Mr Tan Tee Seng, sixth from left
Reform Party insiders have confirmed with TOC that Reform Party Chairman Mr Tan Tee Seng has resigned today. TOC understands that more resignations are expected in the coming weeks.
Mr Tan is a businessman and former ex-ISA detainee arrested by the government in 1987 as part of a group of 22 alleged “Marxist conspirators”. Mr Tan took over the chairmanship of the party from Mr Edmund Ng less than three months ago.
Mr Tan’s resignation comes just a day after TOC broke the news that at least 20 members, including key CEC appointment holders and potential candidates, left the Party.
Mr Tan is the third chairperson to leave Reform since Mr Kenneth Jeyaretnam took over the Party as Secretary-General in April 2009.
The Reform Party’s first chairperson, Mr Ng Teck Siong, left the party in April 2009, criticizing Mr Jeyaretnam as “weak and infirm of purpose”. Mr Ng is an opposition stalwart and former long-time supporter of the late Mr J B Jeyaretnam.
To read TOC’s exclusive interview with Mr Tan about his time in detention, click here.
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with opposition like these, no wonder we have the PAP screwing us over.
I’m actually glad. I went to the rally and it was Full Of Shit. Seriously. I was disappointed that supposedly intelligent and educated people could sit together and take each other’s bullshit so seriously for so long.
Look on the bright side! If there are too many opposition parties, we’re falling for PAP’s “divide and conquer” strategy.
It’s better to keep only two or three opposition parties strong. The weaker opposition parties should just disintegrate and fall to the side!
I was hopeful that I can vote again(Radin Mas SMC), but with such never ending problems on the oppos just before election, it really started to demoralised me.
I am already so fed up with PAP, but oppos had to get their act together!
At the present moment WP is still the strongest oppo around without must problem and their ranks are still keeping tight.
Now all hopes is on WP.
Seems all the protagonists are determined to inflict maximum damage to the Reform Party. Our dear JBJ must be looking down from heaven with great sadness..common what is wrong with you guys??
Traitors. All of them.
I see it as part and parcel of the process of self renewal. This sort of split is bound to happen over conflict of working style, ideological differences in any organisation.
Hope RP can stay strong and continue the fight for a more democratic Singaporeans through the ballot box.
Please continue to give your support to the Reform Party and the vision laid down by the Founder Mr JBJ. Even if it takes a couple of elections and a few manpower changes, the people must adopt a long term view for the party. Mr JBJ was resolute in his vision despite his age and I’m sure that will continue to inspire the people for change.
We need more capable people who can step up to serve the country. You must be prepared to have a 5 year plan to stay the course.
I’m sure the pressure must be very great. Those who have left, I hope that they will join other parties to continue to serve the people. All the best.
RP = Rancid piss.
Yes, they have left because they can’t stand the heat in the kitchen.
Vote the functioning opposition party example WP and NSP into parliament. We need to gloom this party to end the monopoly power and have healthy political progress. Do not put sub standard party into parliament.
I’m really disappointed with this fiasco.
I thought this party had an impressive list of members who had the people’s interests at heart. Yet, they were unable to set aside simple differences, and obviously are more concerned about their egos than about the people.
I agree with Kenneth Jeyaretnam’s press release concerning the coordinated nature of their departure. Whether or not these people were moles, it is impossible to know right now. However, the fact that they all left simultaneously, shows that they are trying to deal a devastating blow to KJ personally.
If I ever see any of these jokers running for another party, I will not vote for them, unless they reveal the WHOLE TRUTH behind this event. For me at least, their attempt to discredit KJ has only backfired; it’s them who look extremely suspicious right now.
From last election till now, the only few opposition party that stay united are WP and NSP. Hope that they will be the hope for Singapore political reform and be the voices and forces of the people.
Dear allinav,
Please see how KJ treat Mr Ng Teck Siong and what happen to him now. I can only say that those who have recently leave RP have awaken from their dreams and come back to reality. Hope that they will join a party that truly believe and pratise what that believe in.
I do not hope to see politician talking about democracy but do not pratise in their party. I simply don’t vote for hypocrites even he or she is a well known figure.
i am 100% sure there is something very wrong with kj’s leadership style. even the chairman has left him. you can’t accuse the chairman of being a pap mole as he was one of the “marxist” detainees.i am sure more about kj will be reveal soon. who knows what skeletons kj hides in his very big cupboard.i can’t wait :)
How people can still take KJ as an angel is beyond me. This isn’t a split. It’s more – nearly the whole party resigned. Some people say it’s not the members resign from Reform Party but the Reform Party resigning from KJ. If there’s nothing wrong with KJ, why like that?
KJ is absolutely different from JBJ. He has disappointed JBJ legacy. The thing is, I wonder if he knows these.
