Polling day cooling off period is just another distraction

December 3, 2009 by admin
Filed under: Current Affairs, Political Discussions 

Written by Ng E-Jay
03 December 2009

In yet another move to distract voters from the critical issues at hand, PM Lee has proposed an extra day of non-campaigning as a cooling-off period just before Polling Day, to be implemented at the next General Election due in 2012.

He made this announcement after attending a Commonwealth Heads of Government Meeting (CHOGM) in Trinidad and Tobago (Capital: Port of Spain) earlier this week.

Under the new proposal, all campaigning will be disallowed 24 hours before Polling Day, including mass rallies, door-to-door visits, and the display of party logos and symbols. The only exceptions will be party political broadcasts which are televised on the eve of the polls, as well mainstream media reports on the election.

The Straits Times listed countries like Australia, Indonesia, Italy and Mexico as all having some variation of this feature in their electoral systems, with anything from one to three days of campaign silence before the final vote. The ironical thing about the Straits Times listing however is that with the exception of Mexico, the other countries have a free and independent press.

While Mr Lee acknowledged that the Internet remains a grey area, he emphasized that political party websites will be bound by the new rules, and he even suggested that websites whose authors can be readily identified should adhere to these restrictions too.

He said: “On the Internet, it’s grey and also the policing is not so straight-forward but even then, in principle we should say today is a quiet day. I cannot control several million videos on youtube but your website, what you’re putting up in your own name, I think that should end the day before the cooling-off day.” (Channel News Asia, “PM Lee proposes extra day of non-campaigning before Polling Day“, 01 Dec 2009)

Obviously the PAP is not going to implement policies that will benefit the Opposition. PM Lee has mentioned that the cooling-off period “would give voters time to reflect rationally on issues, after the emotional high of election campaigning“. Implicit in PM Lee’s proposal therefore is the assumption that swing voters who vote for the Opposition are often emotional, irrational, and are acting merely in response to the heat of the campaign.

By contrast, the PAP has always made known that they think people who vote for them tend to be calm, collected and logical. You can see this during every election campaign, where PAP candidates often describe their electioneering as non-emotional and rational.

But whether or not this is actually true, the fact remains that PM Lee’s suggestion of a cooling-off period is just another distraction that ignores the pressing issues of the day.

As it stands, Singapore does not have a free and independent media. According to the Press Freedom Index compiled by Reports Without Borders, Singapore currently ranks 133 out of a total 175 countries surveyed, not much better than countries like Zimbabwe, Malaysia and the Democratic Republic of Congo, all countries notorious for maintaining an iron grip on the press which is only allowed to report favourably for the ruling party.

It is well known that the mainstream press in Singapore is fully controlled by the Government. By only allowing mainstream press reports on the election 24 hours before polling begins, the PAP is effectively shutting out the Opposition and only granting a voice to itself.

But that is not the only woes we face. The election process in Singapore itself is neither free nor fair, because elections are administered by the Elections Department which is housed directly under the Prime Minister’s Office, and they have the authority to redraw constituency boundaries based on non-transparent criteria which is never disclosed to the public. The PAP makes all the rules and leaves the Opposition no choice but to follow them. There is no independent elections commission to oversee the election and ensure there is no gerrymandering or unfair practices carried out by any political party.

Without an independent mainstream press and without free and fair elections, a cooling-off period before polling day only disadvantages the Opposition even further because the Opposition is effectively prevented from reaching out to the masses while the mainstream media has free reign to report according to the dictates of its owners.

Naturally, opposition parties have criticized this proposal heavily. But the Opposition should regard this proposal as a mere distraction and realize that the work of galvanizing support from the masses must be an ongoing effort that cannot be restricted to the election campaign itself.

The Singapore Democrats have responded forcefully to this latest round of chicanery by the PAP. They suggest having

  • an independent elections commission to run and oversee elections, not the current set-up controlled by the Prime Minister’s Office,
  • a free and pluralistic media that reports fairly on all contesting parties,
  • enough time (at least 3 weeks) for campaigning.

Read their full article here.

