Hotspots
of S'pore's political landscape in 1997
Straits Times. Dec 27,1997
Now that the haze has lifted and visitors are flocking back,
here's a political map to guide the prodigal tourist to the
biggest events of the year.
Concept and text by WARREN FERNANDEZ
1. General election -- choosing
the team for the 21st century
AFTER months of speculation and
hundreds of illegal bets on the date of the
polls, the last general
election of the century was called on Jan 2. The PAP
played hardball politics, with decentralised voting
which would reveal how
each precinct voted and a warning that precincts
which voted opposition
would go to the back of the queue when it came
to their turn to upgrade their
flats.
The fight in Cheng San GRC took
centre stage during the nine-day
campaign with the PAP concentrating all its firepower
on the Workers' Party
hopeful for Cheng San GRC -- Tang
Liang Hong, whom it labelled an
anti-Christian, anti-English educated Chinese
chauvinist.
The ruling party took Mr Tang's
threat to Singapore's multi-racial fabric so
seriously that Prime Minister Goh Chok Tong and
his two deputies threw
their hats into the ring at Cheng San GRC to keep
him out of parliament.
Even then, it was a breathtakingly
close fight there, with the team led by then
Education Minister Lee Yock Suan scoring a narrow
54.8 per cent victory
against the WP team led by its chief, Mr J. B.
Jeyaretnam.
But nationwide, the PAP scored
a thumping victory, sweeping 34 of the 36
contested seats, and re-capturing two opposition
seats. Only Potong Pasir
and Hougang remained in opposition hands.
The PAP's overall share of votes
also went up for the first time since 1984,
to 65 per cent from 61 per cent in 1991. Mr Goh
described the result as a
clear mandate and an endorsement of his five-year
track record.
Dr Chee Soon Juan's Singapore
Democratic Party was wiped out, but Mr
Jeyaretnam returned to Parliament as a Non-Constituency
MP after more
than a decade in the political wilderness.
The election, described as a
watershed by Mr Goh, saw a diverse slate of
23 new PAP MPs elected to Parliament. Many will
play key roles in the
country's leadership in the next century.
2. Tang Liang Hong -- a question of integrity
JUST days after the polls, Mr
Tang fled to Johor. Not for the laksa or the
more exotic nightspots, but because he feared
for his life and of being
arrested by the government -- or so he claimed.
The PAP leaders, meanwhile, assembled
a dream team of top-notch
lawyers and filed more than a dozen defamation
suits against him for calling
them criminals and liars and questioning their
integrity.
Mr Tang's response? He left Malaysia
and, through his trusty mobile
telephone, was traced in several countries, including
Hongkong, Britain, and
Australia.
Despite being thousands of kilometres
away, he continued to give
interviews to the press here and appeared regularly
on Cable News
Network (CNN) and the British Broadcasting Corporation
(BBC).
His utter disregard for the High
Court's orders which the PAP leaders had
obtained against him, his attempts to delay the
court's proceedings, and his
continued defamation of the PAP leaders led to
record damages of more
than $8 million set against him.
But this was reduced to $3.63
million by the Appeals Court, which said the
amount was hugely disproportionate to the injury
done.
But Mr Tang remains defiant and
is determined not to pay a single cent,
promising to fight on.
3. Malaysia -- rough patch for bilateral ties
SINGAPORE'S relations with its
closest neighbour took a severe knock this
year, in the wake of several incidents -- Senior
Minister Lee Kuan Yew's
comment about Johor, Malaysia's attempt to go
back on a previous
agreement over Malayan railway land, and the recent
traffic jams at the
Causeway.
SM Lee's affidavit which said
that Johor was "notorious for shootings,
muggings and car-jackings" led Malaysian
politicians and Umno Youth to an
orgy of condemnations against Singapore.
Despite Mr Lee's explanation
of the context of his remarks and his
unreserved apology -- twice -- the abuses and
insults continued.
Other bilateral issues were brought
out into the open, such as Malaysia's
unhappiness over a previous deal it had struck
with Singapore on the use of
Malayan Railway land here.
There were even threats to cut off Singapore's water supply.
Towards year-end, relations hit
yet another rough patch when getting across
the kilometre-long Causeway suddenly took more
than eight hours as
massive traffic tailbacks jammed all the roads
leading there.
Johor Customs said it was because
of a crackdown to catch smugglers,
curb tax evasion and detect false Customs declarations,
but others
described it as "mild arm twisting"
to get Malaysian traders to use Port
Klang instead of Singapore.
Singapore businesses and weekend
shoppers both felt the pinch. Goods
and raw materials were delivered late, which meant
cancelled orders and
disrupted production lines, while day shoppers
taking advantage of the
weakened ringgit paid dearly in the long jams.
4. Foreigners - making the island an oasis of
talent
IF YOU are Bill Gates or the Spice Girls, come on over: Singapore
has opened its doors to the world's talents in its bid to create a
vibrant
cosmopolitan city that can hold its own against top cities.
As PM Goh explained, migrant talent was needed to supplement
Singapore's small population
base in the same way as the previous waves
of immigration had made the country what it was.
The government is easing up immigration
requirements, attracting high
calibre foreign students and providing subsidised
housing. Singaporeans,
however, were worried that foreigners would take
away their jobs and
promotions, dilute the nation's cohesiveness,
spirit and values, and affect
the ethnic composition here.