Any party who support SDP is gone case :)
Why do some people persist in labelling Tony and Hazel PAP moles? Why do they think ex-Chairman Tan Tee Seng is a traitor? Mr Tan is a former ex-ISA detainee arrested by the government in 1987. Do such people really believe that KJ is the victim of PAP sabotage? The fact is that KJ has managed to cause 3 Reform Party chairman to resign, in 2 years. He cannot work with anyone.
If SDP, SDA and NSP fail to win even 1 seat in May 2011…..I shall give up local politics permanently. Their blogs will be deleted and so also TR and Online Citizens…..what’s the point? How long more to wait for the democratization of S’pore?
As far as I’m concerned, RP and KJ are finished for this GE.
Maybe it is time to Reform the Reform Party. Politics cannot be founded of Family Legacy. Politics is about the polity not the antics.
I think this shows that the opposition here is determined to hand this election to the PAP.
Seriously, say what you like about the PAP but they have got their act together and they have all the resources of the government at their disposal. They have ALL the advantages.
Unfortunately, you have an opposition that not only has no advantages, they proceed to turn on each other so that they can hand the votes to the PAP.
Are you surprised we’re in the state that we’re in today?
So be it. I am still going to give any opposition party a leg-up in the coming election if they come to my town. By putting any of the opposition in parliament will make them stronger and not weakened by their party internal fiasco. Whether the weapon is weak or strong doesn’t matter at all, we do not want PAP to have an easy and breezy time sleeping in parliament house doing nothing but “Aye!”.
Voting for opposition is vote for the Singaporeans.
Voting for PAP is to vote anti-Singaporeans.
Put aside all our grievances for now and focus how to kick the White ass out of parliament. It is once in 5 years or never.
regardless of this little confusion ,singaporeans need to have their voices heard through THE OPPOSITION.
THE OPPOSITION is the only channel singaporeans can regain their rights and dignity.
we must persist in the BIG PICTURE.
this is an omgwtfbbq moment before elections.
Too bad Singaporeans continue to rot.
In the name of God Almighty
Dear Bro. Kenneth Jeyaretnam
Don’t be despair. We the Muslim community in Singapore remembers the good work your father the late JBJ have done for us. We are indebted to him.
Remember this wise saying : ‘Truth has come and falsehood vanished. Truly falsehood is ever bound to vanish.’
Be true n sincere n never fall to the devil whispers n intimidation.
The Muslim community in Singapore will vote for you and your team in the upcoming election yes sincerely n truthfully.
The PAP are still in power becoz of the backing of the majority. Now the majority are being screwed by it’s own majority government.
So the question to the majority is are u still willing to vote for the majority government again?
While these -ve news about RP is yet to be proven to be true, the ruling party has already proven to us that they’re traitors.
In a short period of 3 – 4 yrs, they’ve allowed huge influx of foreigners into our country without control while benefiting their own pockets. If they’re allowed to rule for another 4 – 5 yrs, for sure sg will be taken over by foreigners. Not forgetting a population of 6.5 million is their target. How many natives does sg actually have?
For this simple reason I’ll cast my vote for the one who is yet to be proven guilty. Be safe than sorry.
Like father, like son.
Look at Emperor Lee, look at his son.
I trust JBJ, I trust his son.
I think RP needs to do some damage control as well as project a softer and more approachable image, even SM/PM needed coaching to smile more, wear pink or take picture with babies etc.
They should also reveal the new CEC and leadership members for the various departments/committee as soon as possible.
ya… reform party needs some real reforming themselves. if not there won’t be anyone left to even contest in a smc :)
Remember the promising SDP party and how it was broken up. Running to GE, suddenly so much issues with RP and other parties.
You really think they just appear over night? Why? GE is coming.
It is not simple as think. SDP was once the most promising party and now RP. And RP was being tackled and bad press is brewing just before GE.
Remember the speech problem at rally and the filing of paper on nomination day? You really think it was accidental?
Ultimately, the real purpose is to SCARE TIMID SINGAPOREANS to continue to vote the gov and get screw for another 5 years. Singaporeans are really very naive lot!
Kenneth Jeyaretnam is the brother of Philip Jeyaretnam, the associate of Helen Yeo, the lady whose unsavory connections run from Myanmar to Afghanistan to Morocco. Helen Yeo’s husband, disgraced Singapore cabinet minister Yeo Cheow Tong, now works for James Tjahaja Riady who paid record $8.6 million in criminal fines and plead guilty to a felony charge in the U.S.
