Since I first wrote this, Tin Pei Ling’s gaffes have gone from bad to worse, and she has become serious political deadwood to not just the Marine Parade GRC, but all of PAP’s contested wards in the upcoming elections. I’ve since made 2 edits to my article below in red to reflect my more informed stand.
Overnight, Singapore’s populace was introduced to PAP’s youngest ever MP candidate in over 20 years, in the form of a highly sensationalized personal photo of Ms. Tin Pei Ling and her Kate Spade bag. Even the combined machinery of The Straits Times and TODAY did little to hold back the resulting online firestorm railing against her apparent illegitimacy to run as a PAP candidate for MP. I honestly don’t understand what the fuss is, and thought she looked quite cute in that photo. No dear, not the camera! She’s married and I’m certainly happily married – I’m just doing my bit of national service 
.
Like Siew Kum Hong, I won’t grant her naysayers any further publicity than they already enjoy. Still, I think Kum Hong worries too much, like the PAP. Reminds me a lot of myself actually. The evolution of Singapore’s politics is going to take a while. We’re only beginning to crawl out of our political infantile cavemen era after 40-odd years of independence. There’s plenty more in store for us in the decades ahead. Mud (or slime) slingers are a necessary evil in Singapore’s Journey into our Heartlands to find our political Shangri-la.
The Tin Pei Ling Incident is indeed unfortunate, but unavoidable. I’m pretty sure the PAP filters its people exhaustively, and without knowing more, I am quietly confident that Ms. Tin is as good as, if not better than most of us as a politician, but certainly heaps braver than her critics who have chosen to slime her. At the very least, she’s braver than I am, to have made the decision to step forth and sacrifice her privacy for the sake of her motivations, whatever they may be.
Let this online outburst of anti-Ms Tin also be a lesson to all our 4th-generation political aspirants, be it PAP or Opposition. Our 3G and older political leaders can use their age as an excuse to stay clear of social media, but not them 4th-gen MP aspirants. The best defense against slime slingers and rabble rousers is for our political candidates to own their online conversations, and engage the netizens on their home turf. Transparency and openness are key themes that they’ll need to embrace in order to stay afloat in this sea of social media madness. Keeping quiet and hiding behind the veil of silence is no longer an option in the age of Facebook & Twitter.
If Ms. Tin is made of sterner stuff, she’ll live through this. If our future political leaders don’t have the tenacity to look past the Glee-like slushies and take the hit for the citizens of Singapore, then I don’t think they deserve my vote in the first place.
Tribolum.com says:
We vote because we want the best among us to represent us, and to bring out the best in us in order to move us onward as a nation. How we conduct ourselves as voters reveals volumes of who we are as a people, and it is likely that unless we keep our eye on the real social issues before us, we will have wasted our vote and turned the democratic process into nothing more than vain pageantry.
People are generally rational beings. The majority of our voting populace are still working hard to fulfill their Maslow’s needs, and won’t risk throwing away the stability our forefathers have sacrificed their lives to build. Each and every candidate will most certainly be subjected to scrutiny more intense than before. I for one am excited by Singapore’s recent political developments, and look forward to attending as many rallies as I possibly can.
Now go to bed to your wives, husbands and/or bolster(s), and stop staring at that photo of Ms. Tin already!
Flickr photo courtesy of jumpinroo
- I’ll keep adding interesting and related links to this list as I find them:
- Onesingaporean blog – Tin Pei Ling v.s. Chen Show Mao and a very scary thought
- Official Youtube release by PAP, unveiling of Tin Pei Ling
- RazorTV interview
- Tin Pei Ling versus Nicole Seah
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Siew kum hong is a nobody in the virtual. What guild does he belong too? Who is he lecturing too?
No offence to Miss Tin. I do not know her in person so I am not sure how capable she is and so I agree that most of the blogosphere talk is just plain nasty (such is the nature of a distributed, bottom-up dynamics); so, I can only assume that PAP has done its due diligence and know who they are fielding.
What puzzles me is that she is supposed to be in-charge of “social media”… for some one supposedly in-charge of “social media” on behalf of PAP or her constituency when she gets elected, she isn’t nearly visible online at all!
I have even never heard of her and I follow the the older generation like “George Yeo” – who is active and writes very balanced, well thought out articles on his facebook page.
