Pages from My Political Past

This page is dedicated to those who played a part in supporting me as a candidate under the Workers’ Party banner during the 2006 General Elections. That was my first true foray into electoral politics and it certainly was a tiring, tough but memorable experience. I hereby repeat the poem and statements in the speeches to remind the Ruling Party of part of their rubbish in their current reign.

My special thanks, apologies and heartfelt gratitude to my beloved ex-wife Michelle Yan.  Despite the differences that we shared and the problems that plagued our marriage, none of this would have been achieved if not for your kind understanding and silent steadfast support. I have been silent throughout these few years due to my unravelling of the issues within, the fears, the reactions and the preoccupation with objectives. I acknowledge that am neither a man without mistakes nor without flaws.

I post this openly now in order to have the integrity expected of a man with courage but also to be at peace with myself.

Attached below is now the missing poem that failed to make it to print under the Workers’ Party Hammer and the Speeches made during the 2006 General Elections.

AN ODE TO THE WORKERS’ PARTY

Life in this country and under the PAP

Expensive on the MRT

Expensive on the LRT

Everything is controlled by the PAP

And moving to the chink of money

Work and business, study and play

and even where you stay

In all things they have a say

Want to have a change, make it today

If you choose not to marry

they can get very nosey

Try to make you start a family

But who will look after your babies?

When you do not have enough for my baby

They tell you it is not their duty.

True enough but do they see

That few are like them with so much money?

In this country, money in CPF can be used to buy property

or else cannot take out until two past sixty

At a time when the people are counting their pennies

Changes are made to make people cough out more of their money

Cannot use CPF to fully buy property

Cannot use medisave to pay fully hospital fees

People’s relationship with the ruling party

If they cannot understand our difficulties

It is simply because their job is too cushy

Add to that their world’s highest political salaries

Do I have to say more for you to believe?

Taken for a ride by the PAP?

Are you not tired of the PAP?

Are you all not craving for liberty?

You can choose to follow the Workers’ Party

If you truly care for your family

It is not to leave this country

Break free from your daily exigencies

Look for direction from the Workers’ Party

Vote for WP or else vote for Harry’s party

When taxes and costs rise will you be happy?

When that happens don’t you blame the Workers’ Party

Because it is you who forgot that some things should be free

Time to make a difference in our lives, both you and me.

If you want change in this country

Time to vote for the Workers’ Party!

Follow their lead in their quest to be free

PAP making life uneasy

Income tax, custom duty, GST

Road Tax, ERP and COE

Cannot buy private property so choose HDB

Alamak! Still must raise conservancy?

Already HDB’s residents’ lives not so easy

The PAP say raise conservancy in case of contingency

If that is true, it should be so with every party

But why not the SPP and Workers’ Party?

Will life ever be easy?

Big sweep toto and 4D

If can strike good but not so easy

Now they say make a casino for this country

Is it to take away more of our money?

Political antics of the PAP

Whenever you switch on your TV

Never ending is their story

Looking out for better poetry?

Stop listening to the PAP

Everyday you hear and see the PAP

And their stories on newspaper, radio and TV

But after listening can you fully agree?

Can it be you take things too lightly? Or is it the PAP?

What we need in WP

Be it primary, Secondary or university

Be it Bookie, Cabbie or Honours Degree

All can contribute constructively

By joining the Workers’ Party

Our step into WP

Mummy said that if I joined I would be sorry

Daddy said I was very naughty

What they said did not prepare me to party

With a whole new family – the Workers’ Party

Mummy said study hard and you will be happy

God said “I can set you free”

The Prime Minister said “believe me”

My choice is clear as you can see

I rather trust the Workers’ Party.

When I said I want to run in the GE

People around me thought I was crazy

Only when I came to the Workers’ Party

When they heard me, they were happy.

Maybe I just want to be happy

I don’t care how others see me

If all of us are so wary

Who will be left to take on the PAP?

Meng Seng, Shin Leong, Tiong Ling and Jothi

Michelle, Melvin and Swee Bee

Wee Teck and Wai Leng and Me!