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Comments

7 Comments on Polling day cooling off period is just another distraction

  1. The Singapore Daily » Blog Archive » Daily SG: 3 Dec 2009 on Thu, 3rd Dec 2009 11:06 am

    2. [...] to Election: An Extra Cooling Off Day for the Fixing – Sgpolitics.net: Polling day cooling off period is just another distraction – Kaffein-nated: Coolin’ off period for General Elections? – Article 14: Papmandering alert: [...]

  2. Ivan on Thu, 3rd Dec 2009 4:37 pm

    3. Hi E-Jay, Just to let you know that Trinidad and Tobago is a country comprising these two Caribbean islands. It’s capital is Port au Spain (Port of Spain, in English). It is not in Spain.

  3. DavidSeeLeongKit on Thu, 3rd Dec 2009 11:32 pm

    4. Yet another proof that the PAP Govt is “CUNNINGLY-clever” and not “COMPETENTLY-clever”:

    > “CUNNINGLY-clever”
    = pork-barrel politics eg use of public-funded HDB Upgrading to threaten/arm-twist voters
    = election gerrymandering ie fiddling with electoral boundaries; not setting up independent Elections Commission

    > “COMPETENTLY-clever” (as expected by Singapore Taxpayer-Voters of an Obscenely-Paid Million-Dollar Govt)
    = able to solve our many national problems eg
    high cost of living
    high cost of homes (both private and HDB)
    rich — poor income gap
    job creation
    rising divorce rate (within 5 years of marriage)
    WHY it took 30 years to admit to Chinese Language policy screw-up?
    WHAT about the Stop-At-Two screw-up policy that resulted in huge influx of foreigners?
    WHY it took so long to tackle loan-shark problem?

    PAP Manifesto for next General Election — BUY VOTES, FIX OPPOSITION !!!

  4. The Singapore Daily » Blog Archive » Weekly Roundup: Week 49 on Sat, 5th Dec 2009 10:55 am

    5. [...] – Singapore Democrats: Proposed Cooling-off Period Designed To Benefit PAP – Sgpolitics.net: Polling day cooling off period is just another distraction – Kaffein-nated: Coolin’ off period for General Elections? – Article 14: Papmandering alert: [...]

  5. JANET ALBRECHTSEN on Sun, 6th Dec 2009 11:04 am

    6. Dear E-Jay

    I believe we have more to worry over the following than over a cooling day.

    We can only hope that world leaders will do nothing more than enjoy a pleasant bicycle ride around the charming streets of Copenhagen come December. For if they actually manage to wring out an agreement based on the current draft text of the Copenhagen climate-change treaty, the world is in for some nasty surprises. Draft text, you say? If you haven’t heard about it, that’s because none of our otherwise talkative political leaders have bothered to tell us what the drafters have already cobbled together for leaders to consider. And neither have the media.

    Enter Lord Christopher Monckton. The former adviser to Margaret Thatcher gave an address at Bethel University in St. Paul, Minnesota, earlier this month that made quite a splash. For the first time, the public heard about the 181 pages, dated Sept. 15, that comprise the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change—a rough draft of what could be signed come December.

    So far there have been more than a million hits on the YouTube post of his address. It deserves millions more because Lord Monckton warns that the aim of the Copenhagen draft treaty is to set up a transnational “government” on a scale the world has never before seen.

    The “scheme for the new institutional arrangement under the Convention” that starts on page 18 contains the provision for a “government.” The aim is to give a new as yet unnamed U.N. body the power to directly intervene in the financial, economic, tax and environmental affairs of all the nations that sign the Copenhagen treaty.

    The reason for the power grab is clear enough: Clause after complicated clause of the draft treaty requires developed countries to pay an “adaptation debt” to developing countries to supposedly support climate change mitigation. Clause 33 on page 39 says that “by 2020 the scale of financial flows to support adaptation in developing countries must be [at least $67 billion] or [in the range of $70 billion to $140 billion per year].”

