How do you Vote ?

[Musicwhiz]

IMO, the opposition parties are kinda humorous in my opinion. If they really want to win the conviction of the people, they should start planning 4 years ago when they lost the previous GE and not promise to come up with actions within 100 days after they are elected. What kind of basis are we voting them for? Moreover, when I look at all the opposition parties, they are opposing for the sake of opposing. If you want to have a revolution, the fundamental should begin from the parties' ideal and principles and these prinicples should guide them towards the direction they want to. It should not be the case that we give everything to what people are asking for.

Perhaps we should look at the example of the Worker's Party. Sylvia Lim has been helping out for the past 8 years and her party members have been active on the ground even though they lost the 2006 Elections. I think it's not fair to say they only started planning close to the GE as the Manifesto shows careful discussion and thought.

Opposing for the sake of it? If you look at the hot button issues, I think they do have some very constructive suggestions. I won't label that as opposing just for the sake of it. THese are people who genuinely see a problem, have listened to people on the ground and are coming up with alternatives to make their lives better. They have a coherent set of suggestions and we should let them have the opportunity to present themselves.

[Ben]

IMO, the opposition parties are kinda humorous in my opinion. If they really want to win the conviction of the people, they should start planning 4 years ago when they lost the previous GE and not promise to come up with actions within 100 days after they are elected. What kind of basis are we voting them for? Moreover, when I look at all the opposition parties, they are opposing for the sake of opposing. If you want to have a revolution, the fundamental should begin from the parties' ideal and principles and these prinicples should guide them towards the direction they want to. It should not be the case that we give everything to what people are asking for.

I kind of disagree with you on this point. Mr LTK is known to be a man who walks his talk. Sylvia has been active in Aljunied even before the last election. While I agree that some opposition parties are lacking in substances, I have not seen an opposition team that is as strong as the WP team in Aljunied in the past. They bought up very relevant issues which the PAP government has overlook in the past. This is the truth. On the contrary, I think PAP government is the one that is opposing for the sake of opposing. Every proposals bought up by opposition are opposed by PAP. PAP promised to listen more to the people of Singapore, why then opposed every things the opposition said. Opposition candidates are after all people of Singapore too.

[corydorus]

There are two side of the coins as i personally "mature". Though i am still against outright oppose for the sake of it there maybe merit in a democracy logic.

What i meant is, the role of check/balance is to err on the opposing side so that there is broader checks. I still do not support the obvious, but as long there is some credible points to be made i like them to be mentioned.

Cory

[tonylim]

IMO, the opposition parties are kinda humorous in my opinion. If they really want to win the conviction of the people, they should start planning 4 years ago when they lost the previous GE and not promise to come up with actions within 100 days after they are elected. What kind of basis are we voting them for? Moreover, when I look at all the opposition parties, they are opposing for the sake of opposing. If you want to have a revolution, the fundamental should begin from the parties' ideal and principles and these prinicples should guide them towards the direction they want to. It should not be the case that we give everything to what people are asking for.

I kind of disagree with you on this point. Mr LTK is known to be a man who walks his talk. Sylvia has been active in Aljunied even before the last election. While I agree that some opposition parties are lacking in substances, I have not seen an opposition team that is as strong as the WP team in Aljunied in the past. They bought up very relevant issues which the PAP government has overlook in the past. This is the truth. On the contrary, I think PAP government is the one that is opposing for the sake of opposing. Every proposals bought up by opposition are opposed by PAP. PAP promised to listen more to the people of Singapore, why then opposed every things the opposition said. Opposition candidates are after all people of Singapore too.

Spot On.

[yeokiwi]

IMHO, it is not necessary or right to pay top dollars - similar to the private sector - to our political appointees and top civil servants.

Agreed. private sector got such thing called "retrenchment", while public service have none.

However, IMHO, whosoever vote for opp must prepare to let opp run government(Freak result is highly possible).

