PAP is doing some house keeping

PAP unveiled their candidates for Aljunied GRC today.

They are Chua Eng Leong, K Muralidharan Pillai, Yeo Guat Kwang, Shamsul Kamar and Victor Lye.

Huh? Who are they?
 

The signals sent out to the public is the PAP has given up on Aljunied.

Yahoo Sg wrote:

“Yeo could very well be the PAP’s saving grace in a GRC that they want badly to wrest back and to which the WP is holding tightly by keeping its heavyweight star candidates intact on the slate. Despite Yeo’s move out of Aljunied in 2011, he has maintained a strong relationship with the grassroots and residents.”

Yeah if the PAP is serious enough to win back Aljunied they should be sending a Tier 1 guy even the DPMs and PM himself. But I guess they have they already knew it’s difficult for them win at Aljunied from the data they have.

The Middleground did a wonderful job. Compiling the attendance of the last 115 parliament’s sitting and also the number the MPs has spoken.

Hey this is a good guide for you what kind of person he/she is and did he/she represent you in parliament according with the votes you given them. In shorts, is he/she worth it.

From the table table, Anchor Yeo attended  104/115 sitting spoke 57 times

A good 90% attendance rate but only with a speaking rate of 54.8%.

I expect a higher speaking rate with his $16,000 allowance.

Its also interesting to see who are at the bottom.

Outgoing PAP Mr Raymond Lim  spoke up zero times. Outgoing Mr Mah Bow Tan, spoke only once, and Outgoing Ex DPM Mr Wong Kan Seng  who spoke twice.

Now we know why they are outgoing.

PM Lee is really taking the opportunity to get rid of the dead woods 

Raymond still dare to portray a very sad face when announcing his retirement.

To me he already retired since 2011 by not speaking up for the people in parliament.

Raymond please don’t be sad. You can forever remain silent and enjoy your millions from the people of Singapore. And oh enjoy your pension for life.

 

The scary thing about the power of brain washing.

Head Pastor Lawrence Khong urges fellow pastors to pray for Kong Hee and to speak ‘well’ of CHC

Posted by temasektimes on June 28, 2012


Influential Head Pastor of Faith Community Baptist Church (FCBC) and Chairman of ‘Love Singapore’ Pastor Lawrence Khong (pic left) has called on fellow pastors to rally behind disgraced founder of City Harvest Church (CHC) Kong Hee and to pray for him.


Kong Hee was charged in court yesterday together with four others for misappropriating up to S$50 million dollars of the church’s funds and diverting them to further the music career of his singer wife Ho Yeow San.


Despite being condemned roundly by many Singaporeans including Christians, a senior figure from the Christian community Lawrence Khong had spoken up publicly in defence of Kong Hee.


In a note posted on his Facebook, Pastor Khong urged fellow pastors to unite behind Kong Hee:


We read with sadness the charges brought against Pastor Kong Hee and four senior leaders of City Harvest Church.


“We must stand ever more united in love and stronger in prayer for Pastor Kong Hee and the church. This is a time of testing for the Body of Christ. Truth is, we are all on trial before a righteous God. We must ask ourselves: Do we truly love the Body? Let there be a powerful prayerbuzz—on earth as it is in heaven! Let’s tell our members to talk more with God and less with others, especially on social media.”


He reminded them that Kong Hee is ‘innocent until proven guilty’ and implored them not to ‘prejudge or make baseless assumptions.’


“We must seek every opportunity to speak well of City Harvest Church. Its impact on the youth of Singapore is phenomenal. Its community service is outstanding. Its social arm meets a wide range of needs,” he added.





This is another joker who is getting his priority wrong. I am really shocked that he can actually become a pastor.

 Yes Kong Hee is “innocent” until proven guilty. But should Lawrence be asking the community to pray to Jesus for the truth rather then pray for Kong Hee.


So what if Kong Hee is proven guilty? Is Lawrence asking the people to pray for the thief?

One thing to ask yourself, is it morally right for a pastor to stay in a multi millions dollar home in the first place? Something is already out of place if the pastor live a life of luxury.

 Mark 10:21 Then Jesus, looking at him, loved him, and said to him, “One thing you lack: Go your way, sell whatever you have and give to the poor, and you will have treasure in heaven; and come, take up the cross, and follow Me.”



I think Jesus must be quite sad now.

Paying millions for idiots.

Breakdown unavoidable on heavily utilised train system
Ministry of Transport will try to minimise disruptions as much as possible. -myp
Tue, Apr 10, 2012

Disruptions on a heavily utilised rail system such as Singapore's are unavoidable, but breakdowns longer than 30 minutes are considered major disruptions, said Transport Minister Lui Tuck Yew in Parliament yesterday.

He said the Ministry of Transport "will try and minimise as much as possible the major disruptions and to keep them in check".

