By Ko Siew Huey
In an exclusive interview with The Online Citizen, four of the assentors of an opposition team that failed to file their nomination papers on time today gave their account of what happened at the Nomination Centre.
The team, comprising Ng Teck Siong, chairman of the Socialist Front [picture right], PKMS chief Nazem Suki, Lim Mie, Ng Pian Ying and Abdullah Salam came together at the eleventh hour to make a bid for the Tanjong Pagar GRC led by Minister Mentor Lee Kuan Yew.
Up until the night before Nomination Day, the team was still trying to raise funds for the election deposit. A call was also sent out for members of the public who are residents of Tanjong Pagar GRC to volunteer themselves as proposers, seconders and assentors. These witnesses are required to accompany the candidates as they deliver the nomination papers.
Karen Teoh, 32, an IT executive and her husband Dustin Lau, 31, a manager had just arrived home from China Wednesday morning at 4:30am when they saw this urgent request for help posted on a sociopolitical website, Temasek Review. They then went door to door trying to recruit their neighbours, but that did not yield any results. They decided to show up at the Nomination Centre anyway and there they met a friend Daniel Sassoon, 36, a legal counsel and Yasser Mohamed, 33, a fishmonger.
After they arrived at about 11am, Mr Lau called Mr Ng several times, before getting through to an aide who told him that they were waiting for their other volunteers.
“I think what was happening was that they were waiting for the assentors, seconders or other people that they needed outside of the venue before they came in,” Mr Lau said. “But what that meant was that quite a few of us who were already at the venue were waiting without any clear idea of who we were supposed to go to.”
Ms Teoh recalled finally seeing the opposition team arrive at about 1130am, but the candidates stopped to answer questions from the press. She said that it was another 10 minutes before they made their way up to the Nomination Hall.
According to Mr Lau, the contingent went to the Commissioner for Oaths to prepare the necessary papers. These documents had to be checked and countersigned by the Commissioner before submission. But before that was done, the National Solidarity Party candidate for Whampoa SMC, Ken Sun, who was in the hall at that time, urged Mr Ng to hand in the papers quickly as it was nearing the deadline.
“When he rushed to hand up the form, which had not been countersigned yet, the rest of his team was there shouting at him to come back,” said Mr Lau, who lamented that they were “wasting precious minutes”.
It was during that time when Mr Ng came back to get the Commissioner’s signature that time ran out.
“All the effort that everyone else put in was wasted because they were 35 seconds late,” said Mr Yasser wistfully.
Mr Sassoon said that the whole episode appeared disorganized and haphazard: “They did not know the process, they did not know the procedure, the coming in late, the whole not organizing your team… just the whole air of chaos didn’t help.”
Ms Teoh added: “You intend to be an elected candidate and you are not clear about election rules… I’m not sure how you could represent anybody effectively in parliament.”
However, they all agreed that this particular incident should not be taken as indicative of how all opposition parties are organized. In fact, they were glad to see the presence of high caliber candidates in the current slate offered by the opposition.
With the exception of Mr Lau who voted in the 2006 General Elections, the other three who were interviewed told TOC that they have never voted. It was a common desire to ensure they and the residents at Tanjong Pagar would get the chance to exercise this right that motivated them to step up to the plate.
“I’ve never voted before and I think that’s important,” said Mr Sassoon. “I would have thought that it would have been a shame if for lack of people who actually take a step out to spare that time and show up and give their assent…for the lack of that if there was a walkover, I would have felt terribly guilty knowing that I could have been there but didn’t.”
Mr Lau said: “If a ward goes uncontested, it just feels like a free ride in. And I think that politicians should always have the mandate of the people, they should always have to fight for the right to represent people in parliament… It’s a privilege that needs to be earned.”
Making the point that wanting the chance to vote does not mean that they were against the ruling party, Mr Yasser had this to say: “I think this point needs to be really highlighted. The fact that we are assentors does not mean that we will vote for the people we are assenting for.”
To which Ms Teoh quipped, “Having seen what I’ve seen today. Even if it had gone through, I would have voted for PAP.”
PS: TOC has made several attempts to contact Mr Ng Teck Siong but we were unable to reach him.
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The eye-witness account by ‘uncleyap’ seems to suggest that the officers were also at fault.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8s-WieTi420
However, the team was held back by the press, it would appear. Perhaps they excited being interviewed.
It is very sad that this thing has happened. The video
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8s-WieTi420
very clearly explains everything.
It is a clear case of breach of procedure. It is a shame, which can only be righted by PAP re-opening the opportunity for the contest of Tanjong Pagar. Of course we all know that Mr Lee Kuan Yew will still win.
However it is a matter of procedure clearly if someone presented the nomination documentation prior to cut off time, and was already being attended to prior to cut-off time, it is ridiculous and immoral to disqualify him/her, because the processing was in progress at the cutoff time.