For me, will vote based on either Party(which PAP has done badly this round) or Credible Candidate(Some Opp candidate propose drawing National Reserve Fund make me very eery).

Public service has no retrenchment but public service also faces staff resignations.

One way is to compress the salary scale and achieve a lower salary at the top. But, if the tops are not paid well enough as compared with the lower rank, the incentive to move up is less. (Get a bit more money but do more Sh** works(sai gan) and have more responsibilities). Especially for technical experts, there is absolutely no incentive to move up if the salary is about the same.

Another way is to scale down all the salary proportionally but the lower scale officers will be impacted.
Especially in the school education, I suppose every parents will want their children to be taught by capable teachers and normally capable teachers have many alternatives.

At the lower end of the salary scale, it is difficult to be motivated by personal beliefs and passion without some sweeteners.

[mrEngineer]

In my view, I think WP in Aljunied is probably the only team worthy of contest. But can you do anything about it if you are not a resident of Aljunied? I personally think they did what they did best by using this opportunity to sound out the issues but can they do/execute anything about it? My other question is 6 months later, when all this election fever die down, how many Singaporeans would bother to listen to the debates in Parliament? Either the voted opposition would have much difficulty in getting support for their suggestions or they probably start becoming comfortable with the minimum 15k monthly salary.

Capabilities aside, my main point is that what is worker's party mission, vision & values? Being a co-driver? Sorry, I have to say that I have not heard what ideals they are truly representing for. One can agrue they represent the people voices and I would rebut whether are the people always right. We have to think politics in the long term considering how political dictatorship have helped us to make us what we are; given the trecherous environment we are in and how insignificant (not even visible from the world map) we are in the global presence..

[Ben]

Our hard working civil servants get a year end bonus of two months inclusive of the 13-month pay in 2010. This is on top of the half-month bonus plus $300 received in July 2010. This bring 2010 bonus to the civil servants to 2.5 months plus $300. This was regarded as one of the most generous payouts to civil servants. Is that so?? Not really if you know what our Ministers get for 2010 bonus. In one of the WP rallies I attended, it was said that our Ministers get 8 months' bonus in 2010!! You think this is fair? I am not sure if the Minister's bonus is part of the formula that calculate their salary, which is pegged to the top X income earners in Singapore. But why civil servants get 2.5 and they get 8? Why such big disparity?

[tonylim]

In my view, I think WP in Aljunied is probably the only team worthy of contest. But can you do anything about it if you are not a resident of Aljunied? I personally think they did what they did best by using this opportunity to sound out the issues but can they do/execute anything about it? My other question is 6 months later, when all this election fever die down, how many Singaporeans would bother to listen to the debates in Parliament? Either the voted opposition would have much difficulty in getting support for their suggestions or they probably start becoming comfortable with the minimum 15k monthly salary.

Capabilities aside, my main point is that what is worker's party mission, vision & values? Being a co-driver? Sorry, I have to say that I have not heard what ideals they are truly representing for. One can agrue they represent the people voices and I would rebut whether are the people always right. We have to think politics in the long term considering how political dictatorship have helped us to make us what we are; given the trecherous environment we are in and how insignificant (not even visible from the world map) we are in the global presence..

How to expect the opposition party to come out with so-called big future plans when they are not the ruling party, the Election boundaries keep changing every five years also make them even more difficult to plan anything. The ruling aprty can accesee to the Nation's fund but not the oppositions. So it is futile to ask the obvious.

[Jared Seah]

I think the test on the maturity of Singaporean voters and our sense of fair play will present itself if Aljunied goes to WP.

1) If PAP wards get priority in HDB upgrading and new facilities, do we enjoy the benefits quietly after the election?

2) Or do we say thanks to it ONLY if residents of Aljunied and other opposition wards also get the same benefits? We are all Singaporeans. It's time we remove this "if you are not with me; you are against me" unfair treatment.

We must walk our own talk too.