An Open Letter by the Secretary-General of the Reform Party to NUSSPA Asking Why Reform Party Were Not Invited to The Young Guns Forum 2014
18A Smith Street
Singapore 058932
16th May 2014
Mr Aw Yong Zhi Yong
Vice President (Projects)
NUS Students’ Political Association
National University of Singapore
Dear Sir,
It has come to my attention that you organised an event on 29 January 2014 entitled Young Guns Forum 2014. Four parties were invited: the Workers Party, the PAP, NSP and SDP. No invitation was extended to the Reform Party.
This was despite the fact that we fielded 11 candidates in GE2011 and our share of the national vote was slightly more than 4%. As the theme of the forum was new arrivals on the Singapore political scene then as the first new party in Singapore to contest an election for decades we were surely the perfect fit..
More importantly we are a new party with young blood and seriously new ideas, which have never been advocated before in Singapore. These include giving HDB owners the freehold of their property and listing Temasek and GIC publicly and distributing shares to Singaporeans. We were the first to point out the hollow nature of the so called Singapore economic miracle and how it is driven by a massive increase in population without any underlying rise in productivity.
Reform Party was the only party that was prepared to send a Young Guns team to Ang Mo Kio in the last election to take on the PM, in the interests of democracy. Despite the relative inexperience of the team and the lack of previous grassroots work, our contesting that constituency provoked the PM into spending close to the maximum allowed under the Parliamentary Elections Act. AMK is in the history books as being the constituency with the biggest spend of any party in GE 2011 all caused by our young guns. A real competition can only have a positive effect in encouraging new ideas.
Since GE 2011 we have remained one of the most politically active parties. Our Youth Wing is very active, not just in cyberspace, but on the ground. What is remarkable is that they reach out across the generational divide, helping both old and young victims of deliberately callous and shortsighted PAP policies.
Given the above, it is only reasonable that you provide a satisfactory explanation for why Reform Party was excluded from the forum. This is particularly important given that NUS is a government-funded state university. The PAP government already censors us in every possible way and imposes a blackout in the State media on our ideas. It would appear that they are using their power over funding to deny us a voice in the national university as well.
Jim Sleeper voiced his concerns in the Huffington Post in 2012 (see link) over the new Yale-NUS liberal arts college and lack of political freedom on campus:
“My suspicions only intensified as I conversed online with Kenneth Jeyaretnam, secretary general of Singapore’s small opposition Reform Party, which is constrained and sometimes harassed by the slick, duplicitous, and steely ruling People’s Action Party…He [Jeyaretnam] also recounted that when he was invited last year to speak at candidates’ forums at the National University of Singapore and other Singapore universities, each invitation was rescinded at the last minute. Would that happen again, I wondered, now that Pericles had spoken?
Jim Sleeper now has his answer. As far as debate on campus is concerned, it is the same old same old story and We the Reform Party and our Youth have been excluded as usual.
Yours faithfully,
Kenneth Jeyaretnam
Secretary General