Wednesday, 30 January 2013
Zimbabwe only has $217 in the bank
HARARE — After paying public workers' salaries last week, the balance in cash-strapped Zimbabwe's government public account stood at just $217, Finance Minister Tendai Biti said Tuesday.
"Last week when we paid civil servants there was $217 (left) in government coffers," Biti told journalists in the capital Harare, claiming some of them had healthier bank balances than the state.
"The government finances are in paralysis state at the present moment. We are failing to meet our targets."
Zimbabwe's economy went into free-fall at the turn of the millennium, after President Robert Mugabe began seizing white-owned farms.
The move demolished investor confidence in the country, paralysed production, prompted international sanctions and scared off tourists.
After more than a decade -- in which the country suffered hyper-inflation of 231 million percent and infrastructure that crumbled as quickly as prices went up -- the situation is now more stable.
But public finances remain a mess and local business battles against unstable electricity supplies, lack of liquidity and high labour costs.
Zimbabwe's government has warned it does not have enough money to fund a constitutional referendum and elections expected this year.
Biti said that left no choice but to ask the donors for cash.
"We will be approaching the international community," he said.
The country's elections agency said it requires $104 million to organise the vote.
Government's national budget for this year stands at $3.8 billion and the economy is projected to grow 5.0 percent.
The mineral rich country is now using the US dollar and the South African rand.
AFP: Zimbabwe has $217 in the bank: finance minister
Thursday, 24 January 2013
Tuesday, 22 January 2013
[BREAKING NEWS] GERALD GIAM MIGHT LOSE HIS NCMP SEAT IF ANY OPPOSITION PARTY WIN!
Sent from a self-proclaimed Workers' Party Supporter:
We don't think its true, its just want to make the PAP look bad, but if it happens we are ok also. Apparently his lawyers checked it and it might be true... and it make sense
Under PARLIAMENTARY ELECTIONS ACT, if Lee Li Lian is voted into Parliament. Mr. Gerald
The NCMP formula is as follow:
Maximum of 9 NCMP seats - ( total elected opposition members )
In the General Election, We say 6 seats taken up by the opposition, they are 1 from Hougang (Yaw Shin Leong), and 5 from Aljunied (Sylvia, Chen Show Mao, Pritam, Faisal and Low) hence
9 - 6 = 3
The 3 are
Mr. Gerald Giam (45.17%)
Yee Jenn Jong (48.98%)
Ms. Lina Chiam (49.64%)
The the Hougang By-Election, we saw there was no change in makeup, Png Eng Huat taking over Yaw Shin Leong.
If Desmond Choo would have won, then (9-5) = 4, and the next best loser will be elected as NCMP.
Punggol East By-Election
So if Dr. Koh from the PAP won, there would be no change. 9-6 = 3
However if Lee Li Lian or any other opposition (Desmond Lim or Kenneth Jeyaratnam) won,
Then 9-7 = 2
The top two losers are currently:
Yee Jenn Jong (48.98%)
Ms. Lina Chiam (49.64%)
Gerald Giam will cease to be a NCMP.
This is a very shrewd move by the PAP. No matter the opposition win or lose, doesn't matter, because they would have the same number in parliament. And I personally feel that Gerald Giam is better then Lee Li Lian (Or Desmond Lim the Joker, or Kenneth Jeyaratnam the fake)
- From
XXXX
Workers' Party Supporter
We don't think its true, its just want to make the PAP look bad, but if it happens we are ok also. Apparently his lawyers checked it and it might be true... and it make sense
Under PARLIAMENTARY ELECTIONS ACT, if Lee Li Lian is voted into Parliament. Mr. Gerald
The NCMP formula is as follow:
Maximum of 9 NCMP seats - ( total elected opposition members )
In the General Election, We say 6 seats taken up by the opposition, they are 1 from Hougang (Yaw Shin Leong), and 5 from Aljunied (Sylvia, Chen Show Mao, Pritam, Faisal and Low) hence
9 - 6 = 3
The 3 are
Mr. Gerald Giam (45.17%)
Yee Jenn Jong (48.98%)
Ms. Lina Chiam (49.64%)
The the Hougang By-Election, we saw there was no change in makeup, Png Eng Huat taking over Yaw Shin Leong.
