Hougang by-election 26-5-12 -- WP Png Eng Huat

last SG · 2012-03-09T23:01:27+00:00

our pretty hsien loong in pinkside track a bit, I suspect his Fengshui Master told him pink and red are his lucky colours. We all notice that he wears red/p...

laurence82 SG

the mainstream media is pretty unreliable, its pretty obvious

the odd thing is

they lie when they know you know the truth

Medicated Oil SG

When you see the CNA that night, you will have to switch it off.

They were discussing about MIW and when the WP won, then the expert start to turn the tide.

Even when they lose, they were still covering the defeat.

Thanks to internet and youtube.

LOw was right.

Nelstar SG

When you see the CNA that night, you will have to switch it off.

They were discussing about MIW and when the WP won, then the expert start to turn the tide.

Even when they lose, they were still covering the defeat.

Thanks to internet and youtube.

LOw was right.

Eh, if you SPH chief, after what Low said, you still want to focus on him so that he can complain more meh?

M the name SG

New MP hits the ground running in Hougang

Png Eng Huat first Meet-the-People Session, sets lists of tasks included re-forming WP's grassroots arm

By ANDREA ONG

JUST days into his first week as Hougang's new MP, Mr Png Eng Huat has already hit the ground running. Apart from going round the ward, he has also started visiting homes and even attended a wake.

And last night, the 50-year-old held his first Meet-the-People Session, which drew a large crowd of residents, many of whom turned up just to get a glimpse of their newly elected MP.

The Workers' Party (WP) MP has also set a long list of tasks for himself , including representing the two opposition-held constituencies in an ongoing goverment review of bus services. WP chairman Sylvia Lim told The Straits Times yesterday that Mr Png will be lobbying for better bus services for Hougang and Aljunied GRC under a programme to roll out new buses and bus routes across Singapore over the next five years.

Another of Mr Png's priorities is to re-form the WP's grassroots arm in Hougang. Called the Hougang Constituency Committee, it was suspended after then-MP Yaw Shin Leong was expelled in February. Mr Png had been put in charge of the committee then, but he will now have to reappoint committee members and office-holders. He told reporters that he plans to finish doing this by next week.

"Next week onwards will be a fresh start," he said

The new MP has also been appointed a vice-chairman of Aljunied-Hougang Town Council, alongside WP chief Low Thia Khiang. On Monday, just two days after winning the by-election, he was at work at the council, meeting its manager and staff.

Last night, Mr Png arrived at the Meet-the-People Session half an hour before it was due to begin. At 6.30pm, residents were already milling around Block 310 of Hougang Avenue 5, waiting to see their new MP. By 8pm, the crowd had swelled to around 100.

One resident drove up in a lorry to make a special delivery: 88 huat kueh (prosperity cakes) arranged in the shape of the Chinese character fa (prosper), as well as a pyramid with a blue WP flag stuck on top. Fa, or huat in Hokkien, is a pun on Mr Png's Chinese name - and also his much-used campaign cheer of "huat ah".

Mr Png spent a long time talking to each of the 19 residents who saw him, ending only past midnight. He said he had received residents' calls over the past few days, as Meet-the-People Sessions had been put on hold for two weeks because of the by-election.

While the five Aljunied GRC MPs have been taking turns to helm the sessions in the three months since Mr Yaw's expulsion, Mr Png said it is good that Hougang residents now have their own MP to go to.

Indeed, a few who sought his help last night said they were hoping that their new MP could solve their longstanding problems.

One asked him to get the town council to remove a flower-bed outside her home because workers dirtied the area when they watered it, while another wanted to be allowed to pay his service and conservancy bills in instalments. He had racked up a large debt because his wife was very sick.

Mr Png said he has not met up with People's Action Party candidate Desmond Choo since last Saturday's poll, but will have coffee with him after the two men unwind from the campaign.

Asked how he felt about his new role, the MP said some parts were familiar to him, as he had been helping out at Meet-the-People Sessions since taking charge of Hougang's grassroots arm.

As for other challenges, like speaking in Parliament, he said: "We'll go along. This is only my third day, so we still have a long way to go."

Home, The Straits Times, May 31 2012, Pg B4

charlize SG

When you see the CNA that night, you will have to switch it off.

They were discussing about MIW and when the WP won, then the expert start to turn the tide.

Even when they lose, they were still covering the defeat.

Thanks to internet and youtube.

LOw was right.

You know something is not right when there is a cooling off day for the forums in cna under the guise of "forum maintenance".

Medicated Oil SG

When the traffic police come forward to defend the foreign drivers after one of them have just caused one of the local to lose one leg in PIE and the worse thing is the selective reporting on the nationality of the driver, Low is RIGHT.

Nothing is right anymore in reading the papers.

It should be termed as "FICTION".

mancha SG

You should know, in Singapore, one or two life or limb is not enough.

There should be more to justify any action on the part of the authorities.

Nelstar SG

Nothing is right anymore in reading the papers.

It should be termed as "FICTION".

So instead of Home, we are reading section named "Fiction"?

Clivebenss SG

So instead of Home, we are reading section named "Fiction"?

iveco SG

So instead of Home, we are reading section named "Fiction"?

In short, prerequisite for working at ST news desk is ability to produce high-quality fiction. We should recruite the likes of JK Rowling, Stephanie Meyer, Stieg Larsson (Deceased) and Simon Toyne.

M the name SG

Hougang MP Png takes issue with media reports

NEWLY-ELECTED Hougang MP Png Eng Huat has refuted media reports saying that he set up and closed down eight companies over 12 years.

