PAP MPs complain about “fast pace” of recent scripted parliamentary “debate”
March 16th, 2010 | 
Author: Written by Our Correspondent
In other developed democracies like Japan, South Korea and Taiwan, MPs are paid a pittance and are expected to discuss and debate on national policies live in parliament where a single wrong word muttered out will make them an instant laughing stock in the eyes of the entire nation.
Singapore MPs are the highest paid in the world for a part-time job which only require them to post their questions to the relevant ministries beforehand and read their speeches out in a Parliament bereft of any opposition and yet they are complaining that the pace is too “fast” for them.
When interviewed by the Straits Times, newbie PAP MP Dr Lim Wee Kiat lamented:
“‘The pace is a bit fast. It’d be good if we can have some time to think over policy announcements, but then the Budget debate will spread over four weeks.”
Another MP Zaqy Mohamad added:
“‘We have to bear in mind that not everyone is eloquent…Not everyone can be Lee Kuan Yew.”
While nobody expects all the PAP MPs to be good orators like Mr Lee, they should at least brush up their oratory skills and demonstrate some committment and passion to their roles as representatives of the people in Parliament.
After all, they are supposed the “best talents” that Singapore have and it is a shame that many of them cannot even hold a proper debate on their own.
Even a fellow PAP MP lawyer Michael Palmer has expressed his dismay at the slow response from his colleagues:
“Some of us take too long to put forward our clarification. It would be good to see clarification time limited to 30 seconds.”
Charles Chong was similarly disgusted with Minister Lim Swee Say’s infamous speech about Triumph bras which were not published the press:
“Some MPs were quick off the mark to catch loose statements by ministers, such as Irene Ng making the point about Lim Swee Say talking about Triumph.”
He forgot that Minister Lim had said earlier that “we are deaf to all criticisms.”
Given the “calibre” of PAP MPs nowadays, especially the new MPs like Dr Lim Wee Kiat and Baey Kam Keng who got into Parliament either without a contest or riding on the coat-tails of heavy-weight ministers, one cannot help wondering if they are really up to the task, not that it matters much anyway.
To borrow a quote from PAP’s de facto leader and strongman Lee Kuan Yew:
“To be the prime minister, you don’t have to know every instrument, but you got to recognise, ah, he’s a good violinist, he’ll be the first violinist, he’ll be the double bass. He will play the viola, he will have the trumpet, he will do the drums. Then you coordinate them and then you have great music. And if you already have a great orchestra, you can put a dummy there and you still got great music.”
[Source: Channel News Asia, 5 March 2008]
Singapore MPs are grossly overpaid at $13,000 monthly for a part-time job, or rather to be a “dummy” to fill the empty seats in Parliament.
The number of MPs should be decreased and their monthly allowances halved and this will save Singapore taxpayers about $1.06 million dollars a year which can be channelled to help poor, needy and homeless Singaporeans.
It will also spare us the agony of listening to these shameless PAP MPs whining away publicy in the state media as if we owe them a living.
Read also:
1. Why PAP MPs are no more but a “wayang” in Parliament
2. 10 most unforgettable quotes by PAP MPs in the recent parliamentary debates
Posted in Editorial
May I ask how to get the $1.06 mil per year figure?
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()Demand for full-time MP
()MP(s) must live in the same constituency where he/she contest.
With these 2 criteria our entire parliament would be very realistic.
At least MM would not dare say,there are no’ beggars in Singapore’ , since he has to pass through Chinatown everyday where we have the most beggars.
Living in Oxley Drive or Istana and being chauffeur driven in Lexus or BMW gives no opportunity for our MP(s) to know their constituents.
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People vote U to Paliament not just go there to collect pay for nothing.Go there to utter nonsence or sleep in Paliament.
U better get lost. Vote all these PaPs out !!!
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And if you already have a great orchestra, you can put a dummy there and you still got great music.”
Sorry since our leaders know nuts about instruments, we got unbearable noise instead of music.