If Desmond Choo would have won, then (9-5) = 4, and the next best loser will be elected as NCMP.
Punggol East By-Election
So if Dr. Koh from the PAP won, there would be no change. 9-6 = 3
However if Lee Li Lian or any other opposition (Desmond Lim or Kenneth Jeyaratnam) won,
Then 9-7 = 2
The top two losers are currently:
Yee Jenn Jong (48.98%)
Ms. Lina Chiam (49.64%)
Gerald Giam will cease to be a NCMP.
This is a very shrewd move by the PAP. No matter the opposition win or lose, doesn't matter, because they would have the same number in parliament. And I personally feel that Gerald Giam is better then Lee Li Lian (Or Desmond Lim the Joker, or Kenneth Jeyaratnam the fake)
- From
XXXX
Workers' Party Supporter
Do we need another Workers’ Party MP?
http://sg.news.yahoo.com/blogs/singaporescene/another-workers-party-mp-055050532.html
In the run-up to the by-election of Punggol East, it is clear, that final fight comes down to the two largest parties in Parliament: The People’s Action Party (PAP) and The Worker’s Party (WP). The Worker’s Party chairman Sylvia Lim stated very early that this by-election was going to be a report-card on the PAP. Some political observers have commented that this is even more so than in Hougang, a Worker’s Party stronghold. And although the WP’s party candidate Lee Li Lian has recently admitted that the by-election would also be a barometer of the WP’s record, it seems that more questions are still being asked about the PAP rather than the WP.
This is natural. Being the incumbent, the PAP has much to prove after a water-shed election that saw an entire GRC falling for the first time to the opposition. It is also natural and obvious that this election, like all elections, would be a barometer of a ruling party’s record.
However, as even the leader of the WP Low Thia Kiang has admitted, time needs to be given to PAP to see whether it can solve the problems of Singaporeans, and to see the effects of its policy changes. Thus, contrary to the battle-cry of the opposition, I believe that this by-election is not so much a report-card on the PAP, but rather on the WP.
When one draws up a report card for a political party, nothing does better as a guide than their own campaign promises. The most striking thing about the WP’s campaign in GE 2011 was its overarching rhetoric of a “First World Parliament”.
It is also arguable that it was this promise, and its alluring pitch of a ‘co-driver’ elected to ‘slap’ the ruling party when it veers off-course, the seductive promise of check-and-balance, and the ideological insistence that an opposition in Singapore was necessary, that toppled George Yeo’s team in Aljunied.
But has it delivered on its promise working towards of a First World Parliament? Has it been the effective check-and-balance it promised the voters it would be? Has the co-driver performed?
The strangest thing that struck me during the GE campaign of 2011 was the WP’s strident rhetoric that electing it to Parliament would foster more debate, and thus help Singapore progress towards a ‘First World Parliament’.
No motions by WP
What was strange and extremely disturbing to me was that for a party that values debate so highly, in the 21 months that I served as Nominated Member of Parliament, the WP was curiously passive on the debating front. One has to understand that in Parliament, asking parliamentary questions is de riguer and does little to contribute to ‘debate’.
Any parliamentarian who has a burning issue to debate must surely know that the best and only way to force such a debate is to file a full motion, which compels the whole of parliament to put aside all other business and really debate the issue, concluding with a vote by all present Parliamentarians.
In the 21 months that I was NMP the WP filed precisely ZERO motions.
They did not even file any adjournment motions that would have given them a chance to speak at length, rather than just ask a question. In the first 21 months since GE 2011, the Workers Party has filed merely one adjournment motion (by NCMP Yee Jenn Jong), and another by Sylvia Lim just to withdraw it again.
In contrast, my former parliamentary colleague Viswa Sadasivan filed a full motion during his very first parliamentary sitting, which not only made Cabinet Ministers rise to rebut him, but even caused then Minister Mentor Lee Kuan Yew to speak in Parliament for the first time in years, and in the process teaching a nation the meaning of the word `hifalutin’.
The question then to ask of the WP is then this: For a party that campaigned on the promise of more debate as part of their march towards a ‘First World Parliament’, whither the debate? Surely if you have an alternate vision for Singapore, a vision burning to be articulated in full, asking questions would not suffice? Surely if even a Nominated Member of Parliament can force the whole of government, including its most senior statesman, to focus their attention on a ‘hifalutin’ issue and engage in robust debate, then a party with six elected members of Parliament, two NCMPs , and an alternate vision for Singapore can do so much more?
