It’s always easy to criticise a person who isn’t around to defend themselves.
That’s something ousted Punggol East SMC member of parliament Lee Li Lian learned from this week’s Parliamentary proceedings, in particular on Friday evening, when the motion to fill her vacated Non-Constituency MP seat was passed with a sour taste in the mouths of the Workers’ Party.
Here’s a recap in case you just returned from a long holiday or haven’t been following this issue in Singapore:
– The Workers’ Party’s incumbent MP for Punggol East, Lee Li Lian, was voted out by a slim margin in the September 2015 General Election and replaced by Charles Chong from the PAP.
– She then announced her decision not to take up the NCMP seat she was offered in lieu of the full MP position, a current default offered to the best opposition election losers, to make up 9 opposition parliamentarians.
– The WP then proposed one of its East Coast GRC candidates, Assistant Prof Daniel Goh, to replace her as an NCMP.
– WP chief Low Thia Khiang tabled this motion in Parliament on Friday evening, and it was passed, but with the following rather unpleasant amendment added by labour chief Chan Chun Sing:
‘But regrets that Miss Lee Li Lian, having stood as a Workers’ Party candidate and received the biggest vote share among all losing opposition candidates has now decided to give up her NCMP seat to another candidate from her party with a lower vote share contrary to the expressed view of the voters, and that the WP supports this political manoeuvre to take full advantage of the NCMP seat even as its secretary-general criticises NCMPs as just duckweed on the water of the pond.’
Thankfully, the year is 2015 and not, say, 1963 or 1987. With the benefit of her Facebook page and about 17,500 people as her audience to begin with, Lee explained her perspective:
(It might have reached a few more people by now.)
So here are some points she flagged:
1. She called the added clauses out as “unfair” to her party, and also as a personal attack on her.
2. She pointed out that she contested the GE to be a full MP, and that voters wanted her to be their MP, not their NCMP — and it isn’t as if they can choose who their NCMPs should be.
“To clarify, I did not contest the General Elections to be an NCMP, but an elected member of the house with the full responsibilities involved in representing my constituents. Having lost my MP seat to Mr Charles Chong, I stepped aside in line with what the voters had expressed… The people have no direct hand in electing me to the NCMP seat. Voters who voted for me were seeking for me to be their elected MP, and unfortunately this was not the outcome at the polls.
3. In response to the PAP’s Edwin Tong, who said to WP chairman Sylvia Lim in Parliament earlier Friday that NCMPs can do much more than they are currently, and they can continue to be visible on the ground, here’s a recent incident from Lee:
“Just recently as an NCMP-elect, I tried to apply to the PAP-managed Town Council to hold a charity food distribution event in Punggol East on 30th January 2016 today. This was rejected by the TC because they do not approve applications made by Political Parties.”
Incidentally, Punggol East MP Charles Chong said in Friday evening’s NCMP debate that “Where there is a framework within which we must work, everyone involved should respect it, and not find ways to game the system”.
Looks like the framework established by the Pasir Ris-Punggol town council isn’t entirely “work-able” to NCMP-elects, though, if you know what we mean. Here’s hoping Edwin Tong’s Marine Parade Town Council will be more workable for former NCMP Yee Jenn Jong and his running-mates?
4. And it’s not as if her town council used to do that to PAP “grassroots advisors” in the past:
“It is rather ironic given that when I was MP of Punggol East, I never rejected any applications from PAP-affiliates to hold events at areas managed by the WP Town Council.”
5. She goes on to point out that as an elected MP, she had difficulties holding events — even at places that fall under her constituency boundaries:
“During my term as an MP, I was never successful in my applications to hold events at areas managed by the HDB like Rivervale Plaza. As an MP there were many challenges on the ground working with PAP-affiliates to hold events in my own constituency, even if they benefited the residents. What more as an NCMP where I would not be able to support even the people who voted for me on the ground?”
What Lee says here isn’t new, by the way — Low also alluded to this when he said in the debate on the motion on Friday:
“I have seen how the PAP works. And of course the rejection is because we don’t allow political parties to use common areas. You use the PA — the People’s Association, you use [grassroots] advisers — come on, let’s be honest about that.”
On top of these five points, let’s also bear in mind that Lee was doing this in trying to go about her work on the ground, as an NCMP-elect, before and after it was confirmed that she would be vacating her seat.
Lee can also count this year as her 10th serving with the Workers’ Party, having started volunteering with them during the 2006 General Election.
Here’s a clip from the Workers’ Party of her distributing food, by the way, uploaded on Saturday:
This, on what would have been an NCMP’s allowance of about $2,408 (based on the 2011 Ministerial Salaries review report), which she turned down, let’s remember. That, incidentally, is 15 per cent of what a full MP gets — a little more than $16,000 a month.
We’ll leave you to think about that.
发表于 31-1-2016 12:56 PM
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Ex-Punggol East MP Lee Li Lian hits back at PAP counterpart Charles Chong on NCMP seat
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