The Germans in WW2 should have won the war as they got good generals, officers, well train infantry, tanks and others superior equipments. They still lost the war as they have a dummy Hitler who refuse to listen to his officers and those below him. The Germans got all the noise and lost the war.
How can our dummy who refuse to listen to the ground yet produce music? The HDB price is up, MRT/BUS/Road is congested, price for all things going up. Before and after GST Rebate , all other fee is going up(PUB, town council, transport ect. Before election, got hongbao and after election, everything goes up. Cant believe, so many idiots vote for such dummy.
Look at our PIE and CTE. Both have serious jam during peak hours and many times even non peak hours. The problems is there for more than 10 years and only now they are doing something about it. What is the few present and past dummy doing apart from taking salary and increasing transport cost. cant believe local can accept such performance.
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I attended the parliamentary proceedings last Tuesday. The speaker was too rigid in the time allocation for the various ministries and as a result limited the follow-up exchanges between the MPs and ministers.
The Speaker Abdullah Tarmugi was very sleepy on that day.. and had to be woken up by the clerk after Hawazi Daipi (Parl sec for MOH) finished his reply! He took some time to realise where he was and to choose the MPs for the follow-up questions..
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Excuse me! It is much more than $1.6 million annually that the taxpayers’ can save to help the poor and needy if the mps’ salaries were to be halved!
By the way, I failed to embrace mathematic as my preferred subject even I am supposed to be best at it as I do not want to end up liken to the idiotic son of the little-emperor who achieves a double first class honors degree in mathematic from the equally idiotic university of cambridge but “slower” than the monkey when calculating and formulating the shameful exorbitant salaries demanded by his pappies/puppets!
He does not even have the basic understanding of the principle of INPUT EQUAL TO OUTPUT!
The leader of the giant wayang party who has mastered all tactics of wayang shows liken to the “closeted” clown enclosed in his own “oligarchy circle” without due considerations and concerns of the sufferings of the ordinary main-street-men!
What a shameful multi-million-dollar nerd?
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Ineffective leaders.
What a bunch of “champion complainers”!
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er to be HORNest, 1.6mil can’t do much in SGP
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“Scripted” debate also complain too fast.
What a bunch of strawberries!
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Wee Kiat, ‘fast’ lan jiao understand? go watch the debates in England or Taiwan or South Korea and ask yourself if you can keep up with the pace. I bet your wife must be complaining that you’re too ’slow’ in bed too. useless piece of junk,
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The recent parliamentary debate ‘fast paced’? The MIWs must be joking. The cut and thrust is missing from the parlimentary ‘recitals’ in Singapore parliament.
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Zaqy Mohamad: if u are not ‘eloquent’ and cannot verbally defend citizens’ right, then fook off. we dont need you understand? go eat your nasi lemak.
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“‘The pace is a bit fast. It’d be good if we can have some time to think over policy announcements, but then the Budget debate will spread over four weeks.”
Simply they are incompetent. They should be “cheaper, faster and better”. If they can’t meet this standard, They should resign as MP.
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I thought some guy of more than 26 years of good wisdom did mention : -
“This Parliament also scored a first. In my 26 years, it’s the first time we were treated to a rendition of “Good, Better, Best” by an Honourable Member. But this aside, it did not distract from the serious debate and important one, nothing less than about the transformation ………….. blah, blah, blah ……..”
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1. If we had planned well – we need not adjust now, the ramp up of foreigner workers (not talents) was acute, so is the clamp down now.
Who (which dept/ministry) was in charge of this planning and How was the planning done?
2. Foreign Workers should be given Work Permit (much like domestic helpers) – based on time frame.
3. Foreign Talent should be wooed to join the Singapore ranks as PR or Citizens. They will certainly add value to us.
4. Our expectations of GDP growth, our own positioning in ASEAN and the World, should be re-considered.
We should be competitive but not at the expense of local singaporeans and not at the expense of social stability.
5. There should be be clear Separation of Powers b/w our Legislature, Judicary and Executive Branch – this will ensure clear transparency, debates of new policies and bills before they are passed as laws.