But with an average of 2.7 million passenger trips daily and thousands of train trips in more than 18 hours a day, "there is no way you can prevent disruptions from occurring".

He was responding to Member of Parliament for Nee Soon GRC Lee Bee Wah's queries on whether more can be done to address the spate of breakdowns.

"If they do take place, you then have an incident-management plan in place that will try to ameliorate the effects on commuters," he added.

Mr Lui also gave details of the resources spent by transport operator SBS Transit on preventive maintenance of the rail track and tunnel of the North-East Line (NEL).

He said it spent about $16 million from 2007 to last year in this area, adding that it was "a fraction of the total maintenance cost that they spent" on the line.

The operator, which has an in-house team of about 470 maintenance staff, also conducts regular inspections in accordance with approved maintenance plans, he said.

This includes a monthly deployment of an engineering vehicle to detect track faults, six-monthly tunnel inspections to check for cracks and leaks, as well as nightly checks to look for signs of defects or wear and tear.

On March 15, some 90,000 commuters were affected by a disruption on the NEL, which lasted some 10 hours. It was the biggest train disruption here since two major incidents on SMRT's North-South Line on Dec 15 and 17 last year.

Mr Lui said he has asked the Land Transport Authority (LTA) to work with the operators to put in place a "condition- monitoring regime" to give a better idea of how to prioritise some of the maintenance efforts needed.

Mr Lui also addressed the issue of employing foreign bus drivers. He was referring to a recent accident in Sengkang, where an SBS Transit bus driven by a foreign driver killed a 66-year-old woman.

While everyone is "saddened" by the incident, Mr Lui stressed that regardless of nationality, it is crucial that every driver is adequately trained and appropriately qualified.

"Especially if they come from abroad, then (they should be) given the kind of orientation that will help them familiarise themselves with the peculiarities of the system here in Singapore," he said.

In the public-bus sector, about 61 per cent of drivers are Singaporeans and permanent residents, about 26 per cent are Malaysians and about 12 to 13 per cent are from China.

Mr Lui added that the training of foreign drivers should include infusing them with the responsibility that they carry and to make sure that they operate their vehicles in a safe manner.

While the two public-bus operators will need to hire about 1,600 more drivers for the additional 800 buses in five years, Mr Lui said the Government will not micro-manage their wages and employment terms.

The LTA is also exploring the use of buses from private bus companies to supplement the public-bus fleet, he noted.

But there are constraints as private operators are trying to maximise the utilisation of their fleet, and are also needed to ferry workers and students during the peak hours, he said.

He added that the current system of rotating an average of two drivers to operate every bus through the course of a day was adequate.

Mr Lui said: "There's the morning peak as well as the evening peak and, in between, some of the drivers will then get to rest in the interchanges."




Now you have a million dollar Minister telling you that it is acceptable for train to break down. This is like throwing in the towel before the match even start.

Terrible mentality I wonder what kind of “quality” people Hsien Loong select to be Minister.

Meanwhile in Tokyo, it is UNACCEPTABLE for any break down.

Say you pay for a cheap “Guess” watch, I believe it is acceptable if it breaks down 10 years later. But if you spent a premium on a Rolex, I will expect it to be working 50years later with proper maintenance.

We now have the most expensive cabinet in the world telling us that too bad you have accept these failures.

Crab.

Then change a cheaper person to run the show or cut the cost of transport then maybe we can accept some sort of disruption.

Running an efficient transport is possible it is just a matter of will and the resource you are willing to pour in.

If we have money minded Minister and Transport operator, do you think their priority is the commuters or bottom line?

The answer is obvious.

Myopic tunnel vision by these idiots.

Disruption seemed to be better managed, says Minister Lui
Mar 16, 2012

Compared to the train service breakdowns in December last year, yesterday's North East Line (NEL) disruption - which was due to faults discovered before the train services began - seemed to be better managed, said Transport Minister Lui Tuck Yew.

SBS Transit's larger fleet of buses, which could be activated to ferry affected customers, and the smaller number of stations involved helped alleviate the situation, said Mr Lui.

So did the lessons learnt from the disruptions on the North South Line - operated by SMRT - on Dec 15 and 17 last year, which resulted in the two train operators working closer together.

"Even if there's a situation that affects lines run by SMRT ... we could see an improvement on the situation compared to the past," said Mr Lui, who was speaking to reporters outside Dhoby Ghaut MRT Station (picture) where he was assessing the situation.

There were announcements informing commuters about the disruption, unlike in December when announcements were made only on the affected lines, he noted. Since then, SMRT and SBS Transit have also come together to allow free travel on bus services that serve affected MRT stations during a disruption, in addition to the bus bridging services.

During yesterday's disruption, commuters could travel on SBS Transit's 124 or SMRT's 190 services for free - but commuters were generally unaware of this, Mr Lui said. "We need to do a better job to make sure that people know that there are other services that are also free," he said.