    And how will developed countries be slugged to provide for this financial flow to the developing world? The draft text sets out various alternatives, including option seven on page 135, which provides for “a [global] levy of 2 per cent on international financial market [monetary] transactions to Annex I Parties.” Annex 1 countries are industrialized countries, which include among others the U.S., Australia, Britain and Canada.

    To be sure, countries that sign international treaties always cede powers to a U.N. body responsible for implementing treaty obligations. But the difference is that this treaty appears to have been subject to unusual attempts to conceal its convoluted contents. And apart from the difficulty of trying to decipher the U.N. verbiage, there are plenty of draft clauses described as “alternatives” and “options” that should raise the ire of free and democratic countries concerned about preserving their sovereignty.

    Lord Monckton himself only became aware of the extraordinary powers to be vested in this new world government when a friend found an obscure U.N. Web site and searched through several layers of hyperlinks before discovering a document that isn’t even called the draft “treaty.” Instead, it’s labelled a “Note by the Secretariat.”

    Interviewed by broadcaster Alan Jones on Sydney radio Monday, Lord Monckton said “this is the first time I’ve ever seen any transnational treaty referring to a new body to be set up under that treaty as a ‘government.’ But it’s the powers that are going to be given to this entirely unelected government that are so frightening.” He added: “The sheer ambition of this new world government is enormous right from the start—that’s even before it starts accreting powers to itself in the way that these entities inevitably always do.”

    Critics have admonished Lord Monckton for his colorful language. He has certainly been vigorous. In his exposé of the draft Copenhagen treaty in St. Paul, he warned Americans that “in the next few weeks, unless you stop it, your president will sign your freedom, your democracy and your prosperity away forever.” Yet his critics fail to deal with the substance of what he says.

    Ask yourself this question: Given that our political leaders spend hundreds of hours talking about climate change and the need for a global consensus in Copenhagen, why have none of them talked openly about the details of this draft climate-change treaty? After all, the final treaty will bind signatories for years to come. What exactly are they hiding? Thanks to Lord Monckton we now know something of their plans.

    Janos Pasztor, director of the Secretary-General’s Climate Change Support Team, told reporters in New York Monday that with the U.S. Congress yet to pass a climate-change bill, a global climate-change treaty is now an unlikely outcome in Copenhagen. Let’s hope he is right. And, thank you.

  6. GE Day of “Non Campaigning” – Reactions « Political Beans on Mon, 7th Dec 2009 2:04 am

    7. [...] Lastly, Ng E-Jay of Sgpolitics.net calls the proposal a “distraction” from critical issues, reminding readers that the Singapore media is rated poorly by Reporters Without Borders and the [...]

  7. Bitter Singaporean on Sun, 13th Dec 2009 10:20 pm

    8. My vote is not a secret! I will NOT vote for PAP. I can give you 50 reasons

    1. I want to buy a house without paying a Cash-Over-Value of $100,000

    2. I don’t want to be accused of being fussy if I don’t want to live on the first floor or basement bomb shelter, or ulu ulu places like Kusu Island

    3. I don’t want keep hearing that flats are “affordable” when I really cannot afford flats.

    4. I don’t want to see foreigners flood our condos, HDB estates, MRT trains, buses, schools, EVERYWHERE

    5. I don’t want to know about how ministers are getting lots of landed and prime property both local and overseas when I have trouble getting a 3-room flat.

    6. I don’t want ministers who get multi-million dollar salaries when I do odd jobs and some months I don’t make more than $2,000.

    Ministers in other countries may take bribes and embezzle. My ministers are smarter, they get more money claiming more MILLIONS in salary LEGALLY.

    7. I don’t want to pay ERP just because foreigners’ cars are clogging my roads. Especially, when ERP do not solve congestion problems!!! We still have terrible traffic jams!

    8. I don’t want to do NS and reservist to protect my country against foreign invaders when:
    (A) I don’t have a house to protect
    (B) I cannot afford to start a family to protect
    (C) I have to protect foreigners and their property with my life when they run away during war.
    (D) Foreigner PRs do not have to serve
    (E) I get paid worse than a Bangala worker. To think that National Service needed people donation’s in 1967, after a year, it gathered S$ 3 million from Singaporeans when we were all so poor.

