Everyone believes in the truism "Honesty Is The Best Policy". In a recent local newspaper's survey Singaporeans value "Honesty" highly. However in the now on-going Parliamentary debates I notice many of the MPs of the Ruling Party (if I may say so the legally-trained ones) put forth clever arguments and sophism to misled and hookwink the citizens. Let us take the controversy surrounding whether a by-election is essential for the Hougang single-seat constituency as a result of the sacking of the MP Yaw Shin Leong by the Workers Party. The Ruling Party has said it would consider carefully "whether and when to hold a by-election" as they are many important national issues to attend. The WP has argued that the Constitution provided for a by-election for a single member constituency (SMC) to be called within 3 months or as soon as practical. An NMP Eugene Tan has stated a by-election is automatic if we believe in democratic representation. Our records of the by-elections held and not held since the 1980s speak for themselves. Futhermore the mainstream media (their entire editorial desk/journalists) got into the act by trying to sway the readers to the Ruling Party's thinking. As per normal the mainstream media has let down its readers by not giving the true picture and playing its part by educating the citizens. After the last General Election Singaporeans do not need our MPs for their sophism and to be sophists. We just want plain simple truths!
