May 14th 2011 - MP Profiles and a big change.

OUR REPRESENTATIVES

Mr Lee Kuan Yew will be representing Tanjong Pagar as a backbencher. He is stepping down from the Cabinet as Minister Mentor. Here is the news article from Channel News Asia (dated May 14th 2011, author unknown):

http://www.channelnewsasia.com/stories/singaporelocalnews/view/1128878/1/.html

Pertinent information on Mr Lee:

Minister Mentor was a term coined specially for Mr Lee in 2004, a description which reflects his role in office, and a nod to his wealth of experience.

Mr Lee's role in shaping modern Singapore started from pre-Independence in the 50s and has continued till today.

He took a tough stand on many policies, from land acquisition for development to opening the doors to foreign talent.

Having seen for himself how racial tensions can break a society, Mr Lee dedicated himself to building a cohesive nation.

In 1988, the Parliamentary Elections Act was amended to introduce GRCs.

Mr Lee has always said the GRC system is to guarantee minority representation in Parliament. At least one minority candidate must be part of the team contesting a GRC.

Leadership renewal has always been a key priority for Mr Lee, who stepped down as Prime Minister in 1990.

At a National Day dinner for his constituency, he said the country's leadership renewal process is very much like the systematic way the Singapore Armed Forces (SAF) renews its ranks.

Mr Lee said: "Every year, the SAF improves on what it has done from the last year. Every year, a new team takes over and we have a regular succession of capable officers taking over, and that is the way Singapore has been able to maintain itself - regular renewal of the leadership, with younger people taking over these decisive roles."

His decision to step down is perhaps a sign of the confidence in the country's leadership renewal process.

TANJONG PAGAR TOWN COUNCIL

The Town Council (as of May 13th 2011) has started the process of updating its webpage. It is not complete as of now, but I am looking forward to when information becomes available.

INTENDED UPDATES - PROFILES OF OUR REPRESENTATIVES

A reader has pointed out that a good source of information would be their public Facebook pages. As such, I am linking them to this blog. Where Mr Lee Kuan Yew is concerned, given his extensive public records, I will link in his wikipedia page here as an extra source of information.

There are also video clips from the PAP website on their candidature during GE 2011 which is useful (but not permanent). Due to potential copyright issues, I do not intend to archive those videos and will let them lapse when the PAP updates their site. I assume they intend to archive the videos themselves and can be approached for a copy: http://ge.pap.org.sg/candidates/tanjongpagar

Note: It would appear the PAP had long decided on where their MP-candidates would represent unlike the case of the Worker's Party.

Note: Facebook links can be long and messy, I've decided to give the link-names shortened forms.

Lee Kuan Yew (Tanjong Pagar-Tiong Bahru) - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lee_Kuan_Yew (No official Facebook presence)
Indranee Rajah (Tanglin-Cairnhill) - Indranee Rajah Facebook Page (I cannot tell if this page is official. There is hardly any activity there.)
Lily Tirtasana Neo (Kreta Ayer-Kim Seng) - Lily Neo Facebook Page (Looks like her official page. She actively responds to posts and comments. Residents should engage her there.)
Chan Chun Sing (Buona Vista) - Chan Chun Sing Facebook Page (seems to be the official and active page. He has a number of informal feedback events which I will attempt to record or report on.)
Chia Shi-Lu (Queenstown) - Chia Shi-Lu Facebook Page (Looks official and active)

May 8th 2011 - An attempt to establish a baseline.

This is a report of my attempt to establish a baseline from which we can monitor changes. Websites change over time, reports come and go without necessarily being archived. My focus in this article is the Tanjong Pagar Town Council webpage. The goal is to establish or get a feel for:

1. what the council was doing pre-GE 2011.
2. establish numbers and figures so subsequent changes can be put into context.

TANJONG PAGAR

As of today, the Tanjong Pagar Town Council webpage still reflects the members and maps from the 11th Parliament rather than the 12th. However, of interest are:

1) their 5-year plan they had introduced in the course of their campaigning for 2011 to 2016. This is in the form of a PDF I have archived. I will see if there is an easy way to maintain the PDF in the context of this blog.

2) Town council charges and fees for various facilities and activities. I have printed a copy and dated it for my physical archive. It is a little cumbersome to archive it on this blog unless there is some significant or unreasonable change. I urge fellow residents to keep an eye on it.

3) Conservancy charges based on the Government Gazette dated 9th October 2009. This is in the form of a PDF which I have archived. The latest document tags along what I assume are Pinacle@Duxton flat types and new charges for commercial space. The PDF represents an amendment to the original 2002 document (GN S 266/2002). "S1-room flats: $90 ($81?) and S2-room: $100. S-commercial: $3 per sq meter, min $96.30"

4) The 2009-2010 Annual report. I had expected to find information about the Town Council's sinking fund here, but it was not to be. PDF, also archived.

5) Various other links in the navigation bar. Residents please note these options:

a) About Us -> How to contact us
b) Feedback.

Of note is an FAQ about sinking funds (PDF) which I have archived. However, if there is a document showing a balance sheet of how our sinking funds are used (similar to one I've seen from Hougang a number of years ago), I've either not found it yet, or it does not exist. If someone knows about it, please let me know.

PARLIAMENT

As of today, Parliament has not released a schedule for parliamentary proceedings for the 12th Parliament.

Time to pay our dues as residents

Well, I've decided enough is enough. Time to pay attention (objectively) to what our representatives are doing on our behalf. As such, the goals of this blog are:

1. Collate and record all available public information about the 5 members of parliament representing Tanjong Pagar with respect to their work in parliament. Specifically, I'll be targeting and highlighting:

a. Speeches (preferably available video from TV or otherwise)
b. Voting record on legislation.
c. Proposing of new legislation.
d. Debates that impact Tanjong Pagar constituency.
e. As an aside (and for the fun of it), document any parliamentary snafus. Examples include: getting caught sleeping on camera; saying something really incredibly stupid.

2. Monitor, if possible, grassroots activities. Collate any verifiable stories on Meet-The-People Sessions. This can be an extremely difficult task to achieve objectively.

3. Pay limited attention to the 6 opposition members from Workers Party, particularly their new members in much the same way as described in #1.

At an ideological level, as a Liberal, my goal is to encourage voters in Singapore to pay attention to what their representatives do. I think Active Citizenry is as important to the political process as good candidates are. Only when we are aware of what is done in our name, can we make better judgement on whether our interests have been well-represented and on how we should vote the next time around.

I am limiting this blog to just Tanjong Pagar and the Opposition because I had realized I could not keep up with the activities of 87 people (I tried, during GE 2011, and was hopelessly overwhelmed). As an official resident of Tanjong Pagar and having a keen interest in keeping a record on Opposition activity, this will be my focus. I encourage others, if they can, to do the same for each constituency. If you do so, please let me know so I may link these blogs together into a somewhat cohesive archive for the benefit of all.

As full disclosure, I am most assuredly anti-establishment. I disagree, sometimes intensely, with the "ruling" (I prefer "governing") party's policies. As such, I can be biased. This would, of course, be at odds with the goals of this blog. I hereby urge readers to correct my biases accordingly. I hope to limit such bias by focusing on objective matters, but I will still suffer from the Bias of Ommission, which is the failure to record something I did not like or chose not to see. It is in these cases, I think, that reader intervention will come in handy so I may achieve a complete record.

Finally, I will minimize if not eliminate any analysis on my part in the posting of articles. I do, however, encourage discussion and analysis in the reader comments. I will also try to engage as often as I can.