Read More Here:-
http://johnharding.com/2011/02/25/incompetence-bribery-terrorism-and-singapores-reform-party/
“In 1993, one of you (Kenneth) wrote to Mr Goh Chok Tong, who was then Prime Minister, to say that you found employers in Singapore reluctant to offer you a job, and your only explanation was that the employers felt the authorities would not welcome your employment because of your name. Mr Goh replied with a letter which could be shown to prospective employers, to say that the government did not hold anything against you, and that employers should evaluate you fairly on your own merits, like any other candidate, because Singapore needed every talented person that it could find.” – LHL, 30.09.2008, Condolence Letter…, CNA
Well, this totally vindicates all my previous postings and comments deriding the Reform party from day one. Sucks to be you fanboys!
There are simply too many opposition parties. This raises the possibility that they cannot agree on avoiding three-cornered fights in the coming elections, and as a result benefit the ruling PAP. I would like to see the weaker ones absorbed by the more credible ones.
There must be something in the personality of Kenneth Jeyaretnam that makes it so difficult for so many people to work with him. I am inclined to think that he might prove more of a spoiler than a benefit to the opposition cause. The only ‘good’ (from the opposition perspective of course) from his contesting this round is that he will hopefully distract the focus of the PAP (maybe on account of the reputation of his late father) to the point that it misses the dark horse of the opposition challenge. Remember how the PAP was so fixated on Chee Soon Juan that it overlooked Tang Liang Hong. The run-up to the election creates a very dynamic and fluid situation, from which an unknown, rising to the challenge and electrifying the passions of the moment, can tip the scales and give the ossified and self-serving PAP a beating of a lifetime.
I personally wish that the Workers’ Party were contesting in my constituency, which is traditionally contested by the National Solidarity Party. Under Low Thia Khiang, the Workers’ Party has, to use the current buzzword, built up a credible brand name. It should hammer home the widening inequalities in Singapore and highlight the fact that the gap cannot be closed through pre-election bribes such as the miserly $800 HDB-3 Roomers are going to get come May 1, but through a more vigorous policy of ensuring that local employers and foreign MNCs hire Singaporeans first before they source for cheaper foreign white-collar workers.
It is high time that we remind the PAP that it was voted in not to solve the unempoyment of the Philippines but to ensure that every Singaporean is gainfully employed. What we have now is a situation where fresh graduates are unable to find jobs while those in their middle ages are retrenched and compelled to subsist on part-time, periodic and occasional work. There can be no joy boasting of 14 percent growth when a sizeable portion of our nation’s trained manpower is made poorer because it has been denied regular and uninterrupted employment.
Where are the wife and kids of Kenneth Jeyaretnam? In Singapore or in the UK? Will his son do NS? Will his family fight and die for our country if we come under attack? Or simply retreat to the UK? Does he have a UK passport like Thai PM?
Hope for the Reform Party:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=djutoHKXxRg
@the malay community
“Remember this wise saying : ‘Truth has come and falsehood vanished. Truly falsehood is ever bound to vanish.’
Be true n sincere n never fall to the devil whispers n intimidation.
The Muslim community in Singapore will vote for you and your team in the upcoming election yes sincerely n truthfully.”
When the nomination of a Malay-Christian candidate & ‘retired’ police officer, Jafri Basron becomes true, you’d wished you wouldn’t have spoken so soon in praise of a person who doesn’t believe in the devil lest in God.
This will be the moment when the example of what it means for Muslims to be less religious becomes iconic.
don’t worry, the punishment will come, sooner than you think….
that stupid goh said community has to come first, WHAT GUTTER GARBAGE, when the poor, unemployed, lower middle class are SQUEEZED of all their EARNINGS and THIEVING OF THEIR CPF.
if the gov is SO RIGHTEOUS, RETURN THE PEOPLE’S MONEY TO THEM.
the gov does not need to hold such money and returned a less than INFLATION rate,
this is PLAIN STEALING, THEIVING and DAYLIGHT ROBBERY !!!
VOTE THEM OUT, NOW, NO MORE WAITING FOR 5 YEARS, NOW !!!
KJ
YOU NEED TO CONSOLIDATE YOUR BEST CANDIDATES FOR THE WEAKEST GRC AND PLANNED TO WIN, NOT JUST NCMP,
BUT “ALL” THE “SEATS”
ALL 87 IF POSSIBLE,
MOTTO IS, “NO MORE HELICOPTER, BACK DOOR MILLION DOLLAR GARBAGE FROM PAP”, AS THIS IS ROBBING THE PEOPLE OF THEIR MONEY…..
LOCALS, ASK YOURSELFS, “HOW MANY MORE EXAMPLES DO YOU NEED”
IS EGYPT, LIBYA, TUNISIA, BAHRAIN, NOT ENOUGH OF EXAMPLE
DO YOU NEED MORE MARCOS, SUHARTO, TAKSIN, MAHATHIR ????
Let us be realistic. We need it to win seats from the ruling party. In Singapore where the majority of the people are Chinese, we cannot afford to put up exotic candidates. We need people who are credible, upright and sufficiently normal. Hopefully these qualities will help overcome whatever primordial antipathies and under-the-surface prejudices of the voters in the contested ward.