The oft-heard refrain that because the WP has no chance of winning a debate there is no point in starting one, is a massive cop-out. The House in any Westminster Parliament is not only a legislative chamber, but also a debating chamber. Not being able to win a debate, does not mean an issue is not worth debating, especially if one is a politician elected on a promise of more debate.
This is not about politicking as Low Thia Kiang has recently said. This is not about being an irrational or unreasonable opposition. This is about keeping one’s election promise – if one sells the electorate a vision, and if they elected one on this vision, then one had better live up to it.
The Worker’s Party thus has far bigger questions to answer than the PAP. When the Prime Minister asked where its policy alternatives were, the answer is obvious: they lay hidden in the depths of its Manifesto. The more crucial question is why a party which campaigned forcefully for more debate and a ‘First World Parliament’ has allowed these alternative policies to remain there, rather than forcing a fundamental rethink from the government by requiring them to stoutly defend its policies in the House.
At the end of the day, the Worker’s Party did not promise to run Singapore’s town councils better. The Worker’s Party did not even promise to solve bread-and-butter issues that Singaporeans face . Instead, the Worker’s Party promised that it would be a check-and-balance, that it would be a co-driver, and that more debate would lead Singapore to a ‘First World Parliament’. It is this, this that the voters of Punggol East, and perhaps Singaporeans at large, must ultimately judge them.
If it hasn’t even delivered the one thing it promised, then the question voters need to ask is not the one WP is asking them - whether Singapore needs another PAP MP. Rather, the right question would be the exact opposite: whether Singapore needs another Worker’s Party MP, or indeed any at all.
Calvin Cheng, 37, was a Nominated Member of Parliament from July 2009 to May 2011.
In the run-up to the by-election of Punggol East, it is clear, that final fight comes down to the two largest parties in Parliament: The People’s Action Party (PAP) and The Worker’s Party (WP). The Worker’s Party chairman Sylvia Lim stated very early that this by-election was going to be a report-card on the PAP. Some political observers have commented that this is even more so than in Hougang, a Worker’s Party stronghold. And although the WP’s party candidate Lee Li Lian has recently admitted that the by-election would also be a barometer of the WP’s record, it seems that more questions are still being asked about the PAP rather than the WP.
This is natural. Being the incumbent, the PAP has much to prove after a water-shed election that saw an entire GRC falling for the first time to the opposition. It is also natural and obvious that this election, like all elections, would be a barometer of a ruling party’s record.
However, as even the leader of the WP Low Thia Kiang has admitted, time needs to be given to PAP to see whether it can solve the problems of Singaporeans, and to see the effects of its policy changes. Thus, contrary to the battle-cry of the opposition, I believe that this by-election is not so much a report-card on the PAP, but rather on the WP.
When one draws up a report card for a political party, nothing does better as a guide than their own campaign promises. The most striking thing about the WP’s campaign in GE 2011 was its overarching rhetoric of a “First World Parliament”.
It is also arguable that it was this promise, and its alluring pitch of a ‘co-driver’ elected to ‘slap’ the ruling party when it veers off-course, the seductive promise of check-and-balance, and the ideological insistence that an opposition in Singapore was necessary, that toppled George Yeo’s team in Aljunied.
But has it delivered on its promise working towards of a First World Parliament? Has it been the effective check-and-balance it promised the voters it would be? Has the co-driver performed?
The strangest thing that struck me during the GE campaign of 2011 was the WP’s strident rhetoric that electing it to Parliament would foster more debate, and thus help Singapore progress towards a ‘First World Parliament’.
No motions by WP
What was strange and extremely disturbing to me was that for a party that values debate so highly, in the 21 months that I served as Nominated Member of Parliament, the WP was curiously passive on the debating front. One has to understand that in Parliament, asking parliamentary questions is de riguer and does little to contribute to ‘debate’.
Any parliamentarian who has a burning issue to debate must surely know that the best and only way to force such a debate is to file a full motion, which compels the whole of parliament to put aside all other business and really debate the issue, concluding with a vote by all present Parliamentarians.
In the 21 months that I was NMP the WP filed precisely ZERO motions.