It is not too late to correct the wrong procedure, if Mr Lee would just simply order the election department to revert. It is very simple. He has the power to do it.
The law should change so that even if there is a walkover, the voters still need to vote for or against in the form of confidence.
If there are enough no confidence votes, a by-eelction should be called.
now old man has time to kajiao other contests. he would go aljunied i think to support that losing gy.
look forward, go support other contests.
ONE WORD for SDA : INEXPERIENCE
He must be “enjoying” his “VIP” or “SUPERSTAR” experience then.
NO SENSE OF TIME
WEAR A WATCH pre-adjusted half and hour early next time.
The symbolic meaning of Parrot at
Bishan-Toa Payoh yesterday on a GOOD FRIDAY:
PAP Parrots chattering signifies useless employments and idle gossip among Papies
and portends trouble in their affairs.
Indeed there is trouble for PAP ahead.
(EXACTLY WHAT THEY WERE DOING – TO
GOSSIP ABOUT THE OPPOSITION AND FEEL
PROUD OF THEMSELVES)
Mr Ng Teck Siong’s Look is out for revenge and will be a wasted effort.
Remember not my Will but yours Be Done.
King Herod ruled the people under
oppression but was taken away suddenly
in the midst after his massacre of the
Holy Innocents.
As Mary says: Do not insist, let us go
God shall provide.
Truly, with so much screw up in the team, its better that they get disqualified than to get possibly voted in and screw the people. This bunch of people seriously cannot make it.
>> Granted the SDA were “disorganised” and putting aside the “last-minute raising of funds” — NO POINT CRYING OVER SPILT MILK.
>> What PRO-OPPOSITION S’pore Voters should now do is TRY EVEN HARDER (double their efforts) to persuade as many relatives/friends as possible to VOTE AGAINST the PAP in this WATERSHED ELECTION to drive this simple message into the thick numbskulls of PAP Millionaire Ministers — “ENOUGH IS ENOUGH” !!!
This is stupidity at its worst. Late, disorganised, no gathering point for nominators, no contact point, stopping for press interviews even as he is already late. I am a hardcore opposition supporter but I am now in such a rage that this bunch of idiots had made a fool of the entire opposition slate. KNN!
Why is the nominatin time only lasted 1 hour? Is this pratised in other first world countries?
In a word, they are not ready. WP team was also disqualified in 2001, and it wasn’t such a big deal.
If Ng wants to make a comeback, donation funds from the public must be accounted for, else people will be afraid to entrust town council monies in his hands.
such an important papers cannot do how to be in parliament.. got screwed by procedures.. there is plant there ot screw up the papers so that why for many years no votes.. a simple matters such as this cannot do ..balik rumah tidok lah.. waste time .. publicity stunts. who believe you next round.. change career lah machiam sotong.
“Ms Teoh recalled finally seeing the SDA team arrive at about 1130am, but the candidates stopped to answer questions from the press. She said that it was another 10 minutes before they made their way up to the Nomination Hall.”
if this is true, what a joke, these ppl have no sense of urgency, late already still can dilly dally, talk to the press.
last minute then appeal for public to fund u to pay the election deposit, is this a mentality of entitlement? the voters have to fund your campaign? u want me to represent u, u have to pay for me?
it is unacceptable for any person who is a working professional for 10, 20, 30 years to be unable to produce $16000 out of their own savings as election deposit.
if part of the funding for the election deposit raised is from the public, Mr Ng Teck Siong’s team better come clean with where all these funds are going to.
accountability, Mr Ng Teck Siong.
It could be one of the tactics from PAP. Who knows what they have done behind the scene just to bar the opposition from contesting that area! I do think that there are PAP moles in opposition parties.
ONE HOUR FOR NOMINATIONS ????
SOME STUPID JOKE RIGHT ???
IS THE ERECTION ONCE EVERY YEAR ???
SOME PEOPLE ARE JUST PLAIN DUDS AND DAFT, IS THE ERECTION COMMITTEE IN KAHOOTS WITH MIW AND PAP,
LOCALS BETTER THINK, AND THINK HARD !!!
http://www.techrepublic.com/blog/tr-out-loud/big-brother-is-you-watching/3938?tag=nl.e550
this is the age of aquarius and DAFT locals must, repeat, “MUST” vote for change as this gov had LOST it’s MIND, in all kinds…….
daft indeed…
not enough funds? yet last min seek for sponserships? if likethat ow on earth are you goin to provide emergency relieves if the pinnacles lifts lost an engine?
~sigh~
now i gotta pushleekingyouwheelchair till i dropped dead…
Even as a junior staff, I know the importance of being prepared and organised for any meeting I need to attend, or any any presentation I need to make.
