought these actions to protect ”democracy”.
Still, if we refused to do business with every regime that used ruthless tactics to hold power, we would be doing very little business at all.
In 2007 the Tokyo Stock Exchange bought a swag of shares in SGX. The stock went down and it sold them on to a related entity. There are plenty of warning bells going off. Caution alone dictates that we should steer clear of this deal with a bargepole.
VOTE FOR CHANGE.
Absolute power corrupts.
It has not change for thousands years of history. Spore is in this position for many years under one party rule for the last 2-3 decades.
It must be change. Vote wisely or perish.
Freedom……………..
///He said: “I expect to bring in quite a number of new candidates and several potential office holders and they will strengthen my leadership team.///
Thanks but no thanks. Bring in more crooks to share the spoil drawn from the people blood money. I think we have enough of that for the past donkey years.
“conflict of interest”? PAP? To other maybe…
A stray parakeet told me that elections likely to be mid 3rd Week Dec. A good one week before X’Mas. If only Paul the Octopus is still alive.
If the PAP decides to forgo the Jan2011 timeframe and delay the election until April, it means they still have time to do a huge Budget.
Maybe that’s what they were planning since last year, and why the last budget was so lackadaisical.
another question on people’s minds is “another walkover!!”
-.-”
Something must be wrong with a PM who speaks like that.
Ng E-Jay 31 October 2010
… I predict a nationwide groundswing of at least 7% against the PAP ….
66.6% – 7%
=Below 60.0%
WoW
The only ruling Govt in the world that could boast it is lining up a 4th PM,
that is the one and only PAP Govt.
Wow, so why take take trouble to have an election at all, since the results are so predictable. Let us cut out the pretence, just say we are a faux democracy, no need for GE, could save a lot of time and money.
Attention TOC READERS,
Latest news i heard is that our Singapore Military is on a stand-by alert just in case they are needed by the government right after the GE results.It would be an exciting event to watch on TV.
Preston loon
You might have been more convincing if you use police or taskforce instead. Army? Hahaha….
Keep in mind folks backburner or otherwise…
As long as PAP wins 0.000000001 percent…
You will see the same idiotic set up in parliament where you will have x 82 department store PAP MPs and 2 opposition MPs again…
Can you imagine that…can you visualize that…
And we have the usual self serving PAP supporters/cronies saying Singapore is a democracy…sure democracy for themselves only in ku kun land.
Are we gonna let this literally last chance go by…
Why feel like giving them a chance or just help add a few more oppo MPs…it won’t work…past 10 years…how many chances have they given to their long suffering fellow citizen these past 10 years or so due to their self idiotic and self serving parasitical policies…
Enough is enough…
Can you honestly ask yourself am i even willing to give an iota of a chance…are you willing to bet on the possibility of another 5 years of “not suffering” PAP policies…
Giving these PAP jokers the majority again only proves to the PAP how “good” and how “so much intelligent” they are…which we all know they are not…why…ask yourselves is the quality of live improving…are you saving more then you spend but have to pay and pay to PAP and its bunch of cronies…
This to me is the last chance. If GE gives PAP the majority again…
Frankly speaking, many more of our fellow citizens will leave singapore…and they won’t be the only ones.
Sad.
preston loon 2 November 2010
Attention TOC READERS,
Latest news i heard is that our Singapore Military is on a stand-by alert just in case they are needed by the government right after the GE results.
……………
and the armed forces hav no siblin nor parents against leekingyou party?
wow woah simpLEE amazin…
so now what? the army infantry battalion shoot the armour regiments siblins while in turn the navy bombard the airforce parents home?
Besides the same rhetoric; freedom of speech, foreigners out, what does the Opposition have to offer in terms of differences in policy?
