YJJ Rally Speech at Punggol East By-Election 22 Jan 2013

各位亲爱的榜鹅东选民，各位来之新加坡各区的工人党支持者，大家晚上好。

在2011年的大选中，选民很明确地表达了他们希望在新加坡的政治上有改革。人民行动党得到了独立以来最低的票数。

在去年的后港补选里，选民又再一次拒绝了人民行动党。人民行动党开始害怕了。所以他们想跟你们交谈，想和您进行全国对话。

英文有一句话说“Action speaks louder than words”。行动比语言更有说服力。你们现在有机会向他们传达一个更强烈的信号。1月26号 就是榜鹅东选民的机会了。只有这样，他们才会真正地听你们的心声, 才会真正地想办法了解人民的辛苦。

我入党已经两年了。在这两年里，我有机会与党员李丽连一起工作。她充满了活力。在党的各种活动，她时常作为主持人，讲话非常有自信。大选过后，丽连成为友诺士区 Pritam Singh议员的国会助理。 她组织基层活动，安排见面会，帮忙解决居民的问题，又同时当工人党青年团的主席。此外，她还有一份要求很高的全职工作。我称她为“Energizer”，应为她就像“Energizer” 电池一样，浑身是劲。

从她认真办事中可以看的出，她有一颗为人民的心。我相信她会成为一位好议员。

1月26号，你们要继续传达政治改革的讯息。请支持工人党！请投李丽连一票！谢谢！

Good evening dear voters of Punggol East. Good evening dear supporters of the Workers’ Party. Rain or shine, muddy or dry pitch, you are always here to support us. Thank you.

On Sunday, Education Minister Heng Swee Kiat told you to vote for PAP so that The Workers’ Party will work harder. The Education Minister has got it all wrong! Which party is in government and has created the policies that are hurting you? The PAP! The PAP needs to work harder to improve their policies and to improve your lives.

Mr Heng has forgotten that whether they win or lose, the PAP’s candidate will still be the grassroots advisor. He has forgotten that the losing PAP candidate will still get access to community facilities to continue his party’s work. THESE will not be given to the WP if we lose. Mr Heng has also forgotten that the elections department reports to the Prime Minister, who is the secretary-general of his party. The PAP can do wonderful magic. They can tear up a constituency and move it around. They can make constituencies disappear just before a general election. Only when you vote an opposition in can you vote one and get one free, because PAP will start to treasure you and work doubly hard for you. Only when you vote an opposition in can you ensure that Punggol East will stay as its own constituency.

Dr Koh, the candidate of the PAP has said he wanted to have more child care facilities here. He’s right that there should be more child care centres here. Dr Koh will however have to content with a PAP’s policy that is flawed.

Child care services have certainly become important. Over the past 8 years, with more working parents, the number of children enrolled in child & infant care centres has doubled to 76,000.

Child care fees have also gone up. Over the same 8 years, average fee has shot up by some 50%. Many centres, especially those in new towns like Punggol East are full. You sometimes have to wait more than a year to get your child into a centre that is more reasonably affordable. This is an issue that affects many Singaporeans.

Last week, the Prime Minister said the opposition has not presented any alternatives in parliament. Well, I remember presenting an alternative childcare policy in September as an adjournment motion. I also remember that the government has yet to answer many of the issues I had raised on this matter. Let me elaborate.

In 2009, the government came up with the Anchor childcare Operator scheme. Conditions were set such that many long established and reputable operators in the childcare industry could not qualify. Only the PAP Community Foundation (or PCF) and NTUC’s My First Skool became anchor operators.

The government said that grants given to anchor operators will be $30 million every year. Anchor operators have opened over 132 new void deck sites in the 3 years since the scheme started. In this same period, only a few HDB sites were available for bidding by private and other non-profit operators.

From parliament answers, I calculated that Anchor Operators received grants averaging $600,000 per new centre. Their centres in HDB void decks pay rents 10-20 times lower than what is paid by private operators in similar void decks, based on results from recent tenders. Because there are so few HDB sites now available for non-anchor operators, rents have been bidded sky high, causing fees to rise rapidly. In fact, the void deck childcare with the highest rent in Singapore is here in Punggol.