Mr Lui pledged that the authorities and the operators would carry out a thorough check on the entire NEL for symptoms "that may point towards other problematic areas along the line".

But he added: "The feedback and the update that I have gotten from my people in the operation centre is that they believe that it is confined only to the stretch between Outram and HarbourFront."



I think Tuck Yew is missing the point.

Yes there is definitely an improvement the ways the transport operator handle this incident but the question is, WHY IS THERE A DISRUPTION IN THE FIRST PLACE?

Now MRT disruption seen to be a norm these days and SBS Transit and SMRT must explain why this is so.

Lack of maintenance? Cost cutting? Lousy design?

Is there anymore underlying problem that are waiting to disrupt the system and are all angles covered to prevent future disruptions?

To me all these checks should have been done long ago when the first disruption happened. I guess they are still trying to save on the maintenance, worst still they don’t know what underlying problems are there in the system.

This is what you get for putting “yes man” who only care about profit as CEOs.

Tuck Yew is going to F them for giving him bad publicity now.

The root of the problem had spoken

Lee Kuan Yew defends competitive ministerial salaries
18 January 2012

SINGAPORE: Singapore's former Minister Mentor Lee Kuan Yew has defended the need for a competitive ministerial pay to attract committed and capable people who will serve the country.

In a letter sent to the media on Wednesday after a parliamentary debate on political pay, Mr Lee, who had fought strongly for competitive political pay when he was in the Cabinet, noted how with a different generation, political attitudes change.

But he said unless Singapore has a steady stream of people to serve as ministers, Singapore as a little red dot will become a little black spot.

He pointed out that Singapore did not get from Third World to First by "head-hunting ministers willing to sacrifice their children's future when undertaking a public service duty."

He said the leadership took a "pragmatic course that does not require people of calibre to give up too much for the public good."

Mr Lee added that Singapore must not be reduced to another ordinary country in the Third World by dodging the issue of competitive ministerial remuneration.

Mr Lee said Singapore cannot underpay ministers and argues that their sole reward should be their contribution to public good.

"Every family wants to provide the best for their children, to go to a good university. We were pragmatic and also paid competitive salaries in order to have a continuous stream of high calibre people to become MPs, and then ministers. They put their careers at risk and undergo an uncertain and unpredictable election process," he said.

He pointed to the heavy responsibilities of ministers in making Singapore a success.

"A PM and his ministers carry heavy responsibilities for the nation. If they make a serious mistake, the damage to Singapore will be incalculable and permanent. Their macroeconomic policies will decide the GDP of the country, which was more than S$300 billion in 2010, with per capita GDP of S$59,000."



The MP for Tanjong Pagar had spoken.

MP Lee again rubbished that if Singapore don’t pay high salary to Ministers we will be reduced to another ordinary county in the third world….. HUH?

Yes I agreed that every man has to take care of his family and Ministers as well, they should be paid well so they can send their children to good university and get themselves a big houses and a few big cars.

But there is something not right if they are over paid!

With the current salaries, these jokers can send their next 5 generations to good universities and get each and every of their grand children a car and a house, all with tax payer money.

If each and every Minister is so important then they should stand for election on their own and not in GRCs. So if they screwed up we can removed them in the next elections.

Look at the standard of passed DPM Wong Kang Seng and Minister Mah.

They are hopeless but still got away with it.

PAP is made up of Elites for the Elites, they has lost connection with ordinary Singaporean long ago.

There is no excuse for Greed.

Drawbacks on pegging ministers' pay to that of foreign leaders
Mr Teo pointed out the differences between Singapore and other countries in terms of size, make-up of population and philosophy of governance
Tue, Jan 17, 2012
my paper

There are drawbacks with the suggestion that ministers' salaries here should be benchmarked to those of foreign leaders, said Deputy Prime Minister Teo Chee Hean yesterday.

Mr Teo, who is also the Coordinating Minister for National Security and Minister for Home Affairs, said: "Political pay levels and structures based on domestic political considerations in one country may not correlate with the conditions in another."

It is thus more apt to benchmark and structure political salaries here to local economic and social conditions, such as employment level.

Mr Teo was putting forth the motion to endorse the recommendations of the Committee to Review Ministerial Salaries set up by Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong last year.

Beyond political factors, Mr Teo pointed out the differences between Singapore and other countries in terms of size, make-up of population and philosophy of governance.

He went on to explain how Singapore has to assemble the Cabinet from a smaller pool of able people, as compared to places with larger populations such as Britain and Japan.

Reiterating the importance of Singapore's leadership selection "more so than in other countries", he said: "We are a small, multi-ethnic country, set in a volatile region and facing the full force of global competition; our challenges are complex and many."