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The rot has set in. Now it is rotten beyond hope. Not all MPs are rotten, but majority are. There are a few good PAP MPs but majority should be replaced. It is clear that we dont have a proper efficient parliament and wayanging continues.
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And that means each MP is paid more than $20K right? Just wondering how your correspondence got hat figure of $13K. As this is even lower then before the last 2 increases and a cut when MPs were paid some $175K a year which means about $14.6k a month! This was before the last cut and increases.
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In today’s Straits Times, Mr. Mah Boh Tan has asked for more vigorous and unscripted future debates in parliament.
That is indded a very positive move being initiated. This will definitely help to improve the qualities of those MPs in parliament.
Rather than being complacent, falling asleep during parliamentary sittings, asking stupid questions like how to look young and talking about cockroaches, backdoor MPs can be assessed for their contributions, capabilities and suitability in representing the interest of their respective constituencies.
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we should have PMQ and Question Time in most other parliaments
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Prime_Minister’s_Questions
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Question_Time
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We need to have more CBF MPs and Ministers.
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This explains why PAP ministers always has an answer/rebuttal for everything.
may i find out when has our parliament started this wayang script reading practice?
It’s a total scam! Equivalent to lip synching.
There is no rigorous debate at all when all this is staged!
I petition to ask their salaries reduced to that of a script reader!
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This is what you get if you let untested people go into parliament without contest
To put it in another way, you are removing the natural selection process, where the strongest survive. Now we have people of questionable intention and quality
They are simply not up to the task. Period
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WHY THE DEBATE FOR, the BILL mostly are confirm, they are only putting a show for a people to watch watch only. OPPOSITION sit only two, PAP control all the sits, what PAP do they do for their own good, how to increase their salary to next level only. THEY TALK all day, are Singaporean have to pay them more, it better to close down the debate, if there are half of opposition party, maybe the debate is something on. SINGAPOREAN are born to be a FOOL anyway, to vote the PAP fully control.
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Just issue the debate material 1 year in advance to
this bunch of joker .
Take money very fast , increment 8.8% very fast .
But come to debate … Hooo … slowly .. take your time ..
just vote Aye !! .
This is so call Gov productivity.
As to what is the contend never mind lar.
Suffer is the citizen only . We PApaya member go home count
money alright mah .. Singaporean are sucker !!!
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Aiyah, TR outdated for so many years already. $13K/mth for MP allowance was back in 1990.
Now is around $18K/mth since 2007.
http://www.littlespeck.com/content/politics/CTrendsPolitics-070414.htm
So if each MP allowance reduce by half, that means 1 year save $9000 X 12 = $108,000.
For 82 PAP MPs, total savings per year = 82 X $108K = $8,856,000.
I’m sure this $8.8M will go a long way to helping needy citizens every year.
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I’m very surprised that there are singaporeans who don’t know that parliament is all scripted and prepared beforehand.
Why do you think so many people say our parliament is just a big wayang?
Just like there are still people who believe they are “owners” of HDB flats. You don’t “own” HDB flats, even if you already paid up every single cent of your mortgage. HDB is still the legal owner. HDB owns you! keke!
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Man, the hypocrisy is beyond words lah.
The lyring thru the teeth is shamelessly atypical of PAP.
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Amazing that they even noticed they cannot effectively communicate inside Parliament DOMINATED by them.
So how can any policy be realistically debated upon? And the comments of Triumph bras, frogs etc etc are misplaced emphasis of outlandish thinking and thoughts which forrummers in cyberspace would have more colourfully expressed as WTF, dumb $@#&^*@ etc etc.
Little wonder that policy proposal are not intensively debated and moving too fast – they could not be utter thoughts incisively nor robustly and we paying millions for this quality?
How many really prepared even mentally going into Parliamentary chambers ( when all that is “expected” and “demanded” of the incumbent party is a parrot “AYES” to all proposals and all self-adulation praise – besides sleeping?
Maybe they should all go back to school and learn to speak publicly and effectively like MM.