The stated purpose for Anchor operators is to provide affordable, accessible, and high quality childcare. But all these are not happening with PAP’s policy. The fees charged by our two Anchor Operators are in some instances higher than that charged by some private and non-profit centres that do not get such generous grants or have to pay more in rent. In other words, the two anchor operators are protected from competition. They do not need to work as hard as they should to make fees as low as they can.

In the Lien foundation survey last year, there are more parents happier with the services of any other category of centres compared to that of PCF and NTUC. So despite huge grants available only to PCF and NTUC, satisfaction of their customers is lower than others. In 2010, the government started SPARK accreditation to raise the quality of preschools. Their aim is to have 85% of all centres to be SPARK-tested by 2013, which is this year. Guess what? Only 12% of the centres operated by anchors met the SPARK criteria as of last year when I questioned the minister in parliament. The anchors are so far off the government’s target, yet they continue to receive huge grants.

After studying these data, I presented an alternative proposal in parliament. It is to make childcare as a public good, with active competition by all. These include the government making all sites operating on government spaces to be at low managed rents, and for the government to be able to directly regulate fees of centres that benefit from grants and subsidized rents. This can be done because the majority of all childcare centres operate on government owned sites.

Right now, the government is toothless to control fees. It gives out a lot of money but cannot stop fees from rising. It can only advise operators to give three months’ notice before increasing fees. Rather than rely on just two operators, the government should open up for competition to all operators based on a more reasonable set of anchor qualifying criteria, and to push these operators to do more to improve quality and to tightly regulate their fees.

With this alternative model, competition will keep all operators on their toes. They will need to be innovative and affordable. This will benefit all of you.

So the solution is not for Dr Koh to ask for a new centre here and a new centre there. Think… If it was so easy, why is it a nationwide problem? Why couldn’t your previous MP do that for you? This is because the PAP’s childcare policy is in need of fixing, just as there are many PAP’s policies that need fixing. The Workers’ Party has spoken out in Parliament on this. And the Workers’ Party will continue to push the government when we find policies that need fixing.

Vote Lee Li Lian into parliament. She will be a good and hardworking MP for you. She will be your voice in parliament. Come 26 Jan, vote The Workers Party. Vote for Lee Li Lian.

A tale of two race horses

I shared an analog of 2 race horses at my rally last night in my speech on entrepreneurship and on small and medium enterprises in Singapore.

I am bemused by various press asking me about it. Channel News Asia told me that they told whatever they knew of my story to Mr Charles Chong, my opponent for Joo Chiat SMC. Charles remarked that Mr Chan Soo Sen and he are certainly no old horse and have been walking up and down the 4 blocks of public flats in Siglap. I laughed loudly.

No, no, no. I was not referring to Mr Chong or Mr Chan as old horses. Charles looks strong and fit. I was referring to PAP as a political party as the old horse and the opposition as the young horse. For the benefit of all, a re-narrated version of the story is provided below. It is in the context of PAP using fear factor to scare voters to vote for PAP because they are big and they have the track record, like how civil servants may be tempted to award contracts to large companies even if smaller ones can meet the criteria at a lower cost. PAP tells voters that the opposition will make errors and mess things up because they are small and not up to the mark.

Imagine you are going to place a horse racing bet. There’s an old horse that has been winning races in the past, but it is tiring and slowing down. There’s a young horse who has not been winning, but it is gaining strength and charging ahead. PAP is like the old horse, winning all or nearly all parliamentary seats since independence. But it is showing cracks and making mistakes. The opposition has won few seats or none since independence.  But it is very strong this year and charging ahead. Who do you wish to place your bet on? So vote The Workers’ Party, towards a first world parliament!

Action items for Joo Chiat SMC

I have often been asked in my walkabouts what I would like to do for Joo Chiat.

I like to start by saying that I do not promise anything on physical upgrading. Any physical improvement should first be something wanted by and necessary for the residents. Then we can work with the relevant authorities to look into the justifications for the improvement. These improvements can be for better traffic flow, parking facilities, use of public facilities for community purposes, better public transport, etc.. They should be something the residents feel strongly that they need and my role, if elected as Joo Chiat’s Member of Parliament will be to actively champion the improvements to the authorities.