Such a candidate must also be of a certain age group. That is to say, no one with a beeper embedded close to the heart. And no one who has yet to outgrow his pimple phase. He or she must be able to shake hands freely without fear of getting pregnant, catching germs and what have you. He or she must be able to eat everything – beef, pork and frog legs. If so inclined to have a religion, he or she must be religiously affiliated only in a membership way, after all this is a secular state. In short, he or she must not be too fixated on life in the next, but rather on life in this world. Meaning, it is a good thing to work for more, it is a good thing to seek wealth and, more importanly, it is essential for the sake of social stability that wealth be as evenly distributed as possible.
Finally he or she must remain focused on the issues to hammer home this coming round. If the party is still facing a problem of members resigning and defecting, it is obviously not prepared for the coming electoral challenge.
Brush up on the art of public speaking. Say things in a straight-forward, simple, punchy and humourous way. Avoid Oxford-like, Cambridge-like or Harvard-like boring speeches. Try to be able to speak in English, Chinese (hence, again, the need to weed out exotic types) and a smattering of Malay.
Stick to bread and butter issues. If human rights issues are discussed, keep them simple, preferably in the form of jokes mocking at the ruling party and class. Yes, yes, yes, don’t be afraid of discussing social divides. it is not communistic. It is normal. It is imperative. It is discussed at every juncture of history where momentous changes are about to take place.
Dare I say, long live change.
I bet you were all expecting me to say ‘long live the revolution’ right!
TAKE IT AS A BLESSING AS I BELIEVE ALL THIS QUITTERS ARE UNDERCOVER FOR THE PAPPIES WHO KNOWS THEY MIGHT HAVE BEEN EVEN PAID UNDER TABLE,AND WHATEVER IS HAPPENING IN THE OPPOSITION PARTY IS GOOD BECAUSE OF ITS TRANSPARENCY WE GET TO SEE MORE CREDIBLE OPPOSITION RATHER LIARS SITTING IN THE PARLIAMENT.
RP is in self-destruct mode.
pity i hoped it would really able to match PAP and form the nex Govt.
KJ needs to do some serious soulsearching on why his most passionate are deserting RP!
Dear Mr vermilionbrush
I question for you is how you define credibility? Do you mean that only political party with MP are credible?
My definition is different from you. My expectation for credible party is to voice out for us and create pressure to the government to work harder.
What I see for the past few years, what NSP and RP done have effectively causes pressure to the government to work harder, even without MP in parliament.
As for political party with representative MP have not done much for Singaporean but only concern about their own town council matters.
If you measure the credibility is this way, do you means that PAP have super good credibility compare to WP as they have more MP? Therefore vote wisely. Brand name does not guarantee good quality.
My dear Singapore Lover,
Mr Low Thia Khiang has been able not only to win Hougang, but also hold on to it. Now that must be worth something, right? As for Mr Low and Mr Chiam See Tong concerning themselves only with their own town council matters, that is to be expected. You can hardly expect them to propound new directions in our foreign policy when they’re still far from capturing power. The residents of their constituencies, I’m sure, do not wish to see both men wander too far away from day-to-day issues.
As for the rest of the other opposition parties, it is difficult to claim to be credible when they have yet to win any seat. You may argue that this could be a chicken-and-egg situation where the candidates are credible but the voters don’t want to give them a shot at getting into parliament. My suggestion is: further expand on that credibility and, for the Reform Party, this should be easy. Set its own house in order before going to the polls. Exco members resigning one after another cannot give the voters of Radin Mas – which is where Mr Kenneth Jeyaretnam will be contesting – much confidence.
Finally, I don’t think the PAP needs me to testify to its record. There are more than enough people in Straits Times and Media Corp to do that.
GIC placed too much money and trust in the hands of Goldman Sachs and Lehman Bros,(now going under).Its kind of dangerous and risky!Too much dollars were printed by FED in order to salvage the banks that were going under.Those banks should not be saved in the first place and I guess Jim Roger,(the former righthand man of George Soros )is right in saying that.Jim Roger is here now in Singapore.If Investments in USA is really that good,he should not be here in Singapore.He has more confident in Asia,so,what the hell are we investing in the States!!GIC Wake up!!opposition speak up!
Anybody knows how much is 1 billion?Yes one thousand millions!!I do not know how much losses incurred by GIC in USA(in the hands of Goldman Sachs)I think we are better off investing those money in OUR people Singaporeans.Hypothetically speaking ,if we were to give i millions to each deserving young budding Singaporean entrepreneurs(as a loan)to starts a business venture,we will have 1000 new ventures in Singapore .And,if only 20% of those ventures succeed we would have created many jobs indeed!!and im talking of only 1 billion dollars that we have lost due to our investment in USA.Only an idea! Heheheheheh