But Mr Goh assured them that
Singaporeans would always come first and
only a small proportion of foreigners were likely
to become citizens and
these could be assimilated into the society easily.
On how the increased
influx of foreigners would affect Singapore's
ethnic composition, he said the
Government would "maintain the relative proportion
of Chinese, Malays and
Indians''.
5. Loan to Indonesia - helping a friend in need
WHEN Indonesia,
a close friend whose welfare is clearly critical to
Singapore's own future, found itself in serious
financial and economic
difficulties, Singapore was ready to lend a helping
hand - in the form of a
US$5 billion loan package.
The aid, to supplement the US$23
billion rescue package offered by several
international agencies, was not a gift but a loan
made at commercial interest
rates and did not endanger the Republic's CPF
savings or any local
projects, assured Finance Minister Richard Hu.
While the opposition, led by
Potong Pasir MP Chiam See Tong and NCMP
Jeyaretnam, complained about the size of the loan,
and the way the decision
to grant the loan was made - the Government maintained
there were very
good reasons to help Indonesia.
Singapore, it said, would be
better off if confidence returned to Indonesia's
economy, which would in turn fuel robust growth
for the entire region.
6. HDB cuts queue - the cash cow drieth up
THE government took stiff measures
twice this year to shorten the Housing
Board flat queue and prevent exploitation of HDB
subsidies.
First, flat-buyers were restricted
to only two bites of the cherry, or only two
subsidised mortgages. They have to pay market
interest rates for all
subsequent housing loans.
This tightening of the rules
was to make sure that people only borrowed
within their means and to discourage the buying
and selling of HDB flats for
capital gains.
Another subsequent slew of measures
included setting up separate queues
for first-timers and upgraders, building more
new flats for first-timers, as well
as tightening the fiance-fiancee scheme.
The government also doubled the
number of years that flat-owners had to
stay in their first flat before selling it and
buying a new HDB flat - from five
years to 10 years.
7. Heng Chiang Meng - when two worlds come too close
IT CAME like a bolt out of the
blue - Cheng San GRC MP Heng Chiang
Meng resigned from his executive directorship
with Singapore's largest
property developer, which paid about a million
dollars a year, and as
president of the developers' association here.
The reason: it had not been clear
which hat he was wearing - MP or property
developer - when he spoke out publicly about the
state of the property
market here and the need for government intervention,
and this had
confused the public.
In a letter to Mr Heng, Mr Goh
reminded him that the government's
decisions had to be based strictly on the merits
of the issue and it could not
yield to lobbying pressure or vested interest
pleadings.
Excessive lobbying, he said,
was counter-productive as the public would
then misunderstand the rationale for government
action.
MPs had mixed reactions. They
noted that part of the problem was because
of the emotional nature of the issue and the tone
adopted by Mr Heng.
While some favoured barring MPs
from professional bodies, others felt that
the crux of the problem was public misperception.
8. Community Development Councils - community heartware
MAYORS made their appearance
for the first time in many decades in
Singapore's political landscape.
Over the years, residents have
accepted a variety of grassroots bodies such
as the CCs, the RCs, the CCCs and the CCMCs. Now
a new, much larger
animal - the CDCs, an idea mooted by the PM to
strengthen community
bonds - came into being.
CDCs would be the social parallel
of town councils and give local
communities more leeway to improve their neighbourhoods,
anticipate
social changes earlier and customise government
schemes to meet
neighbourhood needs.
And when the government talks,
it acts. The first two CDCs were set up in
March, headed by Singapore's first post-independence
mayors, Dr Ow Chin
Hock and Mr Eugene Yap.
In rapid succession, a total
of nine CDCs have been formed all over the
island.
9. Gearing up education system for the next millennium
GOING to school will never be the same again.
Early in the year, the new head
honcho at the Education Ministry, Rear-
Admiral (NS) Teo Chee Hean, spelt out an exciting
new plan to gear up
Singapore's education system for the 21st century.
The aim: to develop creative,
thinking students, use computer technology to
enhance classroom learning, and ensure that students
understand
Singapore's constraints through National Education.
Also in the works: a plan to
transform the local universities into world- class
institutions by expanding their postgraduate education
and research
programmes and developing the thinking skills
of its undergraduates.
The government invested $2 billion
in a six-year IT masterplan which would
see all 360 schools here use computers to plan,
teach, assess and reach
out to one another, as well as the world.
The target is for students to
use computers for 30 per cent of their curriculum
time, with one machine for every two students.
10. Suzhou - sounding the warning bells
FOR the first time since the
high profile Suzhou Industrial Park was launched
three years ago, SM
Lee voiced dissatisfaction over the progress of this
joint venture with the Chinese government to build
a modern township.
He was unhappy over the less
than wholehearted support shown by the
Suzhou municipal government, which has instead
given priority to its own
rival industrial park in the Suzhou New District
and even diverted
investments meant for the joint venture to this
rival park.
At stake, Mr Lee warned, was
nothing less than the credibility of both the
Singapore and Chinese governments, as they had
endorsed the flagship
project at a very high level.
The park's top policy body is
co-chaired by Vice-Premier Li Lanqing and
DPM Lee Hsien Loong.
However, Mr Lee was confident
that the problem could be resolved
because, although China's president Jiang Zemin
had been unaware of the
structural tangles the park was facing, he had
reaffirmed his personal
commitment to its success.