Joo Chiat is in a unique situation in that there are only 4 public housing blocks. The collection of rubbish, maintenance of roads and parks outside of these 4 blocks are not managed by the town council. Those in condominiums and apartments will have these services taken care of by their respective management committees. Your rubbish will continue to be collected and public infrastructure will continue to be maintained. Joo Chiat will certainly not turn into a slum, as some have asked me. I will in fact, actively monitor the situation to ensure that public services will be performed diligently by the commercial entities outsourced to handle these. Living right in the centre of the redrawn Joo Chiat constituency myself, I will have the benefit of being here 7 days a week to experience the service levels of these commercial entities and to respond more rapidly to situations.

On what I like to see Joo Chiat develop into, I see Joo Chiat as a place where there can be great vibrancy, unique character, friendly neighbours, clean environment and with people living a healthy lifestyle. Having lived in the area all my life and having interacted with many residents here, I have arrived at some key tasks which I need to attend to should I be elected as the Member of Parliament for Joo Chiat:

1. Grassroot committees

• Involve passionate volunteers from amongst residents who can raise ideas for community involvement and improvements to the neighbourhood. 
• Encouraging social entrepreneurship. Social entrepreneurship is a good way to drive a spirit of vibrancy in the community. Areas that can be explored include football clinics, baking homemade cookies and cakes for sale, providing avenues for budding arts to offer mural painting services, etc. These are just suggested ideas and any initiative must first be driven by residents. The MP can certainly help to encourage, promote and facilitate where appropriate.

2. Community support for the needy

• While Joo Chiat is a mostly private residence area, there are some members of the community living here that require assistance with their livelihood. We wish to reach out to these residents through tapping on the goodwill of community service centres and self-help groups in Joo Chiat and matching the needy residents to these groups for adoption.

3. Community development

• Joo Chiat can be a friendly place with strong family ties. Activities that can be done include promoting the Dad’s For Life outreach, organizing events such as dog shows and securing places for dog runs, and other community programmes to bring neighbours and families together. Popular events already being organised such as golf tournaments will continue to be supported.

4. Education

• We will set up an education trust fund with money provided by from donors and fund-raising activities. The money will be used to provide bursaries to needy students.

5. Environment

• Look into improvements and work with the relevant authorities to solve problems faced by residents. Existing feedback include: flooding in parts of Opera Estate, parking problems, traffic situation at Palm Road / Tay Lian Teck Road, cleanliness of common  parks and drains, overcrowding of  buses, lack of buses linking Kembangan MRT to various estates in Joo Chiat, etc.
• Promote NParks’ Community in Bloom programme to have a green community in Joo Chiat. A beautiful environment will enhance the value of your property.
• Championing a safe and secure environment. Encourage neighbours to keep a lookout for one another against break-ins, illegal activities and other threats.

6. Healthy lifestyle

• Promote healthy lifestyle and use of the many recreational facilities already available in Joo Chiat and on East Coast beach

 I look forward to working with residents to turn Joo Chiat into a beautiful home for all.

My new Facebook fan page

There are many people who have been sending me Facebook friends requests. Hence, I have created a public page on Facebook to facilitate discussions with Singaporeans from all walks of life @ http://goo.gl/uniKG.

I will be providing frequent updates on my campaign using this page.
Please share with fellow Singaporeans. Thanks!

My presentation at WP’s candidates introduction, 25 April 2011

 

My presenation at WP

News from my campaign trail – GE2011

Captured by Straits Times while visiting homes at Opera Estae

Feature by Sinmin Daily after walkabout at Nee Soon at my first WP public outreach appearance

 

 

 

 

TODAY Jul 19, 2010: More haste, less speed

http://imcms2.mediacorp.sg/CMSFileserver/documents/006/PDF/20100719/1907VOC010.pdf

THE death and injuries caused by the crane that smashed into the upper deck of a bus along Chai Chee Road (“One killed as bus, lorry collide in Bedok”, July 17-18) is tragic. I was driving past and saw the wreckage.