He added: "We are a city-state which is critically dependent on good governance to survive, sustain ourselves and achieve success."

The key recommendations of the committee include pegging the ministerial pay to the median income of the top 1,000 Singaporean earners, with a discount of 40 per cent.

With the proposed changes, which the Government intends to accept, Mr Lee's pay will be equivalent to that of the 382nd Singapore Citizen income earner - with a total annual salary package of $2.2 million.

Mr Lee had stood at the 175th position in 2010 with a salary of $3.1 million.

Mr Teo also revealed that the top 1,000 earners here earn $1.3 million or more, based on data from the Inland Revenue Authority of Singapore.

The data also showed that 48 per cent of them held senior- management positions across industries such as retail and health care.

During the debate which followed, Workers' Party Member of Parliament (MP) Chen Show Mao proposed pegging ministerial salaries as multiples of an MP's allowance as they "are first and foremost elected as MPs to serve and represent the people".

With ministerial pay pegged to that of the top earners here, MP for Ang Mo Kio GRC Inderjit Singh called for high standards of accountability.

He said: "If a minister consistently performs poorly and less than satisfactorily, the Prime Minister should be quick to replace him, as is done in the private sector."



Actually it is interesting to see what kind of lame excuse PAP give for having the most expensive cabinet in the world.

The fact is it is totally wrong and no matter what excuse they give is ridiculous.

Look at Teo’s explanations, it only makes him look like an idiot or maybe they think Singaporeans are just plain stupid.

Teo explain we need higher pay because we have a smaller pool of people to get into politic.

Huh? But are these people qualified? Isn’t it easier to run a smaller country? Isn’t it more difficult to run the United States, United Kingdom and China?

And I am pretty sure we are not the only "small, multi-ethnic country, set in a volatile region and facing the full force of global competition; our challenges are complex and many." in the whole word.

I don’t care about Hsien Loong pay position in the country has dropped. The fact is he is being paid by tax payers and his salary is way above what an average Singaporean get.

This is morally wrong.

In fact if he or any of the cabinet think they want to be rich then they should jolly well join a private sector which they claims they can easily get in to and then they can be the number 1 paid Singaporean in this country.

The real thoughts of our millionaires

President, MPs react to pay cut
04 January 2012 1847 hrs (SST)

SINGAPORE: Singapore's President Tony Tan Keng Yam has welcomed the recommendations of the Ministerial Salaries Review Committee announced on Wednesday.

In a statement, a spokesman for the Office of the President said Dr Tony Tan has informed the prime minister he will adopt the president's salary as recommended by the committee, backdated 1 September last year, the day he was sworn into office.

Meanwhile, Member of Parliament (MP) for Jurong Group Representation Constituency (GRC) David Ong said: "Personally, for me, with the reduction of the MP allowance and removal of the GDP Bonus, it won't affect my performance at all, as an MP.

"I'm elected to serve the people of Singapore, my residents in Jurong GRC, and I'll continue to do that.

Mr Ong added he believes there are Singaporeans who will be prepared to step forward and serve the country despite significant cuts to political salaries.

Mr Ong told MediaCorp it is important that the financial sacrifice, however, not be too steep as this will affect the government's ability to attract top-calibre leaders.

"There will be some challenges, but hopefully with this adjustment of the pay package we can attract people with the heart to want to serve and give a little bit more discount in terms of their material gains, and step forward to serve the country," he said.



The president, who only gathered 30% of the nation votes, and Ministers must be feeling quite bad now due to the pay cut but they have no choice as PAP has the worst election result last year.

Well can’t believe one who suffered pay cut can still say nice things but again its on national media.

Therefore I try to think what some their real thoughts may be(with disclaimer):


Tony Tan: Lucky Nathan, I should have stayed at GIC and SPH. ##$@!%#

Lee Hsien Loong: I am still the best paid politician in the world.

Teo Chee Hean: So many portfolio still kenna pay cut. Wah lau still have to explain to the other guys since I am in charge of Civil Service pay.

Tharman: Sian… the other ex-DPM got some much over the years and now I first year kenna pay cut liao… should have gone to work for the world bank.

Lim Swee Say: Evertime I look at my CPF I wonder why I feel poorer.

Yaacob: Huh? What pay cut?

Khaw Boon Wan: Guess has to look for HDB flats now.

Vivian: Please don’t rain again! Else no bonus this year.

Shanmugan: Lucky George

Lui Tuck Yew: Shit! Look like really have to take public transport now.

Heng Swee Keat: Wah lan! Kenna con into politic.

Chan Chun Sing: Wah Wah Lan!!! Kenna con into politic and now no one call me Sir anymore.

Mah Bow Tan: Heng Hah. Now only take MP pay can really relax.

Wong Kang Seng: Si Bei Heng man! Must call Bow Tan out and gossip.