Wednesday, December 12, 2012

Losing Good People


On 26 May 2012, a by-election for the Hougang Single Member Constituency (SMC) was called because of the expulsion of Yaw Shin Leong from the Workers' Party (WP). The reason for the expulsion was due to an affair Mr. Yaw had.

The shoe is now on the other foot as Parliament Speaker Michael Palmer has resigned from the People's Action Party (PAP) and his Parliament position due to an "improper relationship" with a PA staff member in his constituency. At a hastily arranged press conference, Palmer said that he was resigning to take "full responsibility" for the mistake and to avoid "further embarrassment".

This is why I am against the expulsion of Yaw Shin Leong in the first place!

Seriously, who had asked for their resignation and expulsion? Most Singaporeans didn’t even know of their affairs and even when Mr. Yaw’s affair became well known, most did not care. I mean as long as they can do their job as Members of Parliament, why should I care if they have someone on the side?  

However because the WP kicked Mr. Yaw out, now the PAP has no choice but to do the same to Mr. Palmer. The biggest losers in all this; the people of Singapore! We lost 2 good, capable men who now can no longer serve the Republic and for what? Because they had an affair? Please…most Singaporeans, whether they are PAP or opposition supporters, don’t give a shit about their domestic situation. 

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

I disagree.

The political parties' calculation is not focus on how any ONE of its relatively young politician, in terms of their established political track records with the constituents, it has to be necessarily focused on HOW it would affect the party's image, standing and fortune vis a vis the voters.

Yaw and Palmer are both VERY DISPENSABLE as far as this is concerned. The parties in fact have to focus on the impact on the general population and the constituency in particular. Allowing them to carry on business as usual would only erode the party's standing in the eyes of the population. They would simply have no answers for the people when the opposition go on the offensive, this is politics after all, before, during and after any election.

Ghost said...

That's the thing. I don't think it would erode the parties' standing in the eyes of the Singapore population. Most Singaporeans I know don't care about their affairs and the only thing their dismissals did was to lose 2 capable men for Singapore.