    9. I do not want to see PRs and New citizens flashing their blue and pink ICs on their national days.

    10. I do not want to see the shamelessness of importing foreign athletes and claims that Singapore won when a foreigner won. Oh yes, we pay these foreigners millions of dollars so that Singapore can claim that it won. WOW!

    11. I do not want to hear jeering against the SG local soccer teams from foreigner spectators when we play against other countries IN OUR OWN COUNTRY!

    12. I don’t want to pay 7% more for everything I buy in my whole life when the government gives my $200 in “compensation” handouts!

    13. I want to see a local student being the top student. Not some China kid. Not hearing from ours kids that there is no point to work hard as some foreigner is going to squeeze them down inevitably.

    14. When there is public curiosity, I expect my government (especially Law minister) to be transparent enough let us know about Temasek and HDB cost to build a flat, etc.

    15. I want my country to be known as a COUNTRY. My country is NOT just a city like some idiot claims.

    16. I don’t want LHL’s son to be the next succeeding prime minister.

    17. I don’t like how China suckered us in the Suzhou park initiative and we still have to kiss their assess.

    18. I cannot understand why local siblings cannot buy flats when foreigner PR siblings can buy flats.

    19. Singles are not allowed to buy flats before 35? Are singles supposed to be forced into marriage just because of this? By the time singles reach 35, the flat prices will be higher by $100,000 to $300,000. These singles worked very hard to scrimp and save only to see savings ERODED away by inflation!

    20. I do not want to read the paper when it is pro-PAP and there is major censorship and selective publishing and late publishing for what cannot be hidden.

    21. I don’t want my life-savings to be belittled as the salt on the “peanuts”.

    22. I don’t like it when my country’s reserves lost tens of billions of dollars and the PM’s wife can still head Temasek!

    23. I want important national assets key to our security like power stations to BELONG to our country, not sold to foreigners.

    24. I like to add hum to my mee siam by the way.

    25. I want a president who actually DOES more. Not one which who I seek shakes hands, seldom speaks, does not even pardon and spare a 19-year-old kid his life. Not a president who kids confuse with Mas Selamat (Many kids who know Mas Selamat do not EVEN know Nathan)

    26. I don’t want to have my next national day parade at the silly riverside place….AGAIN! How long does it take to make a stadium? We are a country but we don’t even have a national stadium?? How about loaning Malaysia’s Merdeka Stadium for Singapore’s National day?

    27. I want job security. A contract for 1 or 2 years, Then look for work again. The cycle repeats. We have to worry for our jobs and livelihoods on a daily basis. When we are over 40 years old, who want us anymore? I might as well join the army as sign on. But wait, that is contract TOO!

    28. I don’t want the next generation to suffer like me in university. I had to work part-time to support my uni fees in NUS, while foreign students get free uni education thanks to MOE PLUS $500 allowance every month. After that, NUS still has the cheek to call me up and ask me to donate to NUS. Why they need money? They lost hundreds of millions of endowment in the financial crisis. I can still remember working and saving for 3 months before I could afford a 2nd hand laptop.

    29. I want to protest in the streets to voice my discontent without being put to jail by the ISA act or made bankrupt. For goodness sake, I don’t even dare to accept Singtel’s offer of giving me free 6 months internet if I switch from Starhub to Singtel, because I am scared that my IP address and my name will be blacklisted by the government. (considering Singtel’s afflictions with the govt)

    30. I want an opposition party in power. Any opposition is welcome. As educated and smart as my current and soon-to-be-ex ministers may be, I want people who CARE and LISTEN. Even if it is a guy who had graduated from kindergarten would be welcomed if he cares.

    31. Elites who have been born with a silver spoon, who never had trouble finding a job, who never had money difficulties, who never went hungry, who breezed through NS, do NOT deserve my respect nor should they be in the government. We need people who UNDERSTAND what it is like at the pits and bottom! Not some shortie who claims to understand hardship with a childhood living in 3-room flat but marries an angmoh and lives in a landed mansion.