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My calculation is to save more than 6 million dollars a year if MP cut salary in half.
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<>
LOL
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I hope they can be kicked out of parliament in a fast pace too
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just kick out all these Papes good for nothing blood suckers!
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Helping to post this article from a ASIAONE Forum about abuse by Town Council.
http://forums.asiaone.com/showthread.php?t=28272
AMK-YCK Town Council Abuses Singapore Citizen HDB Resident – 13-03-2010, 05:18 PM
I am starting this as a new thread to highlight this very serious case of abuse by the Ang Mo Kio – Yio Chu Kang Town Council and the Area MP Inderjit Singh’s not responding to this case because he is the AMK Town Council Chairman as double standards exercised by the PAP Government’s “highly paid” civil servants’ insensivity.
There are already two town councils trying to raise service and conservancy charges citing high costs of maintenance etc. I think this is an excuse to raise their own salaries of the CEO and their senior managers so as to keep “unique talents” who are there to carry out such abuse of Singapore Citizens.
Originally Posted by Dato Jude
One of my client was a bankrupt and did not pay his Service & Conservancy charges for the period of his bankruptcy. When he was discharged, he paid prompt and sometimes in advance. What happened was that the AMK-YCK Town Council used what he paid to settle the arrears incurred during his bankruptcy. That resulted in him being a current default and delinquent.
My client is a Singapore Citizen.
I helped him to draft the letter to the Auditor-General to complain about the acts of the Town Council. The reply from the Auditor-General was the usual “cut and paste” format. No need to elaborate.
I helped him draft the letters to his MP, Inderit Singh, setting out the case in proper perspective. That is, how can the AMK-YCK TC imposed penalty and fines on bankrupts for outstanding. It was clear that the arrears incurred during his bankruptcy. The Town Council’s position is that they are imposing the fines and penalty on “current” outstanding.
The next thing he got was a court summons under Criminal Procedure Code citing the Town Councils Act which attracted a fine of $1,000. I believed that the the Town Council chose to “charge” under the CPC and not the usual civil suit because they wanted to make sure they flex their muscles. The hatchet carrier is a lawyer, Jeffrey Beh from Lee Bon Leong and partners.
The MP for Kebun Baru was silent – he did not even bother to respond. The Town Council’s CEO, Wan Chong Hock, responded with “instructions from the Town Council’s chairman, i.e. the MP” citing the usual threats fo suit etc. and how to get the cancellation, i.e. pay the arrears and the fines penalty etc. More will be added if he did not pay.
The conclusion in the CEO letter was the usual please approach for financial assistance from the …. In short, “beg for mercy!”.
The summons and not a civil suit is definitely an abuse of power and I hope the CPIB picks this case up.
Asiaone Moderator, please highlight this posting in your front page.
Friends of this forum, please help to highlight the plights of the people who are now suffering from acts of civil servants employed by the elected PAP MP and the Government.
Some forumers IM me and asked why I used the word “abuse”. Here are my reasons:-
1. From the message posted by Dato Jude, he wrote that his client was a bankrupt and owed S&CC during his bankruptcy not when he was discharged.
2. The client paid promptly and sometimes in advance.
3. The Town Council used what was paid to offset the arrears. This means that the resident was in “delinquent” but in actual fact, he was current in his payment.
4. The Town Council filed a “criminal charge” under the Town Council Act instead of a civil action for non-payment. That created an offence which means that the Town Council has an “upper hand”.
The above are records of “abuse” of authority. The Town Council is an office created under the “Elected Member of Parliament”. So, the MP becomes the chairman and has a “conflict of interest” even if he pleads on behalf of the resident. He is already the “highest office” and so does not need to plead.
That laid on him the accusation that “he failed to take care of his resident” and that he endorses the acts of “abuse” by his staff, namely the CEO of the Town Council namely, Wan Chong Hock.
I have every reason to believe that this is a real story because the names are cited and I believed that tomorrow if Dato Jude signs in, he might want to add more detail to this story.