In seems most of them are pandering to the same socialist rhetoric of bygone years, minimum wage, lower costs etc except that it is 2010 my dear Opposition n other than flogging these same horses have they anything else?
here’s the crunch. The PAP have long abandoned these same left leaning ideals since the emergence of the middle class, the PMEs if we can call them that. What r the Opposition doing for this segment for a start? These are the tertiary educated, the middle executives who are also shouldering much in terms of taxation, either indirect(ERP,GST)or directly thru income tax.These PMEs are also the majority who were retrenched during the last downturn or when companies re-structure. So what say u, RP, SDP, WP? The battle isn’t simply for the heartlander anymore n minimum wage isn’t quite cutting it for these people.
PAP is bankrupt of ideas.
“I don’t know what I’m defending anymore”
simonsays he is full of hot air and his backside is choked. Thus, they escape from his mouth and rest of the hot air burnt his brain.
What did the opposition do? Did you even bother to know what they did in the first place? Did you go down to take a look at potong pasir? Did you attend their meet the people session and their regular walk about (unlike the PAP who only walk during the coming of a election).
Save your crap and shaft it to you mouth, mate. Chiam See Tong told Ma Bao LAN that he can upgrade the lift at a cheaper price. Ma Bao LAN said it is not possible. He later slap his face when he came out with Ailbaba lift upgrade and cut down the cost on the concrete wall replaced it with insulation sheets!
Most of the time PAP only know how to copy opposition idea and declare it is their own. Why not ask what did PAP did for start beside asking the people to tighten their belt and rewarding themselves with big fat pay?!
You ask the opposition to solve problem created by PAP? Hahahaha … You are funny!
Dear Simonsays,
Please don’t create a stone and hit onto your own foota. ERP and GST is your beloved ah kong and his dream team money digging mechanism!
You are more like simonfarts with the IQ of 10. Which most people would consider over rated with your kind of logic and speech. None the less you sounds like your brother “traveller” with the same IQ of a new born. Make a lot of noise and waiting for people to change your dapper!
The opposition offer you a kite to fly on this coming Sunday and offer you to kick your ah kong team in the butts this coming election. Come and kick or be kicked together with your ah kong. Simonsays and shout out loud! With rank name and NRIC.
///PAP is bankrupt of ideas.///
by Jackson on Nov 3, 2010 at 12.20 am
How can PAP not bankrupt with this kind of sub standard supporter like Simonsays? Who only know how to score a own goal?
@ RED-man I welcome ur challenge for a debate and exchange of thoughts but please leave the name calling and personal references in the coffee shop.
My point is this; what policies n what issues r the opposition going to debate on n raise in the coming GE. One of the points I’ve raised is what other policies does the Opposition have for the PMEs n judging by the number of letters in TOC’s Gilbert page, this is a deep relevant concern among this group of people. Hw do they make themselves productive maintain their jobs n if they have lost it how to get another.
The challenge for the Oppostiion is this; seize the agenda first, go on the attack, in order to make an impression on S’poreans as this opnion piece fr Today has put forward http://www.todayonline.com/Singapore/EDC101103-0000048/The-mood-of-a-nation
I hope in the lead up to the GE to hear more fr the Opposition instead of disunity, personal agendas and mud-slinging.
Dear Simonsays
You sounds as if the opposition must please you before you will cast the vote to them. Yet, after so many years of disappointment from PAP. You really still think that it is the opposition to be blamed because of their incompetent?
Ask yourself of the following questions:
1. Are you one of the guilty one who put the PAP in power for start (when you have a chance to vote)?
2. Do you know what it is to be like being a opposition representative? Most of the time being bullied by PAP because of stupid citizen mandate.
3. Do you even have the capacity or even guts to be a opposition and speak against PAP at the stage where are the ISD uncles are aimming their video cam below waiting to score points with their masters when you speak the wrong thing.
4. Please look deeper into Singapore problem since you have been following up on TOC. Every one of them are inter-linked. And every one of these problem was derived from PAP greed.
5. If you are so smart, we would really like to hear from you, what is your proposal on the problem that you have rised?
Talk is cheap, you become more cheap when try to use PAP way of speaking on the opposition. You are the one that need to wake up. If not, just suffer for another 4 to 5 years until you make up your mind if you should be the one to proof to the opposition by giving them a vote or they should proof to you first without any actual political power.
