[Big A]

Statement on Alex Tan and the Reform Party

2nd September 2012

The Reform Party notes the recent statements in the press about Alex Tan and attempts by the Main Stream Media to link Alex Tan and his recent behavior with the Reform Party. These reports are inaccurate and misleading.

Mr. Wilson Sim, journalist from the Wanbao paper published a sentence in his Chinese language article, which can be translated as, "attempts to contact Mr. Kenneth (sic) and Mr. Alex were made but it was unsuccessful by Press time." This has been widely interpreted as the Reform Party had no comment and no desire to comment, which is completely untrue.

Linking Alex Tan and his behavior with the Reform Party whilst simultaneously blatantly failing to mention his links and membership of the Singapore People's Party are biased in the extreme. It is a deplorable exercise intended to prejudice public opinion and jump on any excuse to discredit the Reform Party.

For the record, Alex Tan was a long-term member of the Singapore People's Party before GE 2011. He joined RP temporarily on loan from SPP, in order to be able to contest GE 2011 under the RP banner. He was an official member for a very short period. Before there could be any question of him joining as a permanent member we expelled him and cut all ties back in May 2011. He then rejoined SPP. Mrs. Lina Chiam welcomed him back and was quoted at the time as saying that, "he was like a son to her."

We state this not in order to show the SPP in a poor light but in order to reveal the bias of the PAP government managed media monopoly. This is demonstrated here not just in their use of the weapon of denial of the right of reply - a fundamental freedom in any democracy- but also in their failure to accurately describe Alex Tan's political affiliation.

Although his behavior and the language of the letter he wrote is deplorable we must say that Alex's courage in standing is still to be applauded. RP at the time had stated its intention to ‘normalize' democracy. As a first step in this it was important to bring the vote to as many people as possible. A tiny Republic where hundreds and thousands of the citizens do not vote in General elections is not a democracy. As the founder of the modern Day Olympics Baron Pierre de Coubertin said, "the most important thing in life is not the triumph but the struggle -the essential thing is not to have conquered but to have fought well."

179,0000 Singaporean citizens were given the chance to vote in Ang Mo Kio GRC thanks in part to young people like Alex Tan and RP's willingness to field a team where no other Party would. We do not regret fielding that team, including Alex Tan but at the same time the decision to expel him and cut all ties soon after GE2011 was also correct. Since the election we have had no contact with him and have no relation whatsoever to anything that he has, does or indeed will say.

During our brief connection we found Alex to be an excitable and impetuous young man but one with fire and courage in his belly. He comes from a humble background and struggled to support a widowed mother. During the election the extremes of his behavior could be tempered by Party discipline and the influence of his more mature team mates. With the right mentoring, angry young men with ideas such as Alex Tan can find outlets for their frustrations and make important contributions to developing a robust democracy and an inclusive prosperity.

It only remains to note that Mr. Wilson's declaration that he attempted to contact me is disingenuous. All journalists from all of our Republic's PAP-government managed media have the use of an email address, namely: media@thereformparty.net, that gains a swift response. There are several other email addresses on record for the Party as well as the SG and the Chair. Whilst my personal mobile phone may well be switched off during meetings and at other times when travelling, email is the more certain medium.

In addition to email, Mr. Wilson is presumably familiar with technology such as Texting or SMS messaging. If he had needed to contact me personally for a comment as opposed to the Party I am on Twitter, Linked-in, Facebook by a public page, the comments section on my blog www.sonofdud.com and so on and so forth. Hundreds of people and complete strangers manage to contact me on a weekly basis. Indeed, a journalist from Wanbao recently attended my press conference about the IMF case, listed for a hearing in September although naturally this was not covered in their paper. All media representatives are automatically sent a copy of all Official Press releases as well as my personal blog articles.

Although we are a small Party, a David against Goliath, and cannot staff a full time office there are nonetheless no excuses for denying the Reform Party or myself the right of reply.