    32. I want a better electoral system! I don’t want WALK-OVERs again. Some of the seniors did not even get to vote ONCE in their whole lives. How is that democracy?

    33. I want fairness. Is it a coincidence that certain estates under certain members of our government are especially well-cared for with upgrading etc incentives? Is this fair? Are residents of areas under the opposition similarly cared for? I quote a resident from Potong Pasir “the lifts here are so old and I can’t climb the flight of stairs to reach my place anymore.” I supposed the 60 year old aunty would be forced to vote for PAP to get new lifts.

    34. I want a limit to the number of years the PM can hold office, so that as bad and as lousy as the PM is, we can at least have a chance to start afresh.

    35. I want small quotas/ratios legislated for foreigners.

    36. I want foreigners to be restricted to less than 20% of our population instead of 36%.

    37. Horsie actually said that foreigner PRs were under-represented in HDB flats. Pah! No more than 2 flats in a block should be sold to PRs! Otherwise, how can the many old uncles and aunties have pocket money for retirement by renting out flats?

    38. I want their CPF contribution percent to be much higher and that their CPF to be forfeited if they leave SG.

    39. I want higher income taxes and property taxes for foreigners.

    40. I want NS for foreigners.

    41. Foreigners who bought HDB flats cannot be allowed to rent their flat out EVER!

    42. I want the SGD to be moderated downwards! A higher SGD may benefit those who can afford to holiday overseas, those who are rich enough to send kids to overseas for studies, or PRs and foreigners when they remit money home. BUT overly high SGD deters investments into Singapore.

    43. I want curbs on inflation. To that effect, we need to install restrictions on property speculation, raise reserve ratios in banks, and have more stringent criteria before loans are issued. AND OF COURSE, GST lower back to 3%

    44. When foreign talent enters my country. I want these people to be REALLY foreign talent. I don’t want my country’s pink IC and PR to be handed out like toilet paper.

    45. I want more heavily subsidized birth-delivery, child-care, pediatric health and education care to boost local numbers. If S.Korea can do it, why not us? The practice of replacement diminishing local numbers with foreigner number MUST STOP.

    46. Instead of always saying Singapore does not have enough talent, will the government spend more money and effort in education and grooming the young? Every time they say that there is not enough of certain type of people, the government will import these people in masses and hordes.

    47. I expect government-affiliated institutions to not indulge themselves with luxuries when other citizens have bread-butter problems:

    When NTUC income unilaterally announced major cuts in its bonus for insurance-policy-holders, the MAS allowed this to happen. NTUC income claimed financial woes, but took HUNDREDS of agents to Australia for an exorbitant expense-paid holiday as they made the announcement earlier this year!!! Do they think about the widows and orphans when they dine fine with wine???

    At first I could not believe NTUC Income to be capable of this, then I checked on the web and saw the NTUC CEO hugging 2 BIKINI girls and drinking champagne in Australia too.
    (i)http://ms-my.facebook.com/photo.php?pid=1550459&id=36541001838&ref=mf

    (ii)http://ms-my.facebook.com/photo.php?pid=1549575&id=36541001838&ref=mf

    48. I expect the MAS to protect citizens financially too:

    When thousands of investors lost their life savings in the mini-bond fiasco, where was the government?? Unlike the Hong Kong government which had exerted pressure on its local banks to compensate a minimum sum to its minibond holders, the Singapore authorities chose to stay out of the matter….. MM Lee Kuan Yew even chided Singapore investors for “walking in with their eyes open” and therefore did not deserve a compensation. (quote from Temasek Review 1st Dec)

    49. I have 1 more issue with the state Media Press. HOW can they publish photos of people suspected of crimes when they have not EVEN been convicted?? Imagine the tarnishing to the poor suspect’s reputation if he were innocent! It is not as if the guy can sue ST and get $400,000 in defamation compensation.

    50. Anyone can give the 50th reason??????????????? Come on my fellow locals. If I can say so much, you can at least say something! Few thousand people viewing this article and so little comments???

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