Tuesday 26 April - Mudslinging goes into third gear; PAP's unspoken track record

Bread and Butter - The CPF and Housing Conundrum:

- "A wrong sense of housing affordability: NSP's Goh": NSP secretary general Goh Meng Seng says zero downpayment on public housing does not imply that prices are affordable if mortgages need to be extended to 30 years. Cash would being depleted from CPF, making retirement expenses difficult. He adds that immigrants of the "migrant" nature is undesirable, proposing that public housing ownership should be viewed as a benefit to citizenship (rather than to facilitate residency in Singapore). He points to a number of municipal issues in Tampines, including aging population, lack of car park spaces and poor estate maintenance, and proposed a community hospital to be built in the constituency. (Today Online)

Manufacturing Consent:

- "Strange bedfellows" in SDP team (abridged article online at Straits Times), TOC's response includes a picture showing the original article with the same title on print copy is much longer than the article available online (The Online Citizen)

Mudslinging:

- "Dr Balakrishnan, please don't panic": SDP's Dr Vincent Wijeysingha responds to PAP's statement that the SDP team being "strange bedfellows" and his suggestion that Dr Ang and Tan Jee Say did not do sufficient due diligence before joining SDP. (Singapore Democratic Party website)

- PAP team for Holland-Bukit Timah undersigned a statement, pointing to the video that Dr Balakrishnan referred to in question. The statement accused Dr Wijeysingha of pursuing the gay agenda, pushing for legislation to lower the age of consent for sex with boys to 14. (Today Online)

- Former NMP Siew Kum Hong speaks out against PAP's attempt to raise the issue of sexual orientation of on one of SDP's candidate, in order to win the votes from a segment of population that will vote based on this issue. The Youtube video (link here) is edited, and Vincent Wijayasingha made no mention of campaigning to "lowing age of consent for sex with boys aged 14". SDP has posted their response to Dr Balakrishnan. While Holland-Bukit Timah constituency has a higher than average number of conservative Christians, the smear campaign will likely result in a backlash for the PAP, as did the last election. (Siew Kum Hong's blog)

- Alex Au commented extensively on the Dr Balakrishnan's accusations in previous posts. In this segment, he gave a blow-by-blow account of the accusations. He has also sleuth work detailing how the video was uploaded on Youtube 10 days before Dr Balakrishnan insinuated in the press regarding Dr Wijeysingha's sexual orientation. (Yawning Bread)

- "Singaporeans outraged by Vivian's dirty tricks", Another excellent account of Dr Vivian Balakrishnan's smear campaign to discredit SDP candidate Dr Vincent Wijeysingha (The Satay Club)

- "Holland-Bukit Timah GRC: Start your engines": Blinkymummy compares the profiles of candidates standing for elections at Holland-Bukit Timah GRC, weighs in on Dr Vivian Balakrishnan's performance as Minister for MCYS, including: 

1) $200m cost overruns on the YOG event, 

2) waste of taxpayers' money on the construction of $25m *SCAPE, 

3) delays on the construction of Sports Hub (first it was "rising construction costs", then it was the financial crisis)

4) his infamous comment to Dr Lily Neo in parliament about public assistance for the poor: "Do you want three meals at a hawker centre, food court or restaurant?" 

On the other hand, SDP faces an uphill task in demonstrating their legitimacy to voters with its activist roots in civil disobedience. Dr Balakrishnan's reference to the video is aimed at swinging votes from conservative population by attacking the candidate's sexual orientation. Voters now need to choose between a candidate with a 9-year track record of proven incompetence and one who is allegedly gay. (Blinkymummy)

- On a lighter note, a mysterious commenter from Vientiene defended Teo Ser Luck on her blog during the Youth Olympic Games. Teo Ser Luck is Senior Parliamentary Secretary and among the many advisors on the YOG panel. Read for yourself the nifty sleuth work and inductive reasoning made by the author and judge for yourself. (Blinkymummy)

Says a 1000 words:

- MM Lee heaped praises upon PAP's new candidates being "of proven character, of high calibre" among other things. He did not mention maturity, or their connections to the nexus of power. Ms Tin is married to the current Principal Private Secretary to Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong. At age 27, she is the youngest candidate fielded by the PAP this election.

Having the last say:

- MM Lee has urged voters to look at the fundamentals. Do not mistake the past for the present, adds Mr Wang. He opines that Singapore under the PAP has done well in many areas in the past with Goh Keng Swee, Lim Kim San and Rajaratnam. However the PAP today is different from the past. 

In the last 5 years, we had: 

1) stagnant wage growth, 

2) deterioration of public transport, 

3) escalating healthcare, 

4) ballooning public housing, 

5) increasing income gap between the rich and the poor and 

6) increasing GST. 

The PAP government has ample chance but fails to deal with:

a) falling birth rate,

b) unequal opportunities for NSmen,

c) an escaped terrorist from high security prison,

d) failure to account for loss of investments in GIC and Temasek

Has the PAP government achieved anything good at all? (Mr Wang Says So)