Despite our statement we have no expectations that the Main Stream Media will issue a clarification accurately describing Alex Tan's affiliation with the SPP, nor an apology. This has been our experience for the last two years. We must ask ourselves how the decisions are taken in our sham democracy for which news item is more in the public interest and worthy of printing. Why is a tenuous misleading and inaccurate attempt to link a vulgar letter with myself newsworthy, whereas my recent discovery that the Auditor- General reported that the MOF breached the constitution and issued an invalid loan to the World Bank is not?

Finally the Reform Party repeats its call that it is time to break up the Monopoly and to abolish the Newspaper and Printing Presses Act.

Kenneth Jeyaretnam
Secretary-General
The Reform Party

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SPP statement on the party affiliation of Mr Alex Tan

3 September 2012

In view of speculation surrounding the party affiliation of Mr Alex Tan, we have decided to issue the following clarification.

Mr Alex Tan was a member of the SPP, until he resigned and was loaned as a candidate for the Reform Party at the 2011 general election. He displayed passion and hard work prior to the elections. Since then he has returned to the SPP, but has largely been inactive in the party.

A string of unfortunate events took place in recent months. We wish it had been otherwise for him. The SPP continues to wish him well and will help him where possible. It is not the usual character of the SPP to disown any member or ex-member because of personal events.

In this specific event relating to an email to SBS Transit, we strongly disagree with the use of vulgarities and the spirit in which that email was written. If Mr Alex Tan speaks to us again, we will advise him to contribute to Singapore in a more appropriate manner that will truly help Singaporeans.

Every Singaporean is a son or daughter to the SPP.

Mrs Lina Chiam, NCMP
Chairman, SPP

[Slonopotam845]

Just joint NS party is OK.

[radikal]

2 joker parties.....

[Ifroham4]

2 joker parties.....

Care to expand on that?

[MannoFr]

Care to expand on that?

Much that I admire CST for what he had done in the past, his reluctant to cede leadership to anyone other than his immediate family had done much harm to the opposition cause. It is sad that a person who had spent nearly 30 years to promote democracies should relegate to such a state where young capable people brought in by him should desert him one after another.

SPP under LC is not going anywhere and it will fade away come 2016.

As for KJ, we all know what a joke he was and still is. His harping over the loan to UN, although, to a certain extent, of public interest, is no more than a failed attempt to salvage his image after the disastrous campaign in GE2011.

After the exodus just before the GE, he had to resort to ‘borrowing’ candidates from SPP, which is now a subject of ridicule.

The fact that the two parties are bickering over an article in the Shit Times shows just how low they had sank.

[doctorzlo]

Agree that someone is is desperately trying to gain some publicity after making such an enormous fool of himself at the last GE. Few people of any credibility would want to associate themselves with him.

[radikal]

My views:

RP made an unwise and unnecessary statement. But it's nothing new as such statements are typical of RP under KJ, starting from the Ng Teck Siong saga. The big mouth syndrome.

It is a fact that Alex was a RP candidate and not SPP candidate, immaterial of which party Alex really belongs to. In the eyes of most people, the party you are most remembered with is the party you contest the election giving the most amount of exposure. There may be a reason SPP declined to contest Ang Mo Kio nor choose to field Alex Tan.

Given the case, at the very least RP can do is just let the issue pass. But no, they release a long statement on just one person.

KJ also attributes the association to media bias. Now that is the funny part. Does RP think there is a more political gain for the media to associate Alex to them than to associate Alex to SPP? SPP has the Chiams, one NCMP seat and votes of over 40%.

SPP could have not responded but no big shortcoming if it did. It made up by portraying itself to be forgiving towards Alex, in contrast not only to RP's distancing "none of my business" approach, but WP's recent "merciless" approaches.

[Lt_Apple]

Mr Alex Tan was a member of the SPP, until he resigned and was loaned as a candidate for the Reform Party at the 2011 general election. He displayed passion and hard work prior to the elections. Since then he has returned to the SPP, but has largely been inactive in the party. If a person has resigned from 1 party, he's considered a free man. (i.e, with no political affiliation to any parties whatsoever)

In that case, how could he possibly be "loaned" to RP as a candidate?

On the other note, at the rate KJ is going, he's going to ruin the good name which his father, JBJ has built over his political years.