Come and meet us in the YAC!

The Hammer for free? Not so easy

For Mr. Low selling the Hammer is very easy

The rest of WP combined still cannot sell that many

Some bad days can sell only a few hundred copies

But anytime better than the PAP!

Why? The PAP’s Petir is given away for free.

Because the Hammer makes it look silly.

Such is the talent within the Workers’ Party

Won’t you all nod and agree?

Please lah, then do buy one copy!

Just before every GE

Normal days they make us unhappy

When the GE comes, they try to get pally

Invite many to tea and coffee

Do they think we are all silly?

WP v. PAP – What happened in History

First is the WP, and then come the SDP

Grow to three then become nothing in one GE

Amidst all there was one consistency

That is one seat held by the Workers’ Party

This shows that only one party that can take on the PAP

Who else but the Workers’ Party?

Once upon a time in history

Got this island become a country

For a long time got only PAP

The next big wave is the Workers’ Party

First they had all SMCs, then they came up with the GRCs

But this does not mean that you and I can’t see

That only though the Workers’ Party, can you break the PAP.

It happened in 1981, 1991, 1997 and 2001 all of which are well recorded in history

PAP ministers got many and all got impressive degrees

They claim to deserve the world’s highest salaries

But come to GE, they cuddle into GRCs

Need me to say more? Cant you see?

If they have the guts, they can come to Hougang SMC!

Oh please! No more SMCs! Says the PAP

So mighty is the PAP

So tiny is the WP

What is it that makes us scary?

It’s because we don’t give up even when it is not easy!

There is a fortress in Hougang SMC

Where all the soldiers gather before sorties

Up against the great big enemy

We will be the first to break the GRC!

Why bother with the Workers’ Party?

We have our one and only Harry

We also have our longstanding PAP

If there is only one party

Tell me will you be happy?

So many are our worries

So little things to be happy

If you do not have the WP

That’s when you’ll really be sorry

Got spare time don’t want to make extra money

Take trouble to volunteer in the Workers’ Party

Did someone say that we are very silly?

So what? It only matters if we are all happy!

Our beliefs may sound crazy

But touching will be our story

If you really want big money, go and join the PAP

Over here in the Workers’ Party, the people are our priority!

Many say they wanna change this country

When time comes they get wishy-washy

Some give excuse say should join PAP to try and see

Want to be a man or a sissy?

If you dare, join the Workers’ Party

The General Apathy

A general sense of political apathy

Is never going to help our country

Take a stand with the WP

Or else stop complaining about the PAP

Why we fight the GE

Because we only have one SMC

That is why we fight tooth and nail at every GE

When we break the first GRC

Lets then see if they still dare to have any!

Peacetime we are one small party

Our numbers are not that many

GE Time when we get ready

We’ll have a few thousand kakis.

The choice for you and me

After all these poetry

Do you not all agree?

That the better choice than the PAP

Is but of course the Workers’ Party?

The future is for us to achieve

Looking back at history

Look at the present watch and see

Voting for the PAP

Is it nothing but pure folly?

Only the PAP can be so cheeky

To create this thing called the GRC

Some more still redraw boundary

Are they really that mighty?

Naivety

Because the people are still not enough angry

Have not yet resolved to kick out the PAP

Thinking that they can still be happy

Such is their naivety!

If all you approve of is the PAP

Then don’t complain if they take your money

Through taxes, charges and other fees

And don’t complain if nothing in this country is free

In the world, there is only one country

Where the people are made to feel tiny

If you stay behind, you get no priority

If you leave, you get criticized for quitting the country

Unwilling to suffer for eternity?

Time to think of action and not just wait and see

Amongst the people you and me

You will find one true contender

And that’s the Workers’ Party

Only when we see the logic

Then we can work the magic

Remove all that makes you workaholic

Undo the PAP matrix!

Still after all these is said and done

There will only be that few and some

To answer the call to stand as one

So as to make this our very best chance

One clear victory over the PAP

Is our only hope of improving this country.