I wonder how a crane arm can smash into a bus that had already overtaken it on a lane meant for vehicle passage. It looks suspiciously like someone’s negligence or poor understanding of crane operations.

It brought to my mind another dangerous incident I encountered last month while on a family day trip to Sentosa organised by my university alumni.

The bus arrived late and the driver did not know how to turn on the air-conditioning (he only managed to figure it out midway through the journey).

He asked if anyone knew how to get to Sentosa. The driver spoke only Mandarin, with a mainland Chinese accent. He said he has only just started driving bus.

Once on Sentosa, while he was going around a sloped bend, the bus stalled. He could not control the clutch. We had to direct cars behind the bus to move away as it slid several times and got dangerously close
to hitting them. Finally a passenger showed him how to handle the clutch and he moved off.

We alighted at a bus stop that was on a slope. The driver again tried for five minutes before he could finally move off.

There were many people at the bus stop and I told them to move away just in case.

I have never seen such poor handling of a bus. There had been some 50 people on board, including young children.

In our haste to fill positions with foreign workers, companies must ensure they are properly trained, especially when handling vehicles and equipment. I hope all companies take such matters seriously to avoid
tragedies from happening.

Yee Jenn Jong

ST Forum May 4, 2010: Puzzle over airline’s transit ticket demand

The Straits Times | Tue, May 4 2010

I BOUGHT a one-month return ticket for my maid for her home leave to Palembang on Lion Air on April 17, transiting at Jakarta.

But when I called her that night, I was shocked to find out that the airline’s counter staff in Jakarta would not let her fly to Palembang, saying her employer had paid for her ticket only to Jakarta, when it was clearly stated on the e-ticket that she was to take the 2.25pm connection flight.

My maid said she showed the ticket to the counter staff but they said “no” and made her pay another one million rupiah ($150) for a one-way ticket from Jakarta to Palembang. It was a lot of money for an internal flight, but she paid as there was no other way.

When buying the ticket, I was told at Lion Air’s Singapore office that it could not process a check-in all the way, but was given the assurance that the airline’s Jakarta staff would take care of transit arrangements for my maid.

The confusion could have been avoided easily if Lion Air had allowed boarding passes for the connection flight to be issued at the airport of origin (in this case Singapore).

Now I dread to think of her return trip a month from now.

I hope Lion Air will do more to ensure that its processes do not inconvenience passengers.

Yee Jenn Jong

ST Forum Mar 4, 2011 – Serve up more Stefanie Tans, please

Mar 4, 2011

Serve up more Stefanie Tans, please

 

I APPLAUD student tennis player Stefanie Tan (“Tan serves surprise”; Wednesday) for quitting Raffles Institution to play professionally.

We have placed too much emphasis on only one route for success – via the paper chase. This is perpetuated by the way schools and parents drive children to prioritise examination results about everything else. Having been in the education industry for nearly 20 years, I strongly believe that there are alternative ways to be successful in life.

Not many youngsters are as certain as Miss Tan about her choice. It is not the eventual tennis ranking that she achieves that we should use to measure her success, but by how hard and how passionately she pursues her goal.

I have employed staff with good academic results and testimonials from elsewhere. But when the passion is missing, they do not achieve what is expected. Eight years ago, while running a fast-growing e-learning business, I could not hire the right people with the passion to continue to drive the growth. I switched strategy and challenged selected passionate staff at the junior ranks to join the head office.

It worked and these employees continue to stay driven in the business today. Their academic qualifications and prior job experiences were inferior to that of those we hired earlier, but their job performances were far superior. Today, as an employer, I look carefully beyond academic results to see what drives the person.

The rigour of competitive sports will provide Miss Tan with something school cannot teach her.

People often tell me they cannot do certain things because they are not trained for it. Our education system sometimes stifles people and leads them to rely on only what is taught in the classroom, making them lack confidence in themselves, There are so many more things one can learn outside of school if they are pursued with a passion, be it in sports, the arts or business.

I hope Singapore will have more Stefanie Tans, and more of the type of parents that support their child’s pursuit of something good, albeit outside of academic achievements.

Yee Jenn Jong