Think about it, and understand why you deserved to be UP!
Refer to article link provided by Simonsays:
http://www.todayonline.com/Singapore/EDC101103-0000048/The-mood-of-a-nation
What is your point? To me, this is just another arrogant article from PAP before the election stating the followings:
1. We have done nothing wrong, it is Singaporean expectation go up after we provide them with too much “good” life
2. You want western style? Look how they mess up their country now!
3. Singaporean is being unrealistic (the hardcore view of PAP)
Simonsays, are you a wolf in sheep croaking? Because you sound pretenious to be supporting the opposition by offering the “how” but yet hidden within, you are trying to point out to people they are incompetent.
Please Simonsays, leave the politically correct articles for yourself especially the one from the SPH. Save the same old PAP tones… Be more creative with your approach like you have put it to the opposition.
American human right has nothing to do with their fall from grace. It is their arrogant attitude thinking they have unlimited resources to spend forever that bring them to what they are today!
And Singapore leaders today are making the same mistake but only different is that they do it on the account of its people suffering. Lose money outside and come back to dig the people. Spend endlessly to make the country look good but turn the people into souless with their rat race. Unless the people who are in the comfort zones wake up their bloody idea and do something about it! We would end up one day with a empty soul and bankrupted fueling our high paid ministers with tonnes
Tonnes of our blood money. What these ministers are doing now is spending our money to make themselves looks good to the world and market themselves in the name of bringing more investors into the country.
The fact is, when people come to invest in Singapore, there are many factors and the country look good is very much secondary. Stop lying to yourself and take a closer look on how much longer can we the people of Singapore hold on until we collapse. Are we on daily basis paying more than what was actually offered to us? Are we even in the picture of nation building or making it corrupt in moral when time to come!
How many 5 years we need to wait for real changes and allow the PAP to take us for a ride? Think about this when you vote.
I have seen TOC grow since the last election. Majority of the people here are able to see the truth colour of PAP compared to the last where there are many who is like Simonsays mentality.
“Prove to me that you are capable and I will show you my vote, opposition”
These are the people who cannot think straight and they are the one that been giving outsider the reason to laugh at us Singaporean in whole that we are the one that are responsible for what happened to us today! Yes, familiar tune like you Singaporean are to be blamed for giving the PAP their so called mandate! It sounds too familiar and seriously many people like myself are sick of it when we are the one that voted for opposition but was blamed together with the others.
If you insist on voting the PAP or even spoil vote because you are undecided. Please F off….. Save us the opposition can’t performance crap. Did we even give them the chance in the first place?
Vote for PAP, you are voting for certainty. Yes, very certain that we will be screwed up another 5 years and come back into this never ending circle again! Remember this!
I think I can safely say that u r a card carrying hardcore supporter of the Opposition. Nothing wrong with that but I think for the sake of arguement I hope u will also respect other views. As Voltaire once said, We might not agree on every word you say, but I’ll fight to the death for your right to say it.
I think the majority of Singaporeans are not blind. They made the choice based on what they think is best for themselves n not necessarily for the best for the country. The Opposition has a duty to convince S’poreans that their ideas, policies are the best for each individual. You cannot imagine an election anywhere in the world where ppl stand for elections just based on goodwill and intentions.
There are more parties I think in this coming GE than previously. Surely they must stand based on some kind of platform? so what happens when there is a 3 cornered fight? should i then cast a vote for Opposition party A or B? You would agree then that voters need to look at what each candidate offers?
As for giving chances, the 2 current Oppo MPs have been ard for a long time. each of them have had numerous chances to raise issues, question ministers etc. So what have they achieved? their track record is out there for s’poreans to see n personally while i’m sure we would like to see more Oppo out there, they also need more ambition, so that one day they may form the Government n then make the changes ppl want to see.
It’s time for Singapore to grow up.