Rather then giving up for eternity

Give it a try, then wait and see!

All the Government Parliamentary Committees

or the PAP backbencher MPs

Can ever remove the need for another party

As much as they would have you believe

That checks and balances need not be

That cows might fly and pigs climb trees

And generation by generation this cycle repeats

Of chasing after achievement and glory

And this thing called financial security

Taking pressure and toil in exchange for little freebies

Did you just pay a price you failed to see?

Only after 4 decades of learning

Would people realize what is lacking?

To see beyond the yarns of spinning

And come to terms with the PAP’s cunning.

What a government wants from the people has to be

Simply obedience, order, and money

But such wants are subject to some prerequisites

Known as peace, progress and prosperity

What a people want from a country

Is for a place to be and to remain free

To pursue their dreams without boundaries

And not be shackled into indignity

What a government has to be

If they want their people to agree

Is to maintain justice and equality

And embody faith, hope and charity

Is Singapore manifesting these?

After knowing the warts and flaws in this country

And that future promises might fall empty

Would you decide this is where your children should be?

Or would you rather they pack up and leave?

Would you wonder leaving would make you happy?

Or would you rather risk the label of being called naive

And take a stand to try to achieve

That which might change this country

That one step maybe is all that you need

to start a movement for more to believe

After all has been said and done

Would you once again give up this chance?

Of trying WP to see if Singapore can be enhanced?

Would you care to stand up for once?

Or you don’t even dare to take a glance?

Finale

They say without the PAP

We can never run this country

And for where we are they should get the credit

And therefore should never be made to exit

That’s not the same though with their concepts of accountability

With regards to the problems that exist in our beloved country

Like the bureaucracy created in the ministries

With the disclaimers made by statutory authorities

And the mistakes made by the civil service

The excuse they gave to take our money

Was to build up our reserves in case it got rainy

And if that happened we need not worry

Just bank on the immense strength of the nation’s treasury

With this they created a presidency

With purport to protect with integrity

But even the president himself could not foresee

Their excuses and barriers hedged against transparency

Leaving what lies therein to the imagination of many

With no chance at all for its use for the original beneficiaries

Then in a final exercise of legalities

They removed all obligations and perceived difficulties

And then took the transfer of such monies

To be carried out by only them and with ease

Such is my disbelief and grief

That made, kept and discarded by them were the safekeeping keys

what then is there left for us to believe?

In their words, their actions or their sincerity?

Such is their brazenness and audacity

To seek to do everything with impunity

In doing so, have they forgotten important notions of democracy?

Namely of truth and fairness and accountability

That above is what I truly and sincerely believe

As the objectives their predecessors had originally set out to achieve

Rambling on like this without reprieve

Is not an indication that I will not forgive

But if there is a chance that we think might exist

That someone else can do a better job than this

Then it is our duty to help this person accomplish

What ought to be done and can be achieved

For the benefit of all there is

After years of supporting the PAP

Do you know whether you are left with enough money?

Do you wonder whether your retirement can be easy?

And if you fall ill, can our hospital charges be closer to free?

After all that you have done for your country

Would you wonder about the future you wanted to see?

Would you wonder whether if you had voted differently…

What could have happened then? “What if” and “maybe”

An Ode to the Workers’ Party or just blasting the PAP?

Read carefully, think hard, then tell me.

But above all, after reading this, vote wisely.

 

The TRANSPORT FARE SOLUTION

Tuesday, 2 May 2006 -  East Coast Rally Site

Good evening, ladies and gentlemen, fellow members of the Workers’ Party, my fellow countrymen. Thank you for coming to this rally. I know that not all of you are residents. And some of you have come from the ends of Singapore just to listen to us.

Why have you come to listen to us?

What is it that you are seeking that this so called 1^st World Government cannot provide? Let me guess…. You are seeking answers to the problems facing you in your daily life and you are seeking answers to problems facing Singapore.

