The hottest news this month has got to be the Hougang By-Election. This was the result of the Workers’ Party [WP] Expulsion of Yaw Shin Leong, who was the previous Member of Parliament [MP] of Hougang Single Member Constituency [SMC]. Whatever I had to say about the WP’s handling of Mr Yaw, I have already written it down in an old post here. The only thing I had to add on is that even though I didn’t like how the entire matter was handled, I would still give the WP points for the political courage to put its future in Hougang on the chopping block by coming back to voters with another candidate. I can’t really say the same about the ruling party when I consider the failures of a few ex-ministers who suddenly retired only last year – and probably enjoying their pensions.
I chuckled when I saw Desmond Choo’s slogan – “Always there for you”. Indeed, the ruling party has always been there for Hougang. It has always been there to ensure that the lives of Hougangers are as miserable as possible in a vain hope that Hougang voters will repent their decision for the past 20 years since Mr Low Thia Kiang was elected as the MP of Hougang in 1991. Lest we forget, before the General Elections [GE] last May, an ex-candidate of the ruling party who lost twice to Mr Low Thia Khiang even had the gall to call Hougang a slum. It doesn’t matter that on the HDB’s website, the resale prices of HDB flats in Hougang SMC weren’t very much different from those of Aljunied Group Representative Constituency (then under the ruling party) across the street. I cannot imagine why anyone who pay that kind of money for a HDB unit in Hougang had it been a slum!
Even if Hougang had been a slum, it certainly wasn’t the fault of the WP that Hougang has fallen behind in terms of facilities and upgrading. Mr Low Thia Khiang has said as much and those who had attended the rallies would have some idea what the WP had tried to do, only to see those requests rejected when the flats are older and should have higher priority than some of the newer flats in a constituency won by the ruling party. Simply put, it is not only the WP voters of Hougang that were punished for exercising their democratic rights, even those who voted for the ruling party were similarly punished. Is it a surprise that votes for the ruling party had constantly diminished in Hougang over the last 20 years? After all, why would anyone vote for a party that holds him in contempt even though he did not vote for the other side? It also goes to show that not only did WP serve the people, it is also doing something right that the voters found it worthwhile to keep the WP candidate elected in spite of the pain!
As the campaign progressed, I sometimes wondered whether it was Desmond Choo who is contesting for Hougang, or the Deputy Prime Minister, Mr Teo Chee Hean. After all, Mr Teo appears to have the most to say about Mr Png Eng Huat, the WP’s candidate for Hougang. He started his attacks on Mr Png by suggesting that Mr Png wasn’t the best man WP has to offer because it was Mr Gerald Giam and not Mr Png that was selected for the position of Non-Constituency MP [NCMP].
Frankly, the fact that Mr Giam was selected as NCMP wasn’t because he was the best, but because he was young. The leaked memo clearly showed that to be the case as it stated that the Secretary General (Mr Low) and Chairman (Ms Sylvia Lim) “explained the situation and to impress upon Eric Tan the critical situation WP faced in the future regarding leadership renewal.”
As such, sending Gerald Giam as NCMP into Parliament was a sound strategic decision by the WP’s Central Executive Committee [CEC]. In fact, when we consider that the WP had no ministers which coat tails new blood can ride on to sneak into Parliament, this was the best way Gerald Giam can receive his baptism of fire and hone his debating skills in Parliament. His dismal performance during the ministerial pay revision debate would have taught him some valuable lessons. Just like training soldiers, the best training is to put them in the most realistic combat situation. It is horrendous that having been a high ranking navy officer previously, Mr Teo had forgotten that.
It was such a lame, cheap shot at Mr Png’s qualification as a candidate which shouldn’t have been given any consideration. If Mr Png actually have to dignify that with a reply, he should have simply pointed out that Ong Ye Kung would be an even better candidate than Desmond Choo because if I remembered correctly, Mr Ong was touted to be minister material and he certainly won more votes in the previous election as a candidate in the ruling party’s Aljunied GRC team! It would have been way better than saying that he had never been interested in the NCMP position. I was simply disappointed that Mr Png not only fell for such a cheap trick, it further created another opening for Mr Teo to question his integrity. I won’t bother to talk about that, since it is up to Mr Png to defend his own integrity and honor.
Anyway, had I been a resident of Hougang who is able to vote in this by-election, the decision is a no brainer. What the PAP is doing is almost like Chinese opera, where the party – as the government – plays the “White Face” (the bad guy) while Desmond Choo plays the “Black Face” (the good guy). It is nothing but wayang and there is simply no reason whatsoever to vote for a candidate from a party which caused all the pain and agony in Hougang in the first place. That’s not forgetting that the ruling party has complete dominance in Parliament. In a certain way, it is more than just one party dominance, it is a one party dictatorship. Had it not been the opposition’s historical break-through last year, it is unlikely that the ruling party would have put more effort into acting upon our feedback where it has for years pretend to listen to them. In short, the ruling party would have ignored us had the electorate “not stuck the spurs into their hide”.
There is simply no reason to pull the spurs out right now when we should have dug them deeper last May.
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