So I have to question whether she’s actually “the right choice” for what she’s supposed to be doing.
1. TPL is a Senior Associate at Ernst & Young Advisory Pte Ltd.
TPL is not in a managerial position. Her job is to solicit business for E&Y. After she gets an account, she transfers the client to other E&Y departments to do the follow-up. She is like a pimp. She does not manage other E&Y staff. If she cannot manage staff, how can she manage grassroots leaders and residents?
2. TPL is married to Ng How Yue, 40, principal private secretary to PM.
TPL dated NHY for 6 months before he proposed to her. TPL proudly reenacted how NHY proposed to her in a video screened at her wedding. One day, TPL found a photo of NHY with his ex-gf. She blew her top and tore the photo. Feeling guilty, NHY immediately bought a huge diamond ring and proposed to her. Isn’t that romantic? NHY was getting old and he needed to marry quickly to prove he wasn’t gay. He was 38 and she was 25 when they got married. TPL has been spotted without her wedding ring and with other guys many times.So much for being faithful.
3. TPL’s motto: “Oops, I did it again”.
TPL was very popular in NUS. She had the tendency to attract guys, even when she had a bf. She changed bf many times. This is a clear indication of her commitment and loyalty to people around her.
4. TPL is a camwhore.
TPL is an attention seeker. She loves being the centre of attraction, hence further explaining point 3 above. Her purpose to becoming an MP is to get national attention.
5. TPL is PAP’s candidate for MacPherson in Marine Parade GRC.
Putting the youngest candidate in one of the oldest estates is suicide. However, Marine Parade GRC is under SM. What does this say? Whether or not got opposition contest the GRC, TPL will automatically become a MP, because people will still vote for SM to return. Maybe PAP take her in to prove that they are not perfect, and that they are willing to “give some balls” to opposition to let them to win a larger percentage in Marine Parade GRC? That way, it won’t seem like PAP bully opposition.
so basically your saying, PAP does everything swee swee, just shut up and vote for them. every policy they come up with will most certainly be subjected to scrutiny more intense than before. every candidate they come out with will most certainly be subjected to scrutiny more intense than before.
no problem no problem. but ive never met a more simplistic simpleton then you. argue for the sake of argue…-YAWN-
im going to sleep and voting for the PAP yea!
James,
Hope you scrutise and make a better judgement on your investments more than Tintin.
good riddance to bad rubbish
I believe that Pei Ling is an election foil devised by her husband as the Pricipal Pte Sec of LHL and the election committee. Some of her statements since were incredibly stupid, puerile and even seem precocious.
She in everly likelihood is a PAP red-herring to take the heat off unpopular candidates like Wong Kan Seng and Mah Bow Tan.
And the main agenda is that at 27 y.o. she is paving the way for the ‘crowned prince’ in the next election. Thus inspite of public furore over her candidacy, it must be defended at any cost, even her apparent liability on the party…a small price for setting the stage for the inauguration.
if TPL can be your MP, I can be your PM.! I am appalled at how PAP select the candidates. It either shows that their selection processes are full of flaws or nobody with digity, self-respect want to join them. I tend to believe that there are a lot of cover up among the inner circles! What is new, look at Mas Selamat case! Even my son who was a new NS recruit at that time was laughing at the “strategy” formulated by them to track down Mas Selamat.
Resume read out loud… can i vote for barbie doll who has a longer standing history, confirm get more votes against care bears and smurfs. LOL
This is a good video supporting nicole seah showing why she is more competent, and supported with clear evidence. Much better than the cyberbullying nonsensical videos on youtube rediculating tin pei ling. But it would be better if the last picture was removed because that symbolism makes the author like the other idiolts.
An associate at Ernst and Young is a junior post. I suppose what irrate the hell out of people is the way she was selected, simply dubious….Looking at her speeches, it is not difficult to see that she lacks commitment , passion and compassion (though she tried faking it by giving some rehearsed replies when asked by reporters). Has PAP lower the standard so much that we can only field candidate like her.! Her solutions of fighting inflations etc are just appalling, So, to a lot of people, she is just a bimbo using her husband to get a short cut into the parliament… If we can admit that we made a mistake with Ris Low, why not come clean and own up the mistake with TPL
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