This is THE ELECTION.
It is about the livihood of thousands of residents.
The SDA (worst still, the chairman himself) has just made a mockery of himself. Pls retire yourself from politics.
Serious – I hate armchair critics, people who can talk beautifully but can’t deliver when comes to action. We already have enough of these armchair critics in parliament.
Did YouTube disabled sharing via FaceBook? The share to Face book seem to have been disabled.
Please correct me if am wrong.
Many of us are angered by the stupidity of SDA because the team has just wasted a chance for us to vote out the old man Lee.
If SDA is NOT prepared, then gives that chance to other parties like WP, NSP or SDP.
Stupid SDA. Wasted our once in five year chance. Moreover, I believe the opp stands a good chance with Lee’s age and his declining popularity (after ALL his hard truths revealations).
I wish SDA would be vanished from this planet earth. Stupid SDA.
Well what does one expect from a musical-opposition-party-chair player like Ng Teck Siong? While his effort to run for elections may be commendable, his lack of foresight and planning does not inspire any votes whatsoever.
Can TOC clarify if the Tanjong Pagar GRC seat was left open because no opposition party wanted it or it was a given to Ng and his Party Flavour Of The Month as part of the horse-trading?
even lao lee arrive 10.50am.
you want to fight the giant, and you still dare to ariive only 11.30am? and wayang with the press?
these SDA joker just doing some show only.
can’t even organised a small team, how to lead Singapore!?
can even have the 16k for each nominee before nomination day, how do we trust them?
really bring bad image to opp party with these bunch of senseless joker.
let’s hope for the best for Aljunied.
serve them right for being so unorganized.
i don support pap but this team is ridiculous, how can they miss out on the timing.
i hope the other oppo are no as slack
Buay tahan. Common sense would dictate that Ng TS and company should have been at the Nomination Centre earlier.
Stupid arrogant fools, arriving at 11.30 with only 30 mins to nomination and still stopping to be interviewed.
Hello, did he not realised that precious minutes are ticking away.
If this is how SDA organized themselves,
sorry, hor, don’t expect my vote.
It a simple case of inexperienced people who want to contest in the elections. The team of individuals are made up of new and random people as suggested by the article and not knowing the procedures and how to handle the pressure from media resulted in this. If there is a plan in the 1st place all this would had been done swiftly in matter of minutes
This is indeed a letdown. SDA needs to get their act together to be taken seriously. With Mr Chiam no longer there, the party seems rudderless. Voters are likely to remember this fiasco because LKY and his yes men were given a free ride into Parliament. This has resulted in loss of credibility for the party and goodwill from wellwishers.
“All the world’s a stage…” n u guys been had! There’s a mole in the ground. Haha!
Finally, the other side of the story. What makes this even more credible is that it came from the opposition’s team, and not PAP themselves, so netizens can hardly try to twist the facts into another finger-pointing mission.
In all honesty, as much as I would love to take PAP down a peg or two, SDA only have themselves to blame for this. Not the clock, not the officer, and most certainly not PAP.
As so many have said before, preparation is key. If you chiong into battle only to realize that you forgot to load bullets into your weapon, can you honestly blame everything else for your own failure?
I was initially very encouraged by the online buzz when everyone was scrambling to help Mr Ng to raise funds and then to gather enough supporters. Even though I’m not under Tanjong Pagar GRC, I found myself crossing my fingers in hope that they would successfully put through their nomination and help Singapore embark on a significant milestone in election history.
When news broke out of the walkover, I was in disbelief, and like many others, I scrambled to get every bit of news on this, to try to find out what happened. On one hand, it seemed to be a biased and deliberate decision to block SDA from contesting. Then as the hours went by, more and more ‘evidence’ began to point at PAP administration as being the manipulators of the system.
I felt the injustice of many, that SDA was being penalized for something so trivial…until now. I would like to thank the four assentors for speaking up to clear the air on this debacle before it gets any more ridiculous (like getting the UN on this as some netizens had allegedly petitioned).
It is the right of every Singapore citizen not just to be represented, but properly and responsibly so. If SDA is allowed in, I highly suspect that they will suffer a humbling defeat. For Mr Ng’s failure, I would not call for him to step down, but rather, for him – and all other parties – to learn from this incident, so as not to make the same mistake again. Blaming the clock, election officers or self-perceived delay tactics are just excuses to try to make your team look less incompetent.
Good luck for the next election instead.
Late by less than a min.
You call them as 1st world election officials under the 3rd world gov.
In a bank, customers are allowed to process their transactions even after closing hrs, the security guards just lock the main gate.
What gov is this?
Gerrymandering culture extended into election dept?