Thanks KayPoh,
I am a volunteer social worker. This is a REAL story. You can just do a summons check at the courts registry and find this story. I do not need to divulge more details. I have also come across other similar stories.
You will find to your dismay that the Town Council CEO does not answer or report to anyone. He is the BOSS! He can do whatever he wants even investment millions of the “sinking funds” in his control.
Spread the story and broadcast on all available internet portals. Bring down the hatchet carriers and make the Town Council CEO answerable for all his actions. For the two Town Councils that have annouced raising the Service and conservancy charges, make all the noise and file complaints for the slightest mistake.
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TR admin,
Sorry for the long post, couldn’t find the article on Town council on the main page. Hope you guys can do an article on these.
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“The pace is a bit fast…..” ….”not everyone is eloquent..”
Using the words of MM himself, it’s obvious that our PAP MPs are “NOT HUNGRY” and “DAFT”… and using the PAP logic, it’s high time we replace these daft, not hungry MPs for FT which are “cheaper, better, faster”!
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For those interested in UK PMQ, you can catch it on Sky News (SCV Channel 92) on Wednesday at 8pm (until daylight saving starts in late March)
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My fellow Singaporeans, the awareness that our Parliament has degenerated by the pappies to such a wayang state is a healthy awakening. But a healthy awakening is just the beginning of a long process of restoring our Parliament back to its honourable and dignified place that it deserves. The pappies have greatly cheapen our parliament into a talk cock, how to look young, triumph, cockroaches and snooze mess. Disrespectful, disgraceful and shameful. Come election time, we have some serious housecleaning to do.
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It is just a wayang PAPliament.
CHANGE IS OVERDUE.
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Singapore’s Parliament is no more than an “orchestrated” (MM’s analogy)script-reading session.
Ministers’ speeches are mostly written by SPH reporters (respective subjects specialists)and MPs are merely supposed to either sugarcoat and endorse or make mild rebuttals while refraining from incurring the wrath of the Party chieftains.
Furthermore the Party whip is another reason why PAP MPs choose rather not to make robust arguments or rebuttals to unreasonable policies. This may best explain why all these years the PAP MPs have been “conditioned” to adopt a passive indifferent attitude much like the old Chinese saying goes: “The lesser you do,the lesser mistake you make”.
Their failure to evaluate the pros and cons of the many “top-down” policies before implementation is tantamount to an act of betraying the voters who entrust them as their representatives.Not forgetting that they are so well paid for a part time job.
As an oppositionist, I would like to warn the PAP MPs not to take our voters for granted.A sense of moral responsibility is expected from elected MPs regardless of your political party constraints!
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The most expensive CLOWNS(papigs)performing the most degrading show to con those dummies(papigs voters)and gullible ppl.This is
the most expensive wayang show on earth perform by a bunch of gutless yes-man papigs!
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PAP MP Dr Lim Wee Kiat:
“‘The pace is a bit fast. It’d be good if we can have some time to think over policy announcements, but then the Budget debate will spread over four weeks.”
Oh, Mr Lim, then I think you need to heed Mr. Lim Swee Say’s call to increase your productivity and be better, faster and cheaper.
MP Zaqy Mohamad:
“‘We have to bear in mind that not everyone is eloquent… Not everyone can be Lee Kuan Yew.”
Oh, Mr Zaqy Mohamad, then I think you need to be send for re-training. If not, you will deserve some “spurs-in-hide” or like what Mr Ong Ah Heng has done, you will be replaced by younger and MORE ELOQUENT foreign talents.
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Singaporean has enough of all these bullshit and fruitless talks. It’s time to vote the right candidate and not fearful of your votes. Your Vote Is Always Secret as guarantee by MM Lee right. So why not vote in the SDP, SPP, WP etc and making sure that the present government knows what is meant by “Power To The People of Singapore”. We want a fair share of our fruits, not down to the drain by MM Lee with his silly investment on CitiBank, UBS, Shin Corp and losing more than $50 billion. How is MM Lee going to repay us with his mistakes. He should apologize to the public and acknowledge his old mistakes.
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