They did not even file any adjournment motions that would have given them a chance to speak at length, rather than just ask a question. In the first 21 months since GE 2011, the Workers Party has filed merely one adjournment motion (by NCMP Yee Jenn Jong), and another by Sylvia Lim just to withdraw it again.
In contrast, my former parliamentary colleague Viswa Sadasivan filed a full motion during his very first parliamentary sitting, which not only made Cabinet Ministers rise to rebut him, but even caused then Minister Mentor Lee Kuan Yew to speak in Parliament for the first time in years, and in the process teaching a nation the meaning of the word `hifalutin’.
The question then to ask of the WP is then this: For a party that campaigned on the promise of more debate as part of their march towards a ‘First World Parliament’, whither the debate? Surely if you have an alternate vision for Singapore, a vision burning to be articulated in full, asking questions would not suffice? Surely if even a Nominated Member of Parliament can force the whole of government, including its most senior statesman, to focus their attention on a ‘hifalutin’ issue and engage in robust debate, then a party with six elected members of Parliament, two NCMPs , and an alternate vision for Singapore can do so much more?
The oft-heard refrain that because the WP has no chance of winning a debate there is no point in starting one, is a massive cop-out. The House in any Westminster Parliament is not only a legislative chamber, but also a debating chamber. Not being able to win a debate, does not mean an issue is not worth debating, especially if one is a politician elected on a promise of more debate.
This is not about politicking as Low Thia Kiang has recently said. This is not about being an irrational or unreasonable opposition. This is about keeping one’s election promise – if one sells the electorate a vision, and if they elected one on this vision, then one had better live up to it.
The Worker’s Party thus has far bigger questions to answer than the PAP. When the Prime Minister asked where its policy alternatives were, the answer is obvious: they lay hidden in the depths of its Manifesto. The more crucial question is why a party which campaigned forcefully for more debate and a ‘First World Parliament’ has allowed these alternative policies to remain there, rather than forcing a fundamental rethink from the government by requiring them to stoutly defend its policies in the House.
At the end of the day, the Worker’s Party did not promise to run Singapore’s town councils better. The Worker’s Party did not even promise to solve bread-and-butter issues that Singaporeans face . Instead, the Worker’s Party promised that it would be a check-and-balance, that it would be a co-driver, and that more debate would lead Singapore to a ‘First World Parliament’. It is this, this that the voters of Punggol East, and perhaps Singaporeans at large, must ultimately judge them.
If it hasn’t even delivered the one thing it promised, then the question voters need to ask is not the one WP is asking them - whether Singapore needs another PAP MP. Rather, the right question would be the exact opposite: whether Singapore needs another Worker’s Party MP, or indeed any at all.
Calvin Cheng, 37, was a Nominated Member of Parliament from July 2009 to May 2011.
Monday, 21 January 2013
Funny Punggol East Desmond Lim By-Election Online Rally Harminder Pal Singh Part 1
This is Hilarious!!!!! This is what happens for the online rally and if you click on the bottom right and "On captions", this is what the subtitles look like!
Wow you hosted a party and so many police are happy?
You use two batteries to collect our data?
Lightning the value, isn't that PAP's?
This is racist la, doesn't mean he is Singh he can't pronounce "R"
Or is there really this valley in punggol east?
Or is there really this valley in punggol east?
Ok lets stop it! now.. its killing people already..
Wah, police want catch you? One dozen somemore, more hot than Chee Soon Juan
Yes, I know you are a descendant of Singapore
Yes, addresses are tough, especially in Punggol East
Wow, you have programs for our nation!
My family is now in pollutants, sure kena cancer
He stepped on a sausage and got stucked?
Bologna: large seasoned sausage made of finely ground meat, usually beef and pork, that has been cooked and smoked.
Didn't know Desmond Lim plays hockey! He doesn't have the size!
I am quite wary to know him too!
My cow is very active
For Fast income, please come! Good money? Is he referring to $7.50 an hour to be "ambassador"
Isn't Phillip, Kenneth Jeyaratnam's brother? Wrong party?
Wow, Mr. Desmond is Mr. Testament!
Our PM is going to be very happy, every year we are going to have children
SCDF is now very busy
Did you get sued?
Unsafe simple?
What is merlib?
You are getting incoherent
I knew it! You are on drugs
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