In a statement posted on the Workers' Party website yesterday, he cited reports in My Paper and Lianhe Zaobao and took issue with their timing, saying they "did not get their fact right".

Published in the run-up to Polling Day for the by-election, they said he was the director and shareholder of 11 firms, eight of which wound up between 1990 and 2002.

The MP took particular issue with the headlines, which included "Png Eng Huat: Will do it when opportunity comes".

He said: "This headlines not only give readers an impression that I am an incapable businessman but also an opportunistic person who would not hesitate to set up and wind down companies to maximise profits. I regret that these paper deem it necessary not only to dig up my business records in the run-up to Polling Day, but also did not even get their facts right."

He explained that he had worked with NTUC Income from 1998 to 2001, and was appointed director of four subsidiary companies - i-Map, E-Lifestyle (S), Juzclickcar.com and ID Connect.com. He said all four were still operational when he left, and he neither owned them nor had a role in their operations after he left.

Of the other four, Mr Png said he was in control of only three - Flora De Paradis, Crenner International and i Productions. One of them was dormant, he added.

"The three companies were shut down in an orderly manner and they have no outstanding debt. No one suffered any financial loss as a result of the voluntary winding-up action."

The last one, Trancost Singapore, was not his company, he said, and added that the media "has a duty to wield the pen responsibly and not present untruths or half-truths".

Home, The Straits Times, Tuesday, June 5 2012, Pg B4

charlize SG

Wah, he work in ntuc before?

Pap thunderlightning SG

DPM Teo has already advised the WP to shield away from combatibe tones. Why can’t they listen up & behave?
Like DPM Teo, the newspapers merely asked a question, based on facts and made its opinion. If it cannot take feedback, opinions and even criticism like the PAP, then surely its stand as a 1st World Parliament cannot gold water, right?
Please don’t scold me.

charlize SG

Wah, you sign up sgforums just to post this?

1st post some more.

M the name SG

WP sacks veteran Poh over by-election conduct

By ANDREA ONG

NEARLY two months after he surprised his party leaders by staging a bid to be a spare candidate in the Hougang by-election, Dr Poh Lee Guan has been sacked by the Workers' Party (WP).

The opposition party told him that it was not satisfied with his explanation of his action, and was expelling him on the grounds that his conduct went against its principles.

But the veteran member, who has been with the WP for more than 10 years, yesterday maintained that he had the party's interests at heart when he decided to submit papers needed to run as a candidate - without its leaders' knowledge.

"All the while, I had the intention to be the quiet back-up and the spare tyre in the boot," the 50-year-old told The Straits Times. "I recognise the fact that I'm not WP's preferred candidate... but if anything happened, it would have been a walkover."

The private school lecturer caused a ruckus when his name emerged on the list of people qualified to stand, a day before Nomination Day on May 16. It prompted much speculation of a multi-cornered fight and talk of dissent within the WP.

In the end, he did not contest, leaving the by-election a straight fight between the WP's Mr Png Eng Huat and the People's Action Party's Mr Desmond Choo.

According to WP secretary-general Low Thia Khiang, the party's central executive council (CEC) met Dr Poh on Tuesday last week and asked him to explain his actions.

In a letter dated two days later, Mr Low wrote to him: "After due consideration, the council does not find your explanation acceptable. The council has decided to expel you from the party under Article 22 of the Workers' Party constitution, with immediate effect."

Dr Poh posted the letter on his Facebook page last night. Mr Low, who confirmed the expulsion yesterday, told The Straits Times that the CEC made its decision the same day it met Dr Poh.

WP's constitution allows the CEC to expel or suspend a member if his conduct is deemed "contrary to the principles or aims or objects of the party or prejudicial to the welfare of the party".

Mr Low declined to elaborate further, saying only that Article 22 was "very clear on the grounds". "I think it is an assessment and judgment of the members of the CEC as to whether his actions during the Hougang by-election... fall under Article 22, (thus) justifying the decision of the CEC," he said.

Mr Low added the CEC's decision was not unanimous, though a majority was in favour of expelling Dr Poh. It is not known who among the 16-member council did not back the move.

Dr Poh joined the WP in 2001 and fought three general elections under its banner. As its first assistant secretary-general from 2001 to 2006, he was once its No. 2 man after Mr Low.

Yesterday, he said the party had not explained sufficiently its decision to expel him.

He also stood by an explanation he gave the media on Nomination Day - that he was a "quiet spare". He wanted to prevent a recurrence of 2001, when the WP team in Aljunied GRC was disqualified because its nomination forms were incomplete.

"If something had happened to Png on Nomination Day, the situation would be very different," he said. "I would be viewed in a different light."

He said he did not tell the party of his intentions as the Elections Department told him his application for a political donations certificate - which candidates need to get - was confidential.

So it was a surprise when the names of those who got the certificate were released. When news broke, Dr Poh did not contact Mr Low "because it happened in a very short time and I was thinking of what to do, wondering what was going to happen next".

Asked if he would join other political parties, Dr Poh would only say that he planned to focus on a few projects "close to my heart", such as working with faith-based organisations to help the community.

Asked how he felt on being expelled, he replied: "It's water under the bridge. I still have many good friends within WP. Life has its ups and downs but it needs to go on."

Top of the news, The Straits Times, Thursday, July 19 2012, Pg A3

mancha SG

To stand by just in case is an excuse.

If he want to do such a thing, he should tell the party.

Mobilex100 SG

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charlize SG

Damn lot of weird people in sgforums.

Clivebenss SG

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