Dinner bash for opposition MP Chiam See Tong this Saturday
December 9th, 2009 | 
Author: Veteran opposition leader and MP for Potong Pasir Mr Chiam See Tong will be celebrating his 25th year as an MP together with his constitutents this Saturday.
The event will be held at an open field near Block 119 along Potong Pasir Avenue 1. The expected turnout is 1,000 people, including leaders of other opposition parties. The dinner costs $30 per person.
According to the organizers, 90 per cent of the guests will be Potong Pasir residents, an indication of the Mr Chiam’s enduring appeal and popularity.
Mr Chiam first won the seat during the 1984 general elections by beating PAP candidate Mah Bow Tan. He garnered 60.8 per cent of the valid votes. From 1985 till 1991, Mr Chiam is the sole non-PAP MP in parliament.
Despite everything the ruling party had thrown at him including dangling a $100 million upgrading carrot to Potong Pasir residents in the last election, Mr Chiam continues to hold his fort.
Potong Pasir estate, which is built in the 1970s, should have its flats and amenities upgraded if not for the pork-barrel politics dished out by the PAP which denies crucial estate upgrading to opposition wards as a “punishment” for its constituents for not supporting them.
Mr Chiam had expressed his desire to step out of Potong Pasir and lead a team to contest in a nearby GRC in the next election due by 2011. His seat in Potong Pasir is expected to be defended by his wife Lina Chiam.
Interviews conducted by the Chinese paper Lianhe Wanbao suggest that voters are ambivalent towards his plan. While many agree that he has served the constituency with dedication, they also say that they will not transfer support to his wife automatically.
The losing PAP candidate for Potong Pasir in the last two elections Mr Sitoh Yee Pin, who found fame with his weekly sharkfin porridge breakfast for the residents has been keeping a low profile.
It is not known if he will be attending the dinner. Mr Sitoh garnered a respectable 45 per cent of the votes against Mr Chiam during the last elections.
Observers feel that he will stand a higher chance this time if Mr Chiam is not standing due to his long-standing grassroots work at Potong Pasir over the last few years.
Since the GRC system was introduced in 1988, no opposition party has managed to breach what is considered a “PAP fortress”. The closest they came to winning on is during the 1988 elections when the Workers’ Party Team comprising of Francis Seow, Dr Lee Siew Choh and Mohamad Yakcob won 49.1 per cent of the votes in Eunos GRC.
Eunos GRC was to give the PAP another close scare in the next election when another Workers’ Party Team led by Jufrie Mahmood won 46 per cent of the votes. As a result, Eunos GRC is “dismembered” and absorbed into neighboring GRCs in subsequent elections.
Given the PAP’s entrenched positions in the GRCs and the “kiasi” mentality of Singaporeans, Mr Chiam’s chances of winning one is unlikely to be high especially with the introduction of a series of electoral “reforms” by PM Lee to increase the number of non-PAP MPs in parliament to twenty including nine NCMPs or the “besst losers”.
Voters will be enticed by the PAP’s “two in one” package which allows them to vote for a PAP MP to serve them at their constituency and a non-PAP MP to speak up for them in parliament at the same time.
The disingenuous move is meant to curb the growth of the opposition at the grassroots level since only elected MPs are able to mobilize the resources in the community and not NCMPs.
Whatever the result, Mr Chiam is guaranteed a place in parliament after the next elections whether as a MP or NCMP given his standing among Singaporeans.
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25 years of being a co-opted, token opposition MP, this summarizes Chiam’s “contribution” succinctly.
Whether he continues as MP or NMP in the next election is moot, as a political player he has not left his mark on SG politics nor will he do so even if he wins a GRC now.
Both Low Thia Kiang and Chiam’s only noteworthy contribution to Singapore is the PAP’s trumpeting of them to outsiders as a sign of SG’s electoral democracy.
So what is the size of Chiam See Tong’s ‘opposition, and oh get this, ‘party’ after a quarter of a century in Parliament, and without the same harassment by that thug Lee Kuan Yew as JBJ was subjected to?
Still one?
And how many of us here even know the name of that one-man party that Singaporeans think is “Chiam See Tong”?
How does Chiam See Tong so confidently know at every elections that he can still stand in a Potong Pasir with boundaries intact when all other SMCs and GRCs are subject to the redrawing of constitueny or GRC boundaries?
A direct line to Lee Kuan Yew, perhaps? For being the honourable gentleman of Lee Kuan Yew’s imaginings?
How has all of that served the people, Chiam See Tong?
Yes, if you still don’t understand what I’m trying to say, GET OUT OF THE BUSINESS OF SERVING PEOPLE IF THAT’S NOT WHAT YOU INTEND TO DO AND LEAVE IT TO THE PEOPLE WHO DO.
A person of no-ambition on expansion and only thinking of safe guarding cum taking care of his own “backyard” does not command due-respects from the people, especially, a public figure as a politician, because his voice does not carry weight in the parliament! It is your last chance to show the public do you have the desire to make your mark in Singapore’s political landscape!
aiyoh… if you people think Chiam See Tong not doing a good enough job, then why don’t you guys go and join the opposition (or form your own party) and contest in the next election la. then you can be the opposition MP that you think Singapore needs.
Whatever said and done.One fact stick out like a sore thumb.That is, Mr.Chiam led a 1 man party for the past 13 years.No proteges,no second tier of leadership,no future.Why why why?
Only he can answer.I would guess it is very much because Chiam lacked leadership qualities like Dr.Chee.Despite being bankrupted and hounded day and night Dr.Chee have groomed old and young who are willing to go to jail for a cause.And his breed are multi racial.That says a lot.
No disrespect to Chiam.
Jing Cham,
Who says he’s not left his mark on SG politics?
He’s made a precedent as the first ‘opposition’ politician millionaire.
Robox,
You are wonderful. You describe what everyone is thinking with flair. Keep up the good work.
smallyfly,
He only thinks of safe guarding his backside, and taking care of his own “backyard”. You figure in his plans only if you serve his interests. That description fits his distant relative as well, no?
Why don’t Low Thia Kiang and Chiam come together and run for a GRC? They should even invite JB’s son and Chee to join as well. In this way, they’re sure to win a GRC, and sure to make their mark in history.