 After 40 years of PAP rule, what are the things that bother you in your daily life? Does our health care cost, transport cost, housing cost, education cost scare you?

 In coming here today, have you not decided deep in your hearts that the PAP which claims to run a 1^st World government, has not been able to make life better for you?  I sincerely thank you. In coming here, you have demonstrated faith in us. And I will now convince you that your faith is not misplaced.

Life in Singapore is largely controlled by the Government. In the earlier years the government nationalized many essential services in this country. To name a few, utilities, transport, telecommunications, healthcare, education and housing. This was good. It created economies of scale and kept costs low.

After nationalization, the Government forgot two key principles: – that nationalization reduces costs as it creates create economies of scale to minimize service costs; and that a duty of the government is to take care of its people.

When the Government started down the slippery slope of privatization and commercializing the essential services for profit, this was when life started turning for the worse for you.

Nationalization is done with the object of providing a public service. Public service cannot be profit oriented. Sacrifices must be made.

Privatization gives the companies the excuse of running the services for profit and for the benefit of its shareholders.  Privatization removes from the companies all notions of public service and responsibility.

I cite you the example of the transport services in Singapore, previously nationalized. Then privatized. And now transport costs are spiraling up year after year. I will also let you know that, the Public Transport Council which reviews transport fares was due to review the transport fares but due to this election, the review has been postponed.

If the PAP is returned with 82 or more seats, you can be sure that transport fares will increase. That aside. Election aside. Let just try to solve the problem first.

If their intention in privatizing is truly to create a free capitalist market where the prices of services fluctuate according to demand, they should then remove all barriers for such services to face competition. This is my first proposition.

If there is true competition, there will be a fight for the consumer dollar and creation of a greater supply of essential services so that costs will be driven downwards. But this is not the case. This government is adverse to competition. It makes me wonder are the GLCs taking the character of the Ruling party in being adverse to competition.

Now if the Government is unwilling to allow commercial competition just as it dislikes political competition, I have the 2^nd proposition. I propose that the Government adopt Chapter 8 of the Workers’ Party Manifesto.

The Government should follow the Workers’ Party Manifesto to solve this problem of rising transport costs to alleviate the burden on the people. The government need not be shy about this, because they have done this before, quietly. Adopting a proposal from the Workers’ Party Manifesto of 1984.

The Government adopt the recommendations under chapter 8 to re-nationalize the transport services on trunk routes and allow private feeder operators to fight for a piece of the consumer pie. This will definitely reduce the price of feeder services in HDB and outlying estates. This will have a spin off and increase job creation in this sector.

At present, the prices of feeder bus services are ridiculous. If you use your easy link card, you pay 63 cents per trip. One stop or ten stops it’s the same price. If you transfer onto the MRT after your feeder trip or vice versa you get a rebate of 25 cents so you pay 38 cents.

This price gets even more ridiculous when you are forced to pay cash. A feeder service trip can cost 90 cents if you pay cash. This problem affects our elderly citizens who take bus trips irregularly and they are unable to store too much money on their easy link card.

I personally know of elderly citizens who will choose to walk simply because they find the feeder transport charges unreasonable. Citizens of Singapore, our transport fare prices are ridiculous. There is no excuse that you can find to absolve this state of affairs created by a so called 1^st World Government.

If the Government is unable to reduce transport costs on its own, it should seriously look at adopting chapter 8 of our manifesto and nationalize and subsidize our public transport system.

In addition to the measures suggested in our Manifesto to help the Government subsidize transport, the Government should use the revenue from COEs to subsidize public transport if it were truly interested in vehicle population control when they created the COE. Is such a system possible? The PAP will tell you it’s not. I will tell you its possible and I will cite you an example.

I traveled to Portland, Oregon, United States in late 2003 and I was struck by the State government’s emphasis on protection of the environment and control of car growth.

 To control vehicle population growth, the city of Portland, state of Oregon provides free transport within its city square. Yes, in the prime centre of the city, free bus services, free monorail services and free train services. Not a single dime is needed, irrespective of the number of trips taken.

This, my fellow countrymen, is what I will call 1^st World Administration by a 1^st World Government.

I have since 2003 found out that many more cities have such a scheme in place. And these cities do not have governments which claim to be 1^st World governments. I will not cite these cities as I have not been able to personally visit these countries.  Things have been moving so fast during this election that I was not able to research on them thoroughly.

Therefore, I believe I have made a viable proposition to the PAP to scrap their manifesto and adopt chapter 8 of the Workers’ Party Manifesto.

At this juncture, I would like to address the PAP’s latest tactic of benchmarking opposition candidates against ministers’ portfolios. I believe I have been compared against Professor Jayakumar for the portfolio of minister for Law.

In coming up with this viable suggestion to a problem which the transport minister has failed to address, I do not expect the transport minister to relinquish his post to me because of this. Perhaps up till now, it is still not clear to them that I am not running for a minister’s post, I am running to be an opposition MP.

Senior Minister Goh Chok Tong, please don’t compare me to a minister. I am not up to it. And besides I don’t want to be a minister who fails to perform, I rather be an opposition MP that speaks out against a minister’s flawed policies. This role is more befitting my limited abilities.

With this, I now say to the PAP, please stop avoiding the serious issues facing Singaporeans. A 1^st World Government must acknowledge the problems facing Singaporeans and know how to tackle them.

And I say to you, feel free to adopt chapter 8, and implement it. The Workers’ Party will be happy as this betters the lives of all Singaporeans.

If the PAP is clueless about addressing the other serious problems facing Singapore, I suggest they read the Workers’ Party Manifesto with an open mind. I am sure there are answers to be found in there as I have clearly demonstrated.

Citizens of Singapore. Residents of East Coast GRC. My name is Chia Ti Lik and I am a candidate of the Workers’ Party under East Coast GRC. My team and I are running to be opposition MPs. Thank you.

THE UPGRADING FIASCO

Wednesday, 3 May 2006 – Safra Tampines Rally Site

Good evening, ladies and gentlemen, fellow members of the Workers’ Party, my fellow countrymen. Thank you for coming to this rally. Today, I will speak on the PAP and its HDB upgrading programme and what’s wrong with it.

At each election, the PAP will reach into its bag of tricks to try to mislead the electorate.

9 years ago, in the battle of Cheng San GRC, the PAP threatened to withdraw upgrading if the people voted in the Workers’ Party. Their reason was that a rejection of the PAP is rejection of its policies even when upgrading was a national programme paid for by state funds.

Midway, the PAP changed tack. All wards would get upgrading but PAP wards would get upgrading first. Further on, the PAP then changed tack again and offered to upgrade precincts based on voter support.

The PAP has always played the upgrading card to win votes and it has shown that it will abandon equality and discriminate against Singaporeans just to stay in power.

In the 2001 battle for Nee Soon East with the Workers’ Party, a promise was made to build a hospital in Yishun. 5 years later, the promise has not been kept. Only a few months ago they brought up tthe subject of hospital in Yishun again and acted upon.

9 years after Cheng San, right here in East Coast and Aljunied GRC, some blocks were getting upgrading right in the midst of election campaigning.

After last night’s rally at East Coast for Joo Chiat SMC, on my way back, a lady pushed a letter into my hands from the CCC in Kampong Chai Chee; it stated that the Govt. has now selected blocks 419 to 422 Bedok North Street 1 for lift upgrading. She said ”They only come now and give me this rubbish.” I did not get a chance to ask for the lady’s name, but if you are here today you know who you are. I thank you for not being taken in by the PAP.

Today’s ST states ’7 in 10 Aljunied blocks will get new lifts soon’.

This afternoon, after our walk in block 85 market in Fengshan, I found out that blocks       in Fengshan division of East Coast GRC have been offered upgrading.

I am not against upgrading and goodies. This is what the people deserve. What troubles me is that the PAP will inconvenience the elderly and disabled Singaporeans in opposition wards.

Whether or not you live in an opposition ward, Whether or not you vote for the PAP or the opposition, you are a Singaporean and you do national service, you pay tax.

If we accept a Government treating Singaporeans unequally, we accept a Government which has forgotten that one of the stars on our national flag represents equality.

The PAP’s promise of upgrading, for all its worth, is not free. In PAP wards, Lift upgrading is subsidized using government funds but the residents still have to pay several thousand dollars each household.

Opposition wards do not get support for upgrading but we are able to carry out lift upgrading fully paid by the town councils. No co-payment is needed from the people in opposition wards. Does this mean that WP is better than the PAP?

The PAP candidate claims that the WP hijacked upgrading as it was touted by the PAP first. This is utter rubbish! It is the PAP that hijacked a national programme funded by public funds for its selfish party’s purposes.

Furthermore, why is lift upgrading needed? It is because the blocks are buillt by the PAP without foresight! This was a problem created by the PAP in the first place. Why did they build the blocks in this way? Why did they build blocks without lifts?

This is the time bomb that the PAP created for itself! This is the time bomb that the PAP is unable to defuse! And only the WP is able to solve this problem created by the PAP’s lack of foresight!

The PAP lacks foresight. The PAP delays fulfilling its promises. The PAP discriminates one Singaporean from another. The PAP puts itself above the nation. It is for you to put them in the proper place. People of Singapore, you know what to do.

HOPE FOR THE FUTURE

Tuesday, 9 May 2006 - Serangoon Stadium Rally Site

Good evening, ladies and gentlemen, fellow members of the Workers’ Party, my fellow countrymen. Thank you for coming to this rally. Thank you for supporting the Workers’ Party rain or shine, sand or mud. Thank you for the wonderful journey in the past 8 days. You have displayed true solidarity and true spirit.

Today is day 8. The last day for campaigning. Tomorrow morning you go to the polls. By now, most of you would have decided who to vote for. As you cast your ballot tomorrow, I have a personal appeal to all of you.

I appeal to you because our work has only just begun. I personally hope that this election is a turning point for the Workers’ Party and for Singapore. Victory or otherwise, I’ll be back. And I will continue to seek to engage all of you into owning and steering this country by the process of political challenge.

I hope that this General Election has exposed the weaknesses of the ruling party and its electioneering antics. I hope that this General Election has proven to you that you are the owners of Singapore. And for change to come, it must come from you the people of Singapore

I want you to know that the day of reckoning is not Saturday or Sunday. More important are the next five years following this Sunday. When the dust settles and the ballot counted, I URGE our all members of the Workers’ Party and our supporters not to despair whatever the result.

AND IF Singaporeans show they want an opposition in parliament, and Singapore awakes to a multi-party Parliament. I urge all parties to remember that we are all crew on the same boat.

For the simple reason that 84 different voices are 84 seats, none of these seats should are any less Singaporean. And none of the people represented thereunder should be treated lesser than any other.

AND I URGE all 84 MPs to be fully engaged in rigorous rivalry and debate for the good of all. This boat is too small. There is no room for hypocrisy. No room for enmity. No room for lines to be drawn, and no room for grudges to be borne.

AND IF the PAP sweeps the opposition out of parliament, Singapore will awake to another 5 years of PAP control. You are not give up hope just because you are a minority for by participating in a democracy, we must accept that democracy is the tyranny of the majority. That is the key.

AND I URGE the Government formed to remember that at the end of every election, victory or defeat we are all plainly just Singaporeans. AND THAT No one should divide this country based on electoral boundaries or treat Singaporeans unequally because of different political ideologies.

AND WHEN we finally foster true maturity, we will have politicians who respect competition and accept diversity, we will have a people who will know and practice true unity, we can become a nation forged and bonded by the fire of struggle for genuine democracy.

The day when a multi-partisan parliament is expected on the night of each polling day will be the day our country can say come what may.

For then we will have a people who know the power of an election.

A people who will clearly know their stake in this nation.

With leaders able to work whatever the conditions

Without discrimination for the good of all Singaporeans.