They manage to raise $80k election fund through donation .Now they are disqualified (Even if they are not disqualify ,they are still able to get back their deposit if their percentage exceed 25 per cent ) .What are they going to do with that large sum of money?There should be accountability .I think they should address this issue .
Rule of law is good. However when laws are tweaked until the the constitution laws and system of justice are taken over by one-man rule, do you still have the rule of law any more?
Its all an act lah. SDA is trying to keep mickey and his team on their toes to the 11th hour, and then let mickey walkover giving him face of boasting uncontested since independence day. Imagine if his GRC is the only lightning party when all other parties have won all other GRCs and SMCs, it will be a sight to behold…if only…and I drool in my dreams that the day may come when mickey had passed on.
Because of SDA’s stupidity, LKY can remain as cocky.
Refer:
http://sg.news.yahoo.com/kuan-yew-says-liked-contest-tg-pagar-071402879.html
Disapointed, BUT THIS IS NOT THE SDA TEAM, THEY ARE INDEPENDANT CANDIDATES.
It’s great to finally arrive at the truth. Saw a tweet today that some people are appealing to the UN to intravene in the above. This shows the immaturity of the people involved. The team made a mistake, which is forgivable, but to make Singapore look bad to the rest of the world because some people do not know what fair is, is not.
i am goin to teach the UNPERPARED a FREE history lessons based on 1st world war
………….
an entire of aussie bridgade was WIPED out under a british general when the aussie troops were in trenches fightin the wellarmed turkish troops fightin on b1/2 of their colonial master, the GERMAN
the aussie very experience officers kept relayin message after message that it a no gun for the aussie troop to CHIONG as it was heavilly outnumbers in ties of firepower/manpower…
what the aussie troops need is a heavy bombarement of british artillery heavy guns on the turkish well prepared machine guns flanks on all cornors..
the stubborn british general @ that time wasn’t even prepared nor hav artillery in place for support..
to the british motto s forward or die
remembered our prince of wale warship anchored in the malacca straight havin a picnic..it too wasn’t prepared for nipponese zero bombers.. henceforth no air protection..the americans on the other hands alway hav air support/artillery when 1s need to…
so the aussie commander bein in lowered rank had to obey and chionged resulted?
only 1 survivor..the runner(you think what? 1st world war got pagers/walkie talkies/iphone mey?)
this is better than charlie chaplin’s mute movie or the keystone cops. my god! there was lack of urgency for these bunch of clowns. how to run a ward or for that matter a bigger GRC? even if u won in a freak, they would be at each other necks in no matter of time. it’s a blessing they are out of the picture but a curse that the voters in TG PAGAR GRC lose their rights to vote. the primarily problem here is the GRC system which should be obleted to allow fair and sportsmanship contest. pap has always reasons to cover up and explain for their KIASUISM & KIASISM.
pap has also show that they disrespect the voters’ feeling for their beloved mp, namely baey yam keng who is very popular hotstuff to queenstown. he was transferred just like that without any consultation with q’town voters whether they approve or not. they just slotted in another totally unknown newbie chia shih lung just like that without even a contest but through the backdoor of GRC. is that fair to the voters who have so accustomed to baey’s mannerism? what about baey’s plans for bettering the life of q’town voters? would that be shelved? many feel betrayed by the pap for such sudden insolent strategy. let’s hope baey and mah’s team lose in this GE. only then pap would make to realise they cannot keep on displaying this kind of unsportmanship.
it has only shown everyone that pap is only bothered with winning. nothing else matters – not even respecting or being mindful about the sentiments and feelings of the voters.
time to vote out the paps as many as possible to let them know we, the voters mean business this time. :((
can TOC confirm whether disciplinary action has been taken against ng teck siong by SOCIALIS FRONT?
there was brief report that chiatilik initiated sacking ng. is that report confirmed?
they were not late by ‘less than a min’. it was only because the announcment came that the nomination was closed that they realised they missed the deadline and rushed down. herein derived the ’35 seconds’. if no announcement, they would have talked and chatting and relaxed until the cows came home. so stop playing on the ’35 seconds’ only thing. nobody to blame but yourselves, what a joke. if you can’t get a simple section in the PEA right, 11am to 12pm (both times included), then how are you going to get stuff right in Parliament.
ng teck siong and the bunch of clowns should apologise to the people who lent them money and to the people of tanjong pagar
however, this elections, their buffoonery is the exception, not the rule. the other parties have become incredibly organised, turning up early in the morning in coffeeshops scrutinising their forms and being responsible.
regardless of who’s right or wrong, they should do the honourable thing now and be accountable with the public donation. otherwise, there could well be an argument that they disqualified themselves to keep the money.
Ng Teck Siong is the only CLOWN and should retire from politics after this episode.
Now their theme song is Michael Learns